Although college students are watching more television than ever before, according to a recent study, Northwestern students who watch television at home said they find themselves watching less at school for one reason: NUTV.
“It’s bad enough that we have to watch it on a computer screen, but then when you enlarge it, it’s fuzzy and I hate it,” said Alison Hertog, a McCormick sophomore.
The negative effects of NUTV contrasted with the findings of a Student Monitor study conducted in spring 2004 which concluded that 96 percent of college students watched an average of 11.2 hours of television per week. These results showed an increase in the past two years, a significant change given the increasing competition television faced from movies, video games and the Internet.
NUTV attempts to take advantage of the Internet to provide students with television though their computers. But rather than contribute to the upward trend, NUTV turns people off from the idea of television, students said.
Besides fuzzy and pixilated reception, students criticized NUTV for sometimes not working at all.
“Every once in a while a show will get choppy or cut out,” said Lauren Parnell, an Education sophomore.
Parnell also said NUTV should provide more channels, such as The Learning Channel. Parnell’s roommate, Weinberg junior Krista Nee, wished for SpikeTV and HBO. Hertog wished for Woman’s Entertainment and Bravo.
Wendy Woodward, director of Technology Support Services at NU, said the number of NUTV channels is a matter of cost, a problem that can be solved in the future.
Also, while some of the technical problems were maintenance issues, such as wiring problems, user error was the cause of most difficulties.
Woodward added that NUTV is a constantly improving technology that few other schools have.
However, some students at other campuses said they were pleased with their television access.
Matt Medlock, a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., said college football is the only television he watches.
Those in his dorm who watched more TV were allowed to pool their money together for private satellite dishes costing about $5 to $7 per month per person. Satellite dishes provided his dorm with hundreds of channels, compared to the 24 that Medlock flipped through when he visited NU.
NU students who live off campus also spoke of the benefits of satellite or cable service.
McCormick sophomores Davis Cai and Phil Suh, who moved off campus this year, said they have four televisions in their apartment.
They said they now watch 10 more hours of TV per week than they did when they lived on campus. Suh compared his television experience last year with his experience this year.
“It was a hassle with the computer … it’s just different; it’s just not TV,” he said. “TV is supposed to be a lazy man’s thing. NUTV makes it so it’s not lazy.”
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