art, thanks for the reweighting... you know, the journalist in me makes me want to spin you around in the paraphrasing to incite controversy and keep the dials from turning.
and with the perfect segue way to roachboy in tv land...
do the dials even turn anymore? back when tense ted koppel was telling us all about "tonight's crisis" when we really should have been watching karnak, there were only three and half channels in most markets, four if you were lucky. (side note, what did the eye have in that slot, was it the late movie that wasn't really a movie but old episodes of 5-0 or something? anyway... back to our regularly scheduled program...)
television is currently in a major metamorphasis. it's still the king idiot box and mind numbing i.v. drip of info-narcotic, but today there are literally hundreds of choices of dumb and dumber. just like how oil painting went through a major change when technology put pigment in a tube and the impressionists took the show on the road to counter the rise of the camera, television now has to respond to another type of screen... and this one has a keyboard attached to it.
once you're online, you're not even playing with the nets or category channels, you have counter culturists (who may or may not resemble arttelevision) who are giving up every flavor of niche possible. you also have communities (which may or may not resemble the tfp) where people band together and they - gasp - talk back. they flock to sites where they can put their own opinions in, because people want to be heard. why else do all those kids who can't carry a tune in a bag try out for american idol? it's the attention.
this is where major (news)media are really failing themselves and also the government. they have held the microphone, and the camera, and the typesetter for so long, they fear what the public has to say. they have filtered their feedback into one liners at the end of the show like a dinner mint to cover up the bad taste of andy rooney; they reserve the right to edit letters to the editor; they script reality to make it more entertaining and ingest twice as many creepycrawlys.
it is amazing that we live in an age where information - the raw data, the straight dope, the actual documents - have never been easier to get, but audiences trust pundits to explain it all to them in a giant warped game of regurgatative telephone without ever going to the source. worse yet, they don't seek objective information, they seek only opinions that validate their own. the almighty 'polls' that tell us and our leaders what we are really thinking are absolutely whacked... the sampling is more skewed than the SATs. how else do white christians keep their iron grip on public opinion when they are a shrinking segment of the national populace? really, most journalists shouldn't be using statistics without a license. but it gives scientists and market researchers something to laugh about.
meanwhile, ebay spawned a billion dollar revolution by simply creating a space where people could come and do their thing. amazon whomps the brick-and-mortars' sites not because it is more convenient, but you can get the straight dope on the goods you're purchasing from people just like you (check their ratings first). people love to talk. to anyone who will listen. even if they aren't really listening. and now that i can see how many people are viewing these threads, they aren't listening, they're just looking at our tits.
cue segue way back to underground art...
maybe the illusion of freedom is actually the disillusionment of the artist never really knowing or trusting the impact of the art they create. you can make the statement with your art, but you can never know if anyone will really get the statement, identify with it, or even appreciate it. will it ever really change the world, and will it do it in the way you intend when you put brush to canvas, note to song, word to verse?
hard to say, really. when it makes me shudder and i'm about to lose hope, i think of mr. rogers. now before you tell me that finger painting isn't art... that is one guy who i can say without a doubt left this world a better place for his having been in it. he tought us by example to be nice, put on your playclothes, clean up your toys, and make believe. people tried to mock him, but by doing so just showed themselves to be petty and insecure. he may not have reached everyone, but in mr. rogers neighborhood people -big and small - did the right thing.
but hey, it was on pbs. never would have made it on the nets, even against snyder. this is gibingus reporting for wtfp. art, roach, loco... back to you in the studio.