Liveness and Recording in the Media

Radio and television are often thought of and valued as live media. The great innovation and distinctive appeal of radio and television was its introduction of liveness into mass communication. So why does so much broadcast output consist of programmes that are pre-recorded and/or time-shifted - con [...]
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Radio and television are often thought of and valued as live media. The great innovation and distinctive appeal of radio and television was its introduction of liveness into mass communication. So why does so much broadcast output consist of programmes that are pre-recorded and/or time-shifted - consumed by the audience after they have been transmitted? Andrew Crisell considers why, despite the value we place on liveness, we so often consume pre-recorded media. He also provides some unexpected answers about the meaning of 'liveness' and 'recording'; their significance, not only for television and radio but also for popular music, and the complexity of the relationship between liveness and recording. This engaging discussion includes diverse and well-known examples of broadcast output such as the1954 television adaptation of George Orwell's novel 1984, which was performed twice within a single week, Skyping on The Graham Norton Show and the television news coverage of the Bloody Sunday inquiry, and provides an in-depth case study of BBC One.Setting television and radio in the context of other media, it traces the history of liveness and recording, ascribing the rise of the serial to the relationship between the two. Andrew Crisell is Professor of Broadcasting Studies at the Media Centre, University of Sunderland. He edited Radio: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, vols 1-3 (2008) and is the author of A Study of Modern Television: Thinking Inside the Box (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), More than a Music Box: Radio Cultures and Communities in a Multimedia World (2004), An Introductory History of British Broadcasting, Second Edition (2002) and Understanding Radio, Second Edition (1994).