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"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root." ~ Thoreau

Old school politics:

Elites instruct masses about politics and social values chiefly through television, the major source of information for the vast majority of Americans. Those who control this flow of information are among the most powerful persons in the nation. In 1972 virtually every family in America (99.8 percent) had a TV set, compared to only 19.8 percent in 1952. Thus, it is only recently that TV newsmakers rose to power. Newspapers have always reported on wars, politics, crime, and scandal, just as they do today; but the masses of Americans did not read them. Instead, they quickly passed over the headlines to the sports and comics, pausing perhaps at the latest scandals and violent crimes. But television is the first really mass communication form. Nearly everyone, including children, watches the evening news. And over two-thirds of the public testify that television provides "most of my views about what is going on in the world today."¹ But TV has its greatest impact because it is visual: it can convey emotions as well as information. Police dogs attacking blacks, sacks of dead American GIs being loaded on helicopters, scenes of burning and looting in cities, all convey emotions as well as information.

2 Sam 1:25a

25a
How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle!

The Media Debate, Part Deux
To paraphrase, the battle for print publishing is over, the battle for media itself has begun…

Several years ago, Leo Laporte predicted that 2007 would be the year of the podcast, and that 2008 would be the year of online video. He was pretty much right on the money.
Things have changed for big media in so many fundamental ways. In so many ways the problems facing video providers (formerly known as “television”) are, as with the print publishers, about delivery means. Here again we have a quaint and outmoded delivery means that enforces some rather bizarre requirements upon its users. Let’s step back and have a look, pretending we’re looking at television for the first time.

A schedule? Why can’t I watch what I want, when I want?
I have to pay for access so they can advertise to me?
I have to pay extra for access to movies? Didn’t I already pay you?
What was up with that “Writers Strike”?
How much “Sur-reality” programming do you really need?

The fight in broadcast media actually started with the advent of cable, has slowly simmered through the days of vcrs and on [to] the Tivo revolution. A core constituency of viewers was trained to expect to be able to get what they want when they want it, and once that genie is out of the bottle, you’ll never get it back in.

Back in the day when we had 4 of 5 broadcast channels to choose from and they went off the air sometime after Johnny Carson, we were quite happy to take our video on their terms. Then, the big three networks schedules really meant something, since that was what we were going to have to watch. Now we’ve got hundreds of cable channels and the networks are hemorrhaging viewers. Look at what’s happened to the nightly news cast viewership if you don’t believe me.

(excerpt)

John Wallace, NBC Universal president of local media, concurs:

Mr. Wallace said local television "has a perception issue right now as to whether it is a sustainable business long term." Once a huge generator of cash for media companies, local stations, whose audiences are "eroding and aging," have become "slow-growth business," Mr. Wallace said, now averaging between 1 percent and 3 percent revenue growth.

"We look at our content and we believe it’s relevant content," Mr. Wallace said. "It's just not convenient because of the way people’s lives have changed with technology."

The thing that effectively started to kill network TV programming was the rise the videocassette recorder in both Beta and VHS formats in the late 1970's to late 1980's. With the VCR, late-night programming such as The Tonight Show and Late Night with David Letterman became major hits because people no longer needed to stay up to watch the show. It isn't coincidental that NBC's Saturday Night Live gained a large audience just when VCR's became hugely popular, since people no longer needed to stay up to watch the show at its regular broadcast time of 11:30 pm ET/10:30 pm CT.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121036785731781477.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

‘Upfronts’ Go Low Key
By REBECCA DANA
May 10, 2008

During this strike-wounded TV season, some television executives consoled themselves by saying that the turmoil might at least prompt changes in one of the industry’s more cumbersome traditions: the annual “upfront” presentations to advertisers. In a world of year-round program introductions and digital video recorders, these expensive pep rallies to trumpet the “fall season” seemed old-fashioned.

No such luck. This year they need upfront razzle-dazzle more than ever.

Two weeks into the May “sweeps” period, when the networks trot out their best attention-grabbing programming and audiences are usually among the largest of the year, ratings for the broadcasters are down about 20% from last year, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Spooked advertisers will be looking for a sign from network executives that autumn will bring the return of those viewers who defected to cable and the Internet during this winter’s crippling 100-day Hollywood writers’ strike. They will want further assurances that a possible actors’ strike this summer won’t disrupt next season as this one was.

The strike delayed by several weeks the traditional spring development period, where networks and studios decide which veteran series to pick up for another year and order pilots for new shows. Consequently, the networks will have few polished pilots to show advertisers.

Instead, the networks have prepared an array of low-key presentations, combining scant video clips with plenty of evocative descriptions of the shows yet to come.

Executives will emphasize the past year’s efforts to dramatically expand broadcast television’s presence on the Web, whether with home sites such as Walt Disney Co.’s ABC.com1, or other video-streaming sites, including Hulu.com2, a joint venture between News Corp.’s Fox and General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal.

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