Video: The Distinctive Features of the Medium

I find that "Video: The Distinctive Features of the Medium" by David Antin had a very cynical tone.  It talks about television “dominance” in video and how it influences everyone – video artists, viewers, producers, etc.
The first part that caught my attention was about how in television, transmission dominates reception.  “Choice [is] in the hands of the sender”.  Unlike phones and some other technology, television doesn’t really need the interaction or response of the receiver.

Secondly, I agree that television dominants because it’s instantaneous, live broadcasting a.k.a. “real time.  Because of that, there’s more “truth” in the broadcast, where errors and accidents are revealed.  For instance, there was a news reporter who had a stroke and began babbling gibberish, slurred words.  If it weren’t live, editors would have most likely taken it out.  I’m not saying it’s a good thing or a bad thing – it’s a bit of both.  We’re humans, we make mistakes so we console/comfort ourselves when we find faults in others.  However, I do sympathize for people, like the reporter because it’s quite embarrassing.

Television also provides interconnection between people.  My sister, who’s in California, can be watching the same program as me even though we’re living at different places and experiencing a different time zone!

I compared television and videotapes with live concerts and youtube (though live concerts > television).  Videotapes and youtube give you the option to rewind and fast-forward and when people are given permission to, they will do it.  Knowing that it’s not live will make things drag and less interesting.  Where else, if a show is on television, viewers are more likely to watch through the whole program – same with concerts.

The article also mentions about news being like commercials; they’re brief summaries of actual events – not the actual event.  This reminded me of discussions I’ve had on how media shapes our thoughts.  Sometimes we are only shown one side of the story.  For example, yesterday in class, our instructor showed us photos of scenery, architecture, animals, etc. and had us guess which country the photos depicted.  Most of us said the lavish pictures were of U.S., Europe, Asia, and Australia and the underprivileged pictures were of Africa.  Our instructor then revealed that all the pictures were from Africa!  We then realized that we have stereotypical judgments on places because of media’s presentations.

Lastly, I just wanted to mention that the prisoner scenario was really interesting!  It reminded me of Liar Game and life in general.