Re: Television as a discursive object

The bottom line is that, first of all, one has to specify a discursive
formation in which s/he wants to place a 'television' and explores it as a
discursive object. One needs a frame, so to speak.

As far as I can tell, however, there are at least two ways to talk about a
'television' as a discursive object. One is to break down a 'television'
into more specific TV programs (e.g., news) and explore their predicates.
For example, it is indeed possible to find 'TV news' as a discursive object
within the larger discursive formation of democracy (or politics in
general). Is 'TV news' construed as a tool to foster "open" discussions of
politics? Or is 'TV news' treated as foreclosing important information from
citizens?

Another is to place a 'television' at large within discourses of information
technologies. I heard that when a television was first invented, people
talked about all sorts of (retrospectively crazy)possibilities that TVs can
do for humans in the future. And this kind of futuristic discussion seems to
repeat itself every time some technology is invented (e.g., the internet).
So, a 'television' is one of important discursive objects within discourses
of the relationship between human life and technology.

Hiro

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