Television’s scalar play: everyday invitations to scalar thinking across the intimate and the global

Abstract

This article examines how contemporary television engages with scale, arguing that the medium routinely prompts viewers to navigate conceptually between the intimate and the vast. Bringing television studies into dialogue with scale theory, the article demonstrates how diverse programmes, using The Last of US(2023–present), Familier som vores [Families Like Ours](2024), the Eurovision Song Contest(1956–present) and UEFA Champions League(1956–present) as case studies, mobilise narrative, thematic and visual strategies of scalar play that move the viewer to conduct scalar thinking across individual experiences, collective formations and even planetary frameworks. Aerial views, long shots emphasising size differences, glocal address and repeated returns to life sized close ups invite audiences to consider their position within networks that extend beyond the human or the domestic. While television often recentres anthropocentric perspectives through its grammar of intimacy, these scalar dynamics still encourage meaningful shifts in perception. The article argues that television’s routine and accessible engagement with scale offers a valuable model for cultivating everyday multi scalar awareness.

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