The continuity of ‘continuity’: flow and the changing experience of watching broadcast television

It has been widely argued that the experience of watching television has altered significantly since Raymond Williams’s theorisation of flow in the mid-1970s. Yet despite the rise of new technologies such as personal video recorders and on-demand services, broadcast television remains the primary wa...

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Main Author: Johnson, Catherine
Format: Article
Published: Spokesman Books 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28775/
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author Johnson, Catherine
author_facet Johnson, Catherine
author_sort Johnson, Catherine
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description It has been widely argued that the experience of watching television has altered significantly since Raymond Williams’s theorisation of flow in the mid-1970s. Yet despite the rise of new technologies such as personal video recorders and on-demand services, broadcast television remains the primary way in which television is viewed in the West. This article, therefore, asks whether Williams’s theorisation of flow has continued significance in understanding the nature of broadcast television in the digital era. Focusing on the broadcast junctions, identified by Williams as a fundamental part of the broadcast flow, it examines the changing ways in which broadcasters have constructed and explained the value and experience of television from the 1980s to the 2000s. In doing so, it argues that we need to be as attuned to the continuities and similarities as the differences if we are to understand the changes to television wrought by digital.
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spelling nottingham-287752020-05-04T20:18:40Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28775/ The continuity of ‘continuity’: flow and the changing experience of watching broadcast television Johnson, Catherine It has been widely argued that the experience of watching television has altered significantly since Raymond Williams’s theorisation of flow in the mid-1970s. Yet despite the rise of new technologies such as personal video recorders and on-demand services, broadcast television remains the primary way in which television is viewed in the West. This article, therefore, asks whether Williams’s theorisation of flow has continued significance in understanding the nature of broadcast television in the digital era. Focusing on the broadcast junctions, identified by Williams as a fundamental part of the broadcast flow, it examines the changing ways in which broadcasters have constructed and explained the value and experience of television from the 1980s to the 2000s. In doing so, it argues that we need to be as attuned to the continuities and similarities as the differences if we are to understand the changes to television wrought by digital. Spokesman Books 2013-10 Article PeerReviewed Johnson, Catherine (2013) The continuity of ‘continuity’: flow and the changing experience of watching broadcast television. Key Words: a Journal of Cultural Materialism, 11 . ISSN 1369-9725 Television Flow Raymond Williams broadcasting http://www.spokesmanbooks.com/acatalog/Key_Words_Journal.htm
spellingShingle Television
Flow
Raymond Williams
broadcasting
Johnson, Catherine
The continuity of ‘continuity’: flow and the changing experience of watching broadcast television
title The continuity of ‘continuity’: flow and the changing experience of watching broadcast television
title_full The continuity of ‘continuity’: flow and the changing experience of watching broadcast television
title_fullStr The continuity of ‘continuity’: flow and the changing experience of watching broadcast television
title_full_unstemmed The continuity of ‘continuity’: flow and the changing experience of watching broadcast television
title_short The continuity of ‘continuity’: flow and the changing experience of watching broadcast television
title_sort continuity of ‘continuity’: flow and the changing experience of watching broadcast television
topic Television
Flow
Raymond Williams
broadcasting
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28775/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28775/