Core Response #1

As is clear from Heather Hendershot’s explication, her attempt to contemplate on the function of the television as a platform where we are able to examine collective concerns is an effort to think afresh the discussion of Horace Newcomb and Paul M. Hirsch’s influential concept of television as a cultural forum from the perspective of the contemporary settings. However, although Hendershot’s textual reading on the series of Parks and Recreation might be successful in clarifying the TV series’ emphasis on the values of a democratic society, I thought the argument might be strengthened if the discussion mainly concerning with the representational level would be combined with deeper consideration on the complexity of the medium and its platforms of delivery in the contemporary world. This is because, in the first place, the television’s stated possibilities as a cultural forum is inextricably intertwined with the certain technological stage where television was broadcast and considered to create a shared culture or sense of community. More specifically, as Hendershot touches upon in her article, Newcomb and Hirsch’s concept of television as a cultural forum was heavily dependent on the technological conditions of pre-cable era when “programs did generally seek out large group of viewers, not atomized constituencies” (204).

Considering the current situation, as the new media ecology emerged where we are exposed to multiple mediums simultaneously such as television, social media, and virtual reality, television’s medium specific characteristics have also transformed in its mediation and remediation of/through other mediums. Especially if we are to consider the civic function of television for the arena of negotiation and discussion, it would be beneficial to examine how the representational aspects of television has created an actual or virtual civic space (or its illusion). In order to look closely at the ways in which the television negotiate itself on the creation of “public thought,” I personally felt that we need to assess the possibility of the civic function of television by situating it in the complex medium ecology of contemporary world.