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?
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