While I was in California visiting my brother on his show ControlTV, we took a tour of the Los Angeles area. During our tour, a few comments were made about what America 'produces' for the rest of the world. One producer argued that the US no longer produces the vast amount of tangible products that it used to-- a lot of that responsibility has been delegated to countries with massive populations like China, Indonesia, and India. The conversation turned to the idea that American entertainment was one of the last things the the United States produces for the rest of the world--and even Bollywood is threatening to usurp the popularity of Hollywood--Bollywood services the 1.2 billion people in India. There are only 300 million people in the US.
Initially, the conversation saddened me. It seemed to fit in with the media's apocalyptic forecasts of the United State's future. One of the most noticeable and prominent "products" America provides to the International community is Entertainment. My brother is a burgeoning starlet. I should be happy.
I think anyone would agree that they want to be part of a society that they believe has some sort of higher value beyond reality shows. We are operating in a huge deficit, where our debt is owned by Japan and China. Factory jobs have disappeared. So, are we making anything? What do we have to show for ourselves?
After some reflection and research, I have discovered that the this line of thinking (that America does not produce much beyond entertainment) is categorically incorrect. Hollywood is not the only major 'thing' being produced by America for the rest of the world. The United States is exporting more products than it ever has in the past. The illusion that we are no longer on top is created by the fact that most of product manufacturing has been mechanized. The more machines we have, the less people we need. Therefore we begin to believe that manufacturing in the US has subsided.
To this day, the United States still has the largest manufacturing output of any country in the world. A quick Wikipedia search tells me that "The United States is the world's largest manufacturer, with a 2007 industrial output of US$2.69 trillion. In 2008, its manufacturing output was greater than that of the manufacturing output of China, India, and Brazil combined, despite manufacturing being a very small portion of the entire US economy as compared to most other countries." Our agribusiness is huge-- we control half of the world's grain exports.
Additionally, the US's Medical and Technological innovations surpass every developed country.These ideas are exported throughout the world in the form of medicine for people with a host of illnesses, aerospace technology, and let's not forget--social networking websites.
Another important point--even though the United States delegated a lot of its production to other countries, the products are still inherently American. For example, Ralph Lauren produces its clothing in China, but Ralph Lauren is an American company. The fact that products are made elsewhere does not mean we don't have claim to take credit for the brand. There is no doubt that people around the world gravitate towards American clothing brands.
It is important to not confuse production with lack of jobs, trade deficits, and recessions. In terms of making "stuff", we are still leading the way. We don't exist only for entertainment's sake.
More Reading:
An interesting article on perceptions of the US in Europe:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124534162608828017.html
Monday, November 8, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
How Real is Reality Televison?--By Josh Couvares
** This is a guest post from my brother Josh. This article was first published in October in The Harbinger, Manchester High School's student newspaper. Josh is 17 and a Senior at Manchester High School and the Forum Editor for the paper. These are his opinions, and not necessarily mine!**
Today's networks are dominated by reality television. Some families are even willing to create elaborate hoaxes about their six year old child in a hot air balloon just to be on a reality television show. But is reality television really as real as the viewers may think it is?
Most people would agree that it certainly doesn't realistically portray the rather dull and monotonous life that many of us feel we lead on a day to day basis. If the average person went to live in a house with seven strangers for several months, such as they do on they do on MTV's "the Real World," there probably wouldn't be too much excitement.
Ray Richmond, television critic for the Hollywood Reporter, in a comment about "The Real World," stated, "While 'The Real World' isn't fully scripted, participates have maintained that there was meddling by producers--denied by all involved -- to stir the pot and ratchet up soapy conflict." This only proves our suspicions about reality shows. Someone must be tampering with them because actual people don't actually act like the ones on some reality shows.
J. Rupert Thompson, the director and producer of "Big Brother" and "Fear Factor" among others, also believes that there is something very unreal in reality shows. "Certainly, reality TV is a very manipulated format where the basis of it that real people are put into unreal situations to create a story," Thompson explained.
My brother recently told me he was going to e on a reality show and I couldn't help but feel like he was making a big mistake. I was afraid that he might be manipulated and worked into a frenzy in order to make the show more dramatic, or that the show may give an unrealistic portrayal of his character. Luckily, this revolutionary show that he is the subject of, ControlTV , is nothing like any other reality show ever before. It may be the most real reality show.
On October 6th ControlTV created a brand new type of reality show that innovated the reality show genre and made it more realistic than ever before. On other reality shows, the audience may wonder what is happening off camera that they cannot see. However, there is no such concern about ControlTV. Unlike other show before it, where the contents of a week are edited down to half an hour, putting the editors in charge of showing what they want to show, this show is streamed live from the Internet 24 hours a day focusing on the life of one subject. The subject of ControlTV is Manchester High School alumnus, and my brother, Tristan Couvares. Because the show is streamed live every second of the day, except for the times it is experiencing technical difficulties, it gives a very realistic portray of the life of the subject, Tristan. There is no suspicion of producers meddling with his life because the audience can observe what is going on all the time.
What also makes this unique is that the audience can vote on aspects of Tristan's life. For example, the first vote on the show on the morning of October 6th was "How should we wake up Tristan?" The audience the voted from the three choices, crowning "Mariachi Band" as the winner. Then, and actual Mariachi Band entered Tristan's apartment and started playing.
There are down sides to this brand new show. A majority of the time viewers will find themselves watching Tristan doing mundane day to day activities, such as eating or sleeping. Nothing will make someone feel creepier than watching a man on the Internet sleeping. Also, Tristan is not allowed to go anywhere without a camera crew, which impedes his daily activities. Many time he cannot leave the house because the camera crew is unable to go with him.
Despite the bad qualities that the show possesses, it certainly is a very ambitious undertaking. For better or for worse, reality television will mark a new age of reality shows. Finally there will be actual "real" reality television, even to the point of monotony. For anyone who wished to see the show themselves, please visit www.controltv.com.
(Josh)
Today's networks are dominated by reality television. Some families are even willing to create elaborate hoaxes about their six year old child in a hot air balloon just to be on a reality television show. But is reality television really as real as the viewers may think it is?
Most people would agree that it certainly doesn't realistically portray the rather dull and monotonous life that many of us feel we lead on a day to day basis. If the average person went to live in a house with seven strangers for several months, such as they do on they do on MTV's "the Real World," there probably wouldn't be too much excitement.
Ray Richmond, television critic for the Hollywood Reporter, in a comment about "The Real World," stated, "While 'The Real World' isn't fully scripted, participates have maintained that there was meddling by producers--denied by all involved -- to stir the pot and ratchet up soapy conflict." This only proves our suspicions about reality shows. Someone must be tampering with them because actual people don't actually act like the ones on some reality shows.
J. Rupert Thompson, the director and producer of "Big Brother" and "Fear Factor" among others, also believes that there is something very unreal in reality shows. "Certainly, reality TV is a very manipulated format where the basis of it that real people are put into unreal situations to create a story," Thompson explained.
My brother recently told me he was going to e on a reality show and I couldn't help but feel like he was making a big mistake. I was afraid that he might be manipulated and worked into a frenzy in order to make the show more dramatic, or that the show may give an unrealistic portrayal of his character. Luckily, this revolutionary show that he is the subject of, ControlTV , is nothing like any other reality show ever before. It may be the most real reality show.
On October 6th ControlTV created a brand new type of reality show that innovated the reality show genre and made it more realistic than ever before. On other reality shows, the audience may wonder what is happening off camera that they cannot see. However, there is no such concern about ControlTV. Unlike other show before it, where the contents of a week are edited down to half an hour, putting the editors in charge of showing what they want to show, this show is streamed live from the Internet 24 hours a day focusing on the life of one subject. The subject of ControlTV is Manchester High School alumnus, and my brother, Tristan Couvares. Because the show is streamed live every second of the day, except for the times it is experiencing technical difficulties, it gives a very realistic portray of the life of the subject, Tristan. There is no suspicion of producers meddling with his life because the audience can observe what is going on all the time.
What also makes this unique is that the audience can vote on aspects of Tristan's life. For example, the first vote on the show on the morning of October 6th was "How should we wake up Tristan?" The audience the voted from the three choices, crowning "Mariachi Band" as the winner. Then, and actual Mariachi Band entered Tristan's apartment and started playing.
There are down sides to this brand new show. A majority of the time viewers will find themselves watching Tristan doing mundane day to day activities, such as eating or sleeping. Nothing will make someone feel creepier than watching a man on the Internet sleeping. Also, Tristan is not allowed to go anywhere without a camera crew, which impedes his daily activities. Many time he cannot leave the house because the camera crew is unable to go with him.
Despite the bad qualities that the show possesses, it certainly is a very ambitious undertaking. For better or for worse, reality television will mark a new age of reality shows. Finally there will be actual "real" reality television, even to the point of monotony. For anyone who wished to see the show themselves, please visit www.controltv.com.
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