Name :- Nargis Ibrahimbhai Saiyad

Roll no: - 13

Class: - M.A. Sem.-IV

Paper: - Communication and Mass Media

Topic: - Impact of T.V. on society

-:Submitted to:-

Dhvani mam,

Dept. of English,

M.K. Bhavnagar University,

Bhavnagar.

Impact of TV on society

                                                The television is very influential medium from its inception. It is quite interesting innovation. It is also true that it arises a question that whether it is curse or boon.

                          Television - Curse or boon?

         It has both types of effects.  Let's see those in detail.

v Positive effects -

                                      We find many positive effects of TV in society.  How it is useful is given below.

v Social surrogacy hypothesis-

                                         Sometimes the person who feels loneliness can employ TV to create faux relationship with the characters from the shows or movies as a way of deflecting the feelings of social deprivation.

                                       Jave Derrick and Shira Gabriel found that when individual is not able to participate in interactions with real people; they are less likely to indicate feeling of loneliness when watching their favorite show in television.

v  Educational advantages-

                                       It is also very useful in teaching to social and educational morals and rules. It reminds,

Media Awareness Network article 'The Good Things about Television.

                                     Besides this, Dimitri Christakis cites in his studies that those who watched "Sesame Street" and other programs, were reading more books, place more value on achievements and were more creative.

v Moral message -

                                         We find many educational channels now a day. It educates students as well as all people.

       For example, channels - Discovery,

                               National Geography,

                               History etc....

v Increasing Consciousness -

                                         TV makes us conscious.  We relate some-one to the character of TV.  In India, we watch the TV show like 'Gumrah', that makes us aware about the harsh reality.  We also watch live telecast.

v Religious strength-

                                       TV channels like 'Aastha', 'Q TV' all preaches as well as shows the truth about the religion. People come to know about real truth behind some rituals.

v Verbal ability-

                                         People hear the language from the TV, watches the action and gestures, thus they also get verbal ability and become good presentation.

v Satellite TV-

                                        In satellite TV, we can communicate now.  We can buy such a TV set which has no advertisement.

v Negative effects-

       There is on saying,

'Every coin has two sides.'

       Just like that, TV has also negative impact on society.

v Social surrogacy hypothesis-

                                            We talked about this of positive effect on human beings but it has negative impact, also.  The person relates own self with the character and gets relaxed but it is not reality.

v  Cultural invasion-

                                            Because of satellite TV, we find cultural invasion, especially youth tries to follow the Western culture and thus, our own culture is going away day by day.  Sometimes, our Indian culture also tries makes the shows like that.

For example, 'Splits Villa', in which we find, Americanized idea.

v Reduction of Creativity-

                                         When a person watches the TV, he doesn't remain conscious much. So, he only watches it and thus the Creativity, he looses. So, it's bitter truth.

v Impact on other mediums-

                                       Before TV, there were mediums like radio, tap recorder but after TV's arrival, they were loosing the interest of the people.

       Only in TV also, we find LCD and LED TV now.

v Physical effects-

                                   Studies show that there is an association between the hours of TV watching and obesity.  It decreases metabolic rate in people.  It is associated with greater risk of heart-attack; it reminds author John Steinbeck’s description, which is very surprising.

v Psychological effects-

                                   Some people get the information about crime and learn how to do it. Herbert Krugman’s study shows that when anyone watches TV, the right side of the brain is twice as active as the left which causes a state of hypnosis.

v  TV and Children-

                                   It affects on being physically active, reading, doing home-work, playing with friends and even on spending time with family.

                                The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that kids under 2 years old not watch any TV and that those older than 2 watch no more than 1 to 2 hours a day of quality programming.

v Impact of TV violence-

There also we find many researches.

                                      Some researches, also say that where violent behavior is punished may inhibit feelings of aggression to a greater degree but some authors also suggest that when we do the study we should keep in mind personality differences, ethnic differences, variations in the dramatic context, the social context in which TV is viewed and other potentially significant things.

v  TV and gender-

                                         We always find 'man', very adventurous, strong, intelligent, where as 'female' as 'fragile', 'innocent' etc., though in real life it is not always true. We find women in male product's advertisement. It also creates stereotypes and mentality.

v  A blessing and a curse-

                                       We can prove TV as both blessing and a curse, also.

                                       The most considerable debate is on the issue of violence and impact of violence on the viewers.  Here, the parental if influence can be a major factor in reducing the impact.

                                        It increases social and racial stereotypes,  desire for immediate gratification, world knowledge, aggressive behavior, alienation, excessive buying behaviour, curiosity, pro-social behavior etc., It decreases reading ability, creativity, physical activity, break down of social value, distorting perception, attention spend, etc., even memory retention etc…

v Conclusion-

                                        Though it is called as "boob tube", 'idiot box', 'chewing gum for the mind' by many people it depends on us what to grasp. So, we should try to avoid negativity of it and should grasp positive effect.