The History of Television Media - Research Paper Example

Television Media The television media is perhaps the strongest means of transmitting and receiving information and entertainment. The industry has witnessed a rapid growth since its inception in the 1920s. History Commercial broadcasting began in the United States in 1939, but its development was put on hold by the outbreak of World War II. By the early 1950s, television was established as the dominant broadcast medium. Color television broadcasts came into widespread use in 1964.1 Modern television evolved after going through many phases like: electromechanical television, electronic television, color television and broadcast television. Television usage in the United States skyrocketed after World War II with the lifting of the manufacturing freeze; war-related technological advances, the gradual expansion of the television networks westward; the drop in set prices caused by mass production; increased leisure time; and additional disposable income. It is said that the golden age of television in USA was from 1953-1960. 2 Around the globe, broadcast television is financed by either: government, or advertising, or licensing (a form of tax), or subscription or any combination of these. To protect revenues, subscription TV channels are usually encrypted to ensure that only subscription payers receive the decryption codes to get the signal. Unencrypted channels are known as free to air or FTA. Corporate Stakeholders and Response to their Issues The information conveyed through television media is controlled to a great extent by the corporate giants, as they have invested billions of Dollars in sponsoring television programs. The corporate sector does not only market its products through television media but its multilayered agendas as well. The way and the objectives of influencing television media by corporate stake holders are really complex. However, it is clear that television media is used as a powerful tool to endorse the ideas and agendas of the corporate investors in the minds of the consumers. As huge investments by the corporate sector in television media is economically beneficial for the television industry, therefore the ethics of television media are easily manipulated by its interests and agendas. A great number of corporate giants own and run television networks and thus propagate their national, political or corporate agendas through this medium. Television media has to abide by corporate social responsibility according to which it must be careful with the information being presented to the world. It also bases its strategy according to the feedback and responses of the consumers. Sustaining consumerism is one of the greatest challenges of television industry on one end; while at the other end, it must establish and provide opportunities for the corporate investors to distinguish, to promote and to maintain their respective brand identities. Corporate stakeholders include everyone in the corporate chain: employees, consumers, partners, suppliers, investors and anyone involved or affected by a corporate entity. Television media has to sustain the bond of trust among the corporate stakeholders by portraying positive images of commercialism and consumerism. The foremost issue of corporate stakeholders is trust. As seeing is believing- therefore, it is of critical importance for television media to maintain trust among all stakeholders related to the content or information conveyed through its medium. Television media strives to respond to its stakeholders by transmitting information based on truth and facts. But then, there are many layers within the television media that generate information. For instance, news reporting channels are compelled to show the real facts, figures and images of any incident or event. However, in the discussion forums, the viewpoints of different analysts are presented to endorse a specific political agenda. Thus, at one level, television media conveys the actual information regarding an event and then develops a hypothesis under the influence of political, national, social or corporate agendas on another level. The Role of the Industry in its Social, Economic and Political Setting The social impact of television on masses is both: a boon and a bane. It turns out to be bane as television violence is greatly apprehended by children. Social science research conducted over the past 40 years supports media violence can encourage children to learn aggressive behavior and attitudes, cultivate fearful or pessimistic attitudes and desensitize children to real-world and fantasy violence.3 However, television has morphed from a medium determined to spread mass culture, to creating a sense of reality. The medium has become more and more influential. It is a powerful tool to create consent- mass consent. Television contributes greatly to the centralization of power and knowledge. An average child in USA will watch 8,000 murders on TV before finishing elementary school. By age eighteen, the average American has seen 200,000 acts of violence on TV, including 40,000 murders. 4  In a world where media consolidation becomes more and more common, it is harder and harder to distinguish between news information and entertainment or propaganda. Even though media consolidation is good for business, it is not good for television as a mass culture medium. Television is a very powerful tool in propagating political issues as well. With the advent of TV, Americans could watch Congress doing debates and political candidates used the TV to convince people to vote for them in political campaigns. When TV came along, political intentions for vote was like the value of the stock market from Wall Street: ups and downs. Interestingly, political image advisers devoted their energies to several political candidates and presidents and told them how to manage their image! General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first president of USA who used TV in his presidential campaign.5 Television is a great way through which economic boom has been witnessed. The foremost and popular method is advertising. Since, the TV became the new space of products to be known like cars, home appliances, canned soup, almost every industrial product that could be advertised was done so, in order to make the TV viewer a potential consumer. Jobs were created by the television industry for actors, camera men, sound experts, TV directors and TV producers and many other technical jobs.  Domestic and International Ethics People have now access to national and international television media which raises the issue of confirming to domestic and international ethics. As the cultural and social requirements of television consumers are different; thus it becomes all the more important for television media to adopt certain level of domestic and international ethics. In practice, this does not seem to be true. The makers of a particular program may have a social, cultural, political or religious interest or background, which may not be according to the cultural or social values of its viewers. Such programs may challenge the existing cultural values by producing conflict in the minds of its international consumers regarding their culture or social values. ...the most significant of these ethical debates concerns cultural survival: does the economic right of media producing nations outweigh the right of survival of cultures threatened by media imports? Indigenous culture could theoretically be threatened in many ways. (Casmir, 1997, p. 133) This is particularly true for those countries where media has not advanced technically and the local media depends on media imports or international television media for its content of information and entertainment. This way, the political or socio-cultural agendas of television media may have negative impact on such communities or nations. Thus, television media may be sensitive and responsive to its domestic audience but it is prone to break the code of international ethics by transmitting such programs that misrepresent or under-represent international issues or communities. In the past decade, wars against terrorism have been waged in Iraq and Afghanistan. People in different countries have viewed such wars from different perspectives. The television media itself was caught in a media war between various television networks. The conflicting stances of the various television channels during and after the wars rather created confusion among their consumers. “Terrorism is a difficult and emotive subject with significant political overtones and care is required in the use of language that carries value judgments.” (BBC, 2011) Even in times other than wars, television media often disregards domestic and/or international ethics by presenting such information that maligns the political, cultural or religious traditions of its rival nations or communities. In such cases, television media is being used as powerful tool to influence public opinion and such practices are neither progressive nor ethical. Ecological and Natural Resources Television media has not taken an aggressive stance on ecological and natural resources issue as required, because the vested interests of its investors would be harmed by running such campaigns. Every now and then, we get to see ‘Go Green’ discussions or advertisements on TV, but this issue needs much more than that. It can do its part by teaching its consumers about the harmful effects of non-ecological practices. By influencing the consumers, television media can pressurize the manufacturers to consider going green. Maintaining ecological balance and conserving natural resources are the greatest calls of time. This also forms an important corporate social responsibility of television media to profess a green environment and implementation of green technology in manufacturing and construction sectors. “On the contrary, the real news, almost completely neglected by national media would have been the many protests that are taking place all over Europe and North America to oppose hundreds of high environmental impact projects...” (Poli, 2011, 49) Television media has played a vital role in educating its consumers about the importance and advantages of recycling, and using energy efficient automobiles. It has also educated its viewers about using alternate energy in the wake of rapidly depleting energy resources in the world. The phenomenon of global warming has found universal acknowledgement due to the consistent focus of the television industry in this regard. Social Issues Social issues are highlighted and addressed in different TV networks in different ways according to their respective agendas. But the real question is: Does television media portray the real issues or only selective issues that serve the vested interests of its financiers? In order to present the true socio-economic picture of the world, television media rather focuses on the economic indicators like stock markets, exchange rates of currencies and prices of precious and other commodities; however, the national media purposely shields, in some cases, the real socioeconomic conditions from the people in the contemporary era of recession so as not to weaken the government popularity. Social issues like gender and ethnical discrimination, workplace harassment, unemployment, the growing rate of crime and street violence are discussed in a cursory way; as such sensitive issues may be detrimental to the political agendas of the television network itself or of its corporate investors. A major reason that accounts for presenting incomplete picture of the socioeconomic aspects of a nation or region is that television media tries to play it safe- by keeping in consideration the political agendas of its owners or investors. This is particularly true in state owned media in any country where the government controls what is being presented to the people. My Ratings for the Industrys Overall Social Responsiveness and its Accomplishments in this Area As far as I have learnt about the role of television media regarding its social responsiveness and accomplishments in this area, it has done a lot to inform people about the facts of the world around them. Television media has been so effective in its social responsiveness due to its vast variety of opinions and points of views. It has come a long way from representing merely one side of the story to the multi-faceted approach to social issues or concerns. It has given people the liberty to explore options regarding what they want to believe or reject. The success and popularity of television media is based upon its social responsiveness as this is the only way of communicating emotively with its consumers. This medium of information has been really successful in redefining the theories and concepts of commercialism, news, information, entertainment, politics, etc. The diversity offered by the medium of television has enlightened its viewers about their social circumstances in relation to that of others. Even if one segment of society is ignored by some television network as a consequence of its political or commercial agenda, there are other TV channels that would respond and highlight the issues of such communities. The entertainment programs of television are also of significant importance in bringing forth the issues, concerns or dilemmas that people face every day in their personal lives or at workplace. Television medium has retained its popularity over the decades for responding to the social, intellectual, and emotional needs of its consumers. Be it a natural disaster or an international conflict, television media is quick to respond to it. The reporters, analysts, anchors and the entire media team act quickly to respond to such issues as this would retain their viewership. Thus, responding quickly assures their bit in the market share of television industry and excelling at responding promptly to social issues guarantees customer loyalty. Though the occurrences of the world are reported at the same time by hundreds of channels across the world simultaneously, yet each channel has its own perspective of responding to a social issue; and each channel targets a specific population. Such diversity in perspectives offered by the television medium is its greatest accomplishment. My Rating of the Industry in Relation to Saint Leo University’s Values, as well as the Changes that should be made to be more in Line with the Core Values The act of transmitting information requires a great deal of responsibility. The core values of Saint Leo University are also focused upon instilling the values of moral responsibility. Television medium is committed to convey information in an accurate and unbiased manner. As television medium is a commercial industry, therefore the meanings and interpretations of morals are different as compared with that of an educational institution. Television industry also aims to create a socially responsible environment by urging people to act in their own capacity for a better future and a livable society. The diversity of its channels compels the people ‘to listen, to learn, to change and to serve’.6 However, television medium has yet to adopt strategies and ways to respect ‘the unity and diversity of our people’.7 This is particularly true in case of endorsing a particular negative propaganda against a community or group of people with the aid of television media. Television media may heighten tension between various communities or nations with a single irresponsible remark. It is prone to be governed by the interests of its financiers and may adopt such stances that harm the interests of other groups or minorities. The core values of St Leo University come in conflict with this aspect of television industry that disregards the points of views of all parties involved in a particular situation. In case of the recent war of terrorism in Afghanistan, millions of civilians died in collateral damage. St Leo University does not acknowledge or justify collateral damage under any circumstances; however, the television medium justified such attacks by not condemning them. However, the environmental protection policies of the television industry are in line with those of the university that is committed to ‘optimize and apply all of the resources’8 for the sake of community. “From a media richness perspective, television… is a much richer communication medium because it combines sight, sound and movement.” (Klenke, 2011, p.118) Therefore, television media should fulfill its social responsibility by addressing global social issues in an unbiased manner so as to promote harmony among the various communities, peoples and nations of the world. References Accuracy and impartiality: War, terror and emergencies. (2011) Editorial Guidelines, BBC. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/page/guidelines-war-practices-accuracy/ Casmir, L. Fred. (ed.) (1997) Ethics in intercultural and international communication. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc. Corrado, Poli. (2011) Mobility and environment: Humanists versus engineers in urban policy and professional education. USA: Springer. Klenke, K. (2011) Women in leadership: Contextual dynamics and boundaries. UK: Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. Read More