On Television

Television permeates our culture like no other medium. Sitcoms, sports, murder trials, fast-food commercials, and distant wars are beamed into our homes in an endless stream. Given its pervasiveness, and the ways in which it shapes our view of the world outside our homes, it is vital that a rigorous critical apparatus exists to help us understand what all this TV means. On Television is a transcript of two lectures given by French critic Pierre Bourdieu, in which he expresses his concern that television in its current form is "a threat to political life and to democracy itself." He argues that television provides only the illusion of freedom, and that almost every image that reaches the screen is thoroughly mediated by corporate and political interests. The desire for larger audiences results in a medium that caters to the shortest attention span, and the news is reduced to a series of prepackaged sound bites and sensational video footage. On the networks, if it bleeds it leads.

Bourdieu's critique may be dismissed by some as excessively pessimistic, and he offers few solutions to the problems that he describes. Yet although the end may not be as nigh as Bourdieu imagines, the influence of television continues to grow, and this is a fascinating contribution to an increasingly important debate.--Simon Leake