coolbeans, bourdieu

The reading on television by Bourdieu has a lot of correlation with many things that we have studied so far this year. Television plays a large role in everyone’s lives. Many things that people relate to come from television. Bourdieu states that television covers topics that interest everyone and do not cause conflicts in different groups. I have noticed that this is true in much of television. Usually television programs do not discuss topics that are controversial, but if they do then the controversial topic is either magically solved over the course of an hour television program or it is made to be looked at as a thing to be ridiculed. For example, programs such as the Maury show and the Jerry Springer show usually discuss very controversial things that many people would frown upon. Usually featuring people who cheat on their girlfriends, or have a teenage daughter who wants to have a baby, these shows depict these people as “freaks”. The people are shown to be trashy, classless, types making the controversy that they embody to be almost comical. How can a subject of controversy such as teenage pregnancy or cheating husbands be taken seriously if the people who are shown in the shows are seen as a classless parody? The answer lies in the fact that television is meant to be something that interests everyone, entertains everyone. If we were to take the people featured in daytime talk shows seriously we would have to acknowledge the fact that our society in fact does have many problems. However, if we view them as entertainment then we need not take it seriously. As Horkheimer and Adorno said, “Amusement always means putting things out of mind, forgetting suffering, even when it is on display. At its root is powerlessness” (57). This means that the intent of television is to entertain the masses. In order for people to be entertained we must ignore suffering and be powerless and agree with what is being presented to us.