Digital Audiovisual Media Class Blog

Lev Manovich’s reading on the shift from analogue to digital cinema offers a critical framework that helps examine the interplay between traditional cinematic techniques and emerging technologies in storytelling. Manovich (2002) highlights how digital technologies have transformed the work of cinema from a hybrid medium to one that involves the elements of standard film-making practices…

Pose was the first mainstream television series to place the transgender community and Black and Latino LGBTQ+ characters at the center of its narrative. By focusing on ballroom culture, the series portrays the lives of marginalized communities in 1980s New York, depicting trans and queer individuals as complex, three-dimensional characters. It fills gaps in the historical…

Music video is an important part of social popular culture. They are not only a form of artistic expression, but also an important carrier for exploring social issues such as race, gender, sexuality, etc. Taylor Swift, as one of the world’s top female singers, directly focuses on the social issues of male privilege and gender…

The rise of streaming platforms has revolutionized viewers’ viewing behavior and content consumption patterns. As Lotz claims that while traditional television relies on linear schedules to fix viewers’ viewing habits, the Internet-Distributed Television model redefines the rules of television content distribution by giving viewers “the ability to control viewing” (Lotz, 2014, p. 54). The Internet-Distributed…

The popularity and cultural significance of music videos has led to undervalue their capacity to work as political expression. Even though people might not believe it, music videos can be political statements.  As stated in “Music / Video: Histories, Aesthetics, Media” music videos started getting popular thanks to TV, especially MTV in the 80s with…

Brown explores how digital technology redefines “space” in cinema by building a virtual world, allowing viewers to experience a sense of space beyond reality. This shifts cinema from being merely recording to creative (2013). Bukatman also thinks that special effects serve as a medium for exploring the limits of human perception. By challenging viewers’ understanding…

Shaviro’s “post-cinematic affect” emphasizes that films engage viewers not only through logical understanding but also by evoking instinctive and emotional experiences (Shaviro, 2010). Emotion is no longer additional to a film’s narrative but has become a “non-verbal expression” delivered through visual style and technological innovation. The first related film that comes to my mind is…

In the early 20th century, people watched linear stories on the screen, sitting in the dark theatres with only a simple role—recipients of the story. However, this relationship between viewer and media has been changed by the development of digital technology. According to Manovich’s research, new media is reshaped to be programmable and modular, which…

Internet-distributed television has brought queer diversity, and some people claim that this is over represented, when in fact it is just what society needs.  The rise of queer identities in media reflects society’s evolution on queer rights and the shift of TV to streaming platforms. Critics say LGBTQ+ content on TV is excessive, calling it…

Television in the digital age has transformed; “new media” has brought a change of content and representation, but queer people are not always being represented correctly.  Michael Goddard and Christopher Hogg call this “Trans TV”, the promotion of diverse, non-heteronormative characters and stories, focusing on transgender visibility. Queer people claim representation’s importance, since media reflects society.…