The History of the Present
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.
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ReplyDeleteA current trend in television is the differentiation of content based on its platform. Originally, as stated by Caldwell, when dotcoms entered the media space, they were simply retransmitting content found on television. Media companies followed suit by expanding television textuality to include online websites and content. Netflix was the prime example of this. Originally, Netflix streaming was simply a distribution method for studios to show content that had been previously aired on television. With so many platforms existing because of the internet, the platform itself is bringing certain assumptions into the program. Shows that air on television are critically and culturually seen as fundementally different than those that air exclusively on Netflix. Part of this is the release window: the shows on Netflix are guaranteed to be seen in large chunks rather than on a weekly basis. But more and more, people begin to differentiate similar programs based on their origin. High quality YouTube content, which can have the same storytelling qualities and production values, are often seen as inferior to any Netflix/Amazon material simply because of YouTube's populist platform. HBO content has a critical/cultural bias because their shows have a paywall. In many ways, the more populist material is quicky becoming this generation's Trash TV simply because of the platform it originated on.
ReplyDeleteOne way to view TV history is through emphasis of what is considered to qualify something as TV. I'd say that there has been a shift in focus. TV started out as mostly defined by the medium of transfer. Anything that was broadcast on TV channels was TV. There were debates as to what truly made TV, as in what separated it from film. Live TV was the biggest in the beginning, held in highest esteem. The idea was that TV was a conduit through which to show the live play or variety show. TV was mostly defined, in contrast to film, as being able to immediately bring vast audiences around the nation the same live performance at once. Then, as time wore on, TV began to develop its own genres, such as the sitcom, where TV programming times provider parameters for new forms of comedy. TV also provided a fairly unique opportunity, especially compared to film, to show serial stories. Film has to resolve the story at the end of 2 hours (give or take), but TV has the ability to have more open ended stories. Then, with the mass acceptance of the internet, and the rise of cable, DVR, and other technologies, TV moves further away from being live and is defined more by what content forms it contains. TV shows on the internet still have the form of TV serial shows, or TV sitcoms.
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