Problems with Television

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W. Lance Bennett cites a crisis in government and places the roots of this problem in media, money, and marketing (Bennett ix). Television has been blamed for a multitude of social ills, including the trivialization of the American political scene. The contests involved in political campaigns and elections are nothing new, as has been pointed out in the debate over the increasing use of negative campaigning and campaign advertising. Many feel that television has contributed to the negativity of campaigns today, while others point out that campaigns have always been negative in some degree. What is different is the medium through which this negativity is projected. Yet, there seems to be more to it than simply a difference in delivery system. The world of a century ago and the world of today are very different places because of the intervening growth in mass media, including that giant of them all, television. Political campaigns use advertising in ways they never did in the past, and the advertising of forty, thirty, twenty, or even ten years ago for political campaigns is very different in tone, content, and degree of manipulation from what is being attempted and even accomplished today. Critics of the way the media has developed around these issues find that the public is turned off by such antics and that this is a reason for lower voter turnout and so for a growing gulf between citizens and their government. The real problem is that television and other media tod

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American values and beliefs. The audience shares in the Contest as a way of affirming the rightness of deciding matters in this fashion, the underlying values involved in making these decisions, and the legitimacy of the men and women who are participating directly in the Contest: In daily life we are much more suspicious of the rules, wondering whom they benefit. We know that there are many who work their way around them. In the liminal period of sacred Contests, the rules reaffirm their civilizing function (Dayan and Katz 42). Clearly, the Contest nature of public events has changed with the advent of television. The Lincoln-Douglas debates of the last century were covered by the newspapers of the time in detail, some even reporting the debates verbatim. This is still removed from actual participation in the event as viewing audience. Only a relatively small number of people actually witnessed the debates--or one or more of the debates--first-hand, while the majority received only news reports of the debate. They might read what happened, but they did not see it themselves. They may judge by the words, but they are less prone to judge by the image because it is not a direct image. Instead, it is an image once remove
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Neal Postman, Conquests Coronations, Lance Bennett, Dayan Katz, Elihu Katz, York St, political campaigns, University Press, York Viking, elihu katz, dayan katz, live broadcasting, nature public, doing business, placed emphasis, television changed,
Approximate Word count = 1310
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

Problems with Television

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