Television Outside the Box Core Response #5

"Rather than these technological assassins causing the death of television, as many writing about television in the mid-200s claimed, the unprecedented shift of programming onto tiny mobile phone screens, office computers, and portable devices ultimately resorted the mediums significance?" (50)

Are movies "dead," because their optimal viewing environment and medium are theaters? Is television thriving because the venue is less "fixed" in that they are meant to be watched at home. I know movies are also distributed and streamed online, but for some reason they just "feel different".  It feels to me like televison is never screened at a movie theater unless it's a premiere, and if then, it's still an exclusive experience. 

I recently went to go see the movie "Air," in theaters which I know, is a movie and not television but I was struck by how close the coverage was. I spoke about it with my friend whom I went to see it with and his theory, as a cinematographer, is that coverage is getting closer as content is being watched at home rather than in theaters. If we're watching things on smaller screens, then faces need to be up close rather than far away because wides are strictly meant to be enjoyed in theaters. This made me think of Kate, Mariam, and I's presentation at the start of the semester. Where you watch something matters to production students. Are the ways films are made and shot changing due to the where they are being received? Who owns a tv at home? Who watches tv on their laptop? Where do you watch tv, in the couch or in bed? Does the "living room" viewing still exist today? (59)

I also loved how this reading simplified the technological advancements of television in two ways: fixed versus portable. I especially liked the use of the phrase "convince technologies," which I hadn't heard of prior to this reading (62). I found it interesting that the advancement of how and where to watch television pushed the ways in which people were responding to this technology as well. The specific quote that comes to mind is: "...new digital technologies have also enabled viewers to archive, share, and review content in a far more active manner and in ways that suggests emergent uses of television" (69).