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July 02, 2006
Brian Courtis, the television critic of the The Age, is signing off after many a long year. Given the way that free-to-air television has declined and there is now just so much drivel on, it would now be a tough gig:
Ditchburn
In his farewell column he writes that:
Arts criticism in Australia, however, is generally elitist. The smaller an audience, the more precious and generous its print coverage. Thus, comment on literature, the fine arts, opera and dance has flourished. Cinema, haunt of both bug-eyed academics and popcorn masses, is perhaps an exception. But it does produce advertising revenue for print.Television does not do quite so well. It is seen as direct competition and, in critical terms, is rough trade. Now, however, as the landscape changes for the internet, there may be intriguing changes in media attitudes to both mainstream and pay TV.
Well there may be for the rough trade--Big Brother?--- that treated consumers so badly. It may well change the one-way relationship between the viewer and the "broadcaster" now that broadband networks are improving in terms of their speed. That means TV programmes can come down the same line as web data, whenever a viewer wants it. The control of the television experience needs to be placed more in the viewers hands.
Courtis then asks:
So how should print treat TV programs such as Lateline that shatter a newspaper's nightly deadlines with news-breaking stories that can only be reported and examined in print 30 hours later?And there are other questions on drama and the internet. Just how much TV globalisation we can take without losing our own culture, our own way? Do we need to accept from a political leader, who is jumping up and down in his tracksuit watching TV, that sport is all Australians can do well and that this somehow makes us a richer people?These are going to be interesting times for tomorrow's critics.
Do we need to worry about an Australian national culture any more in terms of television?
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That means TV programmes can come down the same line as web data, whenever a viewer wants it.
I have bought both Battlestar Galactica and Ghost Hunters through iTunes.