The Culture of Television - Essay Example

The Culture of Television June 11, With the passing of time, the impact of the media in many homes embodied by television is becoming more apparent and significant. This has gotten scholars, and private individuals contemplating how influential TV is in their lives. Numerous studies have been carried out on this many with the intention of finding out, what role does it play in shaping their perceptions? To what extent does it determine what we eat, drink, say, think and other pertinent issues concerning mass media in general and TV in particular? This paper shall attempt to establish that TV plays a pivotal role in the changing, developing and creation of hybrid and contemporary culture in various social settings. Globalization is the compaction of the world into a global village facilitated primarily by developments in transportation and telecommunication infrastructure. Through television programs viewed all over, the world TV plays a role in providing shared knowledge. From an anthropological viewpoint, culture can be defined as a composition of knowledge and, beliefs, perceptions, attitudes, expectations, values and behavior patterns. Most people obtain this from growing up in a given society. One of the most fundamental aspects of culture is sharing knowledge contrary to education which comprises of what one leans in school, culture consist of what one learns in life (Kottak, 2009). Majority of contemporary Americans can be said to have gained their culture from share knowledge often derived from mass media. In order to demonstrate how culture is reflected in TV, we can consider the retrospective TV shows that were popular about 3 decades ago. These include father knows best, in this time and age women, were not as liberated as they are today. The man was more likely to be the breadwinner in any given home than the woman was. Children would obey their parents without question and get into serious trouble if they did anything on the contrary. Flash forward to today, TV programs show them family while still a unit to reflect many of the day’s features of married families. In TV, today, men can be the idiots of the family, take family person the popular adult cartoon or war at home, while women take home the bacon, and the theme of divorce is common. Many TV shows often portray a divorced couple who are forced to interact with each other mostly because of their kids. Two examples would be Two, and a half men and Gary “unmarried” in which the divorced is the central theme. Apart from reflecting the culture, it also changes it for many. When people watch some of these shows, the behavior portrayed starts to look acceptable. The idea of divorce does not seem to be so scary after all, and as a result, some couples may find it easy to divorce if they frequently watch such programs. Children who watch these shows from their preteen years to their early adulthood may also have inculcated these notions into their minds. Television ha in the past been accused of propagating racialist agendas and promoting discriminative thinking especially among children and young adults. For instance, TV often profiles blacks as physical, passionate but not terribly brainy or intense characters. Asians, on the other hand, are depicted as mathematical and scientific geniuses. Whites are often considered the regular people and in many of TV shows. It seems the other races are there to ensure the “white” agenda is achieved. It has been said that whenever blacks are portrayed in advertisements they often appear as, supporting, and not main characters. Immigration authorities are often hunting Hispanics and in any given show; the Latino girl is likely to play the sexpot while the black person plays the angry friend, or father or some other emotive role. The whites will be the levelheaded problem solver who carries the day with their help. When you consider some children grow up with these of perceptions in their minds, it is easy to see why they will likely subscribe to stereotypes, because they were subconsciously inculcated into them through, some covertly through a program or programs they watched. Gender roles are also inculcated into children from a young age through television. Despite the liberal nature of TV today, women are still portrayed as the “women” they often have to come home and cook for the family. Conversely, men come from work, and extremely few programs have a different scenario. To make this even more conspicuous, when me are portrayed in roles traditionally reserved for woman such as cooking and washing, they end up being incompetent and clumsy. The same happens when women have to handle machinery or power tools a traditional reserve of the man (Ingham, 1997). As such, children watching this will easily conform to these gender roles which are slowly eased into their mind and even in adulthood, they will find it easy to ascribe to the is assumed roles inevitably coming to accept that such situations are the norm. In another demonstration of how TV not only reflects but also shapes and influences culture, focus can be turned to many of the plots on TV celebrate thin that are morally unacceptable to many groups and even illegal at times. Some TV shows often portray, cheating in exams and randy teenagers having random and casual sexual encounters. In some TV shows and movies, specifically those targeting the youths, they revolve around teenagers trying to score and have sex. A god example of this would the American pie. It portrays American teenagers as lustful shallow minded stereotyped and immoral. The themes that are praised and the pursuits many of the main characters are involved invariably are drugs and sex related. That is not to mention playing pranks on their teachers and elders. Many are never punished for this, and the result of such is an increase in indiscipline case of the children who watch this since they too will want to try it out. Few of these shows ever portray the dangers of the behavior they praise such as sexually transmitted diseases, HIV unwanted pregnancies or punishment. According to the American Journal of Nursing, when 2003 teens were interviewed on how much exposure to sexual content they had on TV(Carol, 2009). 3 years later, it was discovered that those who watched most of the content were more likely to be pregnant or sexually active. Violence is also propagated as a panacea or life problems and vigilantism is romanticized. The police shown and viewed as inefficient bureaucrats who arrive at the scene of crime after the hero, and the bad people have had it out. These has translated into high crime rates among the youths well as a propensity or risky behavior such as using drugs and smoking as the “cool” stars do. Advertisement on TV target the youth and deliberately crafted to manipulate them into developing certain perception about certain things. The common use of vulgar language characterized by racial and offensive words can also be traced to television. Television has also made people more tolerant of issues that were in the past a taboo, homosexual plots dialogue or action would have been frowned at, 2 or 3 decades ago, however, frowning at such is more likely to be frowned upon today. Because of the frequent appearance of such activity on TV majority of people have come to accept them as normal. In the past, few would have dared to let their orientation be known to the public. On the contrary, today people do it confidently on national television. Television adverts also play a critical role in education the people on the available product and their uses and features. However, it has also led to the popularity of junk food especially through the many fast food ads especially those targeting the young people. As a result, American feeding habits have gone been influence considerably with many literary living on fast food and other. In a more direct sense, the culture has also been changed more so in terms of what people eat when and how they eat it. Consequently, many Americans hardly take any exercise, they just sit at home order pizza and sit in front of the “tube” they slowly vegetate therein, and a considerable number ends up obese. It can be argued that the effect of televise on culture is not as enormous as it has been presented herein. That could be based on many on factors such as changing of times, economical factors, scientific trend such as the Internet and social networking. In all fairness, this would be a logical point. It can be argued that other media such as the Internet is immensely influential when it comes to changing perception and culture of the masses. However, the argument falls short on one crucial factor involved in formation and creation of culture as well as a realistic reflection of the same. There are many variables involved in the Internet more so social networking site like facebook. With millions of members, each is doing something different at one time and users do not often stop to observe anything in unison. Besides, in social networks, people often restrict themselves to those with whom they have a common interest i.e. their country, profession a sports team etc. TV, on the other hand, transcends such boundaries, as it compels millions to focus on the same thing at the same time; this could be a program or news documentary or movie. With this real-time attention, TV is inevitably able to shape the perceptions of the masses in a far more effective way than the Internet has done so far. Ultimately, it is evident from the evidence presented that television plays a vital role in the shaping changing and even creating of culture. However, it has been proven to have a plethora of negative effects and if unchecked, it can lead to abuse and degrading of the said culture. References Carol, Potera. February 2009. Sex and Violence in the Media Influence Teen Behavior. American Journal of Nursing, Volume 109 - Issue 2 - p 20 doi: 10.1097/01.NAJ.0000345414.71799.ce Kottak, CP. (2009). Prime-Time Society: An Anthropological Analysis of Television and Culture. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, Inc Ingham Helen. April 1997 Children, Television and Gender Roles. Retrieved on June 11, 2012 from http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/hzi9402.html Read More