Description

---

“Slow TV” refers to a form of broadcasting long events for their entire duration, preferably in real time. Popularized by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), the form became a phenomenon in 2009 after NRK’s broadcast of a seven-hour train ride between Bergen and Oslo. Since then, slow TV programming has gained traction outside of Norway on television stations around the world and via streaming services like Netflix.

In this academic study, Roel Puijk combines quantitative and qualitative research methods to explore different aspects of the Norwegian slow TV phenomenon, from the programming’s production and development to its viewing and ultimate reception. Puijk relates slow TV to media events and media tourism, discussing its effects on cultural and economic developments and its evolving relationship to local and national identity. The result is an illuminating interdisciplinary study of media innovation and its effects on contemporary culture.

About the Author

---

Roel Puijk is professor of film and television studies at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences in Lillehammer, Norway.

Praise For…

---

"One of the strengths of the book is the way perspectives on greater topics, such as the dualism of nature and culture, national identity, the concept of time, are combined with close analyses of the experience of liveness and the practical and aesthetic choices behind the productions, right down to the choice of cameras and other equipment. While three programmes are studied in detail, the book also provides an overview of developments and contextualisation, thus providing perspectives that are relevant for slow TV outside Norway, as well as television production more generally. . . . The book is richly illustrated, has a lot of informative tables, and is clearly structured and well-written throughout. . . . This will probably be the defining book on the topic since it covers so many aspects of the production, reception, contents, and aesthetics of these programmes."
 
— Anne Gjelsvik

[The book] offers theoretical and applied guidance for students interested in public broadcasting, with useful and interesting data from all three sides of the media industry/text/audience triangle. Additionally, this book can be an inspiring jumping off point for scholars who are interested in the burgeoning topics of sustainable TV (which Puijk has also published on) or in pushing forward the relationship between public service broadcasting and ideology. Slow TV by Puijk is an important foundational text on a certainly understudied TV genre which will help support the work of public broadcasting scholars.
 
— Courtney D. Tabor, Television & New Media