Doug Henwood wrote:
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> Oh come on. I didn't say you had to watch every dumb sitcom, chat
> show, and sports contest. But TV is one of the main forces shaping
> popular consciousness, and if you're out of touch with it, you don't
> know what makes people tick. Which may be fine with you, but it's not
> with me.
First, we not only have a TV, we have a satellite service. But I still say you've gone over the edge.
O.K. -- you don't have to watch every dumb sit-com. How many _do_ you have to watch? How many soaps? How many cop shows? How many hours of ads perday? What proportion of different products. Do you have to watch at least one snack ad (e.g. pringles) a week, or one a day? Or do you have to watch only 3 ads for 3 different snack products a year?
How about magazines? Glamour etc. How many of them? People etc. How many of them?
How from your x hours of TV watching to you determine the meaning of all that you've watched?
How many hours of basketball a year?
How many hours of business reporting?
Do you have to watch a balanced selection from each of the networks?
Is it o.k. to wait till a movie is on a free channel, or should you see it on pay-per-view, or should you wait til its on hbo? Or must one see a balanced selection of new movies in theatres? After all, isn't audience behavior in theatres a part of american cultuer?
What percentage of the american people read newpapers published in cities of less than 300,000 population? How many of those newspapers do you have to read a year?
What do you know about the behavior of cash register clerks in serve-yourself gas stations along the I-highways? How many hours a year do you need to spend shopping, or at least 'window' shopping in Walmarts each year?
You simply cannot say "One needs to experience X category of activities to understand American culture." That way insanity lies.
> Besides, it doesn't all suck.
Oh, you mean one need only view the superior productions to understand american culture. The culture of those who watch or produce the tve that sucks doesn't count???
Carrol
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> Doug