Introduction
This parcours focuses on the discourses around the choice provided to cinema and television audiences by means of a study of the devices which made possible the emergence of practices of selection, recording, asynchronous viewing, archiving and collection, and through these greater control over and personalization of the viewing experience. Our field of study will be limited to Canada and the United States; first, we will present an overview of television in the years before the arrival of digital technology. The 1980s and 90s were the time of the transition from an age when television was conceived as a flow, tied to a logic of broadcasting, towards an age of greater control by users. This moment preceded the arrival of digital platforms, on both the formal level and on that of technology. This will enable us to explore discourses around the “double birth” of cinema with respect to television. We will then describe the arrival of two technological innovations, the videotape recorder and the remote control. Afterwards, we will examine the scope of technological change by tying it to the cultural and narrative transformations of television of the day. We will thus take up the discourses on television series in a context of greater marketplace competition, which will bring to the fore the concept of narrative complexity. Finally, we will present the series Northern Exposure (CBS, 1990-95) as an example of this complex television, the product of new choices made by the networks as well as of the technological transformation of reception equipment.
