shereads
Sloganless
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2003
- Posts
- 19,242
rgraham666 said:I blame the education system, shereads.
I don't regard media being as bad as it is and the fact that half the population is illiterate, functionally or actually, as unrelated phenomena.
No argument there, Rob. We both know that commercial television increasingly panders to the lowest common denominator. You're addressing why that target is so low. I'm suggesting, with tongue partially in cheek, that technology has assisted the dumbing down of the medium. The TV remote made it easy to indulge one's short attention span; Tivo and other devices that measure viewership moment-by-moment have taken the guesswork out of the ratings game. Instead of asking those mysterious "Nielson families" to be honest about how much time they spend watching Dukes of Hazard reruns, it's now possible for broadcasters to pinpoint the exact moment when Joe Doe lost interest in Hamlet and decided to check out Daisy Duke's butt.
That's not necesssarily a bad thing, you know. By identifying the flaws in low-rated programs and taking some cues from shows that make money, it should be possible to accommodate high-brow cultural elitists without making Bubba tune out. Is there any reason why Ophelia can't wear hotpants?