How TV Pacifies Us and Subverts Democracy

TV Nation, a photo by Munchurian on Flickr.

 

Bruce Levine has done an excellent job writing an overview of the problems with TV. I especially appreciate his points about TV being used as a pacifier for inmates and patients.

Parents also appreciate the pacifying effects of TV, which is why kids spend more time watching TV than they do in school. How TV effects viewers (cognitively, socially and physically) really is an important issue that is all too often neglected, so it was heartening to read his article in Alternet.org, Salon.com and brucelenine.net.

http://www.alternet.org/culture/does-tv-help-make-americans-passive-and-accepting-authority

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/30/does_tv_actually_brainwash_americans/

http://brucelevine.net/how-tv-zombifies-and-pacifies-us-and-subverts-democracy/

 

Here are a few highlights:

 

 

Book Review: Raising Generation Tech

Raising Generation Tech

 

The standard formula for books on kids, the media, culture, etc. is to describe various studies and to illustrate with real-life stories. This is actually a pretty good formula and was what I was expecting when I started reading “Raising Generation Tech: Preparing Your Children for a Media-Fueled World”. Instead, the author, Jim Taylor does things a little differently. Yes he does go over some of the new research and yes he includes some real life anecdotes, but what stood out for me was his philosophical take on the storied relationship between children, media and family.

As someone who has read extensively on how media is affecting both children and adults, I wasn’t expecting anything particularly new. But you can tell Dr. Taylor has thought about this deeply and has found some new, very interesting ways of looking at these media issues. For example:

Why TV Undermines Academics & Values

 

Dr. Laura Markham has an excellent overview of the effects of TV, and why parents should limit, or even get rid of the TV.

Why TV Undermines Academics & Values

http://www.ahaparenting.com/parenting-tools/raise-great-kids/intellegent-creative-child/tv-compromises-academics

 

A sample from her article:

You recommend that kids don’t watch much, if any, TV. Why?

Because TV is addictive, and like all addictions, it has a high cost that we usually avoid acknowledging. Research shows that people who don’t watch TV are happier and healthier, have better self-esteem, and are less fearful.

Females who don’t watch TV have a healthier body image. This is all even more true for kids, because TV has a bigger impact on them. Not surprisingly, families who watch less TV are closer, and kids who see less TV become sexually active at a later age.

But let’s start with reading. We know that kids who love to read do better in school. Virtually all parents say they want their children to love reading, but most kids stop reading books that aren’t assigned in school by middle school. Only 28 percent of eighth graders score at or above the proficiency level in reading; in fact, only two percent of them read at an advanced level. What happens?

TV and reading are linked: Research shows that the more TV kids watch before the age of eight, the less they read after the age of eight. Of course, that’s a correlation, so it doesn’t prove that one leads to the other, but most researchers are convinced. If you want your children to be readers, don’t let them get addicted to TV and videos. Time spent on the one activity precludes the other. And once kids develop the habit of TV, they are less likely to seek out books of their own accord. Books — which are more work — just can’t compete with the lure of the screen.

  

I really like her question and answer format, some of the other questions are:

New Links

 

I’ve just updated www.tvSmarter.com with a lot of new links.

Note: I also took down the “Screen-Free Week” banner (until next year), so if it still shows up on tvSmarter, just click on refresh and any new links will then show up.

Here is a small sampling:

 

Blog Posts Linking to tvSmarter:

“Living Now – Television as a child development hazard”

http://www.livingnow.com.au/advertise/articles/20-issues/4347-television-as-a-child-development-hazard.html

“Junk Culture Manifesto – Quick Note On Self-Esteem & Television or Stop Exposing Yourself to Consumer Culture!”

http://junkculturemanifesto.blogspot.com/2008/04/quick-note-on-self-esteem-television-or.html

 

Overview:

Natural News – Television

http://www.naturalnews.com/television.html

Kids and TV:

Channel One Campaign

 

This week, CCFC sent letters to the Superintendents of Education for each of the 42 states where Channel One has a “significant presence”.

http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/pdf/channeloneletter.pdf

From this letter:

“Since its founding in 1989, Channel One News has been widely criticized both for its business model and its content. Channel One loans schools television equipment if they agree to show a daily 12‐minute program that includes news, feature stories, and two minutes of commercials targeted specifically at students. No other company generates revenue by compelling a captive audience of students to watch television commercials during taxpayer funded class time. For advertisers, the benefits are obvious. As Channel One’s founder, Joel Babbitt, once remarked, “The advertiser gets kids who cannot go to the bathroom, cannot change the station, who cannot listen to their mother yell in the background, who cannot be playing Nintendo.” But for students and educators, Channel One is a terrible deal.”

Exactly. A big reason so many kids are failing in school is because they are spending a huge amount of time watching TV (kids spend, on average more time watching TV than they spend in school). Schools using Channel One are sending the message to parents and kids that watching TV is good for kids.

CCFC has setup a Campaign page urging everyone to write to their state superintendent of education to get the message across that Channel One is a bad deal for kids and schools , plus they have nifty tools to make this quick and easy:”

http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/channelone/

I just sent my email, I hope you’ll do the same!

More on Channel One:

Creating a Hunger

1968 Admiral “BIG SCREEN” TV Ad, a photo by hmdavid on Flickr.

 ”This is significant when we consider that the most essential product of the advertising industry is hunger. That is, commercials are intended to create a feeling of lack in the viewer, a deep ache that can only be assuaged by purchasing the product. As Dr. Neil Postman, chairman of the Department of Communications Arts at New York University, points out, “What the advertiser needs to know is not what is right about the product but what is wrong about the buyer.” So we hand our children over to Madison Avenue to be told, hundreds of hours a year, how hungry, bored, ugly, and unpopular they are and will continue to be until they spend (or persuade their parents to spend) a few more dollars. And then we wonder why our children feel so hungry, bored, ugly, and unpopular, and why they are so needy.”

“Cable aside, the television industry is not in the business of selling programs to audiences. It is in the business of selling audiences to advertisers. Issues of “quality” and “social responsibility” are entirely peripheral to the issue of maximizing audience size within a competitive market.”

From Simple to Remember  -  ”Commercialism”

http://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/commercialism/

See also Simple to Remember  -  ”The Dangers of TV”

http://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/dangers-of-television/

See also Simple to Remember  -  ”Television Addiction is No Mere Metaphor”

http://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/TV_Danger_SCIAM/

See also Simple to Remember  -  ”TV has made nation complacent, Gore says”

http://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/tvgoreopin/