New Review of Film and Television Studies 

About: New Review of Film and Television Studies is an academic journal published by Routledge. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Movie theater & Film studies. It has an ISSN identifier of 1740-0309. Over the lifetime, 583 publications have been published receiving 2927 citations.

From the box in the corner to the box set on the shelf: 'TVIII' and the cultural/textual valorisations of DVD

Abstract: This paper considers the role of DVD releases in relation to TVIII. As well as moving towards multi‐platform and hence transmedial versions of ‘television’, TVIII can also be linked to the provision of selected TV shows as material consumer artefacts—DVD box sets—which frequently emphasise values of ‘completeness’ and ‘collectability’ (Kompare, Rerun Nation, Routledge, New York and London, 2005). I analyse how DVD releases bid for television's cultural value, especially by re‐contextualising TV series as symbolically bounded art objects rather than as interruptible components within TV's ceaseless ‘flow’. I discuss this as the ‘text‐function’ of DVD, suggesting that whilst much ‘ordinary TV’ (Bonner, Ordinary Television: Analyzing Popular TV, Sage, London, 2003) is marginalised by not being made available on DVD, cult and quality TV tend to be over‐represented categories within DVD release patterns. As such, DVDs partly work to reinforce TV canons (Bignell, New Review of Film and Television Studies, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 15–32, 2005), as well as promoting ‘close reading’ of ‘isolated texts’. Furthermore, DVD commentaries typically, though not always, work to reinforce discourses of TV auteurism—again operating as cultural and textual elevations of ‘mere television’.

TELE‐BRANDING IN TVIII: The network as brand and the programme as brand

Abstract: In the era of TVIII, characterized by deregulation, multimedia conglomeration, expansion and increased competition, branding has emerged as a central industrial practice. Focusing on the case of HBO, a particularly successful brand in TVIII, this article argues that branding can be understood not simply as a feature of television networks, but also as a characteristic of television programmes. It begins by examining how the network as brand is constructed and conveyed to the consumer through the use of logos, slogans and programmes. The role of programmes in the construction of brand identity is then complicated by examining the sale of programmes abroad, where programmes can be seen to contribute to the brand identity of more than one network. The article then goes on to examine programme merchandising, an increasingly central strategy in TVIII. Through an analysis of different merchandising strategies the article argues that programmes have come to act as brands in their own right, and demonstrates that the academic study of branding not only reveals the development of new industrial practices, but also offers a way of understanding the television programme and its consumption by viewers in a period when the texts of television are increasingly extended across a range of media platforms.

Inviting audiences in

Abstract: If content‐driven niche marketing gave rise to the industrial cultivation of fans, contemporary multiplatforming strategies accelerate encounters between audiences, television texts and spheres of production. Audiences are no longer merely cultivated as fans, but also invited in, asked to participate in both the world of the television text and the processes of its production. This paper first examines the economic exigencies served by these strategies. Why invite audiences in? Explored second are the means by which audiences are encouraged to enter both narrative space and the spaces of industrial production. How are audiences invited in? How do these strategies alter the spatial relationships of audiences, narrative and labor? Lastly, attention shifts toward the consequences of these new spatial arrangements between audiences, content and production. How does the proximity of audiences create new challenges for the industry? Ultimately, I argue that multiplatforming reconfigures and enables closer proxi...

Landscapes in the frame: exploring the hinterlands of the British procedural drama

Abstract: In the wake of the much discussed phenomenon of so-called ‘Nordic Noir’, the significance of landscape in relation to the police procedural has had something of a small-screen renaissance. In this paper, I discuss this with specific reference to recent productions set and filmed in Britain. Broadchurch (ITV, 2013–present) shot in West Dorset, Southcliffe (Channel 4, 2013) filmed in and around Faversham and the North Kent marshes, and Y Gwyll/Hinterland (S4C/BBC, 2013) filmed in and around the Welsh coastal resort of Aberystwyth in Ceredigion, all share something of a ‘post-Nordic-noir’ family resemblance insofar as landscape and location are themselves presented as central characters, prompting reflection on what these narratives reveal about ideas of place and the role of topography and landscape in the cultural imaginary of the British procedural drama.

Media archaeology as symptom

Abstract: This essay constitutes the epilogue to the forthcoming book Film History as Media Archaeology – Tracing Digital Cinema, Thomas Elsaesser’s collected essays on media archaeology. In this essay, Elsaesser reflects upon the previous 25 years of research into media archaeology, highlighting its methods, terminology and problematic status as a discipline.