teaser (!?) on at 6pm on the west coast

[SaraD]

Does anybody really know what they mean by a teaser? Is that a preview, or a trailer, or what? I hope it's more than a screenshot and a one-line voice over.

At any rate, here in the Pacific Northwest we'll be finding out the same time as the lucky folks on the East Coast.

[Moks]

A teaser is like a trailer.

[RydraWong]

In general, a teaser is usually pretty short, not the same as a full trailer. Sometimes they'll be deliberately enigmatic or give very little away - the aim is to "tease" the audience and build up initial interest, with longer trailers coming later in the campaign.

[scaperbuddy]

Last night if you watched the Stargate premiere and saw the preview for the mini that was a teaser.

[SaraD]

RydraW-- so is there a dictionary some place of these media terms, or is this general knowledge that somehow evaded my mind like a steel sieve?

[RydraWong]

I've found The Encylopaedia of Television (http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/index.html) at the Museum of Broadcast Communications website very handy for a lot of references - I kind of ended up trying to give myself a crash course in "how the American TV system works" during the Save Farscape campaign, just to understand what was going on.

(My default tendency is to think that all problems can be approached by doing more reading ...).

"Teaser" is more of a general advertising term, though - I think I first heard of it when I was doing student drama at university.