The Horrible Truth About Television: Television Undermines Community and Democracy

Americans are watching more television and volunteering less in their communities.

On average, Americans watch 4.5 hours of television every day. Because television consumes so much time, citizens are becoming less socially and politically involved. They are also losing trust in the government and one another. Dr. Robert Putnam discovered in a study that the more TV individuals watched, the less they participated in civic activities. Get the Best information about Kundali Bhagya Upcoming Story.

“TV viewing is strongly and negatively related to social trust and group membership,” according to the study’s findings. Reading newspapers, on the other hand, had a significant beneficial association. In addition, newspaper readers were more likely to be involved in political organizations. Education, income, age, race, place of residence, work status, and gender were all controlled for in the study.

According to the report, “heavy TV watching is one important reason why less educated people are less engaged in the life of their communities.”

How the few can rule the many through television

Television automatically benefits large firms because of the costs involved in production and delivery. Usually, the government is the only other social body that can afford the cost of television.

It is, by definition, a one-to-many technology. The networks broadcast a single message over the airwaves or via cable to thousands, millions, or, in the case of events such as the Super Bowl and the Olympics, billions of minds. This contrasts with the internet, where numerous people can communicate and discuss in groups.

Furthermore, because the television set tends to disable people’s ability to think critically, as stated in the “TV’s hypnotic effect” article, the message broadcast over the airwaves enters viewers’ minds unfiltered. That is too much power, whether you agree with the message.

Five corporations dominate the media.

Looking at the number of programs offered, one may believe there is a lot of diversity. There are hundreds of TV stations to pick from, covering everything from sports to news to cartoons, history to painting, and more. The number of alternatives available is mind-boggling. However, most of the media are controlled by only five significant businesses. These businesses have access to practically every American for 412 hours a day. The repercussions for democracy are terrifying. For 412 hours per day, millions of minds are linked to five corporations.

These five massive corporations—Disney, Time Warner, Bertelsmann of Germany, Murdoch’s News Corporation, and Viacom (formerly CBS)—own not only the majority of television stations in the United States, but also the majority of newspapers, periodicals, books, and radio stations.

Politicians seek funding for commercials.

TV has an impact on both voters and the public servants they elect. For example, former Vice President Albert Gore recently stated in a speech that politicians spend so much time and money buying a TV for election advertising that they don’t have time to do the jobs that voters elected them to do.

Politicians spent $515 million on television advertisements in the 2005 elections, the most in a year with no Congressional or Presidential seats up for grabs. According to TNS Media Intelligence/CMAG, this increased from the $300 million spent in the 2003 elections. The mayoral contenders in New York alone spent more than $44 million saturating the airwaves.

Consider politics without television.

Consider the impact of an election and politics without television. Consider the absence of television attack advertisements. Imagine politicians no longer pleading for funds to meet the rising costs of television advertisements. Consider reading about the debates rather than watching the TV debate circus. Consider engaged citizens who, instead of watching TV 412 hours per day (1.33 billion hours per day in the United States), spend a fraction of that time debating topics with their neighbors and actively participating in politics and the community. Nothing would ever be the same again.

The Series ‘The Awful Truth About Television:

What happens when the average American watches television for 4 hours and 32 minutes daily? In eleven hard-hitting essays, Trash, Your TV’s ‘The Awful Truth About Television’ Series investigates the many problems with television. If you finish the series, you will never look at your television the same way again.

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