For over half a century, television has been the most central medium in Western democracies – the political, social and cultural centrepiece of the public sphere. Television has therefore rarely been studied in isolation from its socio-cultural and political context; there is always something important at stake when the forms and functions of television are on the agenda. The digitisation of television concerns the production, contents, distribution and reception of the medium, but also its position in the overall, largely digitised media system and public sphere where the internet plays a decisive role.

The articles in this comprehensive collection are written by some of the world’s most prominent scholars in the field of media, communication and cultural studies, including critical film and television studies.

Relocating Television offers readers an insight into studying television alongside the internet, participatory media and other technocultural phenomena such as DVDs, user-generated content and everyday digital media production. It also focuses on more specific programmes and phenomena, including The Wire, MSN, amateur footage in TV news, Bollywoodization of TV news, YouTube, fan sites tied to e.g. Grey's Anatomy and X Factor. Relocating Television will be highly beneficial to both students and academics across a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses including media, communication and cultural studies, and television and film studies.

Contents

List of Tables and Figures About the Editor About the Contributors Preface Jostein Gripsrud Part I: The medium of television: Changes and continuities 1. Television in the Digital Public Sphere Jostein Gripsrud 2. TV as Time Machine: television’s changing heterochronic regimes and the production of history William Uricchio 3. ‘Critical social optics’ and the transformations of audio-visual culture John Corner 4. msn, the Interface Nick Browne Part II: Changing Genrengeing on box-sets: the national and the digital in television crime drama Charlotte Brunsdon 6. Forward to the Past: The Strange Case of The Wire Erlend Lavik 7. The ‘Bollywoodization’ of Indian TV News Daya K. Thussu 8. Amateur Images in the Professional News Stream Helle Sjøvaag and John Bridge 9. A new space for democracy? Online media, factual genres and the transformation of traditional mass mediaIb Bondebjerg 10. Lifestyle as factual entertainment Christa Lykke Christensen Part III: Reception: Figures, experience, significance 11. Television use in new media environments Barbara Gentikow 12. The grey area. A rough guide: Television fans, internet forums, and the cultural public sphere Peter Larsen 13. X-Factor viewers – X-Factor debate on an Internet debate forum Anne Jerslev 14. The digitally enhanced audience: New attitudes to factual footage John Ellis 15. Digital media, television, and the discourse of smears Todd Gitlin Part IV: Critical perspectives 16...