Response 3:

Richard Serra’s Television Delivers People caught my attention with its very simple and direct message. Although, during the initial minutes of the video I expected for the introduction style scrolling text to turn into something flashier and exciting, I became more and more enthralled in flow of the text from one idea to another. The blue screen with white text makes the text clear and easily read, the speed of text is slow enough that it is to comprehend however it has a pace that moves you forward and drives you to continue reading. The flow is such that an argument is presented and then the process for which this argument came about is described then the argument is repeated again. The video text repeats phrases to emphasize them like ‘TV consumes you’. While the message is very serious and somewhat upsetting or scary the music is like a jingle very pleasant, and upbeat. It is very simple so you get the feeling like the video is presenting straight facts with authority. The message is that TV consumes the viewer and that while those watching TV think they are the consumers they are actually being consumed by the corporations or programmers. The programmers are using the viewers and taking advantage of them. In addition there is a chain of command which really leaves the considerations of the viewer out. The responsibility of the corporations to viewers is negated. It is said that TV essentially is telling you what you want to hear in order to comfort you into believing what the programmer is telling and selling. Some of the claims were striking for example that the TV viewer spends four times as much as the programmers while they have no responsibility to the viewer and that they are only there for profit advertising or otherwise to consume the viewer and make them want more.