Forgive me for being confused at this post. It seems to give one side of an argument but not a rebuttal. If Tv is not the best medium for non-entertainment,what do you propose is? Books, print (ie magazines or newspaper), web, Where do you think it plays well.
2007-01-26EST02:23:17+00:00
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Probably books, the web, radio, magazines, newspaper. In that order. Purely personal preference, of course. I expect that if I wasn't a blogger, I'd move 'the web' down a few notches. And I'm not sure about the placement of radio.
In a lot of the cases, television can be used to do some of the job. I think that C-SPAN and BBC Parliament are slightly more immune to the effects than other forms of televisual politics - even then, though, when politicians know they are being filmed, they play to the camera - look at how Tony Blair answers questions at PMQs - he's not looking at who asked the question, he's looking at the camera.
When was the last time you saw news on Venezuelan politics on UK/US/European TV? I can't remember ever seeing anything about Venezuela on TV ever. Yet the other day I found an English-speaking Venezuelan politics part of the blogosphere and learnt loads about political corruption in Venezuela. Not covered, because it's not entertaining.
This links up with what Steve Gillmor calls the "page view model", I think.
2007-01-26EST09:31:01+00:00
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In a lot of the cases, television can be used to do some of the job. I think that C-SPAN and BBC Parliament are slightly more immune to the effects than other forms of televisual politics - even then, though, when politicians know they are being filmed, they play to the camera - look at how Tony Blair answers questions at PMQs - he's not looking at who asked the question, he's looking at the camera.
When was the last time you saw news on Venezuelan politics on UK/US/European TV? I can't remember ever seeing anything about Venezuela on TV ever. Yet the other day I found an English-speaking Venezuelan politics part of the blogosphere and learnt loads about political corruption in Venezuela. Not covered, because it's not entertaining.
This links up with what Steve Gillmor calls the "page view model", I think.
(Note to self - spell check own name!)
For me, I'd switch books and the web round - web for frequent, shorter overviews (once you've got the background of course) and books for more indepth. Tv can produce some great documentaries, but they are often one offs, and the news does tend to play far too much to the entertainment side instead of the factual based side.
I agree with you, it was just the post presented one argument, with no alternatives, maybe a little too much like the 'entertainment' news you dislike so much
2007-01-26EST13:33:12+00:00
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For me, I'd switch books and the web round - web for frequent, shorter overviews (once you've got the background of course) and books for more indepth. Tv can produce some great documentaries, but they are often one offs, and the news does tend to play far too much to the entertainment side instead of the factual based side.
I agree with you, it was just the post presented one argument, with no alternatives, maybe a little too much like the 'entertainment' news you dislike so much
If you'd like to see my rebuttal to Neil Postman - who was my doctoral mentor at New York University - see my 1997 book, The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution, for starters .... All best wishes, PL
2007-03-18EDT20:31:02+00:00
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