Desperately Playing TV catch-up

I’ve been wondering for a while now how relevant this page really is any more. Every paper has its TV listings and its star picks, but still something bothers me. As a student publication, made by students for students (as the cliché goes), shouldn’t we trying to match the mediums as well as the shows?

Let’s face it, the media has moved. My life used to be such that during conversation, someone might say, “Gosh, you really should watch this awfully good programme next week; it is wonderful!” Times have changed. This scenario has changed. It now consists of someone frog-marching towards me, mobile device aloft, ready to force upon me the latest must-see Youtube video of a kitten juggling chainsaws.

My question, and my point, as it were, is this: is a TV section still relevant? Should we spend our time finding the best shows for students to watch? Should our writers labour so long and hard over a review which may be redundant by the next morning anyway, when the TV show has been forgotten and the chainsaw-juggling house pets are all the rage?

To an extent I say: of course! It will be a while yet before the TV is made redundant in favour of completely user-generated content. The freedom to be able to choose what you watch is making sections such as this humble TV one look steadily old fashioned. So what’s to be done?
Should we introduce a Youtube video Pick of the Week? Would this need be followed by our obscure-TV-streaming-site of the week? Where would it end? And if we were to do this, would we need to change the name of our beloved TV section? The Boar has, in fact, as of Wednesday 2nd November, found itself with a new TV Editor. A massive congratulations to one Melissa Morgan for this, but I can’t help but feel that informing her of the abandonment of the TV section quite so soon would be a little harsh. Maybe we should quite simply say, “Melissa, we’re afraid that no-one watches TV anymore, and unless you fancy heading up the new Youtube Review section, you’re out.” This would, of course, be ridiculous.

There is still something about TV. There is something in the entertainment value – we like to unwind, and we like to briefly indulge ourselves in escaping our own reality. We like to watch documentaries about obscure animals in the Sahara, feeling knowledgable when the opportunity later arises to throw some North-African-animal facts out there.

Most of all though, we feel united. We can all have an opinion about TV. And until the day comes that we can’t, I think this section stays.