From SchNEWS...
WATCHING ME, WATCHING YOU
Each person in this country watches an average 4 hours of TV a day;
that's a quarter of the waking life of everyone spent staring at a
piece of furniture. Scary, but we ain't seen nothing yet.
How about a TV that watches you? Every time you click the remote
control of a new Digital TV, the set notes what you are watching and
for how long, and then relays this information to the service
provider. As you explore the interactive new world of entertainment a
file is being compiled of your interests and viewing habits, name,
address, bank details... This will then be sold to the multi-national
corporations, so they can target you with specific products, or to any
other organisation who wants it.
The happy advertisers of TV's 'digital revolution' promise more
"viewer power", but in fact the opposite is true. Pilot interactive TV
projects have created programmes that are designed to extract even
more information from people, through on-screen quiz shows and
questionnaires. Matthew Timms, head of programming at Two Way TV says
viewers are happy to answer personal questions:
"They tend to be fairly honest... because somehow they feel they're
sitting there, it's just them and the television, even though the
reality is it's got a wire leading straight back to somebody's
computer..."
And there's more in store. The service providers can send new software
to your telly at any point, without telling you, and they're working
on the idea of artificial intelligence programming so the box can
respond to the information it gleans about you. It could sell you
products you might like, suggest programmes to watch, work to increase
your viewing, or your children's... turn off, tune out and drop off
drop the thing out of a twelve storey window.
22-28th April is International TV-Turnoff Week, coordinated in this
country by White Dot. They encourage you to "Take a healthy break from
TV and you'll find out what you really enjoy doing." More information
on this and the leaflet "Spy TV" about digital telly from White Dot,
PO Box 2116, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 3LR; http://www.whitedot.org/
|
