I've had a lot of trouble coming up with ideas and have had a stressful week so honestly I haven't thought too much this but i think my idea works.
The thing that interested me most in the class (Other than Johnny's rants) was the idea of interactivity so I want to explore what it is, what constitutes it, etc.. My main focus will be with reality TV though (hopefully thats fine). Whether or not shows such as American Idol and others can truly be interactive or if we really have no control over outcomes (or if they really make a difference). Like I said I haven't given it a ton of thought so I haven't done enough research to say for sure which is correct, but in my opinion I think it can be interactive. We can choose winners, contestants, prizes, and more. I know of a few websites like realityblurred where I've read various articles on this in the past that I'm sure I'll be able to dig up. Other than that all my sources will obviously be web-based since interactivity with tv is relatively new thing and I don't believe there's any books out about it.
2 comments:
After talking about it with my group I'm going to stick with the reality TV idea. I'll start with brief history of reality TV in general and then split into the different genres of it. I'll then go through why people might not initially think it can be interactive then for the rest of the paper break it down into different ways viewers can interact with the show. I would say voting is major way you can interact and these days you can vote for about every aspect of a show (winners, contestants, prizes, conditions, etc...). Hoss brought up the idea of web-based shows that you can actually interact with and effect what happens. I haven't actually looked at any yet, but if works I'll talk about that also.
The big thing here - as with most projects - is to find a specific focus as soon as possible. You don't want to end up spending half the paper on the history of reality television, unless that's going to contribute materially to the specific argument you want to make about reality tv and interactivity. Similarly, you shouldn't get tangled up in talking about several different sub-genres; it would probably be better to focus on a show (or two or three, if you have a good reason) as an example of the genre.
When you're making your argument - something along the lines of "reality television can be interactive," or whatever - you need to ask yourself why the reader should care. Why is it an interesting or relevant question. I can think of a couple different reasons why people might care - but knowing *your* reason is certainly crucial.
Also, I wouldn't assume that no books have been written about the subject. I had a student who worked on a similar subject, and there was certainly far more material than he could read.
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