The Bridge - Audience

• Uses & Gratifications


  • Personal identity - identify with characters
  • Diversion - uses text as escapism
  • Follow leads, examine clues & question suspect alongside Saga & Martin
  • Personal relationships - discuss text with others
  • Hold similar interest in crime dramas/Nordic Noir
• Two-step flow


  People form opinions under influence of opinion leaders who in turn are influenced by the mass media
• Opinion leaders


  • Guardian review "Excellent"
  • Testimonial on DVD cover
  • Four stars from The Times, Financial Times, Telegraph
• Audience Pleasures


  • Intellectual puzzle
  • Expectations fulfilled
  • Enigma codes & cliffhangers
  • Attract loyal fans wanting more
  • Reality creates audience empathy & identification
  • Diversion as enter into new world
  • Escapism
  • Unusual representations of woman, sexual orientation & disability
• Audience Positioning


  • Solve crime alongside the police, Saga etc.
  • Restricted narrative means we know what she knows
  • Seek answers to narrative enigma codes
  • Need for belonging, social needs (relationships)
• Preferred Reading


  • Literal interpretations but sympathetic & vulnerable to Saga's backstory & criminal behaviour as deviant
  • Quality crime drama, driven by enigmas & classic investigative narrative, enjoyed by Nordic Noir fans
• Oppositional Reading


  • Struggle to find Saga a sympathetic character, view her autism with concern or hard to connect emotionally
  • Conservative audience respond negatively to Swedish liberal attitudes to sex, gender & political correctness
• Hyperreality


  • Sweden & Denmark from mediated perspective, stereotypical traits & cultural values
  • Dark, moody shots lacking sunlight & modern buildings, Nordic efficiency against the cold over architecture
• Simulacra


  Haven't experienced police force (institution) first-hand, based on how media re-presents it
• Fandom


  • Live tweeting during episode to share thoughts, solve clues, analyse frame by frame
  • Construct cultural & social identities by borrowing mass culture images (textual poaching)
  • Visit settings of the shows & meet actors
  • Saga's car - 1970s Porsche, compare to Inspector Morse's Jaguar