Television Media

Abstract
Television is an amazing thing. Many years ago, we had a black and white screen with big knobs, as bulky as a microwave for a television. Now, with technology so advanced, we have it almost paper thin and we sit in front of it just mesmerized by what we watch on the screen. We watch anything from the news, to reality television, to educational programs, and so on. It’s such a powerful tool that can have a big influence on most consumers because most of us sit in front of it either when we are bored or just want to relax. It is a phenomenon that has allowed us to see the latest news, advertisements, the latest movies, or even the most up to date current events that is happening throughout the whole world.

History of Television
There are different Era’s of the televisions. Prior to the year 1935, it was called the Mechanical Television Era. It was the first generation and was not completely electronic which displayed a TV screen and it had a small motor with a spinning disc and neon lamp. (Bennett, 2001)

First Media Advertisement in the United States In the United States, the first advertisement shown on the television was for Bulova and it had showed for 10 seconds and was placed before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies. The company paid only $9.00 for the advertisement. There are two main characteristics to television advertisement in the United States. The first task is to create a television advertisement that had met the standards and second, the placing of the advertisement on television through a certain type of media that would reach the type of customer they are aiming for.

Advertisement Guidelines
Just like a majority of things we do in our life, there are guidelines that we have to abide by in order to advertise on the television or any sort of media. According to the Federal Trade Commission Act, a big advertising rule is that the advertisement must be truthful and non-deceptive, the advertisers must have the evidence to back up their claims, and lastly the advertisement cannot be unfair in nature. Being deceptive is misleading consumers and being unfair in an advertisement is by causing substantial consumer injury which the consumer could not avoid. Even with these guidelines, I believe that infomercials are misleading. The exercise and diet plan commercials, or even the Hardees commercial showing sexy individuals seems to be misleading because it makes you wonder, what are they really selling; the hot sexy woman or the big juicy burger? To me things like, that is misleading. These exercise commercials use the bait and switch tactic, which they throw the bait at you knowing we all want to lose a little extra weight, and don’t even care if we are able to shed those extra pounds, because they have sold the product. There are certain companies who do offer a money back guarantee on their product, which brings assurance that the product might actually stand a chance in working. A different type of advertising which is a political advertisement. Now, with the Presidential campaign going on, we see all kinds of negative advertisements in the media. These commercials influence the American people because most of the commercials are only putting the other candidate down rather than tell things that they can do for us. It is really annoying how both candidates waste their air time by speaking ill about each other. I want to know in that brief 20 seconds what they will do for me. Advertisement of food is powerful. Anytime I see a juicy burger on TV with a slow motion actor makes me think it’s delicious and I want one. These exercise infomercials makes me think I can lose the weight if I buy it and I don’t have to lift a finger. We are very impressionable and that is why the television media is an easy way to reel in their consumers.

The Negative Effects of Media on Children What happened to the good old days when children were always playing outside, with toys, and have such great imaginations by coming up with all types of games. Now, in these days, children spend on an average more than 4 hours a day on some sort of media, such as the television, the computer, video games, etc. Don’t get me wrong, it is a great and powerful tool that we have. It also can have some negative effects on society and even affecting our young children because of the exposure they have on the internet. If parents are not monitoring what their own children are watching or even doing, then there is no boundary that they cannot surpass. There has been evidence that raises concerns on parents and doctors by the affects of media such as aggression, sexual behavior, substance use, eating disorders, and difficulty in their academics. (Strasburger, V.) There are two thirds of infants and toddlers that watch an average of two hours of television a day which is the most critical time for a child’s brain development. Pediatricians have said that TV and other electronic media can and does get in the way of playing, exploring, and even interacting with other people. With moderation, it can be a good thing because there are educational programs out there. Some facts about children who watch too much television is that if they watch more than four hours of it a day that they are most likely going to be overweight. Also, for children who watch violence or exposed to violence in the media they are most likely to show aggressive behavior and can possibly fear that things in this world is scary or something bad may happen to them. Another caution to the media is that there are over exposure too risky behavior and it seems as the media paints a picture that fighting, risky behavior, smoking, drinking and sex is glamorous. On an average, a child in America will witness 200,000 violent acts on television by the age of 18. This causes them to be desensitized to violence and even be more aggressive. Violence seems to be promoted to look fun to children. There is also portrayal of the good guys that does commit violent acts, and these characters are images that children look up to and admire. When children see these acts happening, then they think it is all right to do such things, even when parents correct them and tell them it is not ok. Scary images can cause nightmares and traumatized children, so the best thing is to prevent it by not allowing them to watch scary, horror, or violent movies on the television. Risky behavior is depicted as cool and the thing to do because they want to act like the characters on the television. Smoking cigarettes, doing drugs, even having sex and being a teenage mother is glamorized. Cigarette ads are banned from being advertised, but it’s enough to see it on movies or TV shows. That to me is advertising it to the public. A show called Teen Mom’s on MTV is one of MTV’s hit show, and the teen moms are portrayed as cool because they are on TV and became some sort of a celebrity. Obesity is dangerous and a big health problem in many children. Watching TV during long periods of time can cause one to be obese simply because you are sitting there doing nothing, not being active, and definitely not burning any kind of calorie, except for when they move their arms changing the channels on the remote control. Chances are they are sitting there, eating unhealthy snacks with high calories. Commercials are impressionable to children as well. What better way than to advertise some sort of toy, food, or item that a child will definitely want. According to the AAP, the children in the United States will see about 40,000 commercials each year. Companies are smart enough to advertise it on Saturday’s during cartoon mornings. Children under the age of 8 years old does not understand that commercials exists to sell a product to them and children under the age of 6 years old cannot distinguish the program content from commercials, and especially if one of their favorite character is promoting that certain product. Experts have suggested that when children want an item because of an advertisement, tell then those commercials are created to want us want that product and they may not even really want it. (Kids Health, 2012) Some other suggestions are to limits the allowed watching time, and have them read books, or use their imagination to create things to do. Other things to do are leave a television in one central location of the house, and definitely not in the bedrooms of the children. Also, turn the TV off during mealtime. That is a time to talk and communicate with the family. Do not ever let them watch TV while doing homework. They can easily get distracted and not do well in their studies. Teach them that watching TV is a privilege and not a right. Set rules and manage what they watch when they are allowed to watch the TV. Sexual behavior is everywhere. It’s in the music videos, movies, reality shows, the internet, video games, and so forth. There are proven studies that show if children and exposed to sexual behavior, then there is a high chance that they will become sexually active at a very young age. This is something that parents can and try to control. The reason behind it is you can prevent your child from behaving in such ways and it will prevent teen pregnancy, getting STD’s, or any other damage that it may cause. Some facts about sexual content are that 1 out of 5 children will be approached by a sexual predator on the internet. The biggest users of online pornography are used by teenage boys from ages 12-17. About 60% of females in the video games as characters are created in a sexual nature and over exposed. We have copied numerous things we saw on TV, such as hairstyles, clothing, dangerous stunts that was done but looked cool. Media really affects how we act because most of us like to copy what we see or the lifestyle that we observe on TV and think that is the way to live. Eating disorders is a hot topic too, in children. The media affects the way we think because most people on TV are skinny and beautiful. The only way we know to get skinny is either being bulimic or anorexic and either route is very dangerous to one’s body. Our minds are filled with rumors, false information, highly fabricated stories, and so on. We need more positive influences out there. A negative influence has a domino effect and can lead to destruction of many relationships in society. We need to be vigilant in order to turn away negative influence. Just being responsible towards ourselves or other people can make a difference.

The Positive Effects of the Media
Now that I have gone over the negative effects that the media can pose on our young children, I would like to talk about the positive effects. Even though we are very impressionable, we are also very intelligent and a lot of that does have to do with the media. We can do things faster, easier, and smarter. That is our mentality that our generation has now days. Communication is much easier since we can send a note in a very quick second. Technology is probably one of the best things that have happened to us. It only shows that we are moving forward as time goes and we are getting much smarter as we have the tools that enable us to get smarter. We are able to view what is going on in another part of the country and see pictures of places that we have never been before. If we have a question, we go on the internet and so called Google what we need to know. Television has a lot of useful and interesting shows that broadens our knowledge, even though a majority of it is tasteless shows that brings in such high ratings. We can find out anything that we want on a day to day basis on the news or the internet. Research did prove that the media is responsible for influencing us in our daily life. We have transformed into this cultural aware society by exposing us to learning about different cultures and backgrounds. We can target a global audience if we need one on the internet by blogging or posting comments and getting their feedback. Media can boost interest levels of young and old because we are able to look up almost anything because someone out there has posted something about what we need to know. We also get a sense of what is happening in this world without even being there. For instance, the issue with Libya, we were able to see what’s going on because of the television media and news exposing such unfortunate things going on there. We are just overall more creative in a sense because we are exposed to more things. I truly believe there is a responsible way of doing things. It just like drinking alcohol and limiting what you drink and knowing your limit. You can still drink and have a great time but be responsible about it. The same goes for using the media and being responsible on how we use it and what we do with the information that we receive. Also, we should know what is right from wrong and what is over exaggerated and know what false advertisement is. It’s about being smart about things because I know we are. Setting rules and boundaries is a good thing and it shows discipline. Without discipline in this world, everything and everyone would be chaotic. It shows integrity and will power, a trait that we all can use.

Media Censorship
Although not everything is blocked from showing on the television, at least we do have some sort of censorship. We still have some sort of decency by not allowing full blown sex on regular TV or show nude woman and men on TV. At least we can say they have to be clothed. It is debatable too, because wearing underwear on TV is allowed but just as bad to show because that it something that should not be shown on prime time television.
Music has to be edited to a clean version if played on the radio. This is a great thing, because can you imagine listening to a song on the radio and you are with your child, all of a sudden a certain bad word is said. Our world will be full of people swearing and thinking it is a normal way to talk.
On the internet, that is a whole new world. Pornography can be easily accessed by anyone who wants to view naked people. But, there are some countries that do not allow such things and cease the distribution of pornographic magazines. The media censorship should be exercised. If we didn’t have such boundaries, then I think things would be chaos and the mentality of most will change for the worst. Politeness will soon cease, the young generation will grow up way faster than normal because they will want to copy what their idol is doing even though their idol is old enough to do such things, except it seems they tend to forget that their fans are copying what they do.
Alternatives
Imagine the things we can accomplish if we utilized our time better. Some things that we can do are go to the gym or exercise more often, rather than sit on the couch and not lift a finger. We can read books more rather than watch the movie about the book. Learn a new skill, such as playing the instrument or knitting a blanket. Spending more time with the family and have a wonderful conversation with each other will make all the difference in the world. Cleaning rather than doing nothing will make you feel better because you will not have a messy house and the dishes will be done. Do some yard work and trim the hedges. Maybe plant some planters. All these activities can be done in lieu of watching the television. Television is taking some of our precious time away and a lot of families’ lack that special quality time that we once had. Conclusion
Life would just be incomplete without the media. We would definitely feel lost without knowing what’s going on in this world or what the latest trends are. We are so used to it, that if we don’t have it we cannot function correctly. The radio, television, the internet, the newspaper, etc is an amazing thing and without it we wouldn’t be getting smarter and more advanced. It helps us stimulate our minds by challenging us to figure out our curiosities. Granted, yes everything has its negatives and positives, but the positives seem to almost always outweigh the negatives. We can’t have everything perfect but we can be proactive about situations that we know can have a very bad effect. We can be proactive in teaching our children what is right and wrong, monitor what they do, say or watch. We can do a little more, just by limiting our television usage.
References
Bennett, M. (2001). Television History-The First 75 Years.
Retrieved October 12, 2012,from http://inventors.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=inventors&cdn=money&tm=484&f=20&tt=14&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.tvhistory.tv
Strasburger, V. (2012). Health Effects of Media on Children and Adolescents.
Retrieved October 12, 2012,from http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/125/4/756.abstract
Kids Health (2012). How TV Affects our Child
Retrieved October 12, 2012,from http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html
FTC. (2001). Advertising FAQs
Retrieved October 12, 2012,from http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus35-advertising-faqs-guide-small-business

Cheap TV Spot. (2012). Advertiser Guidelines.
Retrieved October 12, 2012, from http://cheaptvspots.com/adguidelines.html