Article Review Of Jason Mittell's Television And American Culture

Television has always been an industry whose profit has always been gained through ads. But in chapter 2 of Jason Mittell’s book, Television and American Culture, Mittell argues that the rise of the profit-driven advertising television model can be traced back through American television history, and that the rise of the profit-driven advertising model of television actually helped to mold American culture both from a historical standpoint and from a social standpoint. In the first part of chapter 2, Mittell goes into the history of television advertising. He covers how television advertising changed from the toll broadcasting model (where radio stations would sell access to companies in order to use their broadcast frequency), to the single-sponsorship

Mittell does a great job explaining the differences between television viewers and television audiences, which are not interchangeable terms. Television viewers refer to the actual individuals who watch television, while the concept of television audiences refers to the process by which television viewers are categorized, measured, and sold. Mittell also states that the system of television ratings is one of the most influential methods in measuring a television audience, also known as the Nielsen report. As a result of the television rating system, Mittell argues that the television viewers are dehumanized, reduced to only numbers. I agree with him on this point. With the rise of social media, accessing shows are easier than ever, which allows more people to become fans of it. However, social media has highlighted the flaws of this system. Counting individuals that watch a show through a television box set, ignores the multitude of other people that could be watching the show through a streaming service or social media. Furthermore, with the ability to record programming on a cable box, there could be tons of people that watch the show after the episode is aired. Under the current system of television ratings, individuals that choose to watch television on other forms of media are ignored and not counted. As a result, the television