Reviewed by Wendy Davis



There is plenty of evidence around to support the central claim by Amanda Lotz in The Television will be Revolutionized that the technology and industry of television is changing, and changing rapidly.  In the USA, where her analysis is situated, television has clearly entered the post-network, post-broadcasting era, where the audience’s relationship with television is increasingly personalised.  More and more, TV viewers have the power and control to individualise their viewing experience, deciding what, when and how they watch the never-ending range of programs available.

Lotz closely examines the various aspects of television’s current production and distribution.  In the first part of the book, she looks at how TV is made and distributed now that the small number of big networks no longer monopolise the US market.  Equally interesting are the later chapters where she considers how these changes in the industry have transformed the secondary, yet vital practices of advertising and the way in which the industry considers and measures its audiences.  Finally, Lotz considers five specific programming case studies, including popular successes like Sex and the City, together with critical successes such as The Shield and Arrested Development which were plagued by moral outrage and poor ratings respectively.  In her choice of examples, Lotz exemplifies her analysis of the changes in production and distribution in what she sees as the post-network era.

Reading Lotz’s book from an Australian perspective is a little like looking into a crystal ball.  US television culture may well be dominating our TV programming schedules; the current technological and industrial changes visible in the USA are surely not too far away from infiltrating our shores.  In this way, The Television will be Revolutionized makes for illuminating reading.  I did find it disappointing that discussion of programming had to wait until the final chapter.  Perhaps the readability of the book until that point would have been enhanced by including more case studies and examples throughout, as a means of balancing the statistics and research.  This is not to say that the book is not clearly written and researched, but for me discussion of television as an industry always tends to be a little dry if not also informed by and illuminated with examples and programs.  Nonetheless, the focus on TV’s post-network era is coherently sustained, and Lotz’s book is a valuable addition to any discussion of this vital cultural technology, which is always in transition.


The Television will be Revolutionized 
(2007)

by Amanda D. Lotz
New York University Press
ISBN: 0814752209
328pp US$22.00