“My Life,on Zoom TV”

Abstract

Zoom became a critical part of media consumption in the COVID-19 pandemic’s early lockdown months, appearing in everything from education to the nightly news to reality television. How did Zoom produce a new screen world that made everyday life look like TV? This essay examines how Zoom has figured on and as TV, focusing on it as a means to comment upon and also craft one’s own mise-en-scène. What might Zoom TV offer to our understanding of participatory media and of the racialized, gendered, and classed features of both television and everyday life?

Keywords

Zoom television reality television pandemic participatory media everyday life race

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