Television Specificity and Programme Planning: Two Participatory Exercises

Abstract

Inevitably at some early point in the study of television the teacher will wish his pupils to consider the defining characteristics of the medium which they are studying. In what precise ways are the television message and the conditions of its reception different from those of other media? What is it which constitutes television’s uniqueness? These questions can be handled in the classroom through discussion, but this has never seemed to me to work satisfactorily. The topic isn’t inherently interesting to most pupils, and since the teacher knows most of the answers anyway, there can be a deadening quality about the proceedings. It is a necessary chore to be accomplished and disposed of as quickly as possible. The exercise below attempts to overcome some of these difficulties by placing the discussion of television specificity within a game format.