ABSTRACT
The changing institutional landscape has brought an age of superabundance, both in broadcast television itself and in the expanding online media, which affects and interacts with broadcast programmes at every point. In Chapters 3 and 4 we considered the institutional aspects of this contemporary media landscape. Now we will look at the media text – the content available in these screen-based worlds that interweave with our own. In some ways the linear flow of visual and aural content scheduled by the broadcasters is more important than it ever has been. As well as the programmes, it includes advertisements, channel idents, trailers, sponsors’ messages and other material, much of it associated with branding (together known as the interstitials), which all contribute to the viewing experience. Yet, at the same time, linear television is becoming irrelevant. Content is dispersed. No longer confined to the sequential flow, it is available on a range of platforms and screens and can be selected and reorganised by the viewer (Johnson 2012: 165). Some argue that the material that supplements and accompanies the texts is becoming as important as the programmes themselves (Gray 2010). Websites, books, DVDs, games and numerous other products (collectively known as the paratexts) enhance and interact with the television experience. The television flow continues to overflow. This means that we must consider the television output itself, but also reconsider the definition of a ‘programme’.
