In:
Media, Culture & Society, SAGE Publications, Vol. 37, No. 5 ( 2015-07), p. 737-752
Abstract:
Broadcast television faces new challenges in the rapidly changing media environment. This article proposes ‘para-interactivity’ as a concept that identifies the ways television addresses its audiences in the digital age. Para-interactivity is a term that brings together several salient elements in contemporary television texts as well as positing a contemporary context for established and familiar television strategies. It identifies elements embraced by television, which echo interactive communication processes and are characteristic of digital media and participatory culture, but when employed by and adapted to television, they do not usually construct communication that is actually interactive. This article focuses on one of these para-interactive strategies: unvelling television’s apparatus on screen. This strategy implies an inclusive viewing experience and a seemingly more equal and reciprocal relationship between television and its viewers. However, I argue that what is presented to the viewers is nothing but a ‘staged backstage’, while television industry surrounds itself in real and legal fences. Drawing on Israeli commercial television texts, this article contributes to the understanding of contemporary transformations in television as a medium and as a cultural industry.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0163-4437
,
1460-3675
DOI:
10.1177/0163443715577245
Language:
English
Publisher:
SAGE Publications
Publication Date:
2015
detail.hit.zdb_id:
1482824-8
SSG:
2
SSG:
3,4
SSG:
3,5
SSG:
3,6
SSG:
3,7
