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The Nature of Television
The Nature of Television
Studying the Idiot Box
You who are the father of letters, from a paternal love of your own children have been led to attribute to them a quality which they cannot have; for this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves.
- Socrates
Issues in Media and TV Studies
• Agency• Technological determinism• Ideology & propaganda• Ownership & control
The Public Sphere
Benedict Anderson (1983)
Effects Research (1940s)
Paul Lazarsfeld (1901-1976) Early study of mass media, i.e. radio
Theodor Adorno (1903-1969)
Industrialization, standardization of
music
The voice from the telescreen paused. A trumpet call, clear and beautiful, floated into the stagnant air. The voice continued raspingly:
'Attention! Your attention, please! A newsflash has this moment arrived from the Malabar front. Our forces in South India have won a glorious victory. I am authorized to say that the action we are now reporting may well bring the war within measurable distance of its end. Here is the newsflash’…
Winston belched again. The gin was wearing off, leaving a deflated feeling. The telescreen -- perhaps to celebrate the victory, perhaps to drown the memory of the lost chocolate -- crashed into 'Oceania, 'tis for thee'. You were supposed to stand to attention. However, in his present position he was invisible.
'Oceania, 'tis for thee' gave way to lighter music. Winston walked over to the window, keeping his back to the telescreen. The day was still cold and clear. Somewhere far away a rocket bomb exploded with a dull, reverberating roar. About twenty or thirty of them a week were falling on London at present.
Marshall McLuhan
•Canadian•1911-1980•Professor of English at University of Toronto•Famous in 1960s
Light bulb = the simplest medium
All medium, no message?
All message, no medium?
"The medium is the message"
•Structure over content
•Medium specificity
•Media as “extensions of man”
"Any hot medium allows of less participation than a cool one, as a lecture makes for less participation than a seminar, and a book for less than a dialogue."
"Hot"
FilmNovelRadioPhotographyLecture
"Cool"
Television Comics Seminar
The “Global Village”
Radio, television = collective experience
Vs. print media
New visual/aural language
Raymond Williams and “Flow”
Classic text Television: Technology and Cultural Form (1974)
