More than 100 million Americans will be part of the television audience for today’s Super Bowl game and related festivities. Not all of them will be closely following the game or the advertising, but they will all be a part of this collective national experience.
A 111 million U.S audience watched last year’s Super Bowl and that number is expected to be surpassed this year. Advertisers are paying $3.5 million just to buy 30 seconds of time during the telecast and in some cases much more for the preparation of the commercials. In addition to the NBC coverage, some will be following or participating in gamerelated activities through apps and social media.
Last year’s audience total was the largest in history for a scheduled program or event on television. It did not draw a record-high percentage of the total potential audience, however, because the nation’s population has increased - and the range of options for TV watchers has multiplied over the years.
Even though it was a record-breaking total audience, the 2011 Super Bowl was watched in lessthan half (53 million) of the nation’s 115 million TV households (although ratings were much higher in some markets.) Some previous games attracted a larger percentage of the TV audience and not too many years ago popular programs attracted a majority share of the audience. Sixty years ago two-thirds of all TV viewers regularly watched “I Love Lucy.” The fi nale of “M*ASH” in 1983 attracted 106 million viewers and 60 percent of the possible audience at the time.
Still, by any measure the Super Bowl extravaganza draws a massive audience and has become something akin to a national holiday.
Ironically, we have this widely shared experience at a time of sharp divisions within the nation, at a time when there is relatively little that pulls us together and much that pulls us apart.
It is instructive tocontrast the size of the Super Bowl audience to recent televised presidential and political appearances.
President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address last month had an audience of about 38 million. The number of viewers for Obama’s State of the Union speeches has declined each year he has been in off ce.
We’ve had 18 televised debates among Republican presidential hopefuls over recent months and the combined TV audience for all 18 debates is considerably less than the number of Americans who will be watching the Super Bowl today.
Today’s fragmented TV audience is a far cry from the days of “I Love Lucy,” or even “Cheers” or “Dallas.” But the fragmentation is especially evident when it comes to the audience for news and political discussion.
I’m not suggesting that we go back to the days when less than a handful of TV channels were available. But today’s media fragmentation contributes to and reinforces societal divisions. Many of us seek out sources that confi rm our political perspectives.
We rely too much on information silos that become echo chambers.
This applies not just to cable/satellite TV channels, but to radio commentators, bloggers, websites and social media.
This pattern is a significant factor in the polarization of our political discourse. Those who are outside a particular political nesting place are demonized and are considered enemies. Attack politics becomes standard and hard-edged polemics are prevalent.
In the process, there is a growing and widespread disregard for factsand documentation.
Unwarranted claims and assertions tend to go unchallenged within the confines of the separate universes which characterize today’s politcomedia environment.
There should always be room for disagreement.
And there is an honorable tradition of dissent in this country. But ill-informed dogmatism is bifurcating the nation and preventing progress in confronting the nation’s challenges.
Hard as it might be amidst today’s collectiveSuper Bowl experience, we should all take a moment to reflect on what should be our common interests - and to recognize that many of our major problems cannot be resolved if we are bound by obstinate insistence that our views are the only views that matter. Narrow-mindedness and fragmentation will doom us to destructive division rather than constructive cooperation.
HOYT PURVIS IS A JOURNALISM AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS PROFESSOR.
Opinion, Pages 13 on 02/05/2012