How slow is ‘slow TV’? Audiences’ experiences of meditation, obsession and authenticity when watching swimming moose on Swedish television

Abstract

This article explores viewers’ experiences of the Swedish Public Service (SVT) ‘slow TV’ broadcast Den stora älgvandringen (The Great Moose Migration), aired as a three-week long, live, multi-platform programme since 2019. Through semi-structured interviews with key informants, the aim is to qualitatively understand the audience attraction to the 24/7 programme, especially when it comes to authenticity, affordances and its apparent slowness of pace. The study showcases a spectrum of audiences’ experiences, ranging from appreciating the programme’s serenity and stillness to its potential for unexpected drama. It is suggested that The Great Moose Migration offers a ‘direct’ link to Swedish nature as it enables a wallowing in Swedish landscapes and fauna, and allows for an unashamed adoration of the majestic Swedish moose, but without it being experienced as something particularly ‘Swedish’. It is found that authenticity is central to the programme’s success with both production team and audiences. However, both personal and sociable experiences of the programme as authentic rest on the collective acceptance of authenticity as something intrinsically produced by people and technologies yet not experienced as constructed. Rather, it is something that hovers in between experienced mediated and unmediated reality.