The Persistence of Television: how the medium adapts to survive in the digital world (2014-2019)
Abstract
The project investigates the way television program content modulates over time to retain audiences, even when the audience itself fragments across different reception technologies. It explores the substantial degree of stability in both fiction and non-fiction programming by considering a range of British, Australian and American texts which have been altered to remain relevant, been sequentially adapted to reflect contemporary preferences, and been made as local versions of international formats. It uses empirical and qualitative methods to compare programs from the beginning of mass broadcast television in Australia, the UK and the US. Outcomes will include a scholarly monograph and several articles.
