Essay on Television and Its Effects on Society Over the Past Decades

Riding a bike, writing poems, or even bouncing a ball, entertainment comes in many forms in every society, television is just one and has been influencing Canadians since it was showcased in 1938 in Toronto, for the Canadian National Exhibition. After first appearing, the progression of television, and the impact it has had over the past seventy-five years has been an interest for many sociologists, educators and researchers because it is constantly changing. Opinions and research of the impacts that television have on society are sometimes viewed as negative, whether it be regarding content, mental stimulation, physical health or many other factors contributing to the development of society. Other opinions and research suggests that television

Around the world, The United States is widely known as a leader in mass media production, like television and movies. There are very few inventions that have affected America as much as the television. Before 1947, the number of TV’s in the US could be measured in thousands, and by the late 1990’s about 98% of homes had at least one television set in it, which were on for on average, more than seven hours a day. The Typical American spends about 3-5 hours watching TV a day. TV became a way for Americans to either escape their lifestyle, relate to it, or keep up with current events. It has become a tool that the US uses to relate to each other

The main reason we watch TV is for entertainment where we can view shows and movies. Shows and movies expose individuals to a variety of cultures and values that they do not see often. Another use of television is for information such as news, political views, and advertisements. Televisions inform us of news around our community and world, and also persuade us in buying products or donating money to a cause. An ongoing controversy has risen such tha televisions can be harmful to children because of the vulgar language and violence shown through modern day shows or even celebrities. Viewing too much television can be time consuming and may even discourage children to go play outside and be social. Watching the newscast has changed my life by informing me of the violence that goes on throughout my community. Also, a negative effect of watching too much television has taken up my time when I could have been doing more productive tasks.

Television is the mainstream of our culture. Violence on television has been a topic of conflict since before 1950. There have been repeated debates on how to protect children from the harmful effects of violence on television. Television is one form of modern media that influences the everyday lives of people. Televised violence has a major effect on how children perceive the world and how they behave. "American television has become the most violent in the world. It is for this reason why researchers have focused their attention toward television violence" (Cantor & Hoffner 424-4-25). Children enjoy watching television and now with the increased technology of cable and movie

The average American child watches 20 hours of television per week, that is 5,000 hours before first grade. Most children between the ages of 3-6 years old can even turn on the television and start a DVD by themselves. I am guilty of allowing my children more TV time then they should have, but I guess that is because I enjoy watching it myself. There are many hidden messages in children’s shows that I was oblivious to until now. For instance, in the show “Rugrats” Charlotte Pickles, Angelica’s mom never had time for her, always on the phone and working. Ethnic stereotyping is another message sent in Speedy Gonzalez’s cousin Slow Poke Rodriguez which is lazy, slow, and dim witted. Morality is also affected by these shows. Most every little boy

Television has increasingly become the quintessential epicenter of communication, since its invention, in 1927. At any moment in time 2.5 billion people are viewing some form of television broadcast (Ballard). Modern society has introduced various categories of television. These variations range from educational to violent. This broad spectrum makes it hard to generalize the effects it has had on American youth; however, television seems to have increased moral and intellectual degradation. Through violent shows and monotonous news broadcasts, American youths have become desensitized to the poverties, and hardships of the world. This desensitization has had several, and moreover negative, moral impacts on the youths of America. Nevertheless,

In the article “TV’s Negative Influence on Kids Reaffirmed” by Jeffrey M. McCall, he addresses the issue of how TV has a negative influence on children. McCall states that young children and toddler’s cognitive ability does not develop as well when they have television in the background while they are playing. McCall also argues that TV has a very influential role in the teen pregnancy rate and how early teens become sexually active. To further prove his point, McCall proclaims that children and teens that are exposed to too much Television and video games become socially awkward and have trouble interacting in society. McCall also says that the networks are rating their own programs carelessly which is leading to shows that should be blocked

Fox’s television shows, Glee, was an introduction to the frequent ‘social issues’ teenagers in America faced daily. Glee is a musical comedy drama. The cast are majority Caucasians and addressed topics commonly faced by children such as “cyber bullying, schools shootings, suicides” are just to name a few many issues. Once Glee’s season ended, Fox has always been a trendy television station. Fox needed an innovative television show to satisfy their audience. The entrance of Fox’s television shows “Empire”. “Empire is a powerful drama about a family dynasty set within the glamorous and sometimes dangerous world of hip-hop music” 1(Fox.com/Empire). Like ‘Glee’, Fox’s drama show Empire addresses a number of social issues as well that ‘currently plague America’s society’, specifically the African American community, such as ‘homosexuality’, ‘mental illness’, and ‘police brutality’.

Can T.V. shows be the reflection of our society or influence the behavior of the members of our community? Since 1936 when television broadcasting begin, it priority was to inform and to entertain our society; subsequently, a massive amount of rules and regulations were created to control the material presented in TV, which principal goal was to safeguard the moral and ethical standards of it time. Nevertheless, from its beginning to the present home entertainment television standards contents have change; likewise, the moral an ethics values of our society have change and continuing changing from generation to generation. TV shows from the 50’s, 80’s, and the present exposed many changes in the way human role are exposed, the language

‘Media corporations, with a commanding role over commodity markets have become the primary educational and cultural force in shaping, if not hijacking, how youth define their interests, values and relations to others’. (Giroux 2011) My argument throughout this essay will be that children’s programs have a significant impact and influencing effect on shaping and forming a child’s identity. It is without doubt that children’s programming will have a deep profound impact on a child. From the ages of 2-12 a child is most impressionable, easily convinced and persuaded by outer and exterior influences. A child will be most naive, gullible and extremely trusting to outer powers. Children are easily manipulated and therefore anything they are exposed to will have an effect on what they proceed to think, feel and do. . When they are exposed to certain words, people, experiences, or indeed to certain television programmes, they begin to imitate, impersonate and mimic what they see. Furthermore, The American Medical Association reports that the combined hours "spent in front of a television or video screen is the single biggest chunk of time in the waking life of a child.’ So with this added factor, undoubtedly the amount of time children are spending watching television is going to have an impact

For millions of years, messengers (or now days reporters) have told the events of a war to people on the home-front, but in all of that time, never once did it change the war’s result. Not until the introduction of newspapers, televisions and the internet, has any media had enough of an impact to alter the conclusion of a war. As the industry of newspapers and posters started to boom during the Second World War, reporters and media companies began exaggerating the story or even exacerbating the story because this fabrication made money quickly and easily. The lies and exaggerations of the media bring fear and strike panic across the nation. With advances in technology the nation introduced the television and, nearly a decade before the Vietnam War the television rose in popularity and became commonly seen in American homes. By the time the war began, almost every American household owned a television. Every family had a daily routine of watching the news and/or their favorite show. The huge rave about televisions made it easy for the media to predict that televisions would be the most effective way to report news. Since every American owned one, the news reached every home. The formerly uninformed got instantly bombarded with information, but unfortunately more often then not it was false.

Vladimir Kosma Zworykin created a rudimentary versionof the television in 1924; however, the first realistically working television was made possible by Philo Taylor Farnsworth in the 1940s. These televisions were exceptionally expensive, consequently only the affluent members of society had access to them. It was only in 1960 beginning with the presidential election that the television became fashionable to the common public. From that moment on, television has had an immense impact on nearly every facet of our social order, from political affairs to child behavior. This paper will observe some of the more remarkable proceedings and issues television has, and is still,

It wasn’t until the 1960s that the television became an everyday commodity in society. To go along with the already popular dramas and comedies, tv became a major outlet for news as CBS evening news and 60 minutes debuted (Herman). Sports broadcasting also made huge strides during the early 1960s as Wide World of Sports aired on ABC, instant replay became a standard in sports broadcasting, CBS and NBC both broadcasted Super Bowl one in color (Herman). As television gained popularity the range of the topics presented on television shows went to more controversial and relevant topics in hopes to relate with the typical viewer. The subjects of the television shows for the most part have stayed the same over the past 40 years, but some have gotten more exposure than others due to the state of our nation. Racism, anti-gay rights, rich vs poor, and women’s rights are such topics portrayed through television shows.

Everyone’s heard of Autism or Down Syndrome, possibly even Huntington’s Disease, but there are many different kinds of genetic disorders that most people have never heard of or have only seen on television. Ectrodactyly is a rare disorder most people wouldn’t know of, however if you’ve watched Ryan Murphy’s popular American Horror Story: Freak Show, you’ve seen it. It was formerly known as ‘lobster claw hand,’ and in Freak Show, Jimmy Darling, portrayed by Evan Peters, has this disorder and is known in the traveling show as ‘Lobster Boy.’ What it is, is a disorder that causes a cleft on the hand where the middle finger normally would be. This is just one example of a strange disorder that isn’t overly known in our culture, but has probably

What do we really mean by television? The way we watch television has drastically changed over the last fifteen years due to new technologies such as digital television and services providing on-demand access. These drastic changes have had a huge effect on viewers and have “allowed online streaming platforms to dominate and revolutionize the way the audience consumes” (Aliloupour) media, ultimately allowing the viewer to be in total control of how, when and where they want their content. The idea of only being able to watch television on a television set is now a thing of the past. Due to technology, the audience now has a vast variety of options on how they can access content. By using scholarly articles, research in new media and Internet sites I will be analyzing current television and where the future of television will be heading.