Hi Barry and Jason, Manuel Castells also mentions this in his The Rise of the Network Society, and offers an alternative to the McLuhan idiom: the message is now the medium. When channels focus on smaller markets, programming becomes increasingly more specific according to the channel that provides it. Or something like that, it was like 13 years ago or so. paul emerson teusner http://teusner.org/ -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Jason Mittell Sent: Thursday, 17 September 2009 11:03 To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-L] Family in the 21st century on TV Barry wrote:
I wonder -- and would love evidence -- if TV watching has become more personal TV watching instead of family TV watching -- so shows are narrowcasting their demographics much more. This would be true if each sentient HHold member had their own TV, and if many folks were getting their TV fix thru downloads, podcasts, iPhones, etc. (I know I'm being quasi-redundant here).
This is a fairly well-documented and not-so-recent phenomenon - a good overview (now 12 years old!) is Joseph Turow's *Breaking Up America*, on the rise of narrowcasting and market segmentation across media. I'm pretty sure that more up-to-date statistical evidence is included in a number of the Pew technology use surveys. At the level of programming, there's no doubt that the full-family hit is a rare exception today (*American Idol* is often pointed to as a hold-out, but even that's fading), and advertisers are less interested in mass appeal across broad audiences than dense homogeneous segments that can be more easily sold specific goods. Virtually no scripted program aims for the full "four quadrants" anymore (young & old across both genders), so the image of the core family as the anchor for television's domestic representations has waned. Interestingly, whenever I teach this topic, my students agree with Turow's diagnosis of market segmentation, but disagree with his judgment that this is a bad thing - they see very little cultural utility to be watching the same programs in the same rooms at the same time as their parents, as they have rarely known that experience. -Jason --- Jason Mittell, Associate Professor of American Studies and Film & Media Culture Chair of Film & Media Culture Department Middlebury College 208 Axinn Center at Starr Library Middlebury, Vermont 05753 (802) 443-3435 / fax: (802) 443-2805 Homepage: http://go.middlebury.edu/mittell Blog: http://justtv.wordpress.com _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/