Using 'network' theory in the postnetwork era: fictional 9/11 US television discourse as a 'cultural forum'

Abstract

It is likely that the appliance known as 'television' is too multifaceted, broad and contradictory ever to be understood as a coherent entity, despite efforts to theorize it as such. Shifts over the past two decades in the industrial operation, technological form and breadth of content of the box that is simultaneously a mere appliance and a cultural arbiter have appropriately inspired new reflections and retheorization. Whether described as a transition from a classical network system to a post- network era - as has been the dominant conversation in the USA - or theorized as a transition from an era of scarcity through one of availability to one of plenty, as suggested by one recent British work, 1 there appears to be agreement that the object of study is shifting in significant ways. These changes in television as an object of inquiry necessitate reassessment of the theoretical lenses through which we have viewed this significant industrial, technological and cultural artefact.