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For people who think they know what’s going on in the world, I hate to say it, but Americans don’t even know who’s PM of Canada because it’s not news here. The people who DO know are the ones who read newspapers and magazines (not a made-up statistic). Go to Europe, they’ve got cafes, beer gardens… they TALK to one another. Here we’ve got bars where the music’s jacked up too loud, and we barely know our neighbors’ names.

Did you know that people who watch TV think their community is a more dangerous place than non-watchers? That’s because TV focuses on violence and bad news. Slow news days are boring: they’ve gotta be juiced to get ratings to sell product.

The media is becoming increasingly condensed to a few multinationals. It’s as blatant as Disney owning ABC, and showing Disney movies, featuring Disney musicians… GE owns NBC – can we expect to hear honest reports on nuclear plants, which GE sells parts for? Or Philip Morris owning CBS volunteering anti-smoking messages?

On a personal note, I notice that if I spend too much time on the tube, my creativity is dulled.

But all of that aside, real life happens out among OTHER PEOPLE. It’s often more stressful, but what’s life without a bit of conflict now and then? We really need to get off the airwaves for a while, unplug the headphones, and connect with the world around us instead of having it brought into our homes via a 2D box with tinny little speakers.

God bless America. Please drive safely.

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You may want to look at a book that came out a while ago called “Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil Postman. (It was followed up by another called “How to Watch TV News,” also worth reading.) Fascinating stuff.

Postman argues that the medium of television is limited to content which makes for “good television.” For example, two people arguing over a point is “must-see TV.” But what if one of those two actually stopped for a moment to say, “Gosh, you make an interesting point. Let me think about it for a minute or so.” Neither musing nor silence play that well on TV; it specifically caters to grabbing your attention by shock and hype. TV content is aimed at the LCD – the lowest common denominator.

Marshall McLuhan suggests also that “cooler” mediums like TV force audiences to fill in the message with a greater degree of participation. You have to quiet conversations and other “noise” in order to focus on TV; to get the full message, you must stop what you’re doing and pay it full attention (you get much less if you let it play in the background, and that’s done mainly to break up the silence). Light can’t be too bright, so shut the windows and dim the lamps – in fact, the less that is moving around in the room, the better. The ideal viewing position is in a quiet, darkened room sitting on your butt. TV demands your attention to be understood, and in order to do that you tend to turn off the critical part in your head that judges the message to use the part that tries to make the message fit what makes sense to you.

Both Postman and McLuhan seem to agree that TV is here to stay (a wise position), and that it is the dominant media form (though with the ‘Net, that may be changing – these books are both at least 10 years old by now, McLuhan’s around 40 years). But Postman suggests that if we bother to take classes to learn to read critically, there should be some for critical viewing as well. If mediums highlight only specific information – as books, cartoons and radio have unique dimensions that they emphasize – it’s reckless to assume that TV is the end-all, be-all source of information. Postman suggests we must learn to be “fluent” in other forms as well to get a better idea of what’s going on.

As for the quality of content… what I consider “quality” TV is a rare animal, and I know a lot of other people feel this way as well. I think that’s the gist of what Ian is trying to say. I tell people I don’t watch TV, and for the most part that’s true. But every so often I pop it on for a while and get disgusted and annoyed and turn it off and get back to my trashy novel.

I also disagree that 95% of TV is garbage, but for a different reason. It’s that 97% of all statistics are made up on the spot. I didn’t even know that a while ago. I had to look it up. Thank you, Internet!

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I do, actually.

Geez, I’m starting to feel like I really don’t fit in with the BNT crowd! What with all my Christmas-present-buying and tv-watching… Does Fox News do travel? Maybe that’s where I belong.

I certainly don’t disagree that 95% (at least) of what’s on TV is garbage. What I’ve never understood is why that leads so many people to dismiss the medium along with the content. After all, there are millions of trashy paperbacks in this world, too, right? But nobody suggests that books are a force for evil in this world.

Just a thought.

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