Multitasking Moose Migration: Examining media multimodality in slow-TV nature programming

Abstract

Media multitasking has become an integrated part of much media consumption. While some celebrate the practice for activating the viewer and connecting them to virtual others, perhaps discussing the show in real-time, critics point to cognitive costs and reduced productivity. A perhaps more scathing critique has been added to those multitasking while watching nature documentaries: you are already consuming nature through a screen, but now your focus is further fragmented across multiple apps. The implication is that this is not an authentic way of experiencing nature, at a time—the Digital Anthropocene—when direct nature experiences dwindle. In this study, we examine viewers’ engagement with different sorts of media and ‘real-life’, physical multitasking during a slow-TV nature documentary, The Great Moose Migration in Sweden. We ask what these tasks mean not only for one's enjoyment and relaxation, but more broadly for nature engagement in the Digital Anthropocene, and connection to others over nature as something shared. Through surveys and digital ethnography of the Great Moose Migration, our research shows how multitasking around nature contributes to a potentially transformative experience. It is a viewer experience that is at once personal through increased customization options and layering of different activities. Second, it is communal in terms of connecting diverse audiences on platforms. Our contribution is in showing that taskscapes are now becoming multi-taskscapes, which comprise both physical and digital tasks over nature. These multi-taskscapes are actively shaped by users who engage with them. This changes both the media landscape and the way we engage with nature.