Television
After TV: Essays on a Medium in Transition
Lynn Spigel,
Ed. Duke University Press, Durham, NC,
2005. 480 pp. , illus. Paper. ISBN: 0-8223-3393-7.
Reviewed by Kathleen Quillian.
kathleen@dprojx.org.
Undoubtedly the Internet has changed
the nature of mass communication from
a centralized one-way model to a de-centralized
multi-directional model. How this will
affect the industry of broadcast media
has yet to be fully decided. While producers
are falling over themselves to try to
figure out how to successfully negotiate
the media landscape in the age of the
Internet, scholars are building upon their
cache of expertise to develop a new dialogue
of communications studies. In an attempt
to give this new era some kind of identifiable
form Lynn Spigel has brought together
the perspectives of several leading television
scholars in Television After TV: Essays
on a Medium in Transition.
It seems that while the dialogue is still
developing around the new nature of mass
communication, so too is the language.
Throughout the collection, no less than
a dozen different terms are given in the
attempt to identify the scope of contemporary
media communicationsterms ranging
from "omnimedia" (Martha Stewarts
term for her own media empire) to "post-broadcasting"
to "the neo-network era." The
book is divided into four sections which,
broadly speaking, focus on: changes in
the television industry in the age of
the Internet, televisions social
context in the larger scope of culture,
how television defines or re-defines community
and the educational potential of television
studies. Aside from two essays devoted
specifically to European television (lifestyle
programming in Britain and the introduction
of television in Sweden, respectively)
and a look at the development of Hong
Kong as a media capital, the majority
of the book is devoted to the many ways
that the industry of (U.S.) commercial
television has evolved and how it influences,
or is influenced by, the Internet. To
those of us who cannot conceive of life
without the all-pervasive influence of
commercial television, this collection
of essays certainly gives one pause to
think as we work our way through the next
generation of mass media. One of the more
interesting angles on this is given in
"Flexible Microcasting: Gender, Generation,
and Television-Internet Convergence"
by Lisa Parks, in which the author surmises
how the rise and popularity of television
game shows foreshadowed the interactivity
of the Internet. She then goes on to address
how certain forward-thinking big-budget
television producers have successfully
(or unsuccessfully) negotiated the territory
between television and the Internet with
programs designed to encourage the involvement
of women and youth while still maintaining
the dominant ideologies perpetuated by
commercial television.
The "flow" of the book (referencing
a term coined by early television scholar
Raymond Williamsmentioned consistently
throughout this collection of essays)
moves from a rather focused look at new
forms of marketing in the television industry
to a broader look at the influence of
television on culture and society. Two
notable contributions presented toward
the latter end of the flow are by Anna
McCarthy and Lynn Spigel whose respective
essays give two very different spins on
power and broadcast media. In "The
Rhythms of the Reception Area: Crisis,
Capitalism, and the Waiting Room TV"
Anna McCarthy discusses how the market
of closed-circuit television programs
both manifests and perpetuates certain
social and economic strata in relation
to the measurement of time in public waiting
areas. Spigels own contribution
to this collection "Television, the
Housewife, and the Museum of Modern Art"
chronicles a lesser-known and otherwise
short-lived era in the early days of television
when the Museum of Modern Art experimented
with the potential gains offered by the
new, avant-garde medium. In this essay,
Spigel weaves an interesting narrative
around leisure time, niche marketing and
the clash between "high" and
"low" culture in post-war America.
An image of Barbara Streisand posing while
singing in the museum gallery, wearing
a designer gown similar to the modernist
paintings on the wall next to her, illustrates
this essay quite well.
In the attempt to position so many ideas
in one conversation however, inevitably,
some parts of the discussion get left
out. In this case, it seems that while
much thought is developed around the industry
of commercial television and the social
consequences of the medium in the age
of the Internet, the roles of journalists
and media activiststhose individuals
who negotiate and shape the media landscape
on a daily basiswas overlooked altogether.
The few times the news media is given
attention in this collection is only in
terms of its absence. Anna Everetts
essay "Double Click: The Million
Woman March on Television and the Internet"
describes how the organizers of the Million
Woman March utilized the resources of
the Internet to fill in the gaps that
were left in coverage of this event by
mainstream media. Similarly, in "Pocho.com:
Reimagining Television on the Internet"
Priscilla Pena Ovalle discusses the lack
of media attention directed towards the
Hispanic community and how one website
in particular succeeds in shaping an alternative
community by subverting mainstream media.
The discussion of television in the age
of the Internet would greatly benefit
from a focused look at independent media
organizations such as the Independent
Media Center, Democracy Now! and MoveOn.org
who are forced to find their way through
and around the tightly-regulated confines
of broadcast media to bring alternative
perspectives to the table. These organizations
largely rely on the power of the Internet
as well as what little room is left in
public access and public-sponsored media
channels to develop dialogues which are
sorely lacking in corporate-controlled,
mainstream media. We could learn a thing
or two from their experiences of communicating
through new and alternative avenues in
broadcast media.
This collection of essays comes at a critical
time, when we are looking at not just
a change in media, but a change in form,
practice and consequence. Whether television
producers succeed in steering the market
in their favor, governments succeed in
maintaining the hegemony through regulation,
or citizens succeed in claiming their
rightful territory within the new terrain
of mass communications really only comes
down to who figures things out first.
By revisiting the history of television
in terms of the new media landscape, we
may be able to pick up some valuable clues
as to how to go about shaping some kind
of acceptable future for broadcast communications.