chosehumanity: (mitchell: yeah?)
chosehumanity ([personal profile] chosehumanity) wrote in [community profile] fandomhigh2009-06-12 12:24 pm
Entry tags:

TeeVee for Beginners, Friday Period Two

"Humanity has always tried to keep in contact," Mitchell started. He wasn't going to say anything about last week, mostly because he was very happy to be far away from last week. "At least within the tribe. Sharing stories isn't really about fiction, it's about sharing a world, about finding a connection. And there's very little that connects us more than the events that go on all around us."

He was back in the classroom with the couches, but he'd kept the bigger flatscreen TV for this one. "Newspapers started around the 19th century," he said, "In the early 20th century, radio absorbed that task. And as with most things that happen on the radio, eventually, it winds up on TV, although it loaned elements of film newsreels as well. While all the other formats were still barely a blink in a broadcaster's eye, TV news rose up in the late 1940s and became an essential part of the media as we know it. You saw CNN last week: that's the result of sixty years of broadcast news."

"But let's go back in time a bit," he said, gesturing at the TV. "1953. Queen Elizabeth the Second was coronated. It was broadcast by the BBC and meant a breakthrough for news on television: over twenty million people tuned in to watch her Majesty receive her crown. There had never been that many viewers of one program in the UK before. A record amount of TV sets was sold that month, and now the British, too, longed for a regular newscast. It wouldn't be until 1954 until the British had news, but by then the BBC had already acquired a reputation that would last them for decades."

"It took them a time to tussle about the format. You can essentially break the history of TV news down to a couple of blocks of inventions and changes. It's sufficient to say that there was a lot of experimenting in the early days; today, everything is much more streamlined. News is widespread now - the dangers lie in who's controlling it, in the spin of it. What they don't say can mean more than what they do, the items they decide to run and those they don't."

He smiled at the class. "I want you all to present something newsworthy out of your life," he said, "Like a news broadcast. And then I want the rest of you lot to discuss what their spin is."

[[ and ocd is up! ETA: so I fubar'ed on the first link in the Teevee section; it can actually be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGLN1kREJ2Q Ahem. ]]
thatsamilkshake: (sly)

Re: Sign In

[personal profile] thatsamilkshake 2009-06-12 02:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Francine Peters
heromaniac: (blossom smooch)

Re: Sign In

[personal profile] heromaniac 2009-06-12 05:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Momoko Akatsutsumi
carsexual: (Buy my family heirlooms on eBay!)

Re: Sign In

[personal profile] carsexual 2009-06-13 01:29 am (UTC)(link)
Sam Witwicky
Edited 2009-06-13 01:29 (UTC)

Re: Sign In

[identity profile] wantstobehuman.livejournal.com 2009-06-14 02:12 am (UTC)(link)
George Sands

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[identity profile] fratboybitch.livejournal.com 2009-06-12 10:46 am (UTC)(link)
Alex was happy to see the couches were back and happily took a seat where he settled in to listen to the lecture.
puppy_fair: (Look Down)

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[personal profile] puppy_fair 2009-06-12 11:26 am (UTC)(link)
The couch was potentially dangerous, really... Particularly after being awake at all hours of the night getting rained on. And so Zack was going to alternate between sitting and standing at the back of the room, because that seemed wiser than nodding off in class today.
future_sandworm: (Default)

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[personal profile] future_sandworm 2009-06-12 12:37 pm (UTC)(link)
The couches were comfortable. Leto picked up a bag of some kind of snacks and took a seat. At least it wasn't comedy today.
heromaniac: (oh maaan)

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[personal profile] heromaniac 2009-06-12 05:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Yay, couches! Momoko flopped into her seat with a contented sigh. Sure she was a little drowsy after the fire drill, but there was TV!

Wait... They were covering news? She'd need extra snacks for this one.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[identity profile] bad-nose-job.livejournal.com 2009-06-12 08:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Penelope was going to try not to fall asleep.
carsexual: (Naps are good)

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[personal profile] carsexual 2009-06-13 01:30 am (UTC)(link)
Ooh, couch. After last night, Sam could totally embrace the couchness.

Re: Watch the Teevee

[identity profile] fratboybitch.livejournal.com 2009-06-12 10:47 am (UTC)(link)
This wasn't the most exciting thing Alex had ever watched but he managed to stay awake and look mildly interested.
puppy_fair: (Seriousface)

Re: Watch the Teevee

[personal profile] puppy_fair 2009-06-12 11:33 am (UTC)(link)
Zack really didn't know who any of those people were, but he couldn't help but find himself entranced in the news item about that princess who had been in the car crash. It wasn't so much about the woman herself, really.

There was just something about the way the one reporter had said that he was disheartened by the lack of any official statement, and then he'd turned out to be right.

Kunsel, Zack's friend at home, would have probably been the first to point that very same thing out to him. He was good at reading between the lines.
future_sandworm: (Default)

Re: Watch the Teevee

[personal profile] future_sandworm 2009-06-12 12:45 pm (UTC)(link)
The coronation was clearly a political instrument, and broadcasting it in this was must have had quite an impact. The ceremony in itself didn't impress Leto, but then that must reflect the time. And he could see how the death of the princess must have had a similar impact in creating unity around grief.

He wondered if either of these events had been used to cover up other things.
bitten_notshy: (considering this)

Re: Watch the Teevee

[personal profile] bitten_notshy 2009-06-12 01:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Jack leaned forward in interest as he watched. He was far from a fan of the monarchy, but it was still odd to see the woman (or her equivalent in this universe) who would be queen when he was a very old man, if the timelines stayed parallel. The princess' death, too, was sad in an abstract way to him; he mostly wondered if cars crashed too terribly often.

Re: Watch the Teevee

[identity profile] blondecanary.livejournal.com 2009-06-12 01:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Dinah remembered the death of Princess Diana from when she'd been five. Her mother hadn't let her see the news item, but it was all anyone talked about for weeks, and it had stuck in her head both because of the similarity to her own name, because princesses weren't supposed to die, and because she had a little boy who hadn't been too much older than Dinah. Possibly it was the first news item to really stick with her, and make an impact.

She wasn't any fonder of the stalkerazzi now, than she'd been when she'd been old enough to understand how they contributed to her death.
thatsamilkshake: (reading)

Re: Watch the Teevee

[personal profile] thatsamilkshake 2009-06-12 03:34 pm (UTC)(link)
The coronation was pretty, but the second clip depressed Francine as much now as it had when there'd been nothing else on her family's tv for a week. Only old people were supposed to die, and she frankly wasn't all that approving of that either, as a kid or now.

So she found herself burying her nose in her notebook and trying to tune the tv out, after the coronation was over.
puppy_fair: (Big yap)

Re: Present Something Newsworthy

[personal profile] puppy_fair 2009-06-12 11:42 am (UTC)(link)
Zack was bouncing a little (in a somewhat sleepy sort of way) as he considered what kind of news statement he'd give. Maybe something about... Hmmm. Yes!

"Zack Fair, a small-town boy from Gongaga turned elite ShinRa SOLDIER has been busy making a place for himself on Fandom Island. He had been sent here to upgrade his education, but hasn't yet turned down any opportunity to do his SOLDIER duty in his quest to become a hero. Perhaps most notable among his efforts would be his role in the recent mutant-alligator invasion, where he assisted Prince Arthur Pendragon in concentrating the attacks in the park before he set off into the sewers with a small group of fighters in order to take the battle to the monsters' home turf.

"These exploits," Zack was terribly proud of himself for being able to sneak in a word like 'exploits,' "earned him a promotion in the ranks of the local reserve, where he now serves alongside Arthur Pendragon and Leto Atreides, organizing troops to keep our home on Fandom Island safe. Congratulations, Zack, and we hope to see you continue this streak in the future."

And grin. And nod. That would do!

Re: Present Something Newsworthy

[identity profile] blondecanary.livejournal.com 2009-06-12 01:33 pm (UTC)(link)
"So the spin is, 'small-town boy makes good as a hero in a far-off land'?" Dinah asked with a grin. "And, maybe, 'your local reserves are just like you?'"
puppy_fair: (Oooooo)

Re: Present Something Newsworthy

[personal profile] puppy_fair 2009-06-12 09:34 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oooh," Zack said, wide-eyed and grinning. "I like both of those!"

Really, it wasn't hard to please Zack, though.
thatsamilkshake: (dubious)

Re: Present Something Newsworthy

[personal profile] thatsamilkshake 2009-06-12 03:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Francine really, really didn't want to tell any recent stories about her life, thanks.

"The Fandom Reserve Support Services group will be having Dr. Martha Jones as a special guest today, who'll be giving mouth to mouth resuscitation lessons." Since she had an extra poster, she held it up. "Everybody's welcome."

That was a story about her life, maybe. If you squinted.

Re: Present Something Newsworthy

[identity profile] blondecanary.livejournal.com 2009-06-12 05:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Newsworthy? Dinah bit her lip, trying to think of one unique, non-routine thing.

"Last night, Dinah Lance participated in the First Annual Fire Alarm Mudfight. She's been training for this for a while, doing the usual puddle-splashing and working on her aim. But her match against Anemone lasted longer than anticipated, and went into double over-time. The judges called it a draw, with Camille and Gulliver making a split decision over Ms. Lance's uses of telekinesis, with Anemone's speed regarded as an advantage as well. We're hoping for a re-match before the end of the month, although scheduling appears to still be on hold, pending negotiations with each competitor's agent."

Somewhere, Ms. Whitaker was very amused at Dinah's sports reporting skillz leftover from last semester.
future_sandworm: (dunecat)

Re: OOC

[personal profile] future_sandworm 2009-06-12 12:50 pm (UTC)(link)
*blinks* Is the coronation clip supposed to link to female Deadpool?

Re: OOC

[personal profile] bitchprince 2009-06-12 01:03 pm (UTC)(link)
... No. I think my C/P stuck. O.o The right link is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGLN1kREJ2Q
likethegun: (Default)

Re: OOC

[personal profile] likethegun 2009-06-13 01:05 am (UTC)(link)
*eyes link* omg dirty! ;)