Since television became commercially available in the United States in the late 1940s, it has influenced the American public like nothing else in the history of this nation.
Television has grown a great deal and mass communication professors teach that 100 percent of homes in the United States have at least one TV. That kind of statistic doesn’t seem real, but when you think about the few people who don’t have TV, it’s less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the population so it’s an insignificant number.
That kind of influence is great for the TV industry and the retailers who sell them.
And in a free and Democratic society, the producers of TV programs basically have the freedom and flexibility to create what they want, as long as they get the advertising support to back up so called controversial programming.
TV production continues to evolve and it has become so risque and so violent that some viewers write letters of protest networks and local TV stations.
If you have cable, and now with some new TVs, you have parental controls over terrestrial TV. The thing is, there shouldn’t have to be restrictions on network television. Cable is another thing. You are paying for a specific service and if you want R rated movies, that’s up to you. But over-the-air, the only choice people have a lot of times, is shut the TV off or change to another channel that has similar programming.
Choices are getting better, but on any given night, you can turn on to network TV and you can see police getting gunned down in the streets. You can see teenage girls forced into prostitution and drug use, you can see gang activity being glorified.
You can see a growing list of outrageous shows that can easily influence a lot of adults, let alone teens and pre-teens. Oh, the magic of television and its power to influence.
A lot of shows are coming up with titles that include the word murder or homicide or arson in them. Some of the theme songs as well, have questionable lyrics that can influence in the wrong way.
And it appears the problem is feeding on itself. The more violence in TV and music, the larger the scale of violence on city streets.
For the most part, those of us who live here in North Dakota have not seen that behavior on a large scale, but it’s beginning to emerge. As Fargo and Bismarck continue to grow, so do the crime statistics.
OK, I’ll say it. Government control isn’t the answer. Advertising continues to get sold to support said programs, so the only way the spectre of violence is going to be curbed is when producers voluntarily come up with better, more enriching story lines.
Nor do I think TV producers should be censored. It’s just the simple fact, there’s too much of it and the influence has become too great to ignore.
Everybody likes comedy, but what is happening to it? There’s been a steady downward trend of sitcoms on nightly television. Hilarious is giving way to violence when in effect, it should be the exact opposite.
But, to be fair, sports has risen a great deal too. With the advent of digital TV and now some screens that exceed 100 inches, you could be right in there with the action. That said, football has been available on Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Basketball is now on network TV on Monday and Tuesday.
Some of us might think that’s a sports overload, and it kind of is, but if it replaces violence on TV, it’s for the better.
Most of us can discern the difference when it comes to what is too violent to be watching. And we often seek out those programs that are the way TV was originally intended.
But for those who don’t, TV can and often is a bad influence because of the violent nature of programming. Let’s hope the change continues to shift in the right direction.
