Response 2, Four More Years

TVTV’s presentation of the Republican National Convention revealed a very different side of the convention than what is generally shown on the major news networks. I thought that one of the most interesting parts was the interviews with the reporters on the convention floor. Most of them said that they would prefer to spend more time on the floor with the delegates instead of covering the bigger stories (which is exactly what TVTV was doing). Thus TVTV was able to reveal a different side of the convention from what the networks were showing. They expose the raw, unpolished side of the convention, binging to light what is generally not seen. The many interviews with the news reporters gives the news about the news, and shows how planned out the convention is, they report on what they are told to report on. Thus TVTV is able to present a very different picture which contrasts sharply with the ones aired on network television.

I also found one of the formal qualities of the video to be interesting, namely the closeness of the people to the camera. As Vito Acconci wrote in his article, this creates a level of personal interaction; the person on the screen could be talking to you face to face, making the viewer feel as if they were actually there. Again this is one of the qualities which contrast with what was shown of the major news broadcasts, as typically they are not able to interview people so closely. Of course another feature which I found interesting is the absence of the TVTV interviewer on the screen. He is rarely shown and thus the entire shot is filled with the person being interviewed, which in turn makes the video seem less of a news cast and more like a personal interaction.

The juxtaposition of the convention and the protesters was interesting if a bit jarring. The dichotomy of the wide eyed youths and the broken and battered veterans creates a tension between what the convention organizers want to portray and what is happening out on the streets; this unmasking plays on a theme which is cultivated in the video, namely that of the sincerity of the conventions participants, whose adamant claims are nevertheless vitiated by TVTV’s video.