The age of television. Experiences and theories

At a stage of major change of television landscapes (digital TV, multi-channels, mobile TV on cellphones) the book revolves around the impact of the presence of television in our daily life over the past fifty years. The author places at the centre of her analysis the human experience of place and time, and the way in which the medium has dramatically modified it. Connection; mobility; plurality; liveness. Television can establish links between individuals and distant events; make invisible meetings to happen and imagined communities to exist; create conditions for vicarious journeys to far away places; act as a genuine multiplier of opportunities and indirect social experience; flatter the human desire to transcend time boundaries. All this in turn flow into the ‘imagination’, conceived as the big engine that drives modern mediatized society – television supplying ample fuel for this purpose. The Age of Television. Experiences and theories, is in its own special way a book of theory. Each chapter draws on classic concepts and theories of television – from the flow to media events and media imperialism – but without any undue reverence. The author is engaged in demonstrating how theories are knowledge tools at the same time crucial and flexible, open to criticism and to reworking in a new context.