Television Delivers People is a seminal work in the now well-established critique of popular media as an instrument of social control that asserts itself subtly on the populace through âentertainments,â for the benefit of those in powerâthe corporations that mantain and profit from the status quo. While canned Muzak plays, a scrolling text denounces the corporate masquerade of commercial television to reveal the structure of profit that greases the wheels of the media industry. Television emerges as little more than a insidious sponsor for the corporate engines of the world. By appropriating the medium he is criticizingâusing television, in effect, against itselfâSerra employs a characteristic strategy of early, counter-corporate video collectivesâa strategy that remains integral to video artists committed to a critical dismantling of the mediaâs political and ideological stranglehold.
