The End of Water Cooler Television

“The new forms of electronic broadcasting, such as radio and television, introduced a further new dimension as their audiences now consumed the same messages at exactly the same time. Thus broadcast schedules played a significant part in creating a shared sense of  “life in common” for national audiences in the C20 (Scannell,1988)” (Morley, 8) 

The idea of a shared experience through media is not a new one. Growing up the phrase “water cooler television” was a term I heard frequently and one that the quote above describes. Now – not so much.  Not only do less people feel the need to watch a show when it first airs but less people are watching the same things. This I would assume is due to the large amount of options we – the audience have.

This fact makes me sad – sentimental in a way. Growing up watching the first few seasons of American Idol I knew going to school the next day that everyone had watched it the night before. And EVERYONE had an opinion on William Hung and Sanjaya. This kind of shared experience does not happen that often anymore.

Mindy Kaling wrote in her book, Why Not Me?, that she was disappointed that her show The Mindy Project was not picked up by NBC home of ‘Must See TV’ in the 90’s – this line up included long-running staples like Cheers, Friends, Seinfeld, and Frasier. These shows are perfect examples to show just how much viewership has changed even amongst the most popular of shows.

The Seinfeld finale garnered an audience of 76 million viewers ¹. Whereas the American Idol series finale garnered 13.4 million viewers.

“New, cross-border forms of broadcasting often now bring together audiences of people who may be geographically dispersed across great distances, to constitute diasporic communities of various sorts.” (Morley, 9)

Audiences now have many other ways to have a community experience about the media they consume than simply to chat around the office water cooler. Most likely that place is online. I partake in conversations online through specific communities or through comment sections on streaming sites. It is wonderful that we have these options. But at the same time, I do miss having a communal experience. I miss being able to go up to someone and know that they watched Joe Millionaire reveal he was not in fact a millionaire.

REFERENCES

David Morley (2005), Entry on ‘Audience’ in New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society, Ed. T.Bennett, L. Grossberg & M. Morris (Wiley-Blackwell), pp.8-10.

FOOTNOTES