TV vs. Reading et al

[andrew at cee.hw.ac.uk]

sojourner at vt.edu writes:
[re the money behind TV]
> Uh oh... ok here I go, here I go, here I go now to defend TV:

> What's wrong with money?  Or people with money producing art?
> Money is not immoral, people with money are not automatically 
> immoral, and art has been produced by "moneyed interests" since
> time began, including Mozart and Michelangelo to name two purists
> who were truly touched by an inner talent from their Maker.

Oh, it's not the money per se (it never is, is it?). No, the
interesting thing is the presence of money in the media (which is what
we are discussing, right? TV, films, books, newspapers etc). Why is it
interesting when money converges on the media? Because the media are
where lots of people's information, and hence understanding, come
from. And control of the media, either by sponsorship or ownership,
gives one control not just over what information is presented but also
how it is made available and, often, this adds up to control of how it
is understood. And TV is particularly appealing to those who want to
buy control because it is so easy to manipulate people's daily lives
via TV.

The main reason for this is not to be found in the nature of TV
product per se (never mind the fact that much TV conforms to a handful
of cliched formats, TV as a medium is just as malleable, just as
capable of infinite variety as film or words) but in the technology of
the medium. TV is a broadcast medium which means that people can only
watch what is showing as it is broadcast and then only according to a
schedule devised by the programmers, usually in the same environment
(the home), usually alone or with immediate relations and often
accompanying their day-to-day tasks. This dictates more than anything
else the way people use (almost have to use) TV i.e. passively,
serially, without critical discussion and fitting their other
activities around it. Just as, secondary cause, the relatively high
entry cost for those who want to produce or distribute TV material
dictates the sort of people who can decide what TV we see and how it
is presented to us. Compare TV with the internet and see how it's
technology (mostly asynchronous and either 1-1, multicast or
broadcast) allows us much more flexibility on both the production and
consumption side.


Andrew Dinn
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How do you know but ev'ry bird that cuts the airy way
Is an immense world of pleasure clos'd by your senses five