What do television images tell us? What discourses are behind the various audiovisual formats?

An audiovisual format is a set of rules capable of generating narrative repetition. But what discourses are behind these formats? How do they dialogue with other visual languages? The incessant image proposes a journey through genres as different as game shows, informative programmes, reality TV, documentary films and series, talk shows or the content of social networks to try to understand the debates and frictions that characterise contemporary societies.

Based on this anatomy of audiovisual formats, transcendental questions are explored such as the understanding of the self and the other, community tensions in extreme situations, gender inequalities, new forms of work in the culture of fame, the myth of freedom of choice or the paradoxes of cultural diffusion. This investigation shows that formats travel from one country to another, from one medium to another, establishing bridges through which the imaginaries of popular culture circulate. Against the idea that audiovisual formats are volatile and not worth seeing again, this book proposes the opposite exercise: thinking about the incessant image to find out what it tells us about ourselves.

Halfway between an analytical view and a divulgative vocation, Jordi Balló and Mercè Oliva present a scenario that mixes a high philosophical awareness with an endless number of references that come from the most spontaneous and casual pop culture, and they face all these questions with ethical rigor and firm sociological precision.