(TV Cultures) From Broadcast to Post-Broadcast: Part 2

Television is constantly changing, that’s a given. In a world where technology is pored over, relentlessly tweaked and updated, with new and exciting discoveries occasionally bursting into the public consciousness, it makes sense that a medium as old and ubiquitous as television has had to change with the times. The move from broadcast to post-broadcast television has been a gradual, but inexorable one, defined both by society’s shifting attitudes and interests, and also by a number of key technologies and concepts, coined especially for this post-broadcast world.

The advent of digitalization was a key component in the post-broadcast push, given that it defines much of what society thinks of as ‘television’ in today’s world. When I was a child, I knew that I could watch the ABC, SBS, 7, 9 or 10. Now, just ten years later, with only free-to-air television, there are thirty channels at my disposal – most of them absolute rubbish, to be sure, but still an obscene amount of content at my fingertips at any one time. However, if a household subscribes to cable television, then the degree to which digitalization has taken hold is clearly apparent. In a strong example of another post-broadcast concept, narrowcasting, cable television allows the viewer to have a tailor-made viewing experience. The Syfy channel, lifestyle channels, reality channels – these aren’t reflections of the masses; they exist for the individual viewer. Not to mention the overwhelming popularity of streaming services like Netflix, that deliver instant entertainment to our television for low cost and no fuss. There’s now literally something for everyone, at any time of the day.

There’s been another clear, identifiable shift in broadcasting – the heavy commercial focus employed by networks. While television’s role used to be considered one of educating and informing its audience, the emphasis now clearly falls upon revenue and ratings, with all major decisions made by these networks indicative of this fact. You only need to look so far as the ratings war between our three major networks: 7, 9 and 10, to see this. Spruiking their new, “fast-tracked” shows mercilessly, they’re constantly trying to better each other, waging war with wildly melodramatic reality programs designed to excite and enrage the audience with their escalating challenges and whining, whinging ‘villains’.

It was in 1990, in the midst of the transition to the post-broadcast era, that Twin Peaks was introduced to an unsuspecting audience. Aired on ABC, one of three major American networks, against the backdrop of diminishing audiences (drawn away from network television by cable and VHS), Twin Peaks is itself a reflection of the changing world of broadcast television. Just as all television began to transition from a mass audience to a more specific selection, so too did Twin Peaks target a narrower section of the viewers. Focusing on nighttime soap opera watchers, and fans of the horror/thriller genre, Twin Peaks appealed to a micro-cultural audience, eschewing the idea of ‘mass entertainment’. The show rebelled against the norm for television series at the time, taking the idea of ‘interruptible’ television (the notion that a viewer could and would leave at any time) to its absolute limits – there was no closure, no cliffhangers before ad breaks, and its various narrative threads would often stay unconnected, creating an often uncomfortable, fragmented viewing experience. The show was full of lengthy, atmospheric shots (that bizarre moment of Sherilyn Fenn dancing in the diner), focusing on mood and character rather than narrative progression, and utilized cinematic camera and stylistic techniques to tell the dark, unusual story. It was a pop culture phenomenon, gripping America with the question of “who killed Laura Palmer?” and proving that a bizarre, entertaining, cult television program could command the attention of millions of viewers.

A further post-broadcast concept utilized by Twin Peaks was the idea of transmedia, described by Henry Jenkins as “a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience”. Twin Peaks didn’t consist solely as a television series, but its “complex fictional world” was expanded and elaborated on within three books and a film – it was, in fact, one of the first of its kind to create something (the film, Fire Walk with Me) that relied upon consuming the preceding media (the series). While this wasn’t commercially viable, it spoke of the series’ boldness and originality.

References:

Henry Jenkins. 2007. Transmedia Storytelling 101. [ONLINE] Available at: http://henryjenkins.org/2007/03/transmedia_storytelling_101.html. [Accessed 12 August 14].