The New Golden Age of Television

The question of the week for week 9 was “How do older forms of media inform new media markets?” Keeping this in mind while reading the textbook, I became intrigued over the television market during the first Golden Age and then the regression of content produced in during the Wasteland period of television. During my research, I came across several renowned TV critics discussing what they called “the New Golden Age.” This is what really caused me to further look into the way the television media market has evolved over the decades.

To begin to answer the question of the week, I gave a quick review of the Golden Age and Wasteland of television, which we had discussed in class earlier that week. To more thoroughly answer the question of the week, I discussed the New Golden Age, its characters and characteristics, and how the New Golden Age came to be.

Discussion: After completing my presentation, the main discussion question that I posed was: Even though there are examples of the New Golden Age, do you think we are coming out of the TV wasteland at last or venturing further into the wasteland? My fellow classmates did a good job of pointing out that while there has been a revival of controversial, thought-provoking content, which are characteristics of what critics and scholars describe as the New Golden Age, that there are always going to be people who prefer to watch reality shows or sitcoms that do not require viewers to think beyond what is playing on the television.

Sources:

Garrison, Lindsay H. (2011). ‘Defining Television Excellence “On Its Own Terms”: The Peabody Awards and Negotiating Discourses of Quality’. Cinema Journal, 50(2), 160-165.

Straubhaar, Joseph, and Robert Larose. (2008). Media Now: Understanding Media, Culture and Technology. Belmont, CA.: Wadsworth Company.

"Welcome to TV's Second "Golden Age"" (2013, October 1). CBSNews. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 27, 2014.