%0 Journal Article
%T Unstable platforms: TV in the digital age
%A David Thorburn
%J Critical Studies in Television
%@ 1749-6039
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1749602019835305
%X This essay compares our current experience of technological and cultural disruption with ¡®the network era¡¯ (1946¨C2000), American TV¡¯s first great age. I argue that the relative stability of the medium over this half-century enabled an evolution that helps to explain its cultural centrality as well as its narrative art. The essay suggests that the ongoing instability of post-network television ¨C its welter of platforms, devices and viewing choices, its economic and technological churn ¨C has no counterpart in older TV. My central question: will our experience of continuous transition ever moderate? Even so, the argument concludes, a sense, however vestigial, of continuities remains essential
%K Network era
%K transition
%K disruption
%K platform
%K streaming
%K continuity
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1749602019835305