Television Truths

299 Pages·2007·1.484 MB·English

by  John Hartley(auth.)

Television Truths
To Tina Horton, who knows how hard it is
(to watch TV) . . .
Creu Gwir fel Gwydr o FFwrnais Awen*
In These Stones Horizons Sing
Gwyneth Lewis
*Creating Truth like Glass from a Furnace of Inspiration
Television Truths
John Hartley
© 2008 by John Hartley
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First published 2008 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
1 2008
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hartley, John, 1948–
Television truths / John Hartley.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4051-6979-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4051-6980-6
(hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Television broadcasting—Social aspects. I. Title.
PN1992.6.H366 2008
302.23′45—dc22
2007014548
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
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Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Tables viii
Acknowledgments ix
1 Television Truths (Argumentation of TV) 1
Part I Is TV True? (Epistemology of TV) 15
2 The Value Chain of Meaning 19
3 Public Address Systems: Time, Space, and Frequency 36
4 Television and Globalization 61
Part II Is TV a Polity? (Ethics/Politics of TV) 75
5 Television, Nation, and Indigenous Media 77
6 A Television Republic? 96
7 Reality and the Plebiscite 126
Part III Is TV Beautiful? (Aesthetics of TV) 161
8 From a “Wandering Booby” to a Field of Cows:
The Television Live Event 163
9 Shakespeare, Big Brother, and the Taming of the Self 182
10 Sync or Swim? Plebiscitary Sport and Synchronized
Voting 200
Contents v
Part IV What Can TV Be? (Metaphysics of TV) 221
11 “Laughs and Legends” or the Furniture that Glows?
Television as History 223
12 Television in Knowledge Paradigms 243
References 261
Index 272
vi Contents
Figures
2.1 Ludovic Brea, Scenes from the life of Saint Margaret
(1498) 30
2.2 El Lissitzky, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge
(1919–20) 31
2.3 Olga Tobreluts, Sacred Figures I – Kate Moss (1999),
after Antonello da Messina, The Virgin
Annunciate (1476) 32
5.1 Nikki Webster and Djakapurra Munyarryan – Olympic
opening ceremony (2000) 80
5.2 News and myth within the semiosphere 88
5.3 The “universe of Indigeneity” and the “two domains” 89
5.4 The “narrative accrual” of the Australian nation 91
7.1 Li Yuchun – Mongolian Cow Sour Yoghurt Super
Girl (2005) 144
7.2 George Galloway MP and friend, Celebrity Big Brother
(2006) 152
9.1 Katrina Miani – the taming of the self. Big Brother,
series 2 (Australia, April 28, 2002) 195
10.1 Olympian Cathy Freeman in Charlie Brown
(winter 2004 collection) 210
10.2 Annette Kellerman – portrait in Physical beauty –
how to keep it (1918) 212
10.3 Costume worn by Annette Kellerman 216
Figures vii
Tables
1.1 TV Truths – a philosophy of the popular 9
2.1 The value chain of meanings 28
2.2 Paradigmatic alphabets of meaning 30
3.1 Frequencies of public writing 42
3.2 Space-time co-ordinates 55
3.3 Frequencies of various media (song, drama, apparel) 55
3.4 Frequencies of culture 57
3.5 Frequencies of historical periods 58
3.6 Frequencies of political economy 58
3.7 Frequencies of knowledge-type 59
3.8 Frequencies of meaning 59
7.1 The pleasure of the plebiscite: Eurovision televoting
(2004–6) 140
7.2 Top 10 great Britons 155
7.3 Top 10 great Americans 156
7.4 Top 10 great philosophers 156
11.1 Either/or-ism: cultural institutions versus the tube 230
viii Tables
Acknowledgments
Television studies, if history proves there to have been such a singular thing,
has been a publishing preoccupation of mine since Reading Television came
out while I was still in my twenties. Although life, job descriptions, and
curiosity have tempted me into many another field in the interim, TV re-
mains home territory. It has retained its fascination because “TV studies”
is not really (or not yet) a discipline. The “field” in which it pitched its
analytical tent is far from stable ground. Things have changed so much
during the TV era that it may be argued – and this book does argue –
that a paradigm shift can be observed. The way television itself is made,
distributed, watched, used, and thought about has changed. Previously
familiar intellectual and cultural horizons have shifted too. Returning to
television studies throughout an academic career has proven far from samey;
the “home” ground is always shifting under one’s feet.
However, one thing has stayed the same, and that is the pleasure to
be had from reading and working with colleagues, students, collaborators,
and interlocutors from around the world and from some of the many
different perspectives that have congregated on this interesting terrain.
I thank them for their company, for their talent, and for what they
continue to teach me:
• Colleagues and postgrads, present and former, at QUT; heartfelt
thanks to all: John Banks, Bao Jiannu (Beijing Foreign Studies
University), Jean Burgess, Axel Bruns, Christy Collis, Sandra
Contreras, Steve Copplin, Stuart Cunningham, Joshua Green
(MIT), Elaine Harding, Greg Hearn, Nicki Hunt, Michael Keane,
Helen Klaebe, Li Hui, Alan McKee, Kelly McWilliam, Lucy
Acknowledgments ix
Montgomery (Westminster), Aneta Podkalicka, Geoff Portmann,
Ellie Rennie (Swinburne), Angelina Russo, Christine Schmidt,
Christina Spurgeon, Jo Tacchi, Jinna Tay (UQ), Jerry Watkins,
Shannon Wylie.
• Television and other scholars, editors, and facilitators; thanks for
your inspiration and collaboration: Sara Ahmed (Goldsmiths), Pertti
Alasuutari (Tampere), David L. Andrews (Maryland), Lynden
Barber (Sydney Film Festival), William Boddy (Baruch-CUNY),
Mike Bromley (UQ), Roger Bromley (Nottingham Trent), Will
Brooker (Kingston), the late Jim Carey (Columbia), Stephen
Coleman (Leeds), Nick Couldry (Goldsmiths), Glen Creeber
(Aberystwyth), Michael Curtin (Wisconsin-Madison), Terry Cutler
(Cutler & Co.), Peter Dahlgren (Lund), Mark Gibson (Monash),
Malcolm Gillies (ANU), Faye Ginsberg (NYU), Jonathan Gray
(Fordham), Terry Hawkes (Cardiff), Joke Hermes (InHolland),
Richard Hoggart, Amanda Hopkinson (East Anglia), John
Howkins, Henry Jenkins (MIT), Jeffrey P. Jones (Old Dominion),
Elihu Katz (Annenberg Penn), Charles Leadbeater, Richard E. Lee
(Binghamton-SUNY), Lee Tain-Dow (Kun Shan), Martin
Löffelholz (Ilmenau), Malcolm Long (AFTRS), Catharine Lumby
(Sydney), Tara McPherson (USC), Toby Miller (UC Riverside),
Susan Murray (NYU), Horace Newcomb (Georgia), Kate Oakley,
Jan Olsson (Stockholm), Tom O’Regan (UQ), Laurie Ouellette
(Queen’s-CUNY), Mark Pesce, Monroe Price (Annenberg Penn),
Kristina Riegert (Södertörn), Chris Rojek (Brunel), Andrew Ross
(NYU), Avi Santo (Old Dominion), Jim Schwock (Northwestern),
Jeffrey Sconce (Northwestern), the late Roger Silverstone (LSE),
Lynn Spigel (Northwestern), Mike Stubbs (ACMI), Tony Sweeney
(ACMI), David Thorburn (MIT), Olga Tobreluts (St Petersburg),
Graeme Turner (UQ), William Uricchio (MIT/Utrecht), Jing Wang
(MIT), Ken Wark (New School), Mimi White (Northwestern),
Barbie Zelizer (Annenberg Penn), Zhang Haishang (CELAP),
Zhang Xiaoming (CASS), Zhao Bin (Peking).
• A special thanks to co-authors Joshua Green and Jean Burgess; to
Stuart Cunningham, Toby Miller, and Kelly McWilliam for reading
the MS; and to Jean Burgess (again) for helping me with the illus-
tration permissions as well as reading the MS.
• The peerless team at Blackwell: Jayne Fargnoli and Ken Provencher.
• As ever, the home team: Tina Horton and Karri, Rhiannon, and Sophie
Hartley.
x Acknowledgments