Movies | December 29, 2009 | 4 comments

Will 'Get What You Want' Leave A Cultural Gap?

source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121986877

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atomiclegion
Get what you want, when you want it. That's the phrase that has dominated the entertainment industry over the past decade. New technologies have given us access to countless channels for music, television and film — and we can sample them whenever we find it convenient. But as the options multiply, are we losing our sense of a common culture?

Take "The Outing," the Seinfeld episode in which a reporter thought Jerry and George were lovers. Even if you didn't see it — not that there's anything wrong with that — you heard about it: at work, at school, in the checkout line at the grocery store. And suddenly the show about nothing, says Stanford University communications professor Clifford Nass, meant something even to people who didn't watch it.

"That's really what marks cultural touchstones," says Nass. "Things that people are aware of; that they can share; that they can make reference to — that they don't actually have to consume themselves."

More than 40 percent of American households saw the final episode of Seinfeld in the spring of 1998, according to the Nielsen ratings company. Fast-forward about 11 years: American Idol may be the most popular program on television today, but only about 16 percent of American households saw this year's finale.


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121986877
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4 comments // Will 'Get What You Want' Leave A Cultural Gap?

  • remanns
  • remanns
    • 0
      remanns  

    • That was well written and makes a good point about the "go shopping" lowest common denominator battle cry of the Bush league,.....BUT,....I would submit this premise;
      ----if there is not an INNATE collectivist gene or universal-humanistic meme package that virtually necessitates we maintain a 'group' state of consciousness,....then instead of continually INSISTING that we all wear some fashion of the same strait jacket, we strive to OVERCOME successfully and for all time the "Group > The Individual" constraint/conceit.
      The "greatest good,...for the greatest number" has always had an internal contradiction and incompatibility of value sets.

    • 2 years ago
  • remanns
    • +1
      remanns  

    • If we are down to TV as cultural glue to bind us, I think we are better off as free radicals in solution.
      ........not that theres anything wrong with the soup Nazi.

    • 2 years ago
  • CreatioExNihil
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