The_Liquid_Laser
Glowy Goopy Goodness
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2007
- Messages
- 3,376
- MBTI Type
- ENTP
I don't agree with this characterization. From what I understand, ticket sales are down because home theaters (big screen, surround sound) directly compete with the moviegoing experience. Reality shows became popular because they're cheap, like you said, rather than more-watched than scripted shows. Since there are so many channels available these days, it's hard to charge advertisers the same rates as back in the Big Three days, when you could guarantee advertisers a double-digit percentage of the country's population watching a popular show.
Reality TV also represents "reality" far less than scripted drama. The only things "ordinary" are the participants.
Reality shows are both cheap and popular. Survivor was the #1 rated show during the season it was released. It still consistently gets the #1 rating for its time slot which is 8 pm on Thursdays, the most coveted spot for advertisers. American Idol also gets huge ratings.
Also it's true that movie makers rationalize their decline by blaming at home theatres, but in reality the people who want the best "home" entertainment never really wanted to patronize movie theatres to begin with. Home theatres compete more with TV than they do with movies. Former movie goers are simply choosing not to see as many movies as they used to.
I think you misunderstood me when I said "dogma". I didn't mean pomp and ceremony as much as rigid adherence to certain principles as capital-T True. On campus, if you say something is True, someone is likely to challenge you on it. That can feel hostile.
This is true but minor. You may be surprised that many people do not mind (or even like) being challenged on topics that they are interested in, especially if there is quite a bit more they need to learn about it. However academia generally does not try to answer questions that most people are interested in. When this happens in academia it is an exception rather than the rule.
I disagree. It is the job of teachers to provide the tools and knowledge those on the applied side need in order to fix the problems around us. It's the difference between an architect and an engineer - an architect provides the vision and determines if things are possible, while an engineer figures out exactly how it's supposed to be done.
When it comes to this topic academics represent neither the architect nor the engineer. This is because academics are part of the problem. Academia has always been far removed from society, but now cultural factors are asking them to be more relevant. However most academics long for the "good ole days" when there were fewer students. In earlier days only the most academically inclined students came to college.
Now lots of people are coming to college, and the experience of many college students is that college is mostly irrelevant information. When you compound that with the secular atmosphere it's going to leave many people disenchanted with academia in general. The academics seem inauthentic, because they portray a worldview that is significantly different from that of the students'. Of course to the typical person this is mostly just a vague feeling that something is wrong. Since the academics won't explain this feeling, then all these people have is Fox News.