The Message in a New Phase of Television: An Exploration of the Dichotomy of Good and Evil

Abstract

AbstractDrawing on the ideas of several key sociologists, and the central argument that reality and representation have become blurred, this conceptual paper sets out to explore how television, one of the Big Seven leisure pursuits, has a damaging impact upon moral sightedness in a world where modernity has entered a state of flux. To link seemingly abstract ideas – those of ‘synopticism’, ‘reterotopia’ and ‘adiaphorization’ for example – and the language of poet-intellectuals with events and consequences occurring in people’s everyday lives, a selection of popular reality television shows and TV celebrities are considered. In its second part, the paper goes on to embrace intimations of hope. This is the hope that television can be used in experimental ways to stimulate moral consciousness. To further unpack this suggestion, the paper considers how television networks such as Channel 4, and shows such as Squid Games and Black Mirror, can excite moral impulses for the ‘Other’. In its conclusions, the paper explores whether the presiding message of television can be different to encourage viewers to question what is right and wrong.