Creating Television: Conversations With the People Behind 50 Years of American TV
A Volume in LEA's Communication Series, © Copyright 2004
Robert Kubey (kubey@scils.rutgers.edu)
Director, Center for Media Studies (www.mediastudies.rutgers.edu)
Professor, Dept of Journalism & Media Studies, Rutgers University
Has the Attention Span of the American Public Grown Shorter?
View Robert Kubey's Commentary on Related Pediatrics Article
Each quote is followed by the page number in Creating Television where the full quote can be found.
Question asked of talent agent Jeremy Zimmer:
Do you think the attention span of the American public is growing shorter?
What did you say? I wasn’t listening. 404
Steve Allen:
People today are “over-entertained.” I see absolutely nothing that can be done about this, however.
The attention span of the American TV-viewing public—as I see it—is now equivalent to that of a gnat. . . .
The public is certainly no happier or content that it was, say, before 1950. They are often distracted. 57
Producer Marty Pasetta:
You can’t keep doing a show the way you did it 10 years ago because you’d have time pass you by.
Their attention span won’t allow it because they’ll be gone. 249
Question to writer, T.S. Cook: There's a widely held notion that the pace of the medium has sped up.
Yes, the public is beginning to think in terms of little sound bites. The TV age has finally had an impact on people's psychology. We think 15 minutes is about the most anyone can concentrate on a subject these days. 208-209
How often do you hear that kind of thing in the industry?
All over the place. But hearing people talk about it and hearing concern are two different things. A lot of people think it's OK and don't care about it. I think it's not to be desired and could be disastrous. I worked with a director recently. I gave him a script and I don't think he read it. After I had written the script for the next story meeting, he wanted me to give him an outline of what was in it. 209
Do you ever hear anything about reducing talking heads, or you've got a piece of dialogue that is too long?
Yes, they say that. "This goes on for a long time." "We have to cut this up." "Can we open it up?" "Put this someplace else." "Put this scene in that." They're always concerned that it seems too long and the people will be bored with what's going on. "There's too much dialogue." Directors do this all the time. They have a tendency to skip over the dialogue to get to the action. Because that's the way they're trained in TV. They're not really trained to work with actors. They're trained to do set-ups to get on to the next piece of action. There is no rehearsal time. You shoot the rehearsal. There's no taking people aside and working on the lines for a few days. 208
Question to musical special producer, Gary Smith: Is there pressure on people like yourself to keep segments of film and tape shorter and shorter?
It's one of those dictums we get. One of them is the fact that things have to be done in 20-second bites, so the audience is constantly titillated. I'm not sure that that's wrong. That is a fairly valid point--in order to keep people interested, there's a sense of energy.
There's another truth: you can't use original music. You must only use music that the audience is familiar with. And I happen to agree. I understand that when I hear a song for the first time I don't respond to it as emotionally. Still, I tend to think rules are to be interpreted. Not to be totally observed regardless.
We don't listen that well anymore. We need to be stimulated. I'm not a big fan of musical videos because I think they lack in emotion. They don't move me. I think some of the effects are wonderful. Occasionally I see a music video that really is a complete drama: beginning, middle, and end. 243
What's the best way to grab and hold the attention of the viewer?
I'd like to believe that the best way to hold a viewer is to involve them emotionally. But, I'm afraid that the success of MTV and the obvious statistical support for the fact that the eye needs to be stimulated, much more than the ear, has weighted things toward the visual instead of the emotional. 244
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