Comments on: Unboxing “Unboxing TV”

By: Lyle Burwell

Lyle Burwell — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:19:52 +0000

I’m still waiting for a discussion of the community that is outside the box and wants in. When we think of viewers as TV participants the discussion starts at reality TV and ends at game shows. In truth, North America has been moving closer to the rest of the world in terms of viewer-centric programming ever since European imports Survivor and Big Brother arrived on these shores back in the ’90s. Today, viewer participation encompasses not just reality TV and game shows (both of which continue to increase their share of broadcast hours), but talents competitions, fashion makeovers, cooking, home renovation, interior design, talk shows, judge shows, relationships, lifestyles…
Because these are discrete genres, the common sine qua non of viewer participation hasn’t been identified as the evolutionary meme that it is. I hope academia will turn its attention to this soon.

I run VPTV – Viewer Participation TeleVision – a directory of North American English language viewer participation programming at http://vptv.blogspot.com. A glance down the show list on the first page is all one needs to understand the extent to which television is now as much about what viewers can do as it is about what they will watch.

Thanks for letting me lurk here.

By: Lindsay Hogan Garrison

Lindsay Hogan Garrison — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 14:29:43 +0000

Thanks for this – we aspiring academicians and the future generation of tv scholars are certainly inspired by the work of you all in “establishing” the field (while still valuing the idea of openness and mobility), and can only hope to be as close, passionate, and “undaunted” as those of you who have come before us.

By: receiptbill » Community Media: Selected Clippings - 11/21/07

receiptbill » Community Media: Selected Clippings - 11/21/07 — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 07:28:49 +0000

[...] here instead, giving a general sense of what our collective intelligence generated. —> http://dkompare.wordpress.com/2007/11/21/unboxing-unboxing-tv/ [...]

By: Jonathan Gray

Jonathan Gray — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 03:24:56 +0000

Elana, nice to hear I wasn’t the only one getting a bit teary reading this. And as you say, the real challenge is how to make such things like this happen more often without becoming cliquey — I’m still haunted by a file on my computer with a list of about 30 or 40 other people we could’ve invited. I’m sure any given person in the room could double that list in size.

Meanwhile, Derek, an excellent summation. I wish I could say lots of intelligent things in response to your intelligent comments, but at the moment, I’ll stick to the emotive reaction to your emotive ones — thanks, and i echo the sentiment.

By: Community Media: Selected Clippings - 11/21/07 « Clippings for PEG Access Television

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 03:05:01 +0000

[...] here instead, giving a general sense of what our collective intelligence generated. —> http://dkompare.wordpress.com/2007/11/21/unboxing-unboxing-tv/ [...]

By: Elana Levine

Elana Levine — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 20:23:53 +0000

Thanks for this, Derek. It sums up my experience nicely, as well. And your talk of community made me quite teary. I was struck by Jon’s comment about all of us spending time with each other for the next 30 years, as well. He’s so right, and in some ways these ARE the people with whom I feel the most intellectual kinship, as well as other kinds, so it is well worth taking the time out for the kinds of conversations that Unboxing provided the space to have. I’d like to see the boundaries of who is included in that community remain flexible, as there were surely many TV scholars not in attendance, but the small numbers were also crucial to the kind of experience the workshop offered.

By: link roundup « ephemeral traces

link roundup « ephemeral traces — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 14:59:43 +0000

[...] Unboxing TV Sunday and Monday is the less public, invite-only symposium Unboxing TV. No podcast there, and probably everyone is too involved for liveblogging, but I’m counting on Jason, Jonathan, Derek, and maybe Louisa to blog about it down the line. [I’ll update as they come in: Louisa’s From Bouncers to Unboxing; Jason’s Understanding vidding; Derek’s Unboxing “Unboxing TV”] [...]

By: kbusse

kbusse — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 14:54:30 +0000

Derek, thanks for the detailed and reflective account. I was jealously waiting for everyone to come back to hear reports, and yours has really set the stage!

I’m not really in your field nor am I in academia proper, and yet I do feel a kinship like the one you’re describing, both in fandom and, more recently, acafandom : ) Because you’re totally right about important long term relationships, and even with most of the contacts occurring in virtual spaces, they are still more intense and important contacts for me than many of the everyday ones I have here in “meatspace.”

Likewise, I so hear you about the non finishedness of thoughts and the energy that can create. I’ve been writing a post on collaboration this week, and one of the things I most enjoy on LJ, for example, is the ability to “think aloud,” to throw out an unformed idea and think through it with and against others. We have much to little of that, and I love the fact that Unboxing TV allowed that (and yes, in order to so that, you need to have a limited number and hand select…kind of like the difference between a 15 person seminar and the 600 people strong lecture…not much constructive debate going on in the latter…)

Anyway, thanks for the great review!!!

By: Jason Mittell

Jason Mittell — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 12:23:22 +0000

Great emotional weather report of the conference. Makes me melancholy for having been called away!