TV Eye
Who's in Charge?
By Belinda Acosta, Fri., April 20, 2007
National TV-Turnoff Week returns April 23, according to the TV-Turnoff Network (www.tvturnoff.org). "Founded in 1994, TV-Turnoff Network is dedicated to the belief that we all have the power to determine the role that television plays in our own lives," according to the TV-Turnoff Web site. "Rather than waiting for others to make 'better' TV, we can turn it off and reclaim time for our families, our friends, and for ourselves."
That sounds fine and good on the surface, until you realize it's a passive position. Instead of ignoring the problem, couldn't that week be better served by proactively demanding something better from TV? I'm not saying reading, exercise, and family time are not viable alternatives to TV, but ignoring it for a week, presumably with the idea that once you start, you can't stop not watching TV, ignores the elephant in the room. Those who watch TV should make the time to learn about the medium and who's in charge of what. We should all be more discerning and not throw up our hands as if we have no other options than to change the channel from one half-hour of drivel to the next. We should all realize the stranglehold commercial TV has over a medium that really is supposed to be for the public good, not for its use to intrude on and influence our lives. It's been this way for a long time, of course. The public has long lost sight (if they ever knew to begin with) of the original intent of the airwaves. But it seems to me that with the new challenges to TV's centrality, it provides a new moment to seize the medium and shake it up a bit.
Go ahead. Put down that remote for a week and go for a walk, take up knitting, call your mom. But maybe for the other 51 weeks of the year, spend some time coming up with ways to rattle the cages of the media conglomerates and make them respond in a real way to our needs and desires. If we even know what they are. TV and other media do a good job defining what those needs and desires are. So, maybe we need a TV-Turnoff year to totally detox and come up with new ways to approach and critique the medium. Unrealistic? Never doubt the power of imagination.
"The War' update
In a surprising yet welcome turnaround, PBS President Paula Kerger conceded to the demands of the Defend the Honor campaign and several other high-profile Latino organizations. The groups had expressed outrage over the lack of U.S. Latino representation in the upcoming Ken Burns documentary on World War II, The War. While calls to rework the documentary were initially rebuffed, in a letter dated April 11 to Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez at the University of Texas at Austin and the Defend the Honor campaign indicated that additional content would be created to include the Latino and Native American contributions to World War II, that Latino producers would be hired to help create this content, and that companion media (DVDs, the official Web site) would include the additional material. A companion book, The War: An Intimate History, 1941-1945 (Alfred A. Knopf) co-authored by historian Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, is not included in the agreement. Since the book is not a PBS project, it will not be included in PBS-distributed educational materials. Will the book be promoted in The War trailers? The letter doesn't say. In fact, there are still numerous details to work out. The Defend the Honor campaign core group and representatives from other Latino organizations met with PBS to discuss these details. In the meantime, The War is still scheduled for a Sept. 23 launch. The full text of the Kerger letter can be read at www.defendthehonor.org under press releases.
"We look forward, now more than ever, to showing this series with the new content, and we are working to tell the stories of Central Texas in conjunction with this series," said KLRU CEO and President Bill Stotesbery.
Building Community Through Media
Public Access Community Television gets a boost from the Austin Community Technology and Telecommunications Commission. More on that next time.
As always, stay tuned.
