Reimagining Broadcast Through Networked Audiovisuals: Connectivity as an Effect of Presence and Present Time in Television Genres

This study aims to examine transformations in television based on how its intersections with digital media destabilise one of the main distinguishing features of television genres: direct broadcasting. Does temporal simultaneity, which historically acted as a strategy for authenticating the effects of presence and present time in television mediations, still hold in the face of the new spectatorial experience interconnected with digital networks? To answer this question, this paper proposes that the complex temporal dynamics of digital networks, based on the idea of connectivity and algorithmic logic, alters our experience of television time, no longer recognised only by simultaneous action, but also by the action of multiple presences continually updated through comments, reactions, memes, reposts, edits, etc. This study’s provocative arguments begin with the literature on the relationship between direct broadcasting and present time in the constitution of television genres, highlighting their distinctions when considering television interface with digital networks. The proposed approach is based on the conceptual articulation between the notions of connectivity and networked audiovisual as a means of understanding the effects of presence and present time in the television experience within a digital context.