Telegenic

In the 70’s there were only three major TV Networks competing for the shares of audience. It’s simple and dignified (think Katherine Graham and Ben Bradlee; the News Room independence.) e.g. even though head-to-head competition selling soup, soap and cereals, there were this camaraderie….and professional esprit de corps.

Today, Artificial Intelligence crammed in ads and content, learning from and re-enforcing our previous choices – “recommending” similar and adjacent things – spinning into the loop (nudging and soft-selling).

We hardly get to see those telegenic coat-and-tie anchors, with crisp shirts and make-ups, competing for Nielsen ratings.

Instead, everything is now splintered off, into a wilder orbit…where you can forever mind-unravel without collision or intersecting with someone else’s viewing preferences. In short, our atomized universe, a contradiction in terms.

Back then, at least we watched Peter Jennings, Walter Cronkite and John Chancellor (ABC, CBS and NBC respectively), while developing our social and shared perception. Immediately after the news, we were ushered into the Huxtables’ family room or Jeopardy.

Late night graced us with M*A*S*H* or Ted Koppel.

We shared the grief and fear of nuclear annihilation, of AIDS and Rock Hudson, of Princess Diana and 9/11.

Today, breaking news trickling in, via mobile devices, at traffic lights and Starbucks. No shared moments of watching the same event unfolding (I remember Sally, our teacher-astronaut, blown up out of the sky – the TV was in front of our cafeteria, 1987).

Or 9/11 horror replayed over and over, to the point that it eventually took one more life: Peter Jenning’s.

His death (smoking turned lung cancer) closed out the 9/11 broadcast, and perhaps, the era of Network News. We no longer hear “That’s the way it is” for closing. Now, it’s “SKIP AD” “AGREED” etc.. after a lengthy and hardly-ever-read contracts to use a free app.

2020 was the year that marked this permanent fork ..where each of us chose the road less traveled…down the rabid hole. We associate (friending) with likeminded individuals, forming cliques and circles of trust. Soon, we will no longer hear what the opposing view points have to say

We rely on our friends’ judgment and taste, editorial curating and collection.

In short, we have gone from an era of telegenic anchors to anywhere access without a guard-rail. From We-to-I, from us to a narcissistic me.

All the striving and fighting for equality, for community and for unity, end up in a mirror looking back at us, telling us who is the fairest of all.

The invention of radio (hot medium i.e. requires our visualizing and imagination) at least brought us together, just like the Nazis’ effect that rallied the Free World. Now, it’s much harder to command a sizeable audience, a common set of truths or an enduring likeminded society.

If the US is struggling to maintain its lead on World Stage (and Japan during the Olympics), how are we not being inundated with pandemic and climate change – being all alone in front of the screen/mirror?. Meanwhile, the super-rich keep floating and flying (on their super-yachts and super-sonic jets), laughing at us, human=losers, while commanding their armies of robots to conquer the world.

First, get the attention. Then create the demand for action (intention). Then catch and kill. Build the brand via repetition (rinse and repeat)….the enslavement (viewing habit). Sell them soup, soap and cereals… Life-time customer values…leveraged.

Once, we had telegenic anchors….TV dinners…family viewing…huge TV sets, and huge audience in prime time.