ABSTRACT
In his book Television: Technology and Cultural Form, Raymond Williams suggests that the shifts in television programming from one type of show to another and from part of a show to a commercial should not be seen as “interruptions” — of a mood, of a story — but as parts of a whole. What at first appear to be discrete programming units in fact interrelate in profound and complex ways. Williams uses the term “flow” to describe this interaction of various programmings with each other and with commercials. “The fact of flow,” he says, defines the “central television experience.” 1
