The "basis for mutual contempt": the loss of the contingent in digital television

Lury, K. (2011) The "basis for mutual contempt": the loss of the contingent in digital television. In: Bennett, J. and Strange, N. (eds.) Television as Digital Media. Series: Console-ing passions. Duke University Press: Durham, NC, pp. 181-203. ISBN 9780822348870

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Publisher's URL: https://www.dukeupress.edu/television-as-digital-media/?viewby=title

Abstract

This chapter addresses the aesthetics of digital imaging in a range of television programming including the UK 'gameshow' channel ITV Play and a range of British and American documentaries which use CGI (computer gneerated imaging) including Life after People, The Secret Plot to Kill Hitler and Auschwitz. The argument suggests that the increased duration of programming enabled by digital channels (such as the UK's ITV Play) enforces a particular and repressive management of 'live' performance from television presenters and the contingent aspects of these performances - such as spontaneity and improvisation - are now commonly rehearsed and 'faked'. In documentaries which use digital imaging, CGI similarly erases the presence of the historically 'contingent' previously present within archive footage and therefore the substitution of CGI images for analogue archive restricts both the 'truth claims' and the real authority of these historical documentaries. Both these tendencies suggest that viewer is increasingly being treated with 'contempt'.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Lury, Professor Karen
• Authors: Lury, K.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts > Theatre Film and TV Studies
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• ISBN: 9780822348870

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