Police Media Networks

The television networks covering the Baltimore events are framing the protesters as "thugs." Here again, the vocabulary choice is generalizing a whole group of people and criminalizing them. Furthermore, the news helicopters are equivalent to the policing state in being complicit in framing violence (through removed camera angles) as an inherent characteristic of a racial group.

Core Response 5 (2.0) - The Medium Has Collapsed

In her chapter “Television Outside the Box”, Amanda Lotz gives an in depth and somewhat retrospective analysis of what she calls revolutionized television of 2007. Reading this chapter, eight years later in 2015, generally bolsters my own fascination with the ongoing evolution of post-network TV distribution. As digital “pure play” streaming platforms such as Amazon, Hulu and Netflix continue to escalate in popularity, and with the emergence of subscription based exclusive streaming services like Vessel, Lotz’s questions surrounding audience fragmentation remain relevant. Lotz argues that with the introduction of new technological advances in the reception and aesthetics of TV, “Viewers gained greater control over their entertainment experience, yet became attached to an increasing range of devices that demanded their attention and financial support,” (51).

The decentralization of TV viewing (that is to say we no longer only consume TV in our living rooms on our sofas) along with the disruption of linear programming and flow (we can set our at home DVR’s to record chosen programs with a few clicks on our cell phones) that Lotz and others began to observe in the early 2000’s have become dominant practices in television consumption.

Lotz highlights a distinction between mobile TV for convenience and portable TV for the desire of immediacy when discussing the viewer motivations for engaging in alternative modes of TV consumption. Mobile TV which allows viewers to “disrupt the networks” by use of DVR and VOD becomes even more disruptive in the form of portable TV – which in early stages came by way of DVD box sets and in newer formats consists of online streaming via tablets and mobile apps.

Portable TV redefines the medium itself by breaking apart the traditional structure of TV consumption and opening up the possibility of TV being viewed anywhere, at any time an in any conceivable way. We can essentially go about our daily lives in constant company of our favorite TV programs at our beckon call.  To take things a step further, these new modes of disruption have prompted an overhaul in the actual development and production of TV. Network executives are thinking about millennial online audiences who don’t have cable subscriptions. Tech startups are conjuring the next big online/mobile streaming platforms. Internet celebrity wannabes are clamoring to post viral content.  TV isn’t made for TV anymore. The medium has collapsed.  

In “Flexible Microcasting”, Lisa Parks outlines the different ways in which the Networks – through personalized and gender targeted programming, the re-imagining of traditional quiz shows, and use of Internet based branded content – attempted to “transition viewers into online domains,” (138). Parks uses the term “post-broadcasting” to describe the integration of on air broadcasting programs with Internet based computer technologies.

What is most interesting for me here is Parks’ reading of the failure of DEN as a partial product of its “anti-television rhetoric”. Parks states that, “The economic viability of the Den was built on the assumption that youth would want to turn off network and cable TV and turn on the DEN in a search for salient content – that is, content deemed too fringe for broadcast television,” (151). She posits that DEN’s unwillingness to tap into the hybrid potential of Internet TV contributed to its obsolescence. 

Almost prophetically, Internet streaming of TV programs began taking over as a prime popular mode of consumption just a few years after Parks’ chapter was written.  The Internet through Hulu, Netflix, Amazon (and countless other ‘bootleg’ digital options) has emerged as perhaps Network TV’s greatest ally, and simultaneously its most daunting competitor. Furthermore, with digital pure play platforms like Netflix and Amazon producing their own original content traditionally constructed meaning of TV has all but collapsed in terms of conception, production and consumption.  

Core Response 5: What Convergence Means When You Co-habitate With A Nerd

This week's readings on Convergence were particularly interesting to me, when you consider that I read them through my own particular A/V filter. And while I was already an adult and can therefore remember the late 90s and early 2000s well, I never would have thought that I'd be watching "TV" the way I currently do.
I think I've mentioned before that my partner Mat has a PhD from MIT's Media Lab. His dissertation and focus of research was all about immersive environments and storytelling, so this is his domain, and as such, we have an incredibly complicated home theater system. Like, when we have house-sitters, not only do I have to leave them a full page of typed instructions on how to watch TV, but it's always accompanied with at least one phone call for tech support.
We have two "TV's" -- I use that term loosely.
One is an actual Television that is hooked up to expensive Time Warner or DirecTV or whatever cable provider we currently have. But, it's also connected to a server that runs Windows and XBMC, or actually, I think he replaced XBMC with a newer program called Kodi. These are open source home theater software programs (transformation). While we can watch live television, we almost never do except for sporting events and moments of sheer desperation. Mostly, we log in to torrentleech or torrentbytes or any one of a number of file sharing sites specifically for television and film, and download the shows and movies we are interested in seeing, from all over the world. I watch Downton Abbey on British time. These sites are invite only, and track your "ratio" of downloading and sharing back and if you aren't careful, you can get kicked out.
This same server is networked to our "Bed-In" as I like to call it. On the wall in front of our bed is a full projector screen that rises and falls with the push of a button. Mounted on the ceiling over our bed is a projector (Mat is from the east coast and doesn't understand earthquakes so well), that is connected to a raspberry pi or some tiny computer running the same program that extracts and plays these files, so all the media we download in the living room is also available to watch in the bedroom. In fact, you can use both, simultaneously, you just can't watch the same program or "file." Once the files are on the server, we can further upload them to the cloud, and watch the same files on our laptops when we travel (volitional mobility?)
When I scroll through the list of of torrents, the menu of shows I get to pick from, I usually have another window open to google names I don't recognize. My scan-and-search, if you will. This is how I have found some of my favorite shows like Black Mirror and Plebs. Shows I might never have found otherwise. Shows I get to watch, commercial free, ahead of my time zone's schedule. We can even choose the level of picture quality we want (non HD, 720p, 1020p). I guess we're creating our own flow.
We justify our behavior by simultaneously paying a small fortune for cable we don't actually use. We do, however get a lot from our business class ethernet.
Are we the future of convergence? I doubt it. We use a keyboard instead of a remote. At least 3-7 tutorials are required before you have a working knowledge of the system. A system that crashes every so often. But will someone create a sleek, user-friendly, intuitive version of this kind of system? Maybe... in the meantime, please don't report us to the authorities.

The Office "Diversity Day"

After reading Jess's post about "New Girl's" discussion of race, I decided to post one of my favorite episodes of The Office. It's from season 1, and it's called "Diversity Day." The entire office has to go through diversity sensitivity training after Michael imitates a Chris Rock stand up routine. I thought this was a very comical and real (I definitely know some Michael Scotts) way to handle the discussion of race on network television. Has anyone else seen it? What do you guys think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N-lix79zuk

Reality TV Meets Live Television With Bruce Jenner

Nearly 17 million people tuned in live for Bruce Jenner's 20/20 special with Diane Sawyer in which he announced he is transgender and is going to transition into a woman.

Below is a link to an article discussing the stats and demographics of who tuned into the special. It did so well, that many think ABC will re-air it in the coming weeks. I thought this was particularly relevant to our discussions about both reality TV and live television.

During the special, Bruce poked fun at the Kardashian reality series and stated how strange it was that while they were scrambling to come up with "storylines" for the show, he (I believe he said he's not ready to switch pronouns yet) had the biggest story of them all. Did anyone else watch the special? If so what did you think?

I thought it was thoughtful, and very well-done. Although it did not encompass all of the issues the trans community faces, it does put a recognizable face to struggle trans men and women face to be accepted in society.

Bruce is planning an eight-episode docuseries for E! that he hopes will raise awareness of LGBT issues.  I think this was very brave of Bruce to do, and is a step forward in reality TV covering important, topical issues. Hopefully it will help raise awareness, and open up dialogue and discussions to help less privileged members of the trans community.

http://www.vulture.com/2015/04/nearly-17-million-watched-jenner-interview.html

Priming To Practice Convergence

I came across an interesting article concerning a study by the American Pediatrics Association reported by Time. Younger populations are exposed to converging media content, and there are some concerns. Interacting with media interfaces at the age of six months will engender some issues regarding cognitive health (which I am theorizing at this point). If the more younger generations are exposed to using technologies, this is evident of a total dependence on technology playing a role in shaping our lives. 

Time article: http://time.com/3834978/babies-use-devices/

La télévision fançaise: Possible Transnational Content?

Delphine Ernotte, president of France Télévisions, wants to modernize French television so that its content can be exportable to international markets. Furthermore, the newly appointed president is hoping to reach younger audiences as television in France competes with media streaming platforms (mostly U.S.-based), and is determined to also create streaming content. Unlike U.S. television shows immediately going online after the conclusion of a season, French television has yet to explore those possibilities. It is interesting to see what direction French television will take in a few years.

Link to the French article published online in Le Monde:
http://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2015/04/24/comment-delphine-ernotte-veut-transformer-france-televisions_4622386_3234.html