The television as we know it has demanded the attention of the public for years. But what once isolated us now connects us through phones, computers, and tablets. It has become apparent that the audience is making its demands on how and what viewers want to see on their screens. Television commands wide viewership and reaches a great expanse of the target audience for any commercials (Greenfield). In "From Wasteland to Wonderland: TV's Altered Landscape," (2015) New York Times writer, Jeff Greenfield, describes his personal experience with the television industry, and authoritatively takes us on a fascinating journey of TV, when TV appeared wounded and dejected as would a soldier facing imminent defeat in a war. He emphasizes the history of television networks, the end of the three-network monopoly, and with the generational shift in what is acceptable to show to the public. With the inventions, development, and advancement of new technologies, it seemed that the TV was no longer as important. However, an upsurge in the commercial industry revived it violently, turning it into a “Darling” for many since the developers had to create relevant presentations which attracted the audience. The audience would, in turn, be sold to advertisers (Greenfield). Greenfield’s purpose is to persuade his audience that the television may have had a rough time in the past but it’s here to stay, and this he does by embracing an assured and friendly tone, repetition, contrast, use of statistics, rhetorical questions, significant quotes and personal testimonies.
Firstly, Greenfield uses logos to persuade his audience that despite the enormous challenges TV went through, it has not only survived but emerged stronger. Logos is the very content of a speech or the application of logic in an argument. Greenfield argues that the audience, who are the consumers, need TV services in their lives such as being updated on the news, being entertained, and being consumers of advertised products. The author achieves the logic argument by bringing the audience up to speed with the history of the Television since the mid-1970s when he says, “The key to the old TV world was scarcity. Only so many channels could beam through the air without running into each other… But in 1975, RCA introduced the first of two “Satcom” communications satellites, and the three-network monopoly was dead. Now competitors could deliver their fare to stations and cable systems coast to coast.” In the example above, Greenfield has made very good use of contrast to draw that distinction between scarcity and abundance in the TV industry. Further, he points out that in as much as the TVs once isolated human beings, they are nowadays essential in every bit of life. For instance, in entertaining, giving information and many other uses that are equally important. This he manages to do by use of contrast when he quotes a historian, “…the historian Daniel Boorstein wrote in Life
magazine that the age of television created “a new sense of isolation and confinement.” Today, a viewer can use a second screen — a phone, a tablet, a computer — to connect with friends, strangers and even creators of the shows to dissect a plotline, deride a piece of dialogue and question a twist in the story line, even as the show is being broadcast” (Greenfield). Again the use of that contrast paints a clear picture of the differences in opinion between isolation and interactivity. Further use of logos is found in the statistics Greenfield uses to convince the audience of the shift to financial abundance from scarcity. He argues thus, “Even in the face of flagging ratings, the network earned more than $440 million in profits last year, and the laggard MSNBC earned about half that much” (Greenfield). His use of such staggering statistics convinces the reader that TV is a booming business.
Ethos is the characteristic of influencing the process of persuasion through the author’s honesty, authority, and credibility about the topic in question. In his briefing of the history of the television, Greenfield assumes that authority because he informs his audience of the true things that unfolded when in his presence, for example, “When I began writing about the television industry in the mid-1970s, these were some of the kinder terms of endearment” (Greenfield).This means Greenfield has been in the business long enough to be an authority; in fact, for over 40 years. Besides, he uses personal testimony when he honestly admits to being wrong the time he predicted that the then enormous pressure that forced the commercial television into its quite narrow boundaries would not widen in the future. The author earnestly admits that he was wrong in that prediction and that the very boundaries he predicted would not widen began to widen that same year. This honesty from a personal testimony influences the persuasion process, and the reader tends to be persuaded to buy his stance in the argument. Another factor that influences the persuasion process of the reader is the author’s credibility on the subject as seen in his knowledge about the television. In fact, the author explains every bit clearly on how the television services have changed over the years, which give a listener or the reader confidence in taking the same stance with the author about TV. Not only has the author been in the TV industry for years, he has also interacted with fellow industry players, and this has increased his knowledge over the years, thus contributing to his credibility. For example, he includes quotations such as, “Remember,” the NBC executive Don Carswell told me, “we’re not selling the program. We’re selling the audience for the program.” Also, “The veteran writer had gotten a deal from Fox to write a pilot script about a family headed by a gangster. As he recounted in a public discussion with me…” (Greenfield). These quotations and other factors examined above tend to convince the audience not only of the author’s credibility but also on his argument that TV is here to stay.
Greenfield has also used pathos in his line of argument that TV will survive. By definition, pathos is the appeal to the emotional side of the audience that is targeted. This aspect of communication is achieved by Greenfield by familiarizing the adverse effects of the TV with his audience. Greenfield cleverly uses repetition to draw us into his discussion of TV, thus working with our emotions. “Everything about the medium — how we receive it, how we consume it, how we pay for it, how we interact with it — has been altered, and TV is infinitely better for it.” Also, “What this meant was that every hour, every half-hour, every moment of prime time had to be devoted to gathering the biggest possible audience.” (Greenfield). In fact, he gives an example of hardship that was faced by anyone who tried to start another network besides the three that had a nationwide distribution system of relays. Further, he talks of writers like David Chase who had to write things they never believed just for the said television program to gain a bigger audience. In this narration, Greenfield skillfully employs
rhetorical questions to pique the reader’s sense of morality when the Fox Executives punch holes in David’s work simply because society has become more and more permissive, “Did Tony Soprano really have to be seeing a psychiatrist? Didn’t this make him seem vulnerable, a bit weak?” (Greenfield). There are more rhetorical questions posed to emphasize on the shift from the age of morality to the age of permissiveness. “A chemistry teacher turned meth supplier; Soviet spies as the protagonists of a weekly drama? A drug-addicted nurse? A firefighter fighting his own demons?” (Greenfield). The author wants to draw us into an emotional discussion of the new trend of creating antiheroes. Greenfield still has one more question which he nevertheless answers; a question that reveals the pathos side of his story. “Is there still a mountain of junk on TV? More than ever. The same cable abundance that brings us Mad Men
and Justified brings us the Real Liposuctioned Housewives of Springfield.” (Greenfield). Thus, the author manages to use pathos to draw the audience into siding with him that television is no longer a wasteland but a wonderland.
The author aimed to persuade his audience that despite the intricate battles for survival that TV waged in the past, it has not only survived but is now thriving over and above anyone’s imagination. Greenfield accomplishes his purpose by using compelling techniques of a friendly tone, repetition, contrast, rhetorical questions, personal testimony and statistics to appeal to the logos, ethos, and pathos of the audience. “The boob tube,” “The idiot box,” “The plug-in drug, and “A vast wasteland” now has the last laugh as Greenfield concludes by calling it a ‘dazzling landscape.” It has indeed taken the world by storm.
Work Cited
Greenfield, Jeff. “From Wasteland to Wonderland: TV’s Altered Landscape.” New York Times, 3 October 2015.
