Broadcast television shifts track thirty years of British cultural decline

Evidence

One of the things which I am pushing for is media consciousness-raising with some younger people — for example, Channel 4 used to have hourlong programmes featuring a debate between three philosophers. Now Big Brother takes up that slot. The slot once occupied by European Arts cinema is now taken by Location, Location, Location. If you want to look at the changes in British society, politically and culturally over the last thirty years then there is no better example than Channel 4. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1678

Categorization

• SHARE: For anyone who grew up with Channel 4 pre-Big Brother this is a vivid, specific index of cultural change.
• XREF: connects to: Television has fragmented from a shared national culture into segmented audiences — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 846; Television’s arrival raised the question of a shift from class culture to mass culture; Rising TV viewing correlates with a large decline in civic participation — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute…, 448 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Television has fragmented from a shared national culture into segmented audiences #expands (0.85) — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 846
• British TV’s tone of light mockery signals and sustains political disengagement #exemplifies (0.85) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 737
• Broadcast television absorbed the political energies of the 1960s into passive viewing #expands (0.85) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 568
• Rising TV viewing correlates with a large decline in civic participation #corroborates (0.80) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 448
• Mainstream television has become more intellectually demanding over recent decades #contradicts (0.80) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 451
• Mass commercial media were changing older working-class attitudes and values. #corroborates (0.75) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 142
• Declining media jobs and algorithmic platforms fail to explain the cultural crash #corroborates (0.75) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 19
• Television’s arrival raised the question of a shift from class culture to mass culture #expands (0.72)