“TV in the Net Age” by Henry Jenkins discusses TV today. He distinguishes between the different kinds of television viewers and how, why, and what they watch. There are three different kinds: zappers, casuals, and loyals. Zappers tend to constantly change the channel and tend to watch snippets of shows. It’s never a long engagement for them. Loyals tend to watch less TV than most times but loyally watch a certain few shows. They often record, watch multiple times, and “pursue content across media channels”. Casuals fall somewhere in between the two. They sometimes view entire television shows from start to finish but they are not necessarily committed to it if it starts to bore them.
There is much debate on what kind of viewers the new media environment has created. However it seems to be leaning towards the zappers. There is no longer the concept of “appointment viewing”–the idea that people arrange their nights around watching a show. Networks are even considering shortening shows to 30 minutes or less. Television like reality TV is growing in and dramas are losing popularity because they require both active and weekly viewing to understand what’s going on. I thought this was really interesting. I definitely see a lot of all tpes of views but definitely a LOT of zappers. I am a loyal; I have never watched much TV but have always had consistent favorites.
It was found that in general men find television shows they like by watching during prime time. However, women tended to find their shows socially. I thought it was pretty funny that phone companies found that phone trafficking increased significantly on Tuesday nights, after American Idol. The chapter also brought up how gossip affected television series—both reality and not.
Innovations in Media 