I've discovered something quite interesting. In academic television studies they talk about "quality television" quite openly. That is the exact phrase. It's mostly in a European context. I'm not sure why that is a striking fact for me. I suppose it is because it implies a default setting of non-quality tv. Is there a category of "quality [pop] music." ?? Music critics don't talk like that.
All value judgment are suspended in a particular kind of cultural studies, but not with respect to television. Everyone seems to know what quality is.
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In my research group last week they were talking about the need to get rid of this distinction. Also in film studies, literature professors prefer cine de autor but it's not true that those films are good and more commercial ones are bad, necessariy, whatever good and bad are, they said.
Right. High brow movies follow the "auteur" paradigm. The art movie is like the art song. We can have mediocre classical music and still consider it highbrow art. The place something occupies in the hierarchy of taste has no bearing on its actual quality, whatever that is.
"Quality blogging."
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