Right off the bat, when McPherson discussed television execs' ideas to make TV more scintillating through "little snippets of interactivity to enhance the broadcast experience" I immediately thought of the scene in Ray Bradbury's famous novel "Fahrenheit 451." The broadcast network/the government because now it's all one entity, promotes a special programming event in which the characters in the show directly ask Mildred, the protagonist's wife, for her input on what they, the characters in the show, should do next. After the show ends, Guy (her husband) points out that the actors weren't actually asking Mildred specifically, but that the name Mildred had been inserted into the script, and the actors directed to address the line to the camera to make it seem like they were talking to her.
We haven't quite reached this weird sci-fi junction yet, but as Julia and Gem pointed out, we are being seduced by little snippets of interactivity like text message or telephone voting that satisfy viewers' desire for control, or at least make the viewer FEEL that s/he is in control, when really, as Deleuze and Galloway argue, we're not liberated. We're just on a longer leash.
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