I have always had a love for TV and my TiVo can prove it. TV produces great shows, one liners and crushes that we all come about loving and quoting. My love for the TV does not stick with one specific type of show. I like anything from your reality trashy TV, The Bachelor (which one day I hope to be on), to Grey’s Anatomy, Sex and the City, The Office and Gossip Girl. I hope that after reading this blog, you can have a better understanding and gratitude of your favorite TV shows and well as maybe mine, if I lucky. Through out my post I will discuss my specific goals for doing TV criticism, how I view television as on object of study of culture and last by not least I will let you engage in conversation with me and what’s happening in the TV world.
My goals for doing TV criticism are similar to that of a piece of writing written by, O’Donnell, which I have read in class. I want you and me to obtain a deeper understanding of the shows we both watch. I just do not want to watch them for enjoyment purposes. I want to be able to have an understanding of culture, human nature and interpretation like O’Donnell puts it. I will take specific shows to help better your understanding of those three concepts and how to put them to work. I am going to express my thoughts about these concepts from a particular show in a way that will engage you to keep reading more. In addition, I want to open a new door for you to think about TV. I want to give you insight to an aspect of a particular show (probably going to be one of my favorites since I am the one writing it) that you would have not thought of yourself. O’Donnell (2007) states, “As a critic, you become a transformer capable of generating new understandings and new awareness in the minds of other television viewers.” This is exactly why I want to be a TV critic for you. I want you as readers to consider my argument and ponder questions that you may not have thought about, if you had not read my blog. If I discuss a show that you are not a viewer of, I want you to become the number one fan of that show by the end or have a love/hate relationship with the show.
In the cultural stand point, TV is a medium in society that circulates within both high and low culture; it makes this assumption that it is split. TV produces shows for both. An example of low culture would be The Bachelor (what I get sucked into) or Real World that require no thought process to watch and are also regarded as “trashy TV.” High culture would be a ballet or the history channel. TV is a way of expressing and making meaning of what is taking place in society.
TV is a centripetal way (which means all meanings exist in a culture and television has a way of writing it) of going about thinking. Stating all meanings exist in a culture and TV has a way of writing it. I want to view shows and see the deeper meaning they are expressing in that particular episode or season. For example, we see how the ‘normal’ family is supposed to act and look like from shows such as According to Jim, Gilmore Girls and many others. Also, from television we can grasp what are the acceptable racial stereotypes and numerous other topics. Another author who we discussed in class is, Corner, who specifics with televisions studies. His article that we read in class deals with culture in the light of displacement of culture (4). Corner(1999) means by this, is how TV is a surveillance of what is going on in the culture by matching it to its own cultural penetration. The way that we act as a society and culture together is reflected then back on the television screen through our favorite and not so favorite shows. Culture is the main aspect that I am going to be looking at when viewing television as an object of study.
I want you as a reader to engage in conversation with me as we go about during the semester. I am going to make strong arguments with what I am discussing and if you totally disagree with me, I want to hear it. I am going to persuade all of my messages to you in ways that are relevant to you and to keep you interested for wanting more.
References:
Corner, J. (1999). Critical Ideas in Television Studies. New York: Oxford University Press.
O’Donnell, V. (2007). Television Criticism. New York: Sage.
