The power of media and its effects on the society cannot be underestimated. The media has a profound effect on people’s culture, values, and priorities. Perhaps the biggest influence the media has on individuals is its determination of reality. Today many societies fall victims to media influences. The media’s influences especially on kids are so palpable that scholars have debated if the media’s influence on youth and the society is sustainable. The media also is credited for positive roles that its plays in the society particularly in regard with information. This paper explores different theoretical approaches on the media’s influence on society. In addition, this paper attempts to explain how the media can be used constructively with limited harm to society.
In this paper, we explore the influence of Television on crimes particularly after the Second World War. The paper focuses on the history of television beginning from the 1940s. Because of building an argument, the paper begins by first asserting the history of television in the United States, and the manner in which TV differed in the past and now.
History of Television in the United States
When the television was introduced in the American society, Americans described it as “the radio with pictures”. The television was thus greeted with a combination of astonishment and glamour. By mid 1920, the American public was able to hear in real-time the events that were happening half-way across the globe. Still, few people had the financial muscle to be able to afford television sets. To make up for its scarcity, American populace would gather at local places to watch TV’s in one. The TV thus became a uniting factor in the American society. By the end of the first decade after the invention of the television, the television was voted the most influential thing to the culture of America more than the parents, schools, churches, and government. The TV thus became the King of the American juggernaut.
The television became pervasive in the 1950s. Perhaps some of the most common shows of this time included Sid Caeaser, Jackie Gleason, Milton Bele and Lucille Ball. These were perhaps some of the most influential shows of the time. However, most of the TV shows of this time were mediocre and compared only to low-come theatre productions.
Before 1948, the American TV industry was mostly controlled by four television networks that included The American Broadcasting Company, The Columbia Broadcasting System, and the National Broadcasting Company and a smaller company called the Dumont Television Network. During this time, it was possible to find some nights when a TV channel would not broadcast a program at all. The TV corporations battled with low sales of Television sets that were mainly bought in the upper end sides of cities of New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Miami and others. Majority of the TV owners where white middle class as well as upper class people who owned businesses or worked for big corporations. The reason for the scarcity of the television set was on its price. At the time, the television set went for $400 dollars. By March 1948, the Newsweek Magazine reported that the TV was “catching on like a case of high-tone scarlet fever.” By the end of the following year, all the TV channels had programs running throughout. By 1956, two-percent of the American populace owned at least a TV set in their home.
As the number of Americans owning television sets increased, so did the number of public interest on the television. Thus a question of programming arose amongst the public. Like motion pictures, the television was a function of moving pictures that were synchronized by sound. The question of programming was thus answered by the imitation of the cinema on Hollywood. The catch was that Hollywood was expensive and time consuming. The television would require a more stable and realistic production that do not consume much money. The Radio production owners who still controlled the TV industry did not have much money to invest on the holy wood like movies. The cinema industry also viewed the TV with skepticism. The TV programs of the day were thus events that could be shot easily and relied almost immediately. This was the inexpensive model of thought.
After a short time of experimentation, the television industry resorted to theatre as a compromise particularly the vaudeville. The vaudeville would be cheap to shoot and there were also available talent that would be shown live on television. In the period between 1949-1950, the highest rated shows included shows such as The Texaco Star Theatre, the Toast of Town and The ED Sullivan show. The elements of this shows included an emcee, live audiences, curtain and guests.
In the United States, television started in San Francisco but would quickly spread to areas such as Los Angeles, New York, Miami and most of the bigger cities in both west and east coast. Edgerton writes that “despite the “couch potato stereotype” virtually all Americans watch television.” However, there is slight variation on the number of people watching television depending on age, sex, race, socio-economic background and educational levels. The baby boomers born after the Second World War would watch television approximately 9 years in time by the time they are 65 years old. Some of the most influential TV shows in the United States included “a Tower of Babel” 1956, The Golden Web (1968), and the image of Empire of (1970).
The influence of television is not limited to negativity. Mass media figures can also serve as role models. Television characters are distinct as role models because they have the potential to reach mass audiences and serve as role models for large number of people. Perhaps one of the most influential TV shows of the 1950s was “the Rocketman”. The Rocketman show of the 1950s survived on limited budget, cheap sets and models as well as low paid actors. The first female African American astronaut Mae Jemison noted that seeing Uhura on television inspired her to dream big and to believe that a career in the space was a possibility. The “Feminine Mystique” encouraged open discussion on women’s role and their contribution in the American society.
Theories on Television and Violence
Social learning theory states that people learn new behaviors from one another by copying. Proposed by Albert Bandura, social learning theory is perhaps the most influential theory for learning and development. Because the televisions’ effect on children’s development is huge, it is perhaps a good idea to explain the TV’s impact on children’s development using social learning theory. Social learning theory focuses on direct support of ideas. The strengthening of ideas is perpetuated when people watch other people do things. Observational learning is a key component of social theory as well a dire need of repetition and redundancy (Ormand, 1999). It is therefore evident that cable TV is repeating of stories, capture of children’s imaginations an indicator of social learning theory.
Cultivation theory is another theory that explains the significance of televeiosn on children’s development. Cultivation theory asserts that substantial viewing of the television changes individual‘s perception about the world. The TV becomes the reality and TV’s portrayal of the world becomes engrained in the viewers mind. If a cultivated mind is challenged to think outside the TV’s life, that mindset can change (Evra, 2004). One cultivated experience is violence. Because of TV’s violent images, one could be easily influenced to believe that the TV’s portrayal of violence is the fact, which is not the case many times (Donals, p. 5, 2005).
The impacts that television programs like cartoons have on children cannot be underestimated but rather should be changed for positive outcomes. Many researchers have found that certain characters used in cartons have negative impacts on children. For instance, a research conducted by (Smith, 2011) found “SpongeBob” character have negative impacts on children as it interferes with their executive functioning. Executive functioning involves problem solving, planning, thinking from abstract and working memory. This is because of the social learning theory. Social learning theory makes acquiring information and digesting information easy.
Similarly, computer games in cartoon networks depict violence that influences adults and children(Saturnine 2004). Because of social learning theory, the cartoon violence becomes an crucial as a motivator of aggressive tendencies in the society (Trend 5). While cultivation theory depicts a subset of fact in the TVs world, social learning theory insinuates violence by teaching it to the TV subjects. Laura Clark (2009) reported that researchers found that high levels of violence in cartoons such as “Scooby-Doo” have tendencies of making children aggressive. The research added that animated shows aimed for a young audience had increasing brutality than programs aimed for the general audience. In addition, research added that young people copied and identified with fantasy characters in cartoons as much as would with screen characters. These copied traits would be reflected in real life. Kids were noticed to be cursing, rolling eyes, and having bad attitudes courtesy to the animated films watched.
Rosen (2007) argues that adults who watch cartoons change behaviors to suit those of their favorite cartoon characters. The change of the adult’s characters comes from their desire to become like the characters in real life. This way, the adults feel that they become entertaining to their children and other people (p. 134). The adult’s behavior is a manifestation of social learning theory. In social learning theory, viewers learn by looking at others. In this case, the cartoon becomes the teacher the adult. The cartoon character becomes a shaping agent to the behavior of the adult.
However, certain cartoon has positive impacts on children in the society. Moral behaviors depicted on TV can affect children through social learning. For example, Cartoon shows like “Dora the Explorer “and “Go Diego Go” teach society about caring and helping others. Children exposed to these kinds of shows show moral integrity and emotional maturity. (Noel, 2012). Cultivation theory possibly helps in understanding these scenarios because the reality here is restricted to positivity. Children thus grow believing that moral integrity is the truth about life.
The two theories discussed above have one similarity in that they both focus on how media influences individuals in the society. They both share the principles that media viewing has a degree of influence on individuals who take much of their time viewing the media without taking into considerations various facts (Larson p.396, 2012 ). However, the theories have some disparities. In social learning theory, learning is experienced when one changes his or her behaviors from the environment (Blackmore p.195, 2010). Conversely, cultivation theory focuses on the influences of media from a cumulative point. The rate at which an individual watches television inceeases TV’s influence in the indvidual’s character. The social learning theory also predicts that people will copy what they media only if one thinks that what is portrayed in the media is right. However, cultivation theory suggests that people will have no option but to absorb what the media portrays without taking any considerations (Brown, Steele & Childers, 2002).
Granted, television is the most influential medium of the recent past. American TV programs shaped the popular culture of the American people and their thinking about things as well. Today, the TV has had a pervasive influence on the global culture. Even as TV’s influence increased and surged in the 1960s, several aspects of TV became critical to the wellbeing of the society. One aspect of TV that has been questionable is the influence of TV on the young people’s ability to indulge in criminal activities. In the year 1975, Rothenberg Special Commission released a report called the “Effect of Television Violence on Children and Youth”, the report indicated that the television had deforming attributes particularly on the face of increasing young people’s affinity to criminal activities.
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