ABSTRACT
The CW, the broadcast network formed in 2006 when the WB merged with former netlet competitor UPN, has embraced the circulatory paradigm of MustClick TV. Its 2008 network identification campaign featured graphics of a laptop computer screen, mobile device, and television monitor, all interconnected and on a timed rotation that represented CW television content continually circulating among on-air, online, and on-mobile platforms. The network ID emphasized the CW’s commitment to a feedback loop, one in which comments viewsers make online or via a mobile device have fed back into the content of the network’s series. It also referenced the centrality of both technological and cultural convergence, that is, the capacity of devices to work in sync and the synching of the social practices and behavior enabled by these technologies.1 Through this network ID, the CW proclaimed its understanding of how these new devices and technologies allow viewsers both to interact with or at least respond online to the content of a television series and to acquire content that they could then integrate into their everyday lives (such as music for ringtones or for MP3 players, screenshots for use on websites or for social networking icons).
