The Birth of the Couch Potato and its Subsequent Mutations - Article Example

The Birth of the Couch Potato and its Subsequent Mutations Name Professor Institution Course Date This article analyses the work of technological assemblages of communications based on the topic “The Birth of the Couch Potato and its Subsequent Mutations”. It focuses on the effect of different media types and technologies on the society in general. The media takes the time of different audience and makes them what is described as “couch potatoes”. The mutants of this effect are many. This is witnessed in the dramatic changes of audience relationship with the producers and the media content. The process of this media mutation is gradual and takes some reasonable time. Technology and media bear a higher index in shaping the society’s ways. Technology lessens human activity. An individual can simply sit like a couch potato while monitoring a lot of activity using a remote control. In resent media technology fields, most populations simply use slightest efforts to watch and control activities. A couch potato is a phrase associated with an idler on a couch who usually spends a lot of time watching television. Most people argue that this is where epidemics like obesity trace their origin from, and this could be as a result of the remote control. Imagine these days without a remote control! They are in every household and everywhere right from TV, Video games, Stereo player, or car door opener. An alarm clock can be silenced using a remote control. Consequently, most researchers have extended blame on TV remote controls for turning teen-agers and old people into couch potatoes. The concept of controlling communication machines at a distance using the remote control has existed for more that hundred years. Nikola Tesla patented the radio remote control in 1898 before using it to steer a boat on the same year. This paper will, therefore, explore the relationship between technology, media and audiences in terms of technology assemblages focus on the assemblages’ relationship with the audience. This relationship is what portrays the true picture of the birth of couch potatoes and its mutations that are currently witnessed in the society. However, the media is a big industry and is affected by technology in many ways. The media developments, to a large extent, depend on technological changes. We, therefore, focus on media with keen interest on its relationship with technology. On the other hand, we consider what motives the media. It is worth noting that the commercial interest of the media revolves around the audience. The audience is fed with all manner of information and the end product can be either a couch potato individual or maybe a motivated and educated individual. In any way, media and technology are to blame for turning individuals into what is legendry regarded as couch potatoes individuals. The relationship between technology, media and audiences will illustrate the extent to which society’s lifestyle has been changed. We discuss this better by looking at different technological assemblages. At times, think of a future full of technology, but we fail to think the impacts with which this technology has on society. Goggin (2009) asserts that according to what is happening around the world, it is convincing that science and technology will bring the society to a world state where we hardly lift a finger in order to do anything. The society sees technology as a means towards a meaningful life. In reality, technology has both benefits and dangers, especially when absolutely depending on it for harness education and entertainment. For instance, when studying, it is scientifically logical to do it in a quiet place where there is no distraction from television or other media sounds. Unfortunately, some individuals have become media victims and have a tendency of not falling asleep if the television is not on because they will wait on the television programs to induce them to sleep. There are several models that propose and develop the changes to which the audience undergoes as a result of technology and media relationships. The changes due to technology simultaneously transform the media consumption. These media consumptions in the long-run also transform the media audience in either positive or negative ways or both. At the bottom line, this makes the audiences couch potatoes - individuals who have to absolutely rely on the audio-visual media. For the last so many years, the influence of the media has grown exponentially because of advances in technology. For instance, we look at the telegraph, radio, magazines, newspapers, television and even the internet. The society we live in depends so much on these media communication agents in order to move in the right way and perform daily activities like entertainment, education, relationships, among other things. A person in the city wakes up, checks the television news or newspaper before going to work. This distracts the media audience. They depend too much, not on their insights, but rather on the facts and current news about what is vital and what one should be aware of according to media analysis. We have put a lot of trust upon the media as an institution that gives us news, education and entertainment more than we can research and do by ourselves. Besides, the media influence on kids and teenagers is so big, and we ought to know how it works. Kids and teenagers do not have independence of thought. For them, what is good depends on the populations of the masses. They are, in short, others’ driven unlike grown –ups who critical thinking and independency of thought. The kids and teenagers, therefore, are to be more easily affected by excessive exposure to any media. The effect can be positive or negative. The young people are greatly affected by the media. To the young people, the most influential media distribution channel is the television whereby viewers are constantly exposed to a lot of images of advertising, sex, violence, celebrities and even more. The young people will easily make their purchasing decisions based on what they see on television advertisements or other media. They buy what their favourite celebrities on TV by or what is accepted by society based on fashion the media has visited on them. They cannot think or evaluate on their own. The media simply make their audience ‘couch potatoes’ - that is, a lazy lot. The youth will spend much of their time on couches watching sports. The sport has gained media attention, and a lot of people will not only want to watch the sport but also practice with their friends the sports they watch. As a result, the youth will gain a lot of fun from friends and live healthy because of the exercise. However, the negative effect is that the teenagers will admire to use the cigars that their favourite celebrity movie stars use. They will be overcome by excessive exposure to sex images, junk foods and images of violence. This will it the long run corrode their morals. Public opinion has been, and still is, one of components hugely influenced by the media. The public is enormously affected by the media. The media play a major role in shaping a public opinion, and this depends on objectivity of the matter at hand. For instance, the media exposed Osama guilty for the attacks. We find that what the media exposed is exactly what it gets from the authorities. This exposure of Osama on terrorism grounds shaped public opinion, a factor that reinforcement viewers stand on the war against terrorism. A similar situation occurred with Iraq war. Other ways of influencing public opinion include polls and trends. These are common in political campaigns. Candidates who pay more for media exposure gain a lot of influence on the opinion of the public and, in return, receive more votes. Poor leaders have in the past been elected based on mere misleading public opinion. Online media audience cannot be left out of this discussion. With privatization and commercialization going to the internet, most people have become couch potatoes in an easy effort to access online communications. The online media have several stakeholders, right from managers of the network infrastructure, facilitators to access of internet, hardware and software experts, and the end users. Online advertisement has taken roots. In 1995, what is commonly considered as the first internet advertisement banner appeared online. It was hosted by the site Hot Wired magazine. Sources have it that the ability of the internet to attract advertising dollars has grown widely and exceeded the broadcast and cable television. With online media, information can be forwarded to a lot of people most easily. Information spreads like bushfire, and the society gets easily acquainted with what happens elsewhere. The world has become a global village because of the information age associated with internet. The unfortunate thing about the internet is that the regulatory policies available do not put strict measures to stop the young from accessing pornographic literature, and playing violent computer games (McLuhan, 2000). The internet information can be made available online for a long time compared to cable television, which cannot stick to one program. This means that the online audience is overexposed to information than it happened with cable television audience. The wrong information acquired online can be passed on to other individuals, parties, or media. The techno-historical assemblages of the media are detailed by most researcher of media studies. Most researchers have valued the existence of the media in relation to the audience. From the basic degree, audiences are important in communication (Metz, 2007). The media is busy constructing and putting across information for the sake of the audience. Were it not for the audience the media would not exist. The true relationship between the audience and the media has been the topic of discussion from the time the media were first critically studied. Frankfurt school, which was set up in 1923, studied the probable impacts of mass media. It suggested the “effects” model (Staiger, 2001). This model considers society to be made up of isolated individuals. The individuals are susceptible to messages from the media. The media are like a syringe that injects the media content into the minds of the audience which in turn accepts the opinions, attitudes and beliefs of the medium without opposition (Jenkins, 2002). The online media are currently the leading in terms of its audience. The internet was popularized in early 1990s, and it has immensely populated by entertainment oriented media. Official websites and fan sites promote films. In fact, all forms of the entertainment industry have a place on the internet. Many varieties of television and radio shows have got their way through the internet. Protocols of communication allow for live streaming of information from television channels. This allows spectators to download programs of their choice for viewing. Harris (2002) reports that most viewers watch internet adverts in order to win a chance to watch free content, something that is interesting to many commercial bodies (8). Cross-platform is a medium of communication that is gaining significance with time. There are a number of media devices in the mobile telephony. These devices offer immediate transfer of information, intimacy, and besides being portable, they are easy to customize. These constitute the cross-platform media. The cross-platform media devices, especially those with 3G capabilities support a situation where the old and new media practices interact. Media companies have focussed on capturing the attention of a mobile audience. Aguado and Martinez (2007) argue that such an audience constitutes majorly of a generation which has little or no loyalty to follow old methods of viewership (p.48). Many viewers find it hard to wait for weekly development of interesting storylines when they can get access to a full season on DVD. Business persons and media companies have started to come up with content that is specifically meant for the 3G mobile devices. Some addicts of telephony keep adverts’ content as wallpapers, hardware design and ringtone. Portable media is the topic of vital discussion in media assemblages. Slack and Wise (2006) remark that the interval between 1980s and 1990s marked the arrival of portable entertainment devices. These include the Walkman and the Discman for 1979 and 2006 respectively. This brought about significant alteration in the music listening pattern. The audience viewing and interactive patterns are also changed eventually. Portable media technology has liberated listeners from their homes, school, or office as they listen to music of their choice, time of choice, through the privacy of earphones without disturbing others. The release of iPod in 2001 led to another generation of portable media, which allows for a variety of media products from photos to videos, and at the same time, uses it to access internet. The iPod media offers updates and products from across several online stores. This has increasingly offered the audience an increased control over the intimacy and nature of their access to media content, their environment and to each other. The audience viewing behaviour had changed for a number of reasons. Media producers and theorists view media audience as passive “couch potatoes” (Doane, 1999). The viewing attitude of the audience shows a reaction to the variety of contemporary content of the media. This is demonstrated by looking at the rash of development across the media technologies. The ease of access and portability of the various sources of the media has been made successful by technology developments, and this has, in turn, resulted in a situation where audiences are relating to the media content. The audience of the media is sophisticated. The media attempt to engage the audience in “behind the scenes” activities. For instance, documentary and footage features in DVDs form an example of a case where the audience is included in fostering the vitality of certain features of the DVDs (Browne, 1986). This plays a key role in marketing. Technologically enabled audience has an advantage over other audiences.Media technologies have enabled a deeper standard of involvement of the audience in the texts they admire (Ahrens, 2006). The audiences are exposed to stage products, and this has led to rapid growth of different communities of like-minded people. These people have loyalty to narratives and characters of the episodes that are screened on the media. It has created a community of individuals called fans because of shows or programs. This formation of fans’ community has brought about growth of ways of communication and interaction. The audience talk about the films keeps the film literally ‘alive’ in the context of social network. Internet uploading is quite easy, and this allows fans to bypass the task of organising printed publications. The fan fiction enables the audience a special way of interacting with their best media product. The many efforts of fan fiction show a thorough understanding of the narrative world and tales of the characters that live in it. This allows the audience to physically take part in the extension of the story world of the television show or film. Once the film content gets into the public consciousness, the probability of the plotlines increased by fan fiction often grows with as much discussion and interest as the official forms. The experiences and plights of best characters are modified by the audiences to suit their interpretation about the narrative world. Online fosters the audience in many ways. For instance, the online media allow for the growth of fan works. This happens in both audio-visual and text formats. Web facilities like YouTube and AOL allow for online hosting and sharing of fictional fan works. The audiences do not restrict the range of their viewing of professionally produced products of the media. This makes it hard to differentiate between those being entertained and the entertainers. In short, all these online or offline mediums of user-produced information shows the visible activity and locality of the contemporary audience. This is a vision of the audience that was previously difficult to explain in any extent based on the private or individual nature of interactions of actions like the web navigation, multimedia multitasking and film collection. The several aspects of this media-audience interaction are still untraceable to a large extent. However, the capability of view logging capabilities and comments of sites that host videos has allowed for traceability of the media behaviours. In a nutshell, watching different media is an arresting activity for most age groups. It is supported by different media and technologies thus making individuals what can be described as couch potatoes. The mutants of this effect are many. This is witnessed in the dramatic changes of audience relationship with the producers and the media content. This is a gradual process that takes years. The modernism, which is movement from the media technologies of cinema or television screens onto portable devices, has resulted to a new audience generation whose members are capable of taking in a wide range of content at a given time. The audience can no longer wait for the content on a weekly basis but rather download and watch the content at their wish. References Aguado, J. & Martinez, I. (2007). From Mobile Phones to Mobile media: Current Developments in Mobile Phone-Based Cultural Consumption. Dept. of Media and Communications, The University of Sydney: Sydney Ahrens, F. (2006). ABC encouraged by Internet TV Trial. Principles & Applications. Thomson Learning, Inc: Washington. Browne, N. (1986). Spectator-in-the-Text: The Rhetoric of Stagecoach. Columbia University Press: New York: Carter, B. (2007). Internet Series Will Run First Online. Inspid Ltd: New York. Cohen, A. .J. (2001). Virtual Hollywood and the Genealogy of its Hyper-Spectator. British Film Institute: London. Doane, M. A. (1999). The Voice in the Cinema. Columbia University Press: Boston. Evan, K. (2008). Sony History. Stony Brook: London. Everett, A. (2003). Digitextuality and Click Theory. Routledge: New York. Grace, H. (2008). Personal Communication with Author. Chinese University Hong Kong: Hong Kong. Goggin, G. (2009). “Assembling Media Culture.” Journal of Cultural Economy Harris, D. (2002). Watching the Internet. British Film Institute: London. Jenkins, H. (2002). Interactive Audiences? British Film Institute: London. McLuhan, M. (2000). Understanding Media & The Extensions of Man. Mcgraw Hill: New York. Metz, C. (2004). Problems of Denotation in the Fiction Film. Columbia University Press: New York Metz, C. (2007). The Imaginary Signifier. Columbia University Press: New York. Sergi, G. (2001). The Sonic Playground: Hollywood Cinema and its Listeners. British Film Institute: London. Slack, J.K., & Wise, J.M. (2006). “Cultural Studies and Communication Technology” Staiger J. (2001). Writing the History of American Film Reception. British Film Institute: London. Tudor, A. (1974). Image & Influence: Studies in the Sociology of Film. Allen & Unwin: London. Tamilmani, K. (2008). Studying & Enhancing the Bittorrent Protocol. Stony Brook University: New York. Read More

In reality, technology has both benefits and dangers, especially when absolutely depending on it for harness education and entertainment. For instance, when studying, it is scientifically logical to do it in a quiet place where there is no distraction from television or other media sounds. Unfortunately, some individuals have become media victims and have a tendency of not falling asleep if the television is not on because they will wait on the television programs to induce them to sleep. There are several models that propose and develop the changes to which the audience undergoes as a result of technology and media relationships.

The changes due to technology simultaneously transform the media consumption. These media consumptions in the long-run also transform the media audience in either positive or negative ways or both. At the bottom line, this makes the audiences couch potatoes - individuals who have to absolutely rely on the audio-visual media. For the last so many years, the influence of the media has grown exponentially because of advances in technology. For instance, we look at the telegraph, radio, magazines, newspapers, television and even the internet.

The society we live in depends so much on these media communication agents in order to move in the right way and perform daily activities like entertainment, education, relationships, among other things. A person in the city wakes up, checks the television news or newspaper before going to work. This distracts the media audience. They depend too much, not on their insights, but rather on the facts and current news about what is vital and what one should be aware of according to media analysis.

We have put a lot of trust upon the media as an institution that gives us news, education and entertainment more than we can research and do by ourselves. Besides, the media influence on kids and teenagers is so big, and we ought to know how it works. Kids and teenagers do not have independence of thought. For them, what is good depends on the populations of the masses. They are, in short, others’ driven unlike grown –ups who critical thinking and independency of thought. The kids and teenagers, therefore, are to be more easily affected by excessive exposure to any media.

The effect can be positive or negative. The young people are greatly affected by the media. To the young people, the most influential media distribution channel is the television whereby viewers are constantly exposed to a lot of images of advertising, sex, violence, celebrities and even more. The young people will easily make their purchasing decisions based on what they see on television advertisements or other media. They buy what their favourite celebrities on TV by or what is accepted by society based on fashion the media has visited on them.

They cannot think or evaluate on their own. The media simply make their audience ‘couch potatoes’ - that is, a lazy lot. The youth will spend much of their time on couches watching sports. The sport has gained media attention, and a lot of people will not only want to watch the sport but also practice with their friends the sports they watch. As a result, the youth will gain a lot of fun from friends and live healthy because of the exercise. However, the negative effect is that the teenagers will admire to use the cigars that their favourite celebrity movie stars use.

They will be overcome by excessive exposure to sex images, junk foods and images of violence. This will it the long run corrode their morals. Public opinion has been, and still is, one of components hugely influenced by the media. The public is enormously affected by the media. The media play a major role in shaping a public opinion, and this depends on objectivity of the matter at hand. For instance, the media exposed Osama guilty for the attacks. We find that what the media exposed is exactly what it gets from the authorities.

This exposure of Osama on terrorism grounds shaped public opinion, a factor that reinforcement viewers stand on the war against terrorism.

Read More