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The machine without the ghost

Early interactive television in Japan

Bibliographic Data

ID21690176
AuthorsElizabeth Rodwell (0000-0002-5357-576X, University of Houston, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume27
Issue5
Pages1376-1392
Publication date2021-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueConvergence The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1354-8565 • E-ISSN: 1748-7382
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1354856520983754
OpenAlexW3129109015
LanguageEN
References cited45

This article is part of an ongoing ethnography of the Japanese television industry focusing on its attempts to experiment with live, interactive content that was manipulable via smart devices, laptops, and remote controls. Based on 18 months of fieldwork in the Japanese television industry in four major TV network offices and two production companies, it also incorporates interviews with more than 30 broadcast company employees. I use two case studies of early interactive television programming to discuss the strategies producers have used to create community and promote identification among audiences of these shows: ‘ Arashi Feat. You’ was a live music event that courted a large audience through the involvement of a massively popular boy band and promoted the idea of ‘turning viewers into users’ by allowing them to play musical instruments along with the band. ‘ The Last Award’ allowed participants to submit and evaluate each other’s videos live through a dedicated user interface. Through these examples, I argue that participation alters the nature of television spectacle and results in changes to the way producers address and inscribe audiences as cocreators of content. The rhetoric used by interactive television accordingly defaults to ‘we’ and ‘us’ and features accessible and relatable celebrities as surrogates for the audience

Advertising · Art · Business · Ethnography · Interactive television · Media studies · Multimedia · Musical · Political science · Rhetoric · Sociology · Spectacle · Television studies · Visual arts · Computer Science · Digital Games and Media · Media Studies and Communication · Multimedia Communication and Technology

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