How television invented new media
By: Sheila C. Murphy
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: New Brunswick, N.J
Language: eng
Number of pages: 187
ISBN-13: 9780813550046; 9780813550053
Subjects: Television broadcasting; Convergence (Telecommunication); Television; Interactive television; Technological innovations; Television interactive toys
Description: Television is a global industry, a medium of representation, an architectural component of space, and a nearly universal frame of reference for viewers. Yet it is also an abstraction and an often misunderstood science whose critical influence on the development, history, and diffusion of new media has been both minimized and overlooked. This work adjusts the picture of television culturally while providing a corrective history of new media studies itself. Personal computers, video game systems, even iPods and the Internet built upon and borrowed from television to become viable forms. The earliest personal computers, disguised as video games using TV sets as monitors, provided a case study for television's key role in the emergence of digital interactive devices. The author analyzes how specific technologies emerge and how representations, from South Park to Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog, mine the history of television just as they converge with new methods of the making and circulation of images. Past and failed attempts to link television to computers and the Web also indicate how services like Hulu or Netflix On-Demand can give rise to a new era for entertainment and program viewing online. In these concrete ways, television's role in new and emerging media is solidified and finally recognized.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 169-178) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : how television invents new media; title: "This is intelligent television" : the emerging technologies of video games, computers, and the medium of television; title: Is this convergence? : postnetwork television, new media and emerging middletexts; title: From tube to a "series of tubes" : television in and as new media; title: Alt-ctrl : the freedom of remotes and controls; title: Conclusion : television is not new media.