Sunday, December 7, 2014
The History of the Present (last blog post due anytime before the final exam)
It's always difficult to write the history of the present. However, if you were attempt to look at television today through the lenses used in this course, how would you describe it? Take one example of a current trend in television and analyze it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
While I'm not sure if this trend is solely relevant to television viewing today, something that I know was not part of the viewing experience upon television's first entrance into the American home is the placement of a television set in the bedroom. When television first came into American homes, it was a family affair, with the television set the main focus of the family room. Shows beckoned families to watch together every night, and this turned into a means of bonding or family time.
ReplyDeleteToday, however, that is not the case. Viewing television has become extremely personal, and one of the many ways it has, is moving the television into the bedroom, an extremely private setting. Now, something that once brought families together is tearing them apart. People shut themselves in their rooms and watch the shows they enjoy watching, while someone else in their home can watch what they want in their room. Of course this is even more extreme now, with the ability to watch content on computers, tablets and phones.
While historical accounts aren't based on personal examples, I can say that at my parent's house, (before Charter decided that an actual cable wasn't enough and that each television set needs its own box) there was a television in every single room in my house....besides the bathroom of course. Everyday after school, my siblings and I would come home, grab a snack, and shut ourselves in our rooms.
This is not to say that families don't still enjoy viewing television together, but as television entered the more private spheres of American homes, this had an affect on the viewing experience. Now, people can watch content they may be too embarrassed or self-conscious to consume in front of anyone. When my mother said we weren't allowed to watch Boy Meets World, you can guarantee that we flipped to the show as soon as we shut our door.
Television was lauded as a private experience when it first entered the homes of American families, yet today, we've managed to make that experience even more private by bringing it into our bedrooms.
When television first came into American homes, it was a family event, it was unheard of for a TV set to be anywhere but the family room. This allowed for families to sit together and watch as a family. It is what many families looked forward to doing as a family.
ReplyDeleteToday, however, walk into a friends house, or even your own, and there are TVs everywhere. My brother and I both have TV’s in our bedrooms yet we still watch the same shows. We both sit in our own beds and watch the same shows individually and then go into each others room to talk about them. Television, over the years, has gone from something that was a family affair to something that is much more personal. Especially with the introduction of HBOgo, Netflix, and AppleTv, television has become a much more personal matter as we all tend to binge watch shows.
Also, with new technologies like phones, laptops, and tablets, television and media is much more accessible to the every day person. This also makes viewing television a much more personal matter, if were in a long car ride or on a plane, etc. we can lose ourselves in our devices and watch television for hours with out bothering anyone else.
One type of television show that has become extremely popular within the last decade is the reality show. I cannot speak for other countries because I do not know what their television programs consist of, but in America there seems to be a huge fascination with watching the way other people live their lives. The household name for reality television is obviously the Kardashian family, however, I have noticed that almost every major network has some type of show that films people as themselves, without (one would assume) any type of acting.
ReplyDeleteThere are several types of reality shows. “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” is an example of a reality show that follows a family around in their daily life, inviting viewers into their typical (though probably scripted) day. There are a great deal of other shows just like this: “Laguna Beach,” “The Real Housewives” franchise, “The Hills,” and “Ice Loves Coco” are just a handful of shows that film various groups of people and follow them on a day-to-day basis. Viewers are then witnesses to the drama, the heartache, the joy, and the struggles these people face, leaving the reality stars with almost immediate fame but little privacy.
The next type of reality show is the competition or themed show. These shows include real people (people representing themselves and not a fictional character) participating in competitions such as “Survivor” or “American Idol.” There are also shows like “Toddlers & Tiaras,” where viewers are able to watch young children compete in beauty pageants and witness the enthralling drama that ensues (mostly between the parents).
There is a reality show to fit just about any type of interest and I think they have become a type of outlet for people. When scripted shows no longer allow viewers the escape they seek through television, watching real people and their lives can act as a way to live vicariously through them. Whether reality tv is helping the television industry or hurting it, it is definitely a large part of television history.