MeCCSA PGN 2016

Description

MeCCSA PGN 2016: New Directions in Media Research

Scholars from different countries have argued that the Digital age has triggered a new and distinct period of television development in its history. There are a number of different models for understanding the periodic shifts in television history. In the UK, media historian John Ellis (2000) argues that television has developed over three distinct eras: ages of scarcity, availability and plenty, detailing a proliferation of channels and drawing mainly from British public service broadcasting; in contrast, Rogers, Epstein and Reeve’s model of TV I, TV II and TV III focuses mainly on how television is funded and distributed in the US context/ Similarly, Amanda Lotz’s periodisation describes these changes as a move from ‘network era’ to a period of ‘multi-channel transition’, and finally into the ‘post network era’ of digital TV. In such accounts the current age, whatever we call it, is characterised by multi-channel broadcasting and distribution of television content across platforms. As Ellis (argues, therefore, perhaps the best characterisation of the current age of television is one ‘of plenty and uncertainty’.

However, it is worth noting that these periodisations are predicated on western broadcasting systems which embody a capitalistic/democratic culture,. This paper seeks to understand how such a periodization would apply to China and to what extent it’s current phase can be understood as having entered ‘TVIII’. In so doing, it will propose a different model of TVIII: one with Chinese characteristics. Furthermore, as William Boddy (2011) put it in his essay ‘Is it TV yet’, the most urgent questions facing both practitioners and scholars will resolve around the place of traditional domestic television ‘in this new world of mobilized screens and fragmented audiences’ (pp.96-7). Therefore, this paper will also explore the current place of linear broadcast in the context of China and examine whether it is still considered as TV(III) yet.

Period	7 Jul 2016
Event type	Conference
Location	Leicester, United KingdomShow on map