• it distorts the real world
• it substitutes for the real world
• it can remake the real world in its image (cause violence...)

TV shows are constructed and nature by definition is unconstructed--what happens when you put the two together?

• TV makes nature much more dramatic than it really is
• even the lions at the zoo seem boring compared to nature shows
• but we do know TV is not real, we see it as real and not real at the same time
  

Examples of TV dramas

• Dr. Quinn opening
• nature is supposed to convey authenticity, but the series wasn't even filmed in Colorado
• we know TV isn't real, but we tend to be less suspicious of the natural parts
• Twin Peaks title sequence
• didn't expect to be taken as real
• Northern Exposure makes more of nature as an essential force
• it looked more natural

Examples of ads

• Infiniti ad
• we want both more things and less materialism, advertisements walk the line of our contradictory feelings

Nature shows:

• example of a title sequence
• Animal Planet
  
• the meanings are not as obvious as in the dramas
• we are back to nature is both more real and an escape from reality at the same time
• nature with instant gratification
  

suspension of disbelief is critical to how we watch most entertainment

• we know we are doing this
• with nature shows and perhaps with realities shows we forget we are doing it
  

We need to learn to think about how we mix nature and artifice, not fall into seeing them as unconnected