TV as professional development

Walt asks TV or not TV? and argues that the answer may be a lifestyle choice but is not an indication of moral superiority. I'll agree with that.

I watch some TV, less since I started graduate school, but we don't have cable. Refusing cable was a lifestyle choice for awhile, then it was a "too cheap" choice. Now that we have cable modem, adding cable TV wouldn't cost much so I can't claim that I'm too cheap anymore. At this point, I guess "no cable" is just our default and nothing has pushed us to a different position. I am too cheap for Tivo/DVR--or I was when I looked into it a few years ago and I don't imagine I will be revisiting that decision until after I graduate.

My favorite show right now is History Detectives on PBS. I consider it professional development since they frequently visit libraries and archives. From Friday night's episode, I learned things about how grown adopted children find their birth parents. I imagine librarians help people with that kind of research all the time.

Xine of Ask Nettie Day uses knowledge gained from television viewing in her technique for reader's advisory. Rochelle, in a comment to Walt's post, claims that watching TV puts her in touch with popular culture and makes her a better reference librarian.

Judging from the Nielsen ratings for October 3 to 9, my education is lacking, because I don't regularly watch any of those shows. I have seen multiple episodes of only one, Without A Trace, and I gave up watching that when I started graduate school. I have seen one full episode of Las Vegas when Crossing Jordan went there (and I missed this year's cross-over--it must have been last year).

I am surprised to see Commander in Chief up in 7th place. I was looking forward to that because I like both the premise and Geena Davis, but I watched fifteen minutes and said, "well, it's no West Wing." Maybe I'll try again.     #

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