post class 11/7

On Wednesday we finished up Herman & Chomsky and Bourdieu and we talked about TV Networks and the culture surrounding them. We talked about the sameness we see in television, this flattening caused by profits from advertising. What it all comes down to is networks put on programs for the people to watch and enjoy, not for a television altruistic goal of keeping the populace entertained, engaged and informed but to keep the populace watching and buying either products or ideas.  TV Networks don’t play the same things because the don’t want to play anything else, they are just afraid of crossing boundaries, breaking boundaries and have fears of the difference because they want people to tune in, so they can sell them things. It is like a chicken and egg debate, who influences TV, is the Networks or people? Is television a democracy? Or is a bunch of suits pushing the same trends for cultural, political or economic gain. I would say American television is both of these things.  The notion of keeping the viewer in a comfortable place, to keep us in a buying mood is very true. I loved the quote “{Brand Name Experts] have a vested interest in commonly held opinion” I also like the idea of “Brand Name Experts” this approach of “we are the official channel or station for news, comedy, drama etc. When really if we take news channels for example you get almost the same stories from CNN, Fox News or MSNBC but you just get a different perception of these news stories. There are no true news experts just news stations to keep liberals content or conservatives content so they can buy into products or ideas. This profit driven TV culture just goes back to the Golden Rule (Marx) “He Who Owns The Gold Rules” or even Wu-tang Clan’s adaptation CREAM “Cash.Rules.Everything.Around.Me”  I don’t remember the exact quote but when Bourdieu talks about increasing awareness of the mechanisms at work, I feel like this is what our culture needs, we need to figure out why we do the things we do, good or bad. For example if we read a manual about cars, we will probably know more about this car and it will improve our time with car in terms or maintenance and comfort. Can’t this be said for a cultural awareness? If we were to critically study our culture we would better understand it and become actors of change. We just need to read closer, see the gaps [tmesis] and read through them. If we take a true pleasure in our cultures text we would know so much more and know why these good and bad things happen.