TV in a Post-Broadcast Era (1):
Television, as I perceive it, is subject to constant change and evolution. As the world is changing and technology allowing for unparalleled access to media content is becoming pedestrian, television has been forced to change in order to remain relevant in our fast-paced world.
The origins of television are known to differ from country to country. In the UK, TV was introduced to be educational and informative, whereas TV was initially introduced as a form of entertainment with little to no ‘educational’ prospects in the United States. TV reached Australia at a funny point in history, post-WW2, and immediately begun to take on a hybrid of the roles that had been seen in the UK and US, whereby audiences were shown a mix of informative and entertaining content. As TV came to Australia during this critical time in history, it was also intended to harmonise things in ‘fragile’ Australian households, and help to introduce a structure and schedule that had been lost during the war. It was thought that TV would help to accomplish this notion through the ritual that surrounded it, where audiences were often thought to be passive onlookers, sitting with one another and simply taking in what they were shown through the funny box sitting in the corner of their living space.
Meanwhile, the intention of TV to act as a form of social ‘glue’ was reinforced by the ABC’s first TV broadcast by the 12th Prime Minister of Australia, Robert Menzies. The broadcast is a very interesting text to analyse, as the usual codes and conventions we associate with TV were non-existent and result in an awkwardly delivered broadcast, riddled with what we might call ‘mistakes’ today. Despite the uncomfortable nature of Menzies’ on screen presence, the broadcast acts as a clear endorsement of broadcast TV, further reinforcing the intended introduction of TV in Australia as a harmonising ‘social glue’.
Similarly, recognition of TV as a virtual reincarnation of Habermas’ ‘public sphere’ was adopted and programs that made their way to broadcast began talking to people, for people and on behalf of people. As TV became more relatable and began to ‘discuss’ issues that were relevant within society, ideas arose about TV being a discursive space. During this time, audiences were thought to be ‘participants’ in the process, as it was assumed that TV prompted and promoted discussion and argument within the household – a sort of rendition of the public sphere that existed in the Aristocratic age.
Contrastingly, many academics of the, now current, ‘post-broadcast’ era have argued that Habermas’ notion of a truly open public sphere is extinct. In particular, D. Morely from his writings in Home Territories (2000), recognises that the ideal public sphere has been ‘corrupted by the artificialities of our contemporary mediatised world’. This argument stems from the debate surrounding whether or not the audience is an active participant in the consumption of broadcasted content or not and reflects on the inhibitory nature of TV in terms of ‘transparent communication’.
Supportingly, live news-type broadcasts such as the clip from The Daily Show we were shown in the week 2 lecture are perfect evidence of the ‘post-broadcast’ era of TV in effect. Live news is often analysed in this way because of the consistency and stable nature that it possesses. Characterised by the liveness of the broadcast, the ritualistic consistency and scheduling of the program, the typical flow and segmentation, the authority of the anchor and the simulation of conversation with the audience. Live news can be called an exhibit of the post-broadcast era of television, as it embodies all of these qualities in order to communicate more effectively with the audience of the post-broadcast era – a very different audience to the audience who was first introduced to TV. Whilst many different types of shows demonstrate one or a few of the aforementioned qualities, live news is the combination of absolutely all of the above features.
The audience is constantly being reminded of the liveness of the broadcast through the on-screen presence of graphics featuring the time and date and the initial crane shot through the studio, which adds to the spontaneity of the production and adds to the audiences’ reception of the broadcast as strictly ‘live’ – it is a performance being undertaken for them! The audience is also expected to respect the authority of the anchor, in this case John Stewart, who is working ‘for’ them, to give them the news that they’ve waited patiently until 7pm for… John Stewart’s carefully constructed on-screen persona is designed to be relatable and trustworthy for the audience, so that he’s taken seriously and so that the audience doesn’t immediately dismiss what he’s saying – they listen to him. The presence of the live audience at The Daily Show helps to keep the audience on side as they are representative of the home audience, giving the impression that John Stewart is delivering a somewhat personalised broadcast, thus increasing the audiences’ appreciation and interest in the program. Through the combination of John Stewart’s authority and the liveness of the broadcast, The Daily Show can be called a simulated conversation between John Stewart and his target audience – a direct product of the post-broadcast era of TV whereby technological developments and an increased understanding of TV and audiences enables hugely effective transmission and reception of news between an audience and their anchor.
Ultimately, it can be said that post-broadcast television is vastly different to what was being produced previously, raising a lot of possibilities and unhinging the restraints that may have gotten in the way of TV production previously.
From Broadcast to Post-Broadcast (2):
More recently, TV has been subject to the shift from the broadcast to post-broadcast shift, due to the digitalisation of our world. This change in the fundamental understanding of TV and how it functions is largely due to technological developments that have empowered the medium and allowed for greater levels of flexibility, whilst also completely steering away from the origin of television as a scheduled and tightly broadcast form of communication.
The foundations for this shift are in the ‘convergence and digitalisation’ of the technology surrounding TV, allowing the historically bulky, unsightly and inefficient television ‘unit’ to be made more compact, capable, aesthetically pleasing and more connected than previously possible. The shift from broadcast to post-broadcast is something that I’ve experienced in my own life, as we started with analog Foxtel in our house, before upgrading to digital, then upgrading to and LCD TV from a CRT. All of these changes in our household technologies are evidence of the emergence of the post-broadcast era, which now means that our TV is connected to the internet – something I would’ve considered impossible back in the ‘00s.
Similarly, the new form of TV has allowed for unparalleled ubiquity in our world. With technology being compressed and compacted, TVs are more common than ever and often sprout up in places that would’ve seemed ridiculous less than a decade ago – TVs in treadmills, c’mon… really? The major repercussion of this overwhelming presence that TV now has is that it’s changed the role of the audience. Preciously, audiences had been seen as passive onlookers to TV content. However, the digital age enabled shopping through TV and personalisation that no one had experienced before. In this important moment, the digitalisation of TV had transformed audiences into consumers, and this shift is reflected today. Where we used to be targeted by marketing in the form of posters and promotional workers, organisations are now able to place advertisements for their products all over the world – everywhere we go, we are constantly being targeted as consumers.
Another effect of the shift from broadcast to post-broadcast is the convergence of TV and web-based media. As the power of the internet and its’ potential applications continues to grow, it has become commonplace for people to access their content on computers. Whilst this content may have only been previously accessible through the reception of broadcast TV, audiences now have the option to stream regular TV shows on demand. This trend has been openly embraced by TV networks on the most part, with programs being made freely available to stream at the conclusion of a shows’ weekly airing. However, this situation has also led to the rights of TV shows being marketed in a way that hasn’t been seen before. This issue is prominently evident in terms of the airing of the hugely popular ‘Game of Thrones’ TV series in Australia – previously, the episodes had been available weekly as they were released in the US, and Australians could legally purchase each episode at this rate. However, the 4th season saw Foxtel purchase all rights to the show and the only way people could legally watch the show was through Foxtel, which required a minimum 6 month contract, coupled with the outrageous monthly cost of the service. This was just not an option that suited many peoples’ financial situation and many turned to downloading the show illegally. The season 4 finale of GoT ended up being one of the most pirated episodes of any TV show in Australia, ever, which just goes to show that people are not prepared to fork out more than they have to in order to consume the media they want.
Furthermore, one last result of the transfer into the post-broadcast era has been the technological improvements that have allowed TV quality content to be produced on a much wider scale. From making smaller cameras, to making computers with enormous amounts of processing power for editing, the whole procedure of making a TV show has been streamlined and is now relatively affordable. This also means that there is a larger amount of content competing to be noticed, making it harder and harder for shows to get their come up and be picked up.
Evidently, TV is a very competitive market to get in to and not many content producers are lucky enough to be noticed. Becky Yamamoto is the writer of, and an actor in her ‘Unispired’ web series. The show has been critically acclaimed at the New York TV Festival and is now onto the 6th episode of season 1 – what many would consider a relatively successful venture in TV. ‘Uninspired’ is a lighthearted comedy detailing the life of Yamamoto’s character, Sarah ‘facing her inescapable adulthood’ (Uninspired Official Site). The show takes a laid-back approach to production and doesn’t try anything too fancy, but rather focuses on the substance of a well written and interesting script. ‘Uninspired’ is evidently helped along by the simplistic distribution that the shift to post-broadcast TV has enabled, reaching an audience and being noticed online to the point where it was selected for the prestigious NYTVF, where it was recognised as Todd VanDerWerff’s ‘favourite pilot of the festival’.
Conclusively, the transition from a broadcast to a post-broadcast era of television has been revolutionary and has changed the way TV will be watched forever.
Live Television: the Extraordinary & the Everyday (3):
Live television is a broad umbrella term for a very niche facet of television that includes regular, everyday broadcasts such as the morning shows on Channel 7 and 9 – Sunrise and Today, respectively – as well as more eventful and extraordinary coverage of large scale events such as the Olympics and its’ accompanying opening ceremony. Whether from the ‘everyday’ or the ‘extraordinary’ branch of television, live broadcasts are unique amongst TV programs and are very easily identified by a number of traits, such as their use of verbal and graphic references to time, the ‘LIVE’ watermark that stations often layer over their broadcast, certain camera techniques and the style of the presentation itself.
Ideally, TV has been developed and is is carefully constructed to instil an identity amongst its’ audiences members. This notion has evolved from Benedict Anderson’s theory of the ‘imagined community’, which proposes that people belonging to a certain country feel patriotic, connected, involved and proud of the ‘nation’, despite the fact that they have little or no interaction with most of the other people within the group, within Australia, for example. ‘Imagined communities’ – suitably named because they are completely intangible products of the imagination, the media and the government – are a useful way to understand the colonising effect that TV has had on our society. For this to be understood, it’s important to recognise that people are instinctual beings, but would never have formed ‘nations’ the size of our continents if it were not forced upon us, but would most likely only associate ourselves with those whom we directly interact with. The idea of nationalism is one that is unnatural, something that was conditioned into humankind and developed relatively recently, in the grand scheme of things. This engrained sense of national identity is constantly being reinforced through the regular, everyday television that we consume. The morning show, Sunrise, on Channel 7 each morning, for example, constantly reminds us of ‘the nation’ through the use of landmarks in the studio. The image of the Sydney Opera House or harbour bridge are regularly projected behind the shows’ presenters as they read the news and current affairs each morning, serving as a reminder to the audience that they are Australians, and further instilling a sense of nationality, whether the audience is consciously aware of it or not.
Similarly, TV is also known for its enhancement of the nations’ experience of ‘the everyday’. It’s a well known fact that people often feel most comfortable, work most effectively and are happy when they find themselves within a routine which keeps them occupied. Naturally, the scheduled nature of television compliments this structure effectively where people may wake up, shower, watch TV and have breakfast before heading off to work, then come home, have dinner and watch TV before going to bed. Through the careful scheduling of such live TV broadcasts, their is a ritualistic and comfortable schedule that is then projected onto the lives of the audience, and on a larger scale, society. This raises interesting points about the selection of stories that the morning and evening news services report on and how they approach their reports. The morning news tends to be more uplifting, with more feel-good stories and even more ‘censored’ versions of the unpleasant news compared to the evening news – a technique to send people off to work in a better mood. This can also be observed through the way in which the hosts/co-hosts interact with one another. The staple morning show on Channel 7, Sunrise is hosted by David ‘Kochie’ Koch and Samantha Armytage (formerly Melissa Doyle – as seen in the screening clip) and the interaction(s) between the pairs are light-hearted, full of jokes, laughs and smiles – attempting to lift the spirits of the audience once more before they embark on their day.
Furthermore, everyday live broadcasts often attempt to connect with their audience not only through a light-hearted presentation that is entertaining to watch, but also through some less obvious conventions that raise the importance of the audience to equal that of the broadcast itself. Sunrise for example, uses a self-aware craning shot through the studio to emphasise its’ own liveness, implying that the entire production is being performed directly to and for the audience. It’s through this transparent approach to production that the content suddenly becomes more relatable and personal to the audience – something which is further developed through the candid conversational style of interaction between the hosts of the program. By referring to each other by shorthand or nick-names, the hosts are removed from any pedestal, de-formalised, and become relatable people that the audience could indeed imagine having a down to earth conversation with.
Although the nature of television as a complicated process with a lot of work involved is well known, it’s interesting to analyse how certain programs attempt to spin this formality and become more regular and relatable in order to connect with their audience on a higher level.