John Romanos Coming Home to Television A Review

John Romano writes about the transition from erudite academic writing to writing for the masses in popular television in Coming Home to Television. The essay addresses the differences between what is considered highbrow versus what is considered lowbrow art and creative expression, especially in the realm of literature. Ironically, Romano writes about television from a scholarly perspective. He is only somewhat sarcastic when Romano notes that the transition from academia to television script writing was a step down. Walter Karp does not address the differences between writing for school and writing for television. However, Karp does harp on the inefficiencies of the American public school system. Karp focuses more on class issues related to education, such as unequal access to gifted education between lower-income versus higher-income families. Karp also incorporates issues related to educational tracking in his essay, Why Johnny Cant Think. What the two articles have in common is t he way the authors expose the divide between highbrow and lowbrow culture in America, although they address these matters from completely different perspectives and points of view. Both writing for academic audiences and for television audiences requires mastery of certain jargon, style, technique, and approach. For example, writing for television requires understanding of what audiences want. Romano needs to know what his audiences like, and needs to write so that the viewer keeps coming