core response 03_jacqueline maldonado

First, I need to open with the spatial comedy of Vertical Vision being horizontal, moreover the fact that I chose to tilt my laptop on its side into a vertical position to read the first two pages.

Second, I am reminded how much I love a good chronological history of events whose impact speaks enough for themselves. Though Holt frames the chapter as leading to the conclusion existing programming is only a reflection of the industry that creates it, it was the industry itself that somehow managed more attention from me than mentioned programming. Perhaps it is the eerie similarity of the rehashing of Disney’s network buyout to the recent WarnerMedia Discovery shebang (I wouldn’t know what else to call it, and I lack enough respect for this situation-ship to appropriately Google at this time), and its relationship to a feed somehow filled with speculative tweets on why the media landscape is not currently at a state where Apple could even comprehend the purchase of Disney. Maybe it’s the natural progression this served from the Time Warner/Turner merge bring a new name to the syndication game barely a page away, or a similarity to things we have read before listing off circumstances that have become so natural to assume. Regardless there was something almost wrong when reading specific titles and practices that, while relative to Holt’s own intent, felt so separate from the industrial chaos that created it. Where Marez discusses race and creation, and Jenkins discusses technology and interactive evolutions of the media landscape, Holt like Caldwell instead asks about the handshakes that create this digital landscape. Mentions of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, while relative to the discussion of how Disney chooses content itself, are found second to the statements that reiterate the Disney powerhouse in “exploiting one idea or property in several channels of distribution” (20). Turner’s relationship with MGM and the created classics of Wizard of Oz reruns appear on the same rung as mentions of Atlanta based sports teams: both pawns to the larger game of airtime not simply achieved in content itself (17). 

Holt closes with a reminder that deregulation is essentially king for encouraging these responses. There is quite literally nothing to argue with there; as mentioned, Holt’s chapter was a beloved tale told in time for my week. In WarnerMedia write-off’s we’ve seen how market intents drive out content just for existing the same way they encourage Netflix to make more Wednesday episodes (also just for existing). Maybe we’ve reached an over-saturation in corporate dealings as we have in televised content as Holt’s timeline is well known to not have stopped at 2001, but the timeline is an important keepsake to have. A reminder that moving forward may also mean you are moving down, deeper, into the crevice.