Thursday, July 18, 2013
MA 260 / Week Four Discussion: How did television influence the ethos of our American culture in both positive way and negative way?
Use pros and cons approach to evaluate television's impact on our society: How did television relate to our learning habit? how television relate to consumer culture and materialism? How television relate to our political election? How television relate to our family life and interpersonal relationship?
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Television unites public awareness. With it generations will be tied with admired television programs, whether they be positive or negative. For example PBS with Sesame Street. I'm sure we all remember learning about the world through the eyes of a few friendly animals. Although shows like Barney, another PBS show, offered a one-dimensional world where everyone must be happy and everything must be resolved right away. So far it seems its a hit or miss towards televisions shows positively effecting our learning habits.
ReplyDeleteTelevision has been widely implicated in helping to usher America into an age of consumer culture. We spend to much of our waking lives tuned to television and its abundant images of lavish homes, fancy cars and conspicuous consumption. There is a linkage between television viewing and materialism and in turn, to diminished life-satisfaction.
Today our political election process has turned into a circus compared to the already messy history of our election process. The split party system limits the messages which are put on air, and the faces we see. This limits our options to two people, which is a break in our free election process.
Television has a way of exaggerating all of these things; people's habits, politics, and materialism. In particular it uses reality shows to showcase, mock, and yet somehow glamorize young people and their activities, often including materialism as a huge portion. News shows do the same thing with politics. They pick a popular issue or topic and talk it to death. And it seems to switch back and forth between being very for or very against whichever viewpoint and making it look ridiculous or brilliant.
ReplyDeleteOn the same token though, it also seems to know exactly how to pull at viewers heartstrings. It has shows that cover returning servicemen and women, the struggles of addicts, rescuing animals, etc...
It shows the good and the bad, but overall in a very big, showy way.
Television and the messages it sends out to the population are of big influence people's life styles. As the question says, TV messages can affect and individual in a negative or a positive way, but I think it depends a lot on the level of education that someone has, as well as the age you are for these messages to have an impact. I think TV in general not just in America, has a huge impact in society, for example, in the United States, messages of mass media communication are one of the leading causes of low self esteem and eating disorders in teens and young adults (mostly women). They way that mass media images portray women are sending a message that if as a young girl you do not fit with the stereotype of being pretty, skinny or flawless, you are do not fit in society. These messages even when they are so subtle, they are being sent everyday, at every hour, in every commercial to the point that when we look at them we do not even realize it, but we definately internalize it. This is one example of how TV has a very negative impact on a part of the American population. On the other hand, I think that tv is for everyone, since you can find a channel that best suits your interests, there is the cooking channel, the travel channel, the history and art channel etc. I think that TV has a positive outlook when it keeps the population informed of what is going on another countries, or about subjects of interest.
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