Television After TV: Essays on a Medium in Transition
Lynn Spigel, Ed. Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 2005. 480 pp. , illus. Paper. ISBN: 0-8223-3393-7.

Reviewed by Kathleen Quillian.
kathleen@dprojx.org.

Undoubtedly the Internet has changed the nature of mass communication from a centralized one-way model to a de-centralized multi-directional model. How this will affect the industry of broadcast media has yet to be fully decided. While producers are falling over themselves to try to figure out how to successfully negotiate the media landscape in the age of the Internet, scholars are building upon their cache of expertise to develop a new dialogue of communications studies. In an attempt to give this new era some kind of identifiable form Lynn Spigel has brought together the perspectives of several leading television scholars in Television After TV: Essays on a Medium in Transition.

It seems that while the dialogue is still developing around the new nature of mass communication, so too is the language. Throughout the collection, no less than a dozen different terms are given in the attempt to identify the scope of contemporary media communications–terms ranging from "omnimedia" (Martha Stewart’s term for her own media empire) to "post-broadcasting" to "the neo-network era." The book is divided into four sections which, broadly speaking, focus on: changes in the television industry in the age of the Internet, television’s social context in the larger scope of culture, how television defines or re-defines community and the educational potential of television studies. Aside from two essays devoted specifically to European television (lifestyle programming in Britain and the introduction of television in Sweden, respectively) and a look at the development of Hong Kong as a media capital, the majority of the book is devoted to the many ways that the industry of (U.S.) commercial television has evolved and how it influences, or is influenced by, the Internet. To those of us who cannot conceive of life without the all-pervasive influence of commercial television, this collection of essays certainly gives one pause to think as we work our way through the next generation of mass media. One of the more interesting angles on this is given in "Flexible Microcasting: Gender, Generation, and Television-Internet Convergence" by Lisa Parks, in which the author surmises how the rise and popularity of television game shows foreshadowed the interactivity of the Internet. She then goes on to address how certain forward-thinking big-budget television producers have successfully (or unsuccessfully) negotiated the territory between television and the Internet with programs designed to encourage the involvement of women and youth while still maintaining the dominant ideologies perpetuated by commercial television.

The "flow" of the book (referencing a term coined by early television scholar Raymond Williams–mentioned consistently throughout this collection of essays) moves from a rather focused look at new forms of marketing in the television industry to a broader look at the influence of television on culture and society. Two notable contributions presented toward the latter end of the flow are by Anna McCarthy and Lynn Spigel whose respective essays give two very different spins on power and broadcast media. In "The Rhythms of the Reception Area: Crisis, Capitalism, and the Waiting Room TV" Anna McCarthy discusses how the market of closed-circuit television programs both manifests and perpetuates certain social and economic strata in relation to the measurement of time in public waiting areas. Spigel’s own contribution to this collection "Television, the Housewife, and the Museum of Modern Art" chronicles a lesser-known and otherwise short-lived era in the early days of television when the Museum of Modern Art experimented with the potential gains offered by the new, avant-garde medium. In this essay, Spigel weaves an interesting narrative around leisure time, niche marketing and the clash between "high" and "low" culture in post-war America. An image of Barbara Streisand posing while singing in the museum gallery, wearing a designer gown similar to the modernist paintings on the wall next to her, illustrates this essay quite well.

In the attempt to position so many ideas in one conversation however, inevitably, some parts of the discussion get left out. In this case, it seems that while much thought is developed around the industry of commercial television and the social consequences of the medium in the age of the Internet, the roles of journalists and media activists–those individuals who negotiate and shape the media landscape on a daily basis–was overlooked altogether. The few times the news media is given attention in this collection is only in terms of its absence. Anna Everett’s essay "Double Click: The Million Woman March on Television and the Internet" describes how the organizers of the Million Woman March utilized the resources of the Internet to fill in the gaps that were left in coverage of this event by mainstream media. Similarly, in "Pocho.com: Reimagining Television on the Internet" Priscilla Pena Ovalle discusses the lack of media attention directed towards the Hispanic community and how one website in particular succeeds in shaping an alternative community by subverting mainstream media. The discussion of television in the age of the Internet would greatly benefit from a focused look at independent media organizations such as the Independent Media Center, Democracy Now! and MoveOn.org who are forced to find their way through and around the tightly-regulated confines of broadcast media to bring alternative perspectives to the table. These organizations largely rely on the power of the Internet as well as what little room is left in public access and public-sponsored media channels to develop dialogues which are sorely lacking in corporate-controlled, mainstream media. We could learn a thing or two from their experiences of communicating through new and alternative avenues in broadcast media.

This collection of essays comes at a critical time, when we are looking at not just a change in media, but a change in form, practice and consequence. Whether television producers succeed in steering the market in their favor, governments succeed in maintaining the hegemony through regulation, or citizens succeed in claiming their rightful territory within the new terrain of mass communications really only comes down to who figures things out first. By revisiting the history of television in terms of the new media landscape, we may be able to pick up some valuable clues as to how to go about shaping some kind of acceptable future for broadcast communications.