by Jonathan Albin

Created on: November 09, 2008

Media-driven entertainment is the last-ditch effort of a flagging medium. Consistent budget-cutting by the networks in order to keep them competitive on the emerging on-line medium has foisted this dreck, dregs, and ineffective form of least-common-denominator unidirectional communication on the audiences. Like the Romans at the Coliseum, the American viewers are staring slack-jawed at the available programming, flipping from channel to channel looking for anything that can keep their attention drawn away from the problems they face. It is not that the viewers obsess over the offerings; it is that the fodder for conversation at the office the next day will of a certainty the horrid stuff on the idiot box the previous day, and the conversational pressures of "fitting in" that drove us to smoke cigarettes in the high school restrooms and to take that first drink of alcohol out behind the barn continue to weigh down our individuality, compelling us to keep tabs on the characters and (non)actors of the movies, television, and even now on-line resources.

The dilution of the collective viewer audience by the emerging media also refutes the assessment that media-driven entertainment is the basis for any obsession. One could argue that the media-resources are obsessed with self-driven entertainment as a vehicle for attempting to entertain. The positioning of individuals almost in the same vein as product branding (Madonna, Spears, Lohan, and Miley Cyrus) are similar to the roars of the crowds in Rome for the particular Gladiator of their fancy. The primary difference, however, is that in the case of the gladiators, the masses were interested. In the case of the Hollywood set, the audience is what is being contrived to placate THEM, not the reverse. Evidence that this is the case is the drop-off in sales for entertainment-type magazines and the shift from these kinds of stories to those based on political characters (Sarah Palin or Joe the Plumber)

Media-driven entertainment has none of the requisite components by which one might be obsessed, and thus is not the source or target of obsession. Obsession is the unintentional and uncontrollable reaction to a stimulus. Since Media-driven entertainment seeks to feed an audience on contrived stories and manipulated events to continue sales, the very objects to which one might be obsessed shift and change like newspaper headlines; The obsession to stay in front of the viewers is not directly correlated to the desire for the viewers to see the particular story. If Society was truly obsessed, for example, there would be constant 24 hour coverage of each and every celebrity at all times, and the news would be only a continuous stream of it. Instead, the networks scramble to decide what will capture the attention of Society, and what works today will most likely not work tomorrow. That continuous shifting of focus is more akin to Attention Deficit Disorder, not Obsession.

Media obsess on how to entertain; Society flits from resource to resource, looking for substance and succor, and finds Entertainment as it can. No, modern society is not obsessed by media-driven entertainment. It accepts this format only because it is better than nothing at all.

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