Old vs. New Television: Foundations of Post-Cinema and New Media

Foundations of the New Television and New Media

• Old vs. New Television: The discussion centers on the shifting landscape of television, moving from traditional broadcasting to new media formats.
• Defining New Media: This term refers to the types of media that emerged following the invention of the internet.
• Post-Cinema:     * It functions as a catchall term for the new media age following the internet's invention.     * It refers to a specific "condition" of cinema in the digital age.     * It characterizes the challenges posed to the systems and conventions that dominated cinema throughout the majority of the $20\text{th}$ century.     * This includes a challenge to traditional categories, concepts, and terms used to theorize the cinema of the past.

The Evolution of Television Since the $1940\text{s}$

• Historical Changes: Since its invention in the $1940\text{s}$, television has undergone radical changes in:     * Programming     * Broadcasting     * Spectatorship
• The Identity Crisis of Television: Critics, historians, and scholars debate whether the medium can still be called "television."     * HBO Tagline: The famous slogan "It's not television" illustrates the industry's own distancing from traditional definitions.     * Defining the Medium: Whether the term "television" still applies depends on how the word is defined and if the definition has been broadened to include emerging models.
• Shifting Devices:     * Modern viewers often do not own a traditional television set.     * Content is consumed via laptops, desktop computers, streaming services, and internet downloads of episodes or films.     * Generational differences in hardware:         * Students/Younger Adults: Laptops, tablets, or smartphones.         * Parents: Large HDTV screens in family rooms/dens.         * Grandparents: Older and "clunkier" models compared to modern sleek flat screens.

The Ubiquity and Convergence of Screens

• Physical Presence: Television hasn't disappeared; it has evolved and moved into diverse public and private spaces, including:     * Bars, elevators, and subways.     * Sports stadiums, hotels, and airplanes.     * Airports, waiting rooms, schools, and buses.     * Sidewalks and the sides of buildings.
• Technological Appropriation: The television screen has been adapted for various other monitors and devices:     * Home computers.     * Video and digital cameras.     * Playback systems.     * Cell phones.
• The Connective Function: Television remains a mass medium for entertainment and a primary vehicle for spectatorship.
• City TV Tagline: The Toronto channel City TV uses the tagline: "TV is everywhere in some form or another."
• Interactivity and Surveillance:     * We are constantly watching screens and being watched by surveillance or video cameras.     * Television is increasingly interactive, offering continuous opportunities for engagement and participation $24/7$.

Defining Mass Media and Communication Systems

• Definition of Mass Medium: A means of communicating information to a mass of people, specifically "all at one time."
• Types of Mass Media:     * Print Media: Newspapers, journals, and magazines that deliver information daily to news outlets and subscribers globally.     * Cinema: A single film can be exhibited several times a day in theaters across a country or the world.     * Radio: An electronic medium that introduced instantaneous broadcasting of news, entertainment, and sports from a single station via affiliates.     * Television: Developed later in the $1940\text{s}$, structured similarly to radio with network-owned stations broadcasting locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally via satellites.     * World Wide Web: Expanded the audience exponentially, allowing for a virtual stream/torrent of information transmitted $24/7$ to anyone with computer and internet access.

Comparison: Cinema vs. Television and New Media

• The Cinema Experience:     * Historically the Pre-eminent Medium: For a long time, cinema was the primary way to deliver audiovisual content (moving images and sound).     * Nickelodeons: Early theaters where audiences gathered; the admission price was a "nickel."     * Public Experience: Occurs in neighborhoods, malls, or drive-ins.     * Collective Atmosphere: Viewers watch together in the dark, hearing the laughter, screams, or groans of others, and smelling snacks.     * Distance and Scale: Images are "larger than life," often the size of an entire wall. This creates a psychological distance where the viewer is a "voyeur" watching a world they do not inhabit.
• The Television and Internet Experience:     * Domestic/Intimate Experience: Devices are located in the heart of the home (kitchen, living room, bedroom, even bathroom).     * Physical Proximity: Viewers are physically close to the device (inches or feet away).     * "Leaning In": Unlike the distance of a theater, users of computers and small screens tend to lean in, creating a personal, intimate space.     * Familiarity: Because it is part of a daily schedule and exists within personal spaces, it feels like an extension of the family or the self.     * Celebrity Presence: Subjects, including world leaders, appear smaller and contained within the "box" or screen.
• Timing of Viewing:     * Cinema: An infrequent, special occasion or event tied to new releases.     * Television/Radio: A constant, daily activity; often used as background noise or according to a regular weekly/daily schedule.

Questions & Discussion

• Quotations from Radio/Historical Context:     * Example of Radio Drama/Entertainment dialogue: "Don't talk to me about love, you vampire. I mean, we're but… straws in the wind. I shall leave you two to talk this off. I'm sorry, Mrs. Black. There's no use talking. You must give him up."     * Educational/Promotional commentary on TV: "From the scene of action, cameramen televise events which you may see in your own home if, of course, you have a television receiver. Television is opening up a new field, as does any new development…"
• The Impact of Covid 19:     * The pandemic halted the ability to go to movie theaters and watch films on the "big screen."     * This forced a shift toward watching new releases on televisions, computers, and streaming networks.

Social and Cultural Implications

• Medium as a Reflection of Change: Studying the evolution of media is important because it tracks parallel social and cultural developments.
• Individual and Societal Impact: Changes in how we consume media indicate how much we, as individuals, and the world around us have changed.