Television primetime genre shows – sitcoms, dramas, and reality programming – have traditionally given their viewers a sense of community by creating a shared viewing experience. This community depended on every fan watching at a scheduled time, missing their show at the risk of a plot spoiler or exclusion from the next day’s conversation. Now, the trend of television shows being posted to dedicated websites is making them available to watch online at any time. Presenting a challenge to the traditional real-time viewing format, this trend has led some early adopters of the online format to predict the end of television (Lotz, 2009) existing independently of a computer screen. If that prediction is true, it would mean a significant shift in the way many individuals receive entertainment, and the way even a casual fan interacts with others in their community. I argue that instead of eradicating television, making television shows available online will strengthen viewer loyalty. By allowing a potential fan to catch up with a show’s past seasons while continuing the community routine of primetime television, this blend of technology creates a symbiotic relationship between traditional and online viewing.
The urge to visualize future television sets as large computer screens, with shows posted directly to a website for consumption at any time (Katz, 2009), is exciting. In fact, a study by the Pew Research Center shows that in 2009, 8% of Americans connected their computer to their television so they could watch online shows on a television screen (Purcell, 2010). But imagining a purely computer-driven viewing platform does not take into account the bonding experience that Americans have created around watching certain television shows...
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...he end of television as a medium. Instead, it presents an opportunity for the shows to reach new and more deeply involved viewer groups. The new online fan base, drawn to television shows because of the communities that form around story lines, may force television to evolve even further, creating a new blend of technology that encompasses online and traditional viewing.
Works Cited
Katz, E. (2009). The end of television? The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 625(01), 6-18.
Lotz, A. (2009). What is U.S. television now? The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 625(01), 49-59.
Purcell, K. (2010). The state of online video. Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project.
The Nielsen Company. (2010). Three screen report: Television, internet and mobile usage in the U.S. No. 8. New York, NY: Author.
‘Liveness’ is a unique quality that has almost always been exclusive to the medium of television, only ever really being shared with radio, and more recently the internet. When it comes to televisions ‘liveness’ its clear to see that it has been its distinguishing feature amongst other visual mediums. However, Marriot stated that By the end of the twentieth century most television transmission on most channels were no longer live.” (Marriot, 2007) thus suggesting that televisions once key feature of ‘liveness’ is perhaps no longer an important or defining feature. Despite the apparent lack of live television today “liveness’ was one of the features that cause television to overtake the likes of radio, cinema, and theatre across the globe.
Tuchman, Gaye. The TV Establishment: Programming for Power and Profit. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., l971.
Many of the technological advancements in entertainment helped people live a much happier and exciting life. The television was wanted by almost every average American family in this decade and overwhelmed millions of baby-boomer children who’s relationship with TV has influenced the United States’ culture and politics. Television
...d that television holds on us, Postman give two ideas. The first idea that he gives, he describes it as ridiculous to create programming that demonstrates how “television should be viewed by the people” (161).
Presently 98% of the households in the United States have one or more televisions in them. What once was regarded as a luxury item has become a staple appliance of the American household. Gone are the days of the three channel black and white programming of the early years; that has been replaced by digital flat screen televisions connected to satellite programming capable of receiving thousands of channels from around the world. Although televisions and television programming today differ from those of the telescreens in Orwell’s 1984, we are beginning to realize that the effects of television viewing may be the same as those of the telescreens.
Phillips, Michael. "A Start-up, the Supreme Court, and the Future of TV." newyorker.com. The New Yorker, January 15, 2014. Web. January 15, 2014.
U.S. News and World Report. “What TV Is Doing to America.” In Major Problems in American History Since 1945, edited by Robert Griffith and Paula Baker, 90-92. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2007.
“Nowadays in the modern world, society if affected by more things we can think of. Society is affected by movies, TV shows, TV reality shows, magazines, and books. A report was recorded over a six-month period about Television shows and daily news broadcasts. From September 1, 1999 through February 29, 2000; The Grand Rapid Institute recorded and viewed a few programs and at the end of the month the Institute tallied up the number of letters sent after a recorded program and it showed how unfair the programs were and how people became a democracy to let them know” (TV News 1).
Postman has valid points when he claims that television and media are destroying the American society. Postman is right to assume that television is manipulating the way Americans think. However, television can provide Americans with both right and wrong morals. Since this book was written in 1985, Postman could not have predicted the influence technology has on the current American population. The theory he applies to television is similar to the theory he probably would have used on modern day media. The dependency we have on media reiterates Postman’s thesis that Americans are losing critical thinking skills and basic human values.
Paul S. Boyer. "Television." The Oxford Companion to United States History. 2001. Retrieved November 24, 2011 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O119-Television.html
Up until recently television has been the most prominent medium of entertainment and information in our lives. Nothing could beat Saturday morning cartoons, the six o'clock news and zoning out from the world by the distractions of prime time sitcoms. It is all of these things and more that formed television into what was thought to be the ultimate entertainment medium, that is, up until now. Television in the twenty-first century is not the television our parents watched or in fact what we watched as children. Today’s generation are no longer satisfied with the traditional television experience. Today’s audience no longer has to follow the network’s predetermined schedule nor is television the one dimensional experience it used to be. Viewers no longer need to schedule a fixed time in order to gather information or watch their favourite show (Smith 5). They can record it with the push of the DVR (Digital Video Recording) button or watch it on a device and obtain background information via the Internet. In addition, viewers now have the opportunity to interact with, share, and produce their own material from their favourite show (5). In order to not lose the authenticity of television, media theorists have created transmedia. This new twist on television gives the user more control and more involvement than ever before. The concept has been termed as transmedia storytelling. The online journal Infoline defines transmedia storytelling in its January 2014 issue as “social, mobile, accessible and re-playable.” Originally coined in the 1990’s it was not until 2003 when Henry Jenkins, a professor of communications at the University of Southern California, wrote his article “Transmedia Storytelling” that the term began being ...
Vande Berg, L.R., Wenner, L.A., & Gronbeck, B. E. (1998). Critical Approaches to Television. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
The internet has become the television industry’s prime competitor. Reality TV has been a staple in American homes since as early as 1948. Current reality shows are edited and usually scripted to add to the dramatics of the show. The internet has opened more media outlets such as YouTube which has become a place for people to create uncut, real-life, video footage. Television has never been raw video straight from the camera which leads to setbacks with viewers for that reason alone. This study will discuss if YouTube has a greater impact on viewers than reality TV cast members.
Streaming video content over the internet continues to grow in popularity with consumers for a variety of reasons, including the widespread availability of high speed internet, attractive video content, easy to use video streaming devices and the rising cost of cable television service. Some consumers use streaming video to enhance or supplement the typical offerings available from their local cable provider. Others take a more extreme approach and use streaming video as a means to eliminate the need for a cable television subscription altogether. Presently consumers cancelling their cable TV subscriptions are still considered a minority of all subscribers; nevertheless their steadily increasing numbers have earned the moniker of “cord cutters.” Those looking to ditch cable TV can also find a growing number of online resources that will ease their transition to cheaper online television viewing.
Roscoe, J 2010, ‘Multi-Platform Event Television: Reconceptualizing our Relationship with Television’, The Communication Review, vol. 7, issue. 4, pp. 363-369.