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Peter Lutze looks at the pros and cons of television at the Fettuccine Forum
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BY JENNY MCBRIDE
News Writer
Boise State Communication Professor Peter Lutze presented “Boob Tube: News, Sports and Less” at the Fettuccine Forum Oct. 29.
“Watching television is a sedentary experience, not an interactive one,” Lutze, who is also the co-founder of Treasure Valley Community Television (TVCTV), said. “It creates a whole slew of impossible experiences.”
Admitting his own addiction to watching television, Lutze explained that it may be soothing or stimulating for us, but the end result is that “we are more nervous, worry more and become more
hyperactive.”
Lutze said that many of his students cannot sit through a 50-minute lecture without becoming anxious or agitated, and he attributes much of this to television.
“TV gives us a sequence of real, semi-real and unreal images that we are supposed to sort out,” Lutze said.
It’s an unreal, unnatural experience for anything to move
that fast.”
Lutze believes we watch television because we have a hunger for something real, seek companionship, excitement and want to stay connected and informed.
“We are not experiencing our natural world, we are seeing images of it,” Lutze said.
He advised to look at what we aren’t doing when we are watching television.
Are we neglecting our pets, not caring for our home or our health, missing out on quality time with our friends and family, avoiding schoolwork and reading?
According to Lutze, the solution to the problem is to get rid of the television.
“This is the easiest way to simplify your life in a complex world,” Lutze said.
He urged others to make a commitment to something else, without direct benefits to the self.
Although he hasn’t sacrificed the television set yet, he has done the latter of the two.
Lutze has been volunteering at TVCTV for more than a decade and encourages students to do
the same.
Community Access Television will broadcast any idea, opinion or program as long as it’s not obscene.
Material for more mature audiences is shown later in the evening or at night.
He reminded attendees that it’s the public’s television station and it can only be what community members make it.
Lutze is one of the several speakers invited to present at the Fettuccine Forum, which is a free lecture series that takes place the first Thursday of each month in the Rose Room in the historic Union Block at 718 W.
Idaho Street.
The event is sponsored by Boise State’s Center for Idaho History and Politics and the Boise City Office of the Mayor.
The Fettuccine Forum began in 1989 at a Boise Italian restaurant.
Lunchtime speakers discussed big political issues and lively intellectual discussion followed.
“When Boise State wanted to partner with the city in our role as a metropolitan research university, I revived the forum,” Director of the Center for Idaho History and Politics Todd Shallat said. “We centered the forum around municipal and civil issues that people wanted to hear about.”
Most of this year’s series will be about growth issues, but will also touch on other topics.
“It’s all about coming together as a community to talk about the things that affect us here and now,” Shallat said.
Undergraduate and graduate students can earn credit by enrolling in the accompanying workshops on BroncoWeb.
Teachers can earn one professional education credit by attending all of the spring 2008 forums and participating in the follow-up discussions.
The event is open to the public. Doors open at 5 p.m. Free appetizers are served and fettuccine is available for $5.
JENNY MCBRIDE
News Writer