television and society
So, I just read chapter 13 and I must say, it is kind of a no duh chapter. The first thing that was brought to my attention was when it started to talk about popular culture. Now as much as it would be nice that everything could be so thought provoking and so on, but realistically, what do people use things like the television for? We use it (or at least i think we use it) to relax. We have thought long and hard about our tasks durring the day and sometimes people use it to unwind. Therefore, it is not necessary that there by no high culture programs on the air.
The other issue I have with this is that something as widely used as television wants to cater to a large amount of people. Therefore, high culture audiences are not the norm. There are far few people that go to see an opera than go to see beevis and butthead at the movie theatre. Therefore, in order to make a large amount of profit from television, it only makes sense to cater to the mass rather then the specific.
However, I do admit that I was unaware of the problems now being displayed in our children. I find it alarming that children are no longer grasping the lesson, but instead, paying attention to details. However, when I was a child (and I was not a book reader) I could always grasp the concept of the lesson.
One argument that they bring up as well is that things like books are far better for people to stimulate the mind then television. However, I disagree with this. What about comic books, they have no thought provoking messages to portray, it is pretty straight forward. Also, there are many movies out there that have effected me more than any books (I do read books now) that I have read. These movies consist of movies such as pay it forward or crash. These movies are designed to promote a strong message tailered again to the masses.
I’d also like to point out how watching Noam Chompsky’s interviews in class last Wednesday also helped show the way the news chooses what is deemed ‘important’ news and what is not. However, I also must admit that it was incredibly boring, and dry, which is why I think it was cut short.
mmmchocololate said,
February 24, 2007 at 4:02 am
I absolutely agree that tv is catering to its audience. And the majority of the audience is not the “high class opera attending individual”. However, since tv is taking over and we aren’t reading as much — which by the way I think is awful… Literacy is so important for our society therefore, we need tv to somehow cater to literacy and still grab the attention of its audience. For example: I remember sesame street — it was a tv show, lots of kids watched it, and it was about teaching kids a lesson… not just goofy cartoons, violence and garbage.
I see your point about comic books — sure they are not really thought provoking, important reading, but at least it is reading. If I had children I would rather see them reading a comic book than spending hours just staring at a televsion.