People, taken individually, like to be provoked, challenged and appealed to on a variety of levels. Taken as a mass, we like Neighbours . We choose TV as way to relax, to unwind, forget our troubles. It's hard to unwind after a hard day by watching Pakistani terrorists chucking Molotov cocktails at school buses. This is why Dateline rates lower than Australia's Funniest Home Video Show .
Commercial TV is a mass medium.
If Channel Nine became a cross between the Discovery Channel and The Opera Network, as the media elite would prefer, it would go out of business faster than a Provencal Cuisine McDonald's. If Network Ten played Little Women instead of Big Brother the effect would be the same - only the accents would change. After all, it's the viewers who decide who will get kicked off the TV island and who will survive to make an easy million. Everything, including the ads, is a lead-up to the next ad. The most troubling aspect of Shmith's damning article is that he was once the editor of the Green Guide .