”If Content is King, Context is its Crown”
Some people truly believe that “the Internet is fundamental to the future of TV”. Be that as it may; given the convergence of televisual and net based interactivity, similar software and hardware screens—or even program formats for that matter—such a claim could, naturally, be regarded as merely stating the obvious. But if delivered by Eric Schmidt, former CEO at Google, it somehow makes a difference. As a television industry outsider, in late August 2011 Schmidt presented “a hard-hitting MacTaggart address to TV broadcasters in Edinburgh”, according to the contextual description accompanying the video of the filmed event on YouTube. As the first non-broadcaster to deliver the MacTaggart lecture in 35 years, Schmidt’s talk on Google’s ‘small tube business’ has been widely debated, and is, indeed, interesting on many levels. Centered on viewers ability to mix web and television content on TV screens via a Google Chrome browser (on a PC, Android smart phone or tablet), it can arguably be perceived as one of the more intriguing speeches in recent years on upgraded forms of television and computational mode(l)s to come.
“If Content Is King, Context Is Its Crown”, Critical Studies in European Television no. 1, 2012 återfinns här.