"How Dark is the False Light?" (original) (raw)
Related papers
Living with television: The dynamics of the cultivation process
1986
The longer we live with television, the more invisible it beoomes. As the number of people who have never lived without television oontinues to grow, the medium is inoreasingly taken for granted as an applianoe, a pieoe of furniture, a storyteller, a member of the family. Ever fewer parents and even grandparents oan explain to ohildren what it was like to grow up before television--an age oultural historians will surely oall BT. Television is the souroe of the most broadly-shared images and messages in history.
Television's Families: Real by Day, Ideal by Night?
The Journal of American Culture, 1983
Like it or not, that which is shown on television, however distorted, impractical or oversimplified , is bound to have some influence on how we perceive and interact with the world. The socialization of both adults and children can be said to be a consequence, intentional or otherwise, of television viewing in America. Anthropologist Margaret Mead saw this influence as a potentially positive one when she wrote that "TV more than any other medium gives models to the American people-models for life as it is, or should, or can be lived.' In an article written shortly before her death, Mead spoke of television as primarily a tool for social action-a medium that can help strengthen the fragile institutions fundamental to the continued existence of society. Of special concern was the institution of family. TV can do more than a n y other medium to help achieve these goals. .. . TV can popularize marriage where couples elect to be parents and hope to stay together until their children are grown up and leave home.2
Television and the active audience
2000
Original citation: Livingstone, Sonia (2000) Television and the active audience. In: Formations: 21 century media studies st . Manchester University Press, Manchester, UK, pp. 175-195.
A Sociological Analysis of Television
New genres of programmes appeared on French televisionin the 2000s. They shaped people's relations to entertainment, and to a certain extent the nature of their interests. TVredefined itself under the influence of foreign channels. Until then, France had harshly defended its cultural autonomy; but American formats eventually made their way into the media to become mainstream. Why were these broadcasts so successful? Had viewers been looking forwardto enjoying them? This paper discusses whether reality television has reflectedan evolution of French ethics. A selection of three French broadcasts is scrutinized in this regard –a quiz show (The Weakest Link), a talk show (My Own Decision) and a reality show (Loft Story). These shows reveal aspects of the ways in which television acts upon mentalities. They also threaten, according to sociological studies of the media, the quality of cultural production –in science and in the arts, in philosophy or in law –as well as democracy and political life at large.
2017
This edited volume begins with a short introduction to television studies thus far. The collection focuses on how television now reflects broader diversity in society and provides more choice to viewers, mainly due to changes in the delivery of television and the development of new television delivery technologies. The increase in television choice comes with both positive and negative consequences. Television allows us to see the tragedies that unfold thousands of miles away, through increased coverage of worldwide news, but it also allows us to self-select into a narrow interpretation of the news based on our worldview. Today’s inclusion of diversity on television marks a change from the middle-class white families of the 1950s and the economically advantaged white characters of the 1990s that dominated television dramas. However, it still comes with limitations that are explored in depth in a section entitled “The Voice.”