Large, sleek, slim, stylish flat screens: Privatized space and the televisual experience

Authors

Debbie Rodan, Edith Cowan University

Document Type

Journal Article

Publisher

Routledge

Faculty

Faculty of Education and Arts

School

School of Communications and Arts / Centre for Research in Entertainment, Arts, Technology, Education and Communications

RAS ID

8801

Comments

Rodan, D. (2009). Large, sleek, slim, stylish flat screens: Privatized space and the televisual experience. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 23(3), 367-382. Available here

Abstract

This paper is an analysis of recent print media/magazine advertisements featuring home theatre systems and Plasma as well as LCD televisions in Australia. In their promotion of large new flat television screens, the paper reveals how advertisers highlight the social atomization of space by creating private, isolated cinematic spaces where television viewing is privatized. As a consequence, broadcasting as a collective shared experience is diminished. The focus on the isolated viewer who can personalize and atomize his or her viewing experience privileges a form of privatization (Williams, 1974, 26–27) that stresses the “self-sufficient” home, enabled through a kind of technological mobility. My main argument is that the advertisements signify a privatized individual viewer. Rarely do they suggest that television watching is also a social and collective experience.

DOI

10.1080/10304310902884050