David Antin

In Video: The Distinctive Features of the Medium by David Antin gives off the sense of television should be looked down upon. I don’t entirely disagree. For instance television is not the best place to look for information. The news doesn’t always show everything that is happening. With the recent problems in Japan the news has been reporting many things that have been going on, but there might be much that they haven’t said, or not enough time to tell them. This also brings up the fact that most things on the news or on television shown more of what is bad than what is good. I hardly realized such things because I am so used to it. I do not think that television is all bad though, “...its ability to show distant events at the moment they are taking place.” This can bring people together regardless of where they are or where they are from. It’s similar to how the internet can connect many people at once.

“...the television audience will not only accept, but will even enjoy, a production error or even a comedian who blows his lines... The audience loves to admire... the performer ‘pulls himself out of a jam’”. Reading this, I do have to admit I enjoy when this happens. Sometimes it can bring laughter to see what the performers will do, or even bring curiousness to see what will happen next. It can make the viewer become more interested in what is happening, because it’s not what’s supposed to happen. Yet, I do not think that is what television should show because it must be horrible for the performers.

As I continued to read, commercials had come up. I really dislike them, except for those rare ones that can make me laugh. Commercials seem to have just as much time as actually shows or programs. In my opinion, it makes me not want to watch television because most of the time it’s commercials! I think commercials can actually lead others away from television. An example may be that a person would rather watch a movie than sit and watch television to avoid the advertisements. So to me, television has its faults. It’s like a gray area because television seems to be both good and bad.