The role of television in society is one of the least contested positions of power today. Sure, people fuss and fight all of the time about how television contributes to over-consumptive, overly-violent, and over-sexualized nature of society, but this is merely an objection to specific notions, not to the television itself. Rather than focusing in the more demonized programs on television and supporting or dispelling the connection between the above-mentioned problems and their promotion on television, McKibben literally looks at television—itself—in the most general way. What he found was a huge influx of trivial matter parading itself as information.
One of the more interesting examples in the book concerned the images portrayed in nature programs. Channels like the Discovery Channel or Public Broadcasting station, which often include nature documentaries, are considered some of the most “educational” on television. Yet, what information do they actually teach. According to McKibben, the information given to us about animal life is not really actual information. All of images we see depict situations that only rarely occur in the animal world. After watching a lion for a couple of weeks or months and then editing out all of the normal, tedious things the creature does, the videographer may be capture only a couple of scenes in which the animal is aggressive, threatening, and…active. These scenes are what is displayed on the nature programs and what are used to define the animal. The lion is presented as threatening, “the king” of the jungle that dominates the animal kingdom. The show fails to disclose that the events that are depicted only happen once in a “blue moon”.
Believe it or not, these channels, too, are concerned more with holding the audience’s attention than with the distribution of accurate information. Thus, after watching a nature documentary, one only has the illusion of attaining knowledge and learning something new and concrete. In reality, he/she has learned nothing at all, but how the animal may act in the extreme instances.
One of the more interesting examples in the book concerned the images portrayed in nature programs. Channels like the Discovery Channel or Public Broadcasting station, which often include nature documentaries, are considered some of the most “educational” on television. Yet, what information do they actually teach. According to McKibben, the information given to us about animal life is not really actual information. All of images we see depict situations that only rarely occur in the animal world. After watching a lion for a couple of weeks or months and then editing out all of the normal, tedious things the creature does, the videographer may be capture only a couple of scenes in which the animal is aggressive, threatening, and…active. These scenes are what is displayed on the nature programs and what are used to define the animal. The lion is presented as threatening, “the king” of the jungle that dominates the animal kingdom. The show fails to disclose that the events that are depicted only happen once in a “blue moon”.
Believe it or not, these channels, too, are concerned more with holding the audience’s attention than with the distribution of accurate information. Thus, after watching a nature documentary, one only has the illusion of attaining knowledge and learning something new and concrete. In reality, he/she has learned nothing at all, but how the animal may act in the extreme instances.
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