One section of the book is Part Two: Broadcast TV.
The first chapter of this section Broadcast TV as cultural form, explores how TV is more domestic than cinema as anyone can watch TV at home as long as they have a TV set. It also explains about how TV is broken down into segments, such as advertisements between shows, or even in shows, such as the title sequence, which is almost an advert for the show it comes directly before. How these segments are placed together to form the 'flow' of TV depends on the schedule which is created following strict guidelines, including that the watershed is not until 8:30pm. This is because TV works around the model of family that includes a stay at home mother, working father, and two children who attend school ('the nuclear family'), although this is rarely the case.
'Flow' is what puts together the separate segments of broadcast TV (such as shows and advertisements) into a type of montage, which does not help to give the assembled piece a meaning, but makes them into one coherent piece. This is the definition of broadcast TV that Raymond Williams came up with as he thought that TV was not just various programmes which were interrupted by adverts, but instead that programmes were replaced by adverts.
Segmentation takes place across all aspects of broadcast TV, for example, a show's title sequence sometimes shows moments from previous seasons, and the news shows separate stories one after the other even though they are usually unrelated. Segments sometimes involve repetition such as in a series as they are mostly open-ended, relying on their own return, although each individual episode features similar or the same characters and locations, different to the serial form. A serial's narrative progresses to a natural conclusion which ends the serial so it does not (have to) return.
The second chapter of this section Broadcast TV as sound and image, looks at how sound and image affect TV and the TV audience. It also compares how TV is different from cinema as the TV image is much smaller and usually competing with other domestic aspects of everyday life for attention, unlike cinema which is an event outside of the home. This is why sound in TV is used to help attract attention to the show that is on the screen meaning that sound has a more important role in TV than in cinema, where image is the primary concern.
TV's image is also less detailed than in cinema, mainly because the picture is smaller, therefore, there is less space for mise en scene. This means that to show detail it is most common to use a close-up to focus the audience on a particular object or character's facial expression, rather than hide it in the background and have the audience attempt to decipher its meaning whilst action is happening in the foreground. To provide interest and various different shots, TV images are often cut together so that they change very quickly compared to cinema, although these images usually represent things happening in real time.
Direct address is a commonly used feature in TV, for example in news and advertisements, using a medium shot of the person talking to the audience. This implies that there will always be an audience in front of the screen for this person to address even though with the constant flow of TV a programme can still be broadcast even when no one is watching.
The main difference between TV and cinema is that people tend to glance more at TV rather than gaze like they do at cinema. This is because TV is more intimate than cinema because it is in the home so it is familiar. Cinema is on a bigger screen that the viewer gazes at because they are in a setting outside the home with no distractions but the bright screen in the dark theater.
The third chapter of this section Broadcast TV narration deals with the types of shows that appear on TV such as many non-fiction genre texts like the news, documentaries, and weather forecasts as well as fiction texts of many different genres. Going from event to event in these texts is less rapid than in cinema which is why much of TV contains shows centered on groups of characters rather than on one main character, even though all of these characters do not normally appear in a segment at the same time.
Fiction and non-fiction on TV can be similar. For example, either of these categories can be put into series form which requires there to be an ongoing or reoccurring problem or situation for the group of characters. Therefore, news and current affairs programmes can be seen to be similar to sitcoms and crime dramas in the way that they all feature repeated problems, either news stories, or fictional conflict. The only difference between them are their sources as news comes from real life but fictional conflict is imagined by the show's creator(s).
In the fourth and final chapter of this book, The Broadcast TV Viewer, Ellis writes about people's habits of watching TV compared to watching cinema and how this affects their interpretation of the events shown on screen. Because of TV being in the home, instead of being a main attraction or event, such as cinema is, it is rather more just an object associated with everyday life. This is mainly due to the fact that in many first world countries it is part of people's daily routines to at least watch some TV in the evenings.
Also unlike cinema, which advertises itself outside of the medium by putting film trailers on TV and film posters on bus shelters, TV is mainly advertised on TV. Therefore, the medium almost implies that people already have TVs and are already watching, so the advertisements are shown solely for the purpose to attract viewers of other shows on that channel, or of shows on a competing channel, to tune into a new one.
TV is also able to give viewers a wider, but distanced view of the world outside their homes, creating a safe, familiar setting of the domestic, and an alien, unsafe setting to the outside world. This is not always a good thing, because while it can raise people's awareness of tragedies as they can see them from their protected environments, it doesn't require them to do anything about them, instead of just watch. This can create a feeling of isolation and powerlessness for the viewer, which can also cause the sensation that the events on the screen are able to invade the viewer's homes.
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