Books by Sharon Shahaf
For decades, television scholars have viewed global television through the lens of cultural imper... more For decades, television scholars have viewed global television through the lens of cultural imperialism, focusing primarily on programs produced by US and UK markets and exported to foreign markets. Global Television Formats revolutionizes television studies by de-provincializing its approach to media globalization. It re-examines dominant approaches and their legacies of global/local and center/periphery, and offers new directions for understanding television’s contemporary incarnations.
The chapters in this collection take up the format phenomena from around the globe, including the Middle East, Western and Eastern Europe, South and West Africa, South and East Asia, Australia and New Zealand, North America, South America, and the Caribbean. Contributors address both little known examples and massive global hits ranging from the Idol franchise around the world, to telenovelas, dance competitions, sports programming, reality TV, quiz shows, sitcoms and more. Looking to global television formats as vital for various cultural meanings, relationships, and structures, this collection shows how formats can further our understanding of television and the culture of globalization at large.
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Papers by Sharon Shahaf
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Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies
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In, A. Moran, P. Jensen and K. Aveyard [Eds.] Global Television Formats: State of the Art. London: Intelect
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By allowing a separation between content development and final production, global formats help tr... more By allowing a separation between content development and final production, global formats help traditionally isolated industries to break through the linguistic and geo-cultural barriers that hindered their participation in the finished global trade. Moreover, formats are at the heart of the process through which television, as a global medium, is responding to its changing environment. As the medium is faced with growing pressures to adjust to the presence of new media convergence, TV industries around the world are interacting in their efforts to rework the medium’s popular forms. The rise of formatting exchange practices thus mark a radical decentring of the process through which the medium generates and regenerates its ‘formula art’ (Fiske 1987).
To illustrate the complexity of flows involved here one would be hard pressed to find a better example than the recent emergence of the Israeli format industry into as unlikely ‘global Cinderella’. Understanding why and how Israeli companies achieved their global success stands to teach us something about the reconfiguration of the centre-periphery relationship in contemporary ‘planet TV’.
While the most prevalent discussion of formats is heavily focused on the question of travel, knowledge transfer or franchising (formats are shows that get packaged in one territory and reproduced in another), this chapter poses that to understand their radical potential we must explore the practice of formatting as a fundamental process for television content development even before transnational transfer takes place. Therefore, before the chapter turns to discuss the implications of the Israeli case study, it first explores the significance of formatting for television, starting with the fundamental question: what are formats before they get packaged for transnational reproduction? Using a television studies analysis of medium, culture and industry, the chapter offers a wider historical and theoretical context for the practice of formatting to help explain how the transnational “stretching” of the process helped intervene in the established hierarchies of core-periphery that have underpinned the cultural dominance of the US in the global television industry.
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2011 proved to be a break-out year for Israeli formats in the U.S.
The jewel in the Israeli tele... more 2011 proved to be a break-out year for Israeli formats in the U.S.
The jewel in the Israeli television formats crown for 2011 is, without a doubt Showtime’s adaptation of the Israeli drama Hatufim (Prisoners of War) – Homeland.The show won two out of its three Golden Globe nominations (for best drama and best actress Clair Danes), emerging as the big winner of this year’s award.
Homeland’s achievement, after only four years of U.S. presence for Israeli formats far surpasses that of more established television industries. This year, as result of the rising interest, U.S. networks bought as many pitches based on Israeli formats as they did formats coming from the U.K – despite the much longer standing tradition of British-American exchange, spanning over four decades and dozens of shows.
The most obvious questions at this point are Why Israel? Why now? The answer of course lies first and foremost in the rise of global television formats trade and its revolutionary influence on the ways television programming get conceptualized, bought, sold, and licensed.
The format – sold as a televisual concept rather than finished text - opens up new opportunities for players from previously hopelessly marginalized markets, who can now compete on the home turf of the world’s most influential industry. No longer insulated by linguistic barriers, producers from insignificant national TV industries can now pitch their work globally in a manner that flies in the face of growingly outdated theories of media globalization as “cultural Imperialism"
Looking at the diverging discourses of Israeli and U.S. producers, executives, format right owners, trade and popular press this paper focus on mapping out some initial explanatory discourses emerging in both Hollywood and Tel Aviv to begin answering the questions raised by this case study
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Westminster Papers in Communication …, Jan 1, 2007
Extending back the insight offered by the emerging framework of global television formats, this
a... more Extending back the insight offered by the emerging framework of global television formats, this
article examines the production and public reception of the first Israeli sitcom, Krovim-Krovim,
produced by Israeli Educational Television (IETV) between 1982 and 1986. As the first fullblown
Israeli series and a show modeled on the globally popular sitcom formula, Krovim-Krovim
was simultaneously celebrated for its Israeliness and condemned as a potential source of Western
‘cultural contamination’. The concerns converging around Krovim-Krovim in 1980s Israel are
representative of a larger global trend in that period that witnessed ‘the second wave of
globalization’. The simplistic media imperialism scenario that still dominates scholarship of these
trends fails to grasp the complexities typifying the process of globalization. Representing as they
do simultaneous standardization and heterogenization of form and content across borders, global
television formats seems to embody these complexities. By reevaluating IETV’s sitcom
production as an early case of format adaptation this article demonstrates the promises of this
fresh outlook for the study of historical as well as contemporary trends in television globalization.
By foregrounding the perspective of ‘local’ producers and critics, this article explores the cultural
significance of format adaptation for marginal and belated broadcast systems - like 1980s Israeli
television.
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Prime Time Postzionism - Negotiating Israeliness through Global Television
Formats looks at the I... more Prime Time Postzionism - Negotiating Israeliness through Global Television
Formats looks at the Israeli reality competition show – Kohav Nolad (“A Star is Born”)
as a key text to help explore the ways in which Israeli broadcasters in the contemporary
commercial television environment, adapt globally dominant televisual forms as models for the
production of extremely popular local series. This program, widely perceived as epitomizing
contemporary Israeli national identity, is simultaneously also debated as the product of
globalization, and as marker of a post-national/post-Zionist era. In these discussions, perceptions
of the proper Israeli national culture and identity are juxtaposed with assumptions about the
nature and perceived influence of the shift from public state monopoly in television broadcast to a globalized commercial multichannel broadcast environment. Combining production ethnography
with analysis of industry, texts, and public reception discourses, this project explores the
significance of global format adaptations for marginal and belated broadcast systems like Israeli
television.
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Talks by Sharon Shahaf
YouTube, 2019
Dr Sharon Shahaf discusses the taboo and silences surrounding the way many academic writers strug... more Dr Sharon Shahaf discusses the taboo and silences surrounding the way many academic writers struggle with various aspects of Writer's Block
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq-nAoG6IsQ&t=28s
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Conference Presentations by Sharon Shahaf
Matt Boyd Smith Response to Roundtable Topic Co-Proposed with Sharon Shahaf.
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Books by Sharon Shahaf
The chapters in this collection take up the format phenomena from around the globe, including the Middle East, Western and Eastern Europe, South and West Africa, South and East Asia, Australia and New Zealand, North America, South America, and the Caribbean. Contributors address both little known examples and massive global hits ranging from the Idol franchise around the world, to telenovelas, dance competitions, sports programming, reality TV, quiz shows, sitcoms and more. Looking to global television formats as vital for various cultural meanings, relationships, and structures, this collection shows how formats can further our understanding of television and the culture of globalization at large.
Papers by Sharon Shahaf
To illustrate the complexity of flows involved here one would be hard pressed to find a better example than the recent emergence of the Israeli format industry into as unlikely ‘global Cinderella’. Understanding why and how Israeli companies achieved their global success stands to teach us something about the reconfiguration of the centre-periphery relationship in contemporary ‘planet TV’.
While the most prevalent discussion of formats is heavily focused on the question of travel, knowledge transfer or franchising (formats are shows that get packaged in one territory and reproduced in another), this chapter poses that to understand their radical potential we must explore the practice of formatting as a fundamental process for television content development even before transnational transfer takes place. Therefore, before the chapter turns to discuss the implications of the Israeli case study, it first explores the significance of formatting for television, starting with the fundamental question: what are formats before they get packaged for transnational reproduction? Using a television studies analysis of medium, culture and industry, the chapter offers a wider historical and theoretical context for the practice of formatting to help explain how the transnational “stretching” of the process helped intervene in the established hierarchies of core-periphery that have underpinned the cultural dominance of the US in the global television industry.
The jewel in the Israeli television formats crown for 2011 is, without a doubt Showtime’s adaptation of the Israeli drama Hatufim (Prisoners of War) – Homeland.The show won two out of its three Golden Globe nominations (for best drama and best actress Clair Danes), emerging as the big winner of this year’s award.
Homeland’s achievement, after only four years of U.S. presence for Israeli formats far surpasses that of more established television industries. This year, as result of the rising interest, U.S. networks bought as many pitches based on Israeli formats as they did formats coming from the U.K – despite the much longer standing tradition of British-American exchange, spanning over four decades and dozens of shows.
The most obvious questions at this point are Why Israel? Why now? The answer of course lies first and foremost in the rise of global television formats trade and its revolutionary influence on the ways television programming get conceptualized, bought, sold, and licensed.
The format – sold as a televisual concept rather than finished text - opens up new opportunities for players from previously hopelessly marginalized markets, who can now compete on the home turf of the world’s most influential industry. No longer insulated by linguistic barriers, producers from insignificant national TV industries can now pitch their work globally in a manner that flies in the face of growingly outdated theories of media globalization as “cultural Imperialism"
Looking at the diverging discourses of Israeli and U.S. producers, executives, format right owners, trade and popular press this paper focus on mapping out some initial explanatory discourses emerging in both Hollywood and Tel Aviv to begin answering the questions raised by this case study
article examines the production and public reception of the first Israeli sitcom, Krovim-Krovim,
produced by Israeli Educational Television (IETV) between 1982 and 1986. As the first fullblown
Israeli series and a show modeled on the globally popular sitcom formula, Krovim-Krovim
was simultaneously celebrated for its Israeliness and condemned as a potential source of Western
‘cultural contamination’. The concerns converging around Krovim-Krovim in 1980s Israel are
representative of a larger global trend in that period that witnessed ‘the second wave of
globalization’. The simplistic media imperialism scenario that still dominates scholarship of these
trends fails to grasp the complexities typifying the process of globalization. Representing as they
do simultaneous standardization and heterogenization of form and content across borders, global
television formats seems to embody these complexities. By reevaluating IETV’s sitcom
production as an early case of format adaptation this article demonstrates the promises of this
fresh outlook for the study of historical as well as contemporary trends in television globalization.
By foregrounding the perspective of ‘local’ producers and critics, this article explores the cultural
significance of format adaptation for marginal and belated broadcast systems - like 1980s Israeli
television.
Formats looks at the Israeli reality competition show – Kohav Nolad (“A Star is Born”)
as a key text to help explore the ways in which Israeli broadcasters in the contemporary
commercial television environment, adapt globally dominant televisual forms as models for the
production of extremely popular local series. This program, widely perceived as epitomizing
contemporary Israeli national identity, is simultaneously also debated as the product of
globalization, and as marker of a post-national/post-Zionist era. In these discussions, perceptions
of the proper Israeli national culture and identity are juxtaposed with assumptions about the
nature and perceived influence of the shift from public state monopoly in television broadcast to a globalized commercial multichannel broadcast environment. Combining production ethnography
with analysis of industry, texts, and public reception discourses, this project explores the
significance of global format adaptations for marginal and belated broadcast systems like Israeli
television.
Talks by Sharon Shahaf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq-nAoG6IsQ&t=28s
Conference Presentations by Sharon Shahaf
The chapters in this collection take up the format phenomena from around the globe, including the Middle East, Western and Eastern Europe, South and West Africa, South and East Asia, Australia and New Zealand, North America, South America, and the Caribbean. Contributors address both little known examples and massive global hits ranging from the Idol franchise around the world, to telenovelas, dance competitions, sports programming, reality TV, quiz shows, sitcoms and more. Looking to global television formats as vital for various cultural meanings, relationships, and structures, this collection shows how formats can further our understanding of television and the culture of globalization at large.
To illustrate the complexity of flows involved here one would be hard pressed to find a better example than the recent emergence of the Israeli format industry into as unlikely ‘global Cinderella’. Understanding why and how Israeli companies achieved their global success stands to teach us something about the reconfiguration of the centre-periphery relationship in contemporary ‘planet TV’.
While the most prevalent discussion of formats is heavily focused on the question of travel, knowledge transfer or franchising (formats are shows that get packaged in one territory and reproduced in another), this chapter poses that to understand their radical potential we must explore the practice of formatting as a fundamental process for television content development even before transnational transfer takes place. Therefore, before the chapter turns to discuss the implications of the Israeli case study, it first explores the significance of formatting for television, starting with the fundamental question: what are formats before they get packaged for transnational reproduction? Using a television studies analysis of medium, culture and industry, the chapter offers a wider historical and theoretical context for the practice of formatting to help explain how the transnational “stretching” of the process helped intervene in the established hierarchies of core-periphery that have underpinned the cultural dominance of the US in the global television industry.
The jewel in the Israeli television formats crown for 2011 is, without a doubt Showtime’s adaptation of the Israeli drama Hatufim (Prisoners of War) – Homeland.The show won two out of its three Golden Globe nominations (for best drama and best actress Clair Danes), emerging as the big winner of this year’s award.
Homeland’s achievement, after only four years of U.S. presence for Israeli formats far surpasses that of more established television industries. This year, as result of the rising interest, U.S. networks bought as many pitches based on Israeli formats as they did formats coming from the U.K – despite the much longer standing tradition of British-American exchange, spanning over four decades and dozens of shows.
The most obvious questions at this point are Why Israel? Why now? The answer of course lies first and foremost in the rise of global television formats trade and its revolutionary influence on the ways television programming get conceptualized, bought, sold, and licensed.
The format – sold as a televisual concept rather than finished text - opens up new opportunities for players from previously hopelessly marginalized markets, who can now compete on the home turf of the world’s most influential industry. No longer insulated by linguistic barriers, producers from insignificant national TV industries can now pitch their work globally in a manner that flies in the face of growingly outdated theories of media globalization as “cultural Imperialism"
Looking at the diverging discourses of Israeli and U.S. producers, executives, format right owners, trade and popular press this paper focus on mapping out some initial explanatory discourses emerging in both Hollywood and Tel Aviv to begin answering the questions raised by this case study
article examines the production and public reception of the first Israeli sitcom, Krovim-Krovim,
produced by Israeli Educational Television (IETV) between 1982 and 1986. As the first fullblown
Israeli series and a show modeled on the globally popular sitcom formula, Krovim-Krovim
was simultaneously celebrated for its Israeliness and condemned as a potential source of Western
‘cultural contamination’. The concerns converging around Krovim-Krovim in 1980s Israel are
representative of a larger global trend in that period that witnessed ‘the second wave of
globalization’. The simplistic media imperialism scenario that still dominates scholarship of these
trends fails to grasp the complexities typifying the process of globalization. Representing as they
do simultaneous standardization and heterogenization of form and content across borders, global
television formats seems to embody these complexities. By reevaluating IETV’s sitcom
production as an early case of format adaptation this article demonstrates the promises of this
fresh outlook for the study of historical as well as contemporary trends in television globalization.
By foregrounding the perspective of ‘local’ producers and critics, this article explores the cultural
significance of format adaptation for marginal and belated broadcast systems - like 1980s Israeli
television.
Formats looks at the Israeli reality competition show – Kohav Nolad (“A Star is Born”)
as a key text to help explore the ways in which Israeli broadcasters in the contemporary
commercial television environment, adapt globally dominant televisual forms as models for the
production of extremely popular local series. This program, widely perceived as epitomizing
contemporary Israeli national identity, is simultaneously also debated as the product of
globalization, and as marker of a post-national/post-Zionist era. In these discussions, perceptions
of the proper Israeli national culture and identity are juxtaposed with assumptions about the
nature and perceived influence of the shift from public state monopoly in television broadcast to a globalized commercial multichannel broadcast environment. Combining production ethnography
with analysis of industry, texts, and public reception discourses, this project explores the
significance of global format adaptations for marginal and belated broadcast systems like Israeli
television.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq-nAoG6IsQ&t=28s