Understating Competition and Diversity in Television Programming: Economic crisis & TV

Text Sample: CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1. The television content in question
The importance of Newton Minow's (1961) classic speech on television, which was delivered at the National Association of Broadcasters convention, is still valid today, since the forming of television content, its tendencies and the parameters for its study, evaluation and assessment are still debated today. Minow's words, in the following quotation, illustrate the unrelenting significance of the matter: "...But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite you to sit down in front of the television set when your channel goes on the air and stay there without a book, magazine, newspaper, profit-and-loss sheet or rating book to distract you - and keep your eyes glued to that set until the channel signs off. I can assure you that you will observe a vast wasteland. You will see a procession of game shows, violence, audience participation shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, Western bad men, Western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence and cartoons. And, endlessly, commercials - many screaming, cajoling and offending. And most of all, boredom. True, you will see a few things you will enjoy. But they will be very, very few. And if you think I exaggerate, try it." (Minow, 1961).
The relevance of the above quotation of Minow's (1961) for the following research lies in the fact that forming the content of television - the issue in question in this research - is not a simple and straightforward matter. It involves various forms and levels of analysis and it cannot be addressed in a one-dimensional and simplistic way; rather, it requires a wider approach in order for the parameters that form, constitute and finally construct the content to be understood. The concept of content can refer to various notions and it can consist of both qualitative and quantitative approaches (Krippendorff, 2004).
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