American Popular Culture Essay

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Watching TV Makes You Smarter.

(Chicago Citation)

On May 9th 1961, Newton N. Minow, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission blasted the television industry and called much of it's programming "a vast wasteland." (O'Connor 1986) Twenty-five years later, in 1986, a television writer for the New York Times mirrored this criticism when he said that it was still "surprisingly valid." (O'Connor 1986) This criticism of the television industry has, in the past, been a valid criticism as throughout most of television history, the programming has been a two dimensional representation of the realities of life. While many in the media still like to criticize television, there has been some major improvements in terms of complexity of plot as well as introducing the intricacies of real-life into the storylines of television programming. Today's television programming, while still containing a lot of "fluff," has, through the use of different techniques, increased the audience's intelligence in ways the audience does not realize.

Steven Johnson in his article "Watching TV Makes You Smarter" discusses this concept in detail; even introducing what he referred to as a "Sleeper Curve," a concept by which the television program's complexity forces the viewer to "Pay attention, make inferences, [and] track shifting social relationships." (Johnson 2005) Johnson asserts that, by the late 1990's the old, simple, straightforward plot lines and character relationships had been replaced by the multiple plot lines which often intersect each other at seemingly random times and involve the complexities of real-life situations and relationships. Johnson backs up this claim by stating that the modern viewer, who watches television programs from the 1970's "will be bored by the content -- not just because the shoe is less salacious that today's…but because the show contains far less information in each scene.

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" (Johnson 2005) Johnson also asserts that this increased complexity has forced the viewers increase the amount of analytical work they must do in order to follow the story. The author states the modern viewer must "…focus to follow the plot, and in focusing you're exercising the parts of the brain that map social networks, the fill in missing information, that connect multiple narrative threads." (Johnson 2005)

In the program The Sopranos, the decay of modern social and moral values is reflected in the storylines. But Johnson asserts that a television program should be judged by how well it stimulates the brain and cognitive action, not by the conventional morals of the time. Judged by this criteria, The Sopranos can be considered one of the best shows on television. This popular and intriguing program follows multiple plot lines with many characters, each in their own way the "lead" character in their own story. It is the intricacies of the everyday lives of many characters, each of which is somehow connected to the criminal dealings of the main character and "Crime Boss," Tony Soprano, which have been interwoven into the fabric of The Sopranos' plot lines and force the viewer to think cognitively to keep up with the story.

The same can be said about the hit television show 24; that it's complex multiple story lines, but with interwoven plot developments, force the audience to keep on their toes all the time. In a way, the make up of 24 forces the viewer to think like an….....

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