As a senior at the University of Iowa my days are filled with numerous classes and work. Whenever I get free time, usually after 6:00 p.m., I spend my remaining hours of the day glued to the television. I know it sounds pathetic but I am fascinated with the variety of shows we are provided with and what they add to my knowledge. You would think placing yourself in front of a television for hours on end would force your brain to shut down and make you dumber but in actuality every time I watch a show I think critically about what the meaning of the show might be in my mind or how the cinematography foreshadows what is to come in later episodes such as in Lost. My goals for criticizing television are to do it thoughtfully and uniquely. I want to be able to come up with different meanings for programs that the usual viewer would not see. Not just the plain and simple emotional response; a tear, anger, excitement. Something distinctive and scholarly that persuades a reader using lemans terms in a voice that is young and somewhat entertaining in order to engage the reader.
Television criticism can be aimed to get back at the producers and directors or give them praise by finding their meaning within the text or even better, a new idea created by you the critical thinker. In order to criticize television you need to evoke a response from an audience. You can do this by being as subjective as you can. Subjective as O’Donnell explains it, is how every “individual has a perceptual field that is unique to that person and shaped by many influences, and this field forms the filters through which we perceive” (6). While I may have an interesting take on why Dexter is a likeable character even though he commits evil acts, no one person can say that I am wrong unless I am trying to make a claim that is insanely unrealistic. In short, there are multiple criticisms to one text however, no interpretation is the one and only correct explanation.
Similarly, Butler talks about multiple meanings in television which he calls “polysemy”. In order to understand his definition of “polysemy” flow needs to be defined. Flow is how a television show is played in conjunction with advertisements and commercials; whether they go against the theme of the show or tag along with it. Butler defines polysemy as many meanings “television offers [that are] illustrated by excerpting a chunk of the television flow” (Buttler, 7). I observed this just last year while living in my sorority house. In my room we had a television with rabbit ears, only allowing my roommate and I to watch one channel; the CW. An example of the shows that aired during that time were Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, 90210, and at night Sex and the City. I noticed an underlying theme promoting sexual behavior throughout all of the programming on the station after about 6:00 p.m. Even the commercials had to do with sex; KY promoted its newest product, Trojan theirs, and romantic phone chat lines. Is this all ironic? I think not, the flow between the television series and advertisements all seem to compromise each other and the owners of the CW are the ones who chose what gets aired when and where. Perhaps my view is incorrect and maybe these shows are set to teach a lesson on sexual actions and consequences but it is up to the critic to pursue a claim and back it up with sources.
What comes to your mind when you hear the word “hegemony”? My initial thought is how media corporations compromise to stay in power through negotiation of thematic issues and social norms within programming. Hegemony poses a threat to unique forms of media; the idea of dominant discourses. An example of that threat is the uniqueness of The Beatles. At first listen they seemed one of a kind and distinctive, however as time evolved they became just another boy band in the homogeny of popular culture. Just as reality television first came out to be original and never been done before, is now turned into this common trend seen throughout various television channels. Some may argue different but this is an example of how hegemony is present in the media just as Brunsdon introduced the term in her essay on “Identity in feminist television criticism” (1993).
To make sense of it all, I want to sustain a transparent relationship when criticizing a text (Brunsdon, 312). By blogging I can write freely about my interpretations and criticisms of a text and anyone can comment on my work which will in the end make me a stronger critic by learning from challenges by others and opening up my psyche to new perspectives. I will always continue to enjoy my favorite shows such as Lost, Dexter, True Blood, The Bachelor, and The Soup but keep in mind that how I view these shows can be seen very different through the lenses of another viewer due to various meanings within a text.
References
Brunsdon, C. (1993). Identity in feminist television criticism. Media, Culture and Society, 15: 309-320.
Butler, J. (2002). Television: Critical Methods and Applications (2nd ed). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
O’Donnell, V. (2007). Television Criticism. New York: Sage.
My New Favorite Bloggers!~ blog-roll please...
14 years ago
