Dear Internet, Stay Off My TV
The Internet is great. We all love it. You probably wouldn’t be here reading this if you didn’t have some soft spot for the Internet. It’s a wonderful invention. Thanks to the Internet anyone with access can find and share information with anyone and everyone else. It’s really quite wonderful and frightening. Wonderful because we have almost instant access to unlimited information, insight, thought, and opinion. Frightening because most of this information is complete, utter crap, and a disturbing amount of it comes in the form of socially maladjusted teenagers with webcams.
The Internet may be the most democratic invention since Gutenberg gave us the printing press. Anyone can find any piece of information with a few simple keystrokes. Anyone can post whatever piece of ephemera his heart desires. A housewife in Kansas can post an adorable video of kittens and puppies fighting over a baby’s ice cream cone (scientifically proven to be the most adorable combination possible) and have over a million hits in a week. Anyone with a semblance of literacy can start a blog and let anyone who wanders by know what he thinks. Even I can do it. I’m doing it right now. You don’t even technically need to be literate. Do you have a webcam? Just shout your thoughts into it. It’s just as good as a blog. I guess. All this opinion and thought is out there. All of it starts from a fairly level playing field. If people like it, they watch. If people don’t, you just end up shouting nonsense into the void (like this blog). But it’s all out there, just waiting for an interested pair of eyeballs.
Of course, there is a drawback. Most of the Internet sucks. I would wager at least ninety percent of the Internet content is completely incomprehensible. Five percent is comprehensible, but terrible. Four percent (they percentage I like to think this blog occupies) is merely amateurish, but has some value. And finally there is that one percent of the Internet that is the home to professional quality well thought out, well produced content. Sifting through the Internet can be a chore. If I want to know the best way to relieve the itch of a bug bite, I don’t want to wade through thirty Yahoo answers suggesting I rub mayonnaise on it before I get to something useful (Calamine lotion, of course.). If I want more information on a movie opening this weekend, I don’t want to read the snark of a million fanboys who all seem to be auditioning to be the next Bruce Vilanch. Sometimes I just want to be able to be able to turn to media trusting that I’m going to find good professional quality writing and production.
This is where traditional media comes into play for me. I know I can open a newspaper and find professional writers writing professionally and professionally edited by professional editors (at least for the immediate future until print media becomes a quaint memory like horse drawn sleighs and cocaine in Coke). Quality control is a novel concept that eludes most of the Internet. Anything can get out on the Internet, but for, say, a television show to make it on the air it at least has to make it past the suits. Say what you will about blandness of most network TV, but even the dullest episode of Two and a Half Men is better written, produced, and acted than ninety-nine percent of the originally content on YouTube. While I love that the Internet is a place for untested talent to push the boundaries and learn on the fly, I like knowing I can turn to some traditional media outlet and see something produced to a higher standard.
This is why I find it so distressing that more and more television is sinking to the level of the Internet. It seems that in a panic television executives are trying too hard to integrate the Internet into their programming. This is most evident in news and sports programming. Think about how often CNN seems to be bringing us up to date on what people are saying on Twitter. But I don’t care what people are saying on Twitter. Really. I could care less. And if I did want to know what people are saying on Twitter, I would go to Twitter. You see when I want Internet based information and opinion I’ll go to the Internet. When I go to television news I’m expecting something better than the Internet. I want professional news reporters and experts going in-depth on a story. I don’t need to know what some kid in his dorm thinks.
One of the worse offenders is ESPN. (I may be unfair here. I just happen to be exposed to ESPN more than almost any other channel since it is usually on at work all day.) It seems as though ESPN is intent on eventually merging their website completely with their station. If you watch ESPN all day – an experiment I can’t say I’d recommend – you will see different talking heads debate the same five major topics all day with the hosts popping in to check up with the Twitter feed or to show a webcam video of some idiot Cowboys’ fan calling out Eagles’ fans in the most unentertaining fashion imaginable. Now to top it off, ESPN officially has a show that is almost completely dedicated to interacting with the Internet hordes. It’s called Sportsnation, and it might be the dumbest show on the network. The shows format is two charisma-less, chemistry devoid co-hosts debate topics and the Sportsnation (i.e. the Internet) weighs in. That’s it. Seriously, I would rather watch World’s Strongest Man re-runs (actually, I really, really miss when all ESPN2 showed was quasi sports like World’s Strongest Man and Cup Stacking all afternoon). The problem is that ESPN seems to be doubting it’s own ability to broadcast sports. And in their rush to embrace the Internet they’re letting the lowered standards of the Internet onto the Television. Look I love the Internet. I really do, but I would really appreciate it if the Internet would get off my TV.
Shalom
The Internet may be the most democratic invention since Gutenberg gave us the printing press. Anyone can find any piece of information with a few simple keystrokes. Anyone can post whatever piece of ephemera his heart desires. A housewife in Kansas can post an adorable video of kittens and puppies fighting over a baby’s ice cream cone (scientifically proven to be the most adorable combination possible) and have over a million hits in a week. Anyone with a semblance of literacy can start a blog and let anyone who wanders by know what he thinks. Even I can do it. I’m doing it right now. You don’t even technically need to be literate. Do you have a webcam? Just shout your thoughts into it. It’s just as good as a blog. I guess. All this opinion and thought is out there. All of it starts from a fairly level playing field. If people like it, they watch. If people don’t, you just end up shouting nonsense into the void (like this blog). But it’s all out there, just waiting for an interested pair of eyeballs.
Of course, there is a drawback. Most of the Internet sucks. I would wager at least ninety percent of the Internet content is completely incomprehensible. Five percent is comprehensible, but terrible. Four percent (they percentage I like to think this blog occupies) is merely amateurish, but has some value. And finally there is that one percent of the Internet that is the home to professional quality well thought out, well produced content. Sifting through the Internet can be a chore. If I want to know the best way to relieve the itch of a bug bite, I don’t want to wade through thirty Yahoo answers suggesting I rub mayonnaise on it before I get to something useful (Calamine lotion, of course.). If I want more information on a movie opening this weekend, I don’t want to read the snark of a million fanboys who all seem to be auditioning to be the next Bruce Vilanch. Sometimes I just want to be able to be able to turn to media trusting that I’m going to find good professional quality writing and production.
This is where traditional media comes into play for me. I know I can open a newspaper and find professional writers writing professionally and professionally edited by professional editors (at least for the immediate future until print media becomes a quaint memory like horse drawn sleighs and cocaine in Coke). Quality control is a novel concept that eludes most of the Internet. Anything can get out on the Internet, but for, say, a television show to make it on the air it at least has to make it past the suits. Say what you will about blandness of most network TV, but even the dullest episode of Two and a Half Men is better written, produced, and acted than ninety-nine percent of the originally content on YouTube. While I love that the Internet is a place for untested talent to push the boundaries and learn on the fly, I like knowing I can turn to some traditional media outlet and see something produced to a higher standard.
This is why I find it so distressing that more and more television is sinking to the level of the Internet. It seems that in a panic television executives are trying too hard to integrate the Internet into their programming. This is most evident in news and sports programming. Think about how often CNN seems to be bringing us up to date on what people are saying on Twitter. But I don’t care what people are saying on Twitter. Really. I could care less. And if I did want to know what people are saying on Twitter, I would go to Twitter. You see when I want Internet based information and opinion I’ll go to the Internet. When I go to television news I’m expecting something better than the Internet. I want professional news reporters and experts going in-depth on a story. I don’t need to know what some kid in his dorm thinks.
One of the worse offenders is ESPN. (I may be unfair here. I just happen to be exposed to ESPN more than almost any other channel since it is usually on at work all day.) It seems as though ESPN is intent on eventually merging their website completely with their station. If you watch ESPN all day – an experiment I can’t say I’d recommend – you will see different talking heads debate the same five major topics all day with the hosts popping in to check up with the Twitter feed or to show a webcam video of some idiot Cowboys’ fan calling out Eagles’ fans in the most unentertaining fashion imaginable. Now to top it off, ESPN officially has a show that is almost completely dedicated to interacting with the Internet hordes. It’s called Sportsnation, and it might be the dumbest show on the network. The shows format is two charisma-less, chemistry devoid co-hosts debate topics and the Sportsnation (i.e. the Internet) weighs in. That’s it. Seriously, I would rather watch World’s Strongest Man re-runs (actually, I really, really miss when all ESPN2 showed was quasi sports like World’s Strongest Man and Cup Stacking all afternoon). The problem is that ESPN seems to be doubting it’s own ability to broadcast sports. And in their rush to embrace the Internet they’re letting the lowered standards of the Internet onto the Television. Look I love the Internet. I really do, but I would really appreciate it if the Internet would get off my TV.
Shalom
posted by James | 12:01 PM
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