Essayist E.B. White proclaimed in the 1930s that television could either be “a saving radiance from the sky” or “an unbearable disturbance of the general peace.” Fact is, television has had a vast influence on culture, changing not only the way information is delivered, but also the way people perceive and use this information. Whereas the development of the printing press in the 15th century enabled scientific discourse and analytical arguments with numerous subordinate points, television presents itself with a more fickle nature.
The audience isn’t presented with long, sometimes tedious argumentation. Instead it is split into short, independent segments, thus enabling the viewer to leave the television set without fear of missing out on the programme.
According to Neil Postman we are even “amusing ourselves to death”. Probably most peculiar and characteristic for this argument is the phrase “Now...this”, which is commonly used on radio and television to indicate that the next part in the programme has absolutely no relation or relevance to the previously presented topics. Ultimately it is an easy and - frankly spoken - cheap way to change the subject. It equals a complete mind wipe.
The boldest and most brutal example for this method of communication are without a doubt the daily news. They are presented in a fragmented way, lacking context, consequence and even value. They are interrupted and interlaid with music, not necessary to obtain knowledge, but essential for the creation of mood and suspense. It pulls the viewer into a news story as if it were some kind of far fetched fairy tale. This serves greatly as a comfort for the viewer, belittling the importance of what is shown and degrading any kind of news to the same level as fiction. It is entertainment, plain and simple.
On further examination Postman says that “this perception of a news show as a stylized dramatic performance whose content has been staged largely to entertain is reinforced by several other features, including the fact that the average length of any story is forty five minutes. While brevity does not always suggest triviality, in this case it clearly does.”
To give a news snippet any more consideration than in that flash of a minute would naturally result in missing the next piece of news. The film footage, which supposedly serves to emphasize the story, is easily distractive. This keeps the viewer even more from introspection than any spoken words ever could.
Postman claims that “there is no murder so brutal, no earthquake so devastating, no political blunder so costly - for that matter, no ball score so tantalizing or weather report so threatening - that it cannot be erased from our minds by a newscaster saying, “Now...this.”
It must also be noted that television sells its time in seconds and minutes, involving a huge industry with hundreds of television stations competing for the audience’s momentary attention. But with the trivialization of war and misery, natural disaster, murder and cruelty, attention is a hard gained award. The logical consequence is that the most shocking or revolting images are bound to keep the viewer’s rapt attention. This might seem worrisome, but with commercials cutting into the programme at regular intervals the importance of these images is further defused.
On first contemplation a television show might appear to refute Postman’s arguments. They present the viewer with multiple story arcs, which are developed over the span of several weeks, but previouslies help to stimulate the fuzzy brain cells, recounting the most relevant happenings of past episodes. The challenge to the memory is further diminished by repeating important events as off-hand remarks within the dialogue or the use of flashbacks with the subtlety of a sledge-hammer.
Movies with their closed off story arcs make it even easier to erase from the viewer’s minds. Commonly they follow a very simple pattern, with only the first and last few minutes being of any real relevance towards the plot. All that lies inbetween usually consists of trial and error, setbacks and conquests, leading to the inevitable conclusion of the heroes’ tale.
In hindsight television as a modern device for mass communication shows great similarities to the oral culture. Before there were printed books communication was limited to speech. People gathered to listen to the tales of a storyteller. These tales consisted of short episodes, which could be easily rearranged depending on audience and occasion. Certain patterns of speech and redundancy were crucial as mnemonic devices. With television people have found once again a medium that delivers messages as an event of entertainment.
In conclusion Postman dismisses television quite radically. But as Marshall McLuhan noted “The medium is the message.” It doesn’t merely influence the quality of information, it completely dictates the informative value. You can’t philosophize with smoke clouds. However, without giving television undue respect or even importance, it is still a damn fine medium for entertainment, rivaling ancient story tellers in its success.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Better start packing: extrasolar planet in habitual zone discovered
On April 21st researchers of the European Organization for Astronomical Research announced the discovery of another extrasolar planet orbiting around the red dwarf star Gliese 581. This planet, labeled as Gliese 581e, is the least massive exoplanet to be detected yet. Such low-mass exoplanets promise the possibility of a rocky surface as opposed to the more easily detected gaseous planets, most of which surpass Jupiter in size.
Michel Mayor from the Geneva Observatory says that “the holy grail of current exoplanet research is the detection of a rocky, Earth-like planet in the ‘habitable zone’.”
Gliese 581e lies outside of that zone, but along with this newest addition to the star system researchers have also reevaluated their opinion on the 2007 spotted Gliese 581d. They are now placing its orbit well within the habitual zone. And although it is probably too massive to consist solely of rocky material, it is very likely that its surface is covered by ice or even water. “It is the first serious ‘water world’ candidate”, says Stephane Udry.
By now enthusiasts all around the world are probably starting to pack up their stuff in hopes that those smart heads of rocket science will finally develop a transport capable of traveling to the farthest reaches of space. Afterall why bother worrying about ecological problems if you could just as easily move on to the next inhabitable planet?
Let’s just hope E.T. doesn’t mind a horde of ‘blundering, stupid apes’ invading his homeworld and introducing natives to the finer points of human culture...such as McDonalds or Starbucks.
Michel Mayor from the Geneva Observatory says that “the holy grail of current exoplanet research is the detection of a rocky, Earth-like planet in the ‘habitable zone’.”
Gliese 581e lies outside of that zone, but along with this newest addition to the star system researchers have also reevaluated their opinion on the 2007 spotted Gliese 581d. They are now placing its orbit well within the habitual zone. And although it is probably too massive to consist solely of rocky material, it is very likely that its surface is covered by ice or even water. “It is the first serious ‘water world’ candidate”, says Stephane Udry.
By now enthusiasts all around the world are probably starting to pack up their stuff in hopes that those smart heads of rocket science will finally develop a transport capable of traveling to the farthest reaches of space. Afterall why bother worrying about ecological problems if you could just as easily move on to the next inhabitable planet?
Let’s just hope E.T. doesn’t mind a horde of ‘blundering, stupid apes’ invading his homeworld and introducing natives to the finer points of human culture...such as McDonalds or Starbucks.
Supernatural Recap, Part 1: Don’t give in to peer-pressure
I’m finally starting with Supernatural, and yes I do realize that I might be a wee bit late, but between gaming and studying one can only watch so much TV. So after nearly one and half years of getting badgered by a friend about how much I’m going to love that show I finally gave in. Afterall it’s not like I don’t trust the guy’s judgement. Usually he’s got very fine tastes when it comes to wasting my time.
Flashy lights, bit of flickering writing - I wonder if that was actually the entire title sequence. Bit short. Also the flickering is slightly annoying. Especially in the small hours of morning, when bleary eyes are most sensitive and it might generally be a far better idea to just work on improving your sleeping hours.
But I guess it really isn’t all that bad, afterall it gets a tad tiresome to sit through the same scenes and title music over and over again - and no, exchanging some of the clips is not an improvement. Only downside on it is that this also means losing the last chance of getting something to munch, might just as well start a diet.
And we‘re in Lawrence, Kansas, 22 years ago, nighttime. Now my geography skills are not the best, but I’m fairly certain that Kansas isn’t exactly the most exciting place on earth, unless of course you’re a little girl with red shoes, unfortunate enough to get caught in a tornado.
But of course something is about to happen as dictated by the cosmic law of storytelling. The music doesn’t bode well, and the crickets happily chirping away in the background have never ever been an indicator of a nice evening in a rural setting - this only works in advertisements for a vacation in the countryside, and even then it’s still dubious.
The camera tilts down to show an old two-storey house, shadowed by a gnarled tree. With the swelling music and cold lighting you’d almost expect some horrid scene to play out in that house. But inside a mother carries her young boy into a nursery, telling him to kiss his little brother goodnight. As the mother, with her long blonde curls and a nightgown that isn’t exactly the height of fashion, bends down to nuzzle the toddler, the apparent father makes an appearance. The boy whirls around and throws himself happily into the man’s arms. It really is a bit sappy.
After the parents leave baby Sam to put his older brother to bed we get a good look at the nursery, leaving me with a feeling of vague apprehension. It is not only the baby that worries me, it is the ticking clock, which miraculously stops just as the camera zooms closer, the muted lights, the flickering of the little lamp shaped into a crescent moon and most of all the slow lullaby tune. Most people in their right minds will agree that right now we’ve seen an assortment of horrorfilm cliches.
We cut to mom, woken by the babyphone. Never really got the point in having such technical gizmos. I mean, you usually wake when the baby screams, and as long as it’s not screaming it must be fine. But it probably goes along with the madness of getting one of these babbling, drooling creatures in the first place. On a side note, did they even have such babyphones back in the 80s?
So mom switches on the lights and stumbles out of bed to go and check on the little monster, while the camera lingers for a moment on the picture of the happy couple. I think even the most dense viewer has by now realized just how perfect this little family is.
Crossing the corridor she sees the silhouette of a man in the nursery, standing above the crib. Daddy is there, baby Sam seems to be fine, no hunger, no screaming, not even gurgling. See? There’s nothing to worry about.
Actually this makes me wonder why she bothered to get up in the first place, afterall the other side of the bed was empty. They don’t seem to have separate rooms, so I guess her husband’s usually staying up late. As she turns to head back to bed she’s distracted by a flickering lamp at the end of the corridor, giving an old photograph eerie illumination.
Frowning mom goes over to give the lampshade a good tap till the flickering stops, commenting her success with a non-committed “hmm”. Another one of those cliches this show seems to be quite fond of and I would comment further on it, but mom just heard some weird noise coming from downstairs.
The TV is running and in front of it is her husband, snoring completely undisturbed by the mayhem of a warfilm. Me and mom probably think the same thing right now. Oh shit.
So she bolts, up the stairs and back to the nursery. Horror is etched onto her face when she comes to an abrupt halt.
Her scream jolts daddy from his slumber and for reasons unknown he stumbles into the nursery instead of his own bedroom, looking around for any murdered wives or monsters hiding in the shadows. When he finds nothing out of the ordinary he visibly calms and goes to check on his son, who seems to be fine, happily sticking his tongue out at his father. Personally I think the kid is in league with whatever evil is lurking in that room.
Some dark spot appears on the pillow, right besides the toddler’s head. Daddy reaches out to touch and both his and baby Sam’s faces grow serious. Three more spots drip down and onto daddy’s hand. Blood. He turns to look up and there’s his wife, staring down at him with a huge red stain tainting her gown. Daddy stumbles back, screaming her name as she erupts into flames.
Well, not bad. After daddy and his sons make it safely out of the house, looking grief stricken we switch to present day, Stanford University.
Some pretty blonde in a cheap nurse’s outfit is calling for Sam. Apparently baby Sam survived getting raised by his father and brother and even turned into a nice, shockingly normal boy. He’s being forced into attending some Halloween party. I feel his pain.
Also it seems like Sam got the brains in the family. They’re celebrating Sammy’s LSAT victory, and while I know that it is apparently some awful university test the score means nothing to me. Then again Sam’s weird friends seem to think the boy wonder’s score equals that of a genius. We’re being further informed that Sam can now go to any law school he wants. Conveniently he’s already got an interview appointment in Stanford on Monday. And his family doesn’t know. Do I sense some daddy issues here?
A scene later Sam’s awakened by some noise coming from the inside of the house. Burglars? Monsters? Aliens? Nope, just some guy Sam promptly attempts to beat the shit out of. I emphasize ‘attempts’. Said guy happens to be his older brother Dean.
No hugs, no kisses, Sam’s definitely not happy to see family. But Dean doesn’t seem to be in the least offended and simply informs him that their father went missing while being on a hunting trip - and I doubt he’s talking about fuzzy mammals. Well, that certainly got Sam’s attention and while the boys start chatting about some rather abnormal, but probably very exciting, past-time activities involving Poltergeists, Voodoo and whatnot the viewer - me! - gets the first bits of exposition. About time. Anyways, Daddy’s missing and Dean needs help in finding him. Naturally he goes to his baby brother, not giving the poor boy much of a choice and more or less forces Sam into tagging along. Oh my, why do I get the feeling Sammy’s never gonna make it to that interview?
While the boys do some much needed catching up on their road trip, we skip ahead to their destination: Jericho, California.
It’s nighttime. Some new, random guy’s driving along the road. Doesn’t really matter that he’s talking to his girlfriend on the phone, we can be pretty sure that he won’t be seeing her again. He swiftly ends the call when he spots a lone figure standing at the roadside. Said figure is having bits of transmission problems, at least she - I’m pretty sure it’s a female - keeps flickering out of view and all of a sudden the radio is also having problems. That’s already been a dead giveaway for aliens, monsters and other unpleasant inhabitants of our humble planet back in the good old days when Mulder & Scully were still bickering about the very existence of these creatures.
But random guy doesn’t seem to be bothered much, and instead willingly follows her simple request of “Take me home.” This is worthy of an hearty eye roll. Of course it is perfectly normal that some woman in a fancy dress is standing all alone in the middle of nowhere. Even more so to be asking the first best guy to take her home and then to promptly start hitting on him. Right. You know, same thing happens to me all the time.
But random guy being a gentleman and all follows her request. They halt in front of some run down house and random guy is pretty much sure that this can’t be the right place. He turns to ask where she really lives but the lady is gone. He leaves the safety of his car to look for her, but after being scared shitless by some bat or bird coming out of the house finally decides to get the hell away from the place.
He hits the road, and after checking that nothing’s following him, tries to regain some semblance of composure. But of course the lady had to reappear in the backseat, looking not very pleased. So bloody predictable. Still jumped, only a little. Not that I’d ever willingly admit to doing such a thing. Never.
A few seconds later we witness the unfortunate end of random guy, with his blood spurting against the windshield. Who do you call? Ghostbusters.
Flashy lights, bit of flickering writing - I wonder if that was actually the entire title sequence. Bit short. Also the flickering is slightly annoying. Especially in the small hours of morning, when bleary eyes are most sensitive and it might generally be a far better idea to just work on improving your sleeping hours.
But I guess it really isn’t all that bad, afterall it gets a tad tiresome to sit through the same scenes and title music over and over again - and no, exchanging some of the clips is not an improvement. Only downside on it is that this also means losing the last chance of getting something to munch, might just as well start a diet.
And we‘re in Lawrence, Kansas, 22 years ago, nighttime. Now my geography skills are not the best, but I’m fairly certain that Kansas isn’t exactly the most exciting place on earth, unless of course you’re a little girl with red shoes, unfortunate enough to get caught in a tornado.
But of course something is about to happen as dictated by the cosmic law of storytelling. The music doesn’t bode well, and the crickets happily chirping away in the background have never ever been an indicator of a nice evening in a rural setting - this only works in advertisements for a vacation in the countryside, and even then it’s still dubious.
The camera tilts down to show an old two-storey house, shadowed by a gnarled tree. With the swelling music and cold lighting you’d almost expect some horrid scene to play out in that house. But inside a mother carries her young boy into a nursery, telling him to kiss his little brother goodnight. As the mother, with her long blonde curls and a nightgown that isn’t exactly the height of fashion, bends down to nuzzle the toddler, the apparent father makes an appearance. The boy whirls around and throws himself happily into the man’s arms. It really is a bit sappy.
After the parents leave baby Sam to put his older brother to bed we get a good look at the nursery, leaving me with a feeling of vague apprehension. It is not only the baby that worries me, it is the ticking clock, which miraculously stops just as the camera zooms closer, the muted lights, the flickering of the little lamp shaped into a crescent moon and most of all the slow lullaby tune. Most people in their right minds will agree that right now we’ve seen an assortment of horrorfilm cliches.
We cut to mom, woken by the babyphone. Never really got the point in having such technical gizmos. I mean, you usually wake when the baby screams, and as long as it’s not screaming it must be fine. But it probably goes along with the madness of getting one of these babbling, drooling creatures in the first place. On a side note, did they even have such babyphones back in the 80s?
So mom switches on the lights and stumbles out of bed to go and check on the little monster, while the camera lingers for a moment on the picture of the happy couple. I think even the most dense viewer has by now realized just how perfect this little family is.
Crossing the corridor she sees the silhouette of a man in the nursery, standing above the crib. Daddy is there, baby Sam seems to be fine, no hunger, no screaming, not even gurgling. See? There’s nothing to worry about.
Actually this makes me wonder why she bothered to get up in the first place, afterall the other side of the bed was empty. They don’t seem to have separate rooms, so I guess her husband’s usually staying up late. As she turns to head back to bed she’s distracted by a flickering lamp at the end of the corridor, giving an old photograph eerie illumination.
Frowning mom goes over to give the lampshade a good tap till the flickering stops, commenting her success with a non-committed “hmm”. Another one of those cliches this show seems to be quite fond of and I would comment further on it, but mom just heard some weird noise coming from downstairs.
The TV is running and in front of it is her husband, snoring completely undisturbed by the mayhem of a warfilm. Me and mom probably think the same thing right now. Oh shit.
So she bolts, up the stairs and back to the nursery. Horror is etched onto her face when she comes to an abrupt halt.
Her scream jolts daddy from his slumber and for reasons unknown he stumbles into the nursery instead of his own bedroom, looking around for any murdered wives or monsters hiding in the shadows. When he finds nothing out of the ordinary he visibly calms and goes to check on his son, who seems to be fine, happily sticking his tongue out at his father. Personally I think the kid is in league with whatever evil is lurking in that room.
Some dark spot appears on the pillow, right besides the toddler’s head. Daddy reaches out to touch and both his and baby Sam’s faces grow serious. Three more spots drip down and onto daddy’s hand. Blood. He turns to look up and there’s his wife, staring down at him with a huge red stain tainting her gown. Daddy stumbles back, screaming her name as she erupts into flames.
Well, not bad. After daddy and his sons make it safely out of the house, looking grief stricken we switch to present day, Stanford University.
Some pretty blonde in a cheap nurse’s outfit is calling for Sam. Apparently baby Sam survived getting raised by his father and brother and even turned into a nice, shockingly normal boy. He’s being forced into attending some Halloween party. I feel his pain.
Also it seems like Sam got the brains in the family. They’re celebrating Sammy’s LSAT victory, and while I know that it is apparently some awful university test the score means nothing to me. Then again Sam’s weird friends seem to think the boy wonder’s score equals that of a genius. We’re being further informed that Sam can now go to any law school he wants. Conveniently he’s already got an interview appointment in Stanford on Monday. And his family doesn’t know. Do I sense some daddy issues here?
A scene later Sam’s awakened by some noise coming from the inside of the house. Burglars? Monsters? Aliens? Nope, just some guy Sam promptly attempts to beat the shit out of. I emphasize ‘attempts’. Said guy happens to be his older brother Dean.
No hugs, no kisses, Sam’s definitely not happy to see family. But Dean doesn’t seem to be in the least offended and simply informs him that their father went missing while being on a hunting trip - and I doubt he’s talking about fuzzy mammals. Well, that certainly got Sam’s attention and while the boys start chatting about some rather abnormal, but probably very exciting, past-time activities involving Poltergeists, Voodoo and whatnot the viewer - me! - gets the first bits of exposition. About time. Anyways, Daddy’s missing and Dean needs help in finding him. Naturally he goes to his baby brother, not giving the poor boy much of a choice and more or less forces Sam into tagging along. Oh my, why do I get the feeling Sammy’s never gonna make it to that interview?
While the boys do some much needed catching up on their road trip, we skip ahead to their destination: Jericho, California.
It’s nighttime. Some new, random guy’s driving along the road. Doesn’t really matter that he’s talking to his girlfriend on the phone, we can be pretty sure that he won’t be seeing her again. He swiftly ends the call when he spots a lone figure standing at the roadside. Said figure is having bits of transmission problems, at least she - I’m pretty sure it’s a female - keeps flickering out of view and all of a sudden the radio is also having problems. That’s already been a dead giveaway for aliens, monsters and other unpleasant inhabitants of our humble planet back in the good old days when Mulder & Scully were still bickering about the very existence of these creatures.
But random guy doesn’t seem to be bothered much, and instead willingly follows her simple request of “Take me home.” This is worthy of an hearty eye roll. Of course it is perfectly normal that some woman in a fancy dress is standing all alone in the middle of nowhere. Even more so to be asking the first best guy to take her home and then to promptly start hitting on him. Right. You know, same thing happens to me all the time.
But random guy being a gentleman and all follows her request. They halt in front of some run down house and random guy is pretty much sure that this can’t be the right place. He turns to ask where she really lives but the lady is gone. He leaves the safety of his car to look for her, but after being scared shitless by some bat or bird coming out of the house finally decides to get the hell away from the place.
He hits the road, and after checking that nothing’s following him, tries to regain some semblance of composure. But of course the lady had to reappear in the backseat, looking not very pleased. So bloody predictable. Still jumped, only a little. Not that I’d ever willingly admit to doing such a thing. Never.
A few seconds later we witness the unfortunate end of random guy, with his blood spurting against the windshield. Who do you call? Ghostbusters.
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