Lauren Zalaznick: The conscience of television

http://www.ted.com TV executive Lauren Zalaznick thinks deeply about pop television. Sharing results of a bold study that tracks attitudes against TV ratings over five decades, she makes a case that television reflects who we truly are -- in ways we might not have expected.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate.

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• television
• pop television
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[Silenus6]

"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book." —Groucho Marx

[eluap]

Thumbs up if you don't even own a TV set anymore.

[USMerchantMarines]

@Jer314153 She should be proud of her grey? I can only imagine just how ugly your dates must be. Hahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaa

[lesliejp7]

omg dye your hair lady! she would look 10 years younger!!

[Trevorthentcy]

eluap I am with you I gave my tv and games to a little girl in our building that was 4 years ago and I still feel guilty about doing it. The more I think about tv the more I come to realize tv is part of the cause of our downfall in morals.

[64SGH]

I no longer have a TV in my house,

Do you need to hear a violin play to feel sad about starving chidren??

Conscience of television .. I don't see it...

[vef444]

Humans are social in every way, they have social values and social standarts, or in other way dogmas. Dogmas were basically melted in the images of Gods. So, basically, Gods, or some other utopic ideas, represent our social conscious. Animals have no imagination, so they have no Gods and no philosophy, so they have no social values and no society. This I may tell you as a historian.

[cuervotaylor]

This lady is like if you had photshoped her to be larger

[Galakyllz]

If you understand her message, as it's not really hard to if you listen to her last two words, thumb me up... no one else seems to understand the point of her presentation.

[EmperorofCartoons]

Um, "power" and "inquisitiveness' are not instincts.

[godscuttingyoudown]

@eluap Thumbs up if you're smart enough to understand it doesn't matter since the same people who own the networks also own the net and they have simply re-shifted their team of psychologist to mind F*ck you in the digital age