It is common to say that there is nothing worthwhile on TV or that the Internet is full of dreck. My father is certainly one of those who complains even as he watches Dr. OZ. One of my best friends also has turned away from popular culture in disgust at the sex on TV.
I think this is unwise and that is misses something almost nobody mentions.
We are in the middle of a cultural renaissance as media no longer responds to the largest demographic but increasingly towards smaller and smaller slices with copious criticism to endure good writing. Where once producers focused on the large, dumb, and trashy segments of the population, the Internet allows previously unpublished authors to find an audience. For every 50 Shades of Grey, there is an insightful kindle-only book. Where we once only had a few pages of comics in the Sunday paper, we now have webcomics that respond to many different interests with many different storytelling styles. Some focus on gag-a-day jokes, others on a larger story, some on teaching, and some cater to unusual interests like linguistically inclined fans of Norse Mythology and Post-Apocalyptic character-driven comics.
Webcomics are not the cultural medium enriching our lives. Music is undergoing a radical transformation. TV shows used to have simple and predictable music while complex and seriously moving music was left to the orchestras. Now it is the reverse. Professional orchestras are often known for uninspiring and often done music (unless they perform very well) while anime and computer games strive to create music memorable not only as an accompaniment to the rest of the work but which are amazing as independent works of music. Music has left the "official" bastions of music and is now brought to new heights by commercial interests seeking to please a specific audience other than music critics.
The writing of the Flintstones may not have been great but the cringeworthy aspects of Star Trek TOS were possible in part because of a lack of alternatives and resources for writers. The modern age has plenty of resources for writers outside of the "writer's workshops" or academic courses. TVTropes has many concepts explored and listed. Critics are now more numerous and more resourced as internet critics can respond to new culture from the perspective of the more specific interests of their slice of the audience.More literate science fiction fans can watch SFDebris where once Analog and word of mouth were the limits of what a fan could get in way of screening.
Even as Hollywood plows more and more money into badly written scripts and professional movie critics deliver unreliable reviews, Pixar has re-invented animation and crafted movies that appeal to all ages for their excellent writing and creative characterization. While the Hangover appeals to the cruder sensibilities of people, Battle L.A. was brave enough to drop the almost obligatory romantic sub-plot, and Gravity made it despite the religious undertones. That said, big Hollywood studies are slowly dying but more unconventional movie producers are entering. The Gamers is a movie that did for Dungeons and Dragons what the DND movie was supposed to do but failed. The Futurama and Firefly movies were forays into movie-making by TV shows which crafted excellent movies despite being comparative amateurs in the medium. Hollywood is out of creative energy but there are others who do great things without the budgets that were once requisite.
While computer games are still mocked as a wast of time and useless escapism, professional authors are increasingly taking a hand in writing parts of computer games. Planescape: Torment was one of the first in the writing revolution. (Those familiar with Douglas Adams and the Starship Titanic should remember that Douglas Adams was an eccentric genius and a field should not be judged solely or even substantially by the works of eccentrics). Games like Bioshock became great not for the gameplay (which was still an important aspect) but because the immersive world was created around a philosophical point, not just cool guns.
While the claims of the social importance of 'Culture" (understood as the "fine Arts") remains murky when sculpture is the effort to craft some new combination fo already tediously overused elements of social protest, playing a home game with the aid of construction equipment conveys ideas and a sense of awe that no abstract art in the past decade has matched.
Whatever the state of politics, it is exciting to live in what is a golden age for several forms of culture and tremendously inspiring works are produced daily thanks to the internet allowing for much more rapid cultural evolution.
