Discourse 1 pt 2

Television Did it First: Ten Myths about ‘New’ Media.

• Television will most likely not become forgotten.
• People seek more to be on television than internet.
• ‘Virtual Reality’ is just a new form of ‘escapist’ comedy.
• TV is an easier escape from reality
• TV viewers have a short attention span, like those on the internet.
• Broadcast news TV was ‘kinetic’ in order hook viewers, like internet.
• ‘Reality TV’ has been around for a while.
• The usage of ‘hyperlinked’ story telling was already evident in soap operas.
  ‘Tune in tomorrow’.
• ‘Real-time transmission’ allows people to ‘experience’ history in the making, but that’s been around since Edward R. Murrow who transmitted real-time shows.
• Chat rooms offer a new way to connect and build social groups with people, yet talk shows ‘did that first’.
• Both TV and web advertising is annoying.
• Things we are celebrating about internet was scolded on TV.
  
  
  
  
  
  This article here sounded mainly like a rant of an a person who is afraid on the new Internet. The essay went over ten ‘myths’ about how new media isn‘t ‘that new after ’, and argued why the television ‘did all of these things first‘. Amongst the examples given, he pointed out that  ‘virtual reality’, which is seen as new technology to emerge a person into a different, visual, world, has been around for a while through sitcoms such as I Dream of Jeanie or Bewitched, which offered a ‘break’ from the daily life by emerging oneself in a world full of fantasy, yet still very real. Amongst other things, the author also pointed out that ‘kinetic content’ has been around a long time to grab attention on television, just like the internet. Amongst many examples of needing dynamic, moving, content on television to convey information were news. He emphasized that news would be ‘boring’ to the viewer had they not such things as special effects and extreme camera angles. One of the examples given to prove this was 60 Minutes News which aired on CBS since 1968. This does, however, bring up an ethical question ‘do we watch news for their content or their special effects with the content?‘‘ Would the news be interesting by themselves? ‘Or would they, perhaps, simply fail at feeling the hungry audience?‘ One needs to answer these questions alone, however, we can not deny the fact that ‘users’ have short attention spans, whether it be television or the net.