Television Programs: How They Affect Society :: essays research papers

Television Programs: How It Affects Society   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"It was an accident,† proclaimed Janet Jackson after her Super Bowl fiasco, â€Å"a wardrobe malfunction.† It didn’t appear to be one to the millions of people who witnessed the exposing of one of Jackson’s breasts. Many were shocked and outraged, but this type of thing isn’t new for the infamous â€Å"boob tube†. In 1977, the miniseries â€Å"Roots†, was the first TV show to air bare breasts (Clark 1070). Even still, television programs have come a long way since that and the time of their creation.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Invented in 1923, television programs started off with airing sporting events, news hours, and cookie cutter programs (â€Å"History of TV† History). These programs usually taught morals and lessons at their closings and gave a false sense of reality. Today, you can see just about anything on TV, from someone being gunned down to wild and risk-free sex between couples (Gay couples too!). Studies have been done to see if these scenes seen by society can affect us negatively, as children have been analyzed through adulthood to see if violent and sexual behavior on TV has affected them badly. The results are children starting to deal with adult issues at an early age due to the graphic nature of television programs. Society now is more aggressive and losing it’s values. With this said, television programs have clearly evolved since 1923 and affected society negatively due to it’s violent and sexual content.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Since it’s start television has grown in availability and reached the living rooms of many. Television’s expansion started off slow due to the Depression and World War II. By the end of World War II, TV was certain to grow as fast as the radio had twenty years prior (Jost 1139). Television has also developed better technology as it is now shown in color with digital picturing. This started towards the late 1930's, when new technology was being used to show baseball games and special events (Jost 1138).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  With the rise in technology companies have come up with a new system, interactive television. â€Å"With digital interactivity, consumers are in total control of the programming they bring into their homes,† declared Time Warner Chairman Gerald Levin on interactive television (qtd. in Jost 1131). I have witnessed firsthand, interactive TV as my cable company, Comcast, offers something similar called On Demand TV. With it I can choose movies or shows I want to watch.