Cybernetic TV
A reprint of Mark Andrejevic’s examination of interactive television.
Mark Andrejevic / University of Iowa
Watching TV Without Pity
by: Mark Andrejevic / University of Iowa
Rip-on-your-favorite-show sites elevate the attempt to make bad TV more entertaining to a popular art form. In the Television Without Pity world, the show is no longer the final product, but rather the raw material to which value is added.
Reality TV Is Undemocratic
by: Mark Andrejevic / University of Iowa
In its broadest sense, the term “democratic” is invoked to indicate that the public has been given a choice of some sort, or even more generally that it has been provided with the opportunity to “participate.” Are the limited forms of engagement that Reality TV provides truly “democratic”?
Total Information Awareness – The Media Version
by: Mark Andrejevic / University of Iowa
Commercial broadcasting has, from its inception, been about monitoring viewers; this is why the history of the ratings industry has become entwined with that of military and police surveillance.
Life on Animal Planet
By: Mark Andrejevic / University of Iowa
Animal Planet documentaries offer a disturbing mirror through which to view the pathologies of our current social reality.
Watching TV Poker
by: Mark Andrejevic / University of Iowa
Andrejevic considers the cultural logic of the recent surge in televised poker tourneys.
What a Long, Bad Trip It’s Been
by: Mark Andrejevic / University of Iowa
The voyeurism and surveillance of MTV’s One Bad Trip become inverted after the first season, leaving audiences to wonder; who’s watching, and who’s performing?
Cybernetic TV
by: Mark Andrejevic / University of Iowa
An exploration of the ways in which “interactive” television “adjusts on the fly” to meet the needs of programmers and viewers.