When I went with a friend to Plockton in the Scottish Highlands, admittedly over a decade ago, despite the fact that it was one of the main filming locations, memorabilia for Hammer Horror’s The Wicker Man (1973, dir. Hardy) were really nowhere to be seen. Instead, the tourist information centre had a number of Hamish MacBeth (BBC Scotland 1995-1997)[1] items on display.
‘Nostalgia is always suspect’ (Atia and Davies 2010: 181). The trope of a hero who looks for a ‘normal’ life and then finds it unrewarding is common enough in the superhero and similar genres.
As part of my current master degree programme in media studies at the Film University Babelsberg, Germany, I had the opportunity to learn about research in television and the television industry at the conference Redefining Televisuality: Programmes, Practices, Methods . I was particularly interested in the panel on Netflix global strategies.
As Dhoest and Mertens (2013) note, when glocalising a text, dialect and accent are key elements of that form of adaptation. Though they were referring to the Flemish version of Ugly Betty, the glocalised telenovela par excellence, accent can be used and/or recognised even outside of glocalised adaptations.
A conference I could attend that I didn’t have to work at and was indeed about my topic of interest? Wow! From 25 th – 27 th October 2023 the biennial ECREA Television Section Conference, Redefining Televisuality: Programmes, Practices, Methods was held at the Film University Babelsberg in Potsdam, Germany, relating to John T. Calldwells (1995) concept of televisuality.
As a participant of the conference Redefining Televisuality: Programmes, Practices, Methods at the Film University Babelsberg I attended the panel on ‘Television Ontology’. All the seats in the room were taken. Every presenter only had 15 minutes, so at the end it felt like we had all completed a marathon sprinting. But let me present to you the information that I found most interesting along the way.
From 25 to 27 October 2023, Film University KONRAD WOLF opened its doors for the conference “Redefining Televisuality: Programmes, Practices, Methods“. On the last day of the conference, Friday, 27 October, various TV formats were the focus of discussion. The panel “TV-Formats” gathered leading experts in media studies. Anne Marit Waade, a researcher at Aarhus University, is known for her work on media tourism and landscapes.
The idea of television for dogs sounds like it should be part of a Monty Python (BBC, 1969-1974) sketch but it is a genuine subscription-cable television station available transnationally. Offering programming such as ‘Stimulation,’ ‘Relaxation’ and ‘Exposure,’ on its homepage (accessed 12/11/23), Dog TV advertises itself as: Fig.
The older I get, and the more societies, cultures and (increasingly-authoritarian) governments I encounter, the more I think about Blakes 7 (BBC, 1978-1981). There is no actual apostrophe in the title, implying, perhaps, the German possessive rather than the English and tying the oppressive, totalitarian dystopia seen in the series back to the Nazis, a common point of reference in the works of Terry Nation.[1] For those unfamiliar with
‘Television is not dead’ was one of the opening statements of John T. Caldwell at the biennial ECREA Television Section conference Redefining Televisuality: Programmes, Practices, Methods . The conference took place from the 25th to the 27th October 2023 at the Film University Babelsberg in Germany. Experts from all over the world traveled to Babelsberg to discuss the overall topic of change in television.