TV Addiction Wasteful and Harmful

Television viewers might best be called consumers.

At one time television in the living room was a place for the family to get together to watch a family program, and the choices were quite limited. Since then it has 'progressed' in such a way that huge amounts of programming are now directed at different segments of the family. As a result most of it is not watched as a group and may be viewed separately at different hours or in separate rooms.

Over the years TV has brought into the home entertainment, news and commercials. Lots of continuous and persuasive commercials. To increase their marketing effect the news and entertainment are stretched, exaggerated and designed to grab viewers' attention. Shock topics and vivid attention grabbing presentations are continually increasing while wholesome, friendly and cultural productions are fewer.

Television today is an overbearing medium for the corporate promotion of products and services. Massive amounts of commercials are sent to family members daily directing them towards different, sometimes conflicting markets. In their efforts to gain attention to their promotions marketers will use intense, noisy, provocative and offensive material in the programming. And there is constant repetition in the advertisements until the messages take hold; to sell stuff which so often is not needed or which may even be harmful to society and planet.

For individuals and families there is a steep cost in watching television, financially and in the loss of valuable communications and true healthy values. All or part of so many families are addicted to this way of life - gazing at the 'idiot box' and absorbing its messages. It can be very difficult to ease back on watching television in favor of unpolluted pastimes. How are you going to break a deeply ingrained habit of so many years?

First you must want to change, then use your imagination just a wee bit, and read up. Think outside the BOX and list other things to do that will be fun, more relaxing and have less negative influence on you and yours.

A few suggestions.
A new hobby indoors or outdoors can be a lot of fun and very satisfying.
Work on a photo album or scrapbook, one you can touch and feel and show.
Go for a walk around town, in the park, or to the library.
Read a magazine article, a book or learn a new skill.
Visit with neighbors, and why not discuss the effects of television with them.
Check off another chore on your To-Do List, or start a To-Do Chore List.

Get the kids involved.
How TV Affects Your Child at Kidshealth.org has some very useful information for the family: Teaching Good TV habits, Risky Behaviors, Practical ways to make TV-viewing more productive in your home, and talks about violence, obesity, commercials and a TV ratings guide.

"The first 2 years of life are considered a critical time for brain development. TV and other electronic media can get in the way of exploring, playing, and interacting with parents and others, which encourages learning and healthy physical and social development."

Katherine Westphal at Trash Your TV asks; "WHAT?!? GIVE UP MY TV?!?!"
Katherine suggests turning OFF your TV for a happier, healthier life and offers a Free Ebook 'The Awful Truth About Television'. She puts all of TV's negative effects into perspective and suggests that giving up TV may sound preposterous at first. That little box in your home looks so innocent. So entertaining. So relaxing . . .

Unfortunately, an ever-growing body of scientific evidence indicates that TV viewing has become an unhealthy addiction for millions of people with emphasis on sex and violence.

Visit Trash Your TV and learn more about Television and the family and life values.

A phrase borrowed from the computer programmer's repertoire might depict the effect of television in our lives; "garbage in - garbage out."

And an unknown author; "I wish there were a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence. There's a knob called "brightness", but that doesn't work."

* A revision and extension of an earlier post as per Article Blogs and Re-posting.

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TV Commercials Annoy and Upset

Loud, repetitious and invasive television advertising is altering family life and society in a very negative way. Irritating and disturbing, or simply attention grabbing, TV commercials blast messages into the home about what we need to buy, much of which is wasteful or unhealthy. Every day morning, afternoon and evening it loudly states the terms of reference that we as a society should live by.

Television is saturated with continuous promotions that are very persuasive and have an enormous influence on the family and how we should behave.

It is difficult to resist the magnetism of this powerful media marketing monster, unless you have become a rare 'idiot box' abstainer.

How much advertising can be put into a program until viewers will no longer watch? Lots it seems as ad length and frequency increase yearly. There is so much programming that contains excessive amounts of commercials and often the same ad will be seen repeatedly throughout the broadcast, and all year long.

Local morning news carries reports of accidents, robberies, murders, repeated weather and traffic, and plenty of useless chatter, and great amounts of advertising. Often after a string of commercials a glimpse of the news desk appears, catches your attention, and then continues with commercials. Or "We'll tell you the results after the break." A 'break' used to be called a commercial or a message from the sponsor but this is the language of marketing.

TV series and movies are saturated with consumer persuasions that are shrewdly crafted to get maximum attention. Again, it may appear that the story is about to continue, and it does but not just yet; more enticements. Many movies will begin with a reasonable amount of advertising and then swamp the captured viewer towards the end.

Station and product logos during a story are appearing at the bottom of the screen more frequently and I have seen these appear throughout an entire movie. Watch for this to extend to more programming and perhaps through an entire broadcast.

Where there has been the occasional boisterous commercial the majority of these are now above program intensity or booming with a verbal message and background music. "I can't read this, turn that stupid thing down!" occasionally pops up during an evening movie. MUTE button to the rescue! In answer to a consumer concern about this, a station technician had explained to the broadcaster that the sound was not louder but it was enhanced to sound louder.

The TV commercial scenario which I find most unreasonable and annoying is our TV program listing channel. A long while back this was just that, a continuous program listing. Now loud ads take up about 2/3 of the screen while the programs are quickly scrolled through the lower 1/3. In recent months the 1/3 sized listing begins with two more ads in that congested space. If you want to see what's coming up you must watch big loud endorsements. I find this in-your-face marketing example to be totally ignorant.

A sad aspect about this heavy TV commercial onslaught is that so much of it is to promote the sale of goods and services that we do not need or may not be good for us. Some of the biggest advertisers are large successful companies that have lowered their standards to targeting these promotions at children. Bombarding kids and teens who watch 4 or more hours per day with persuasions to want stuff is sick and unacceptable marketing.

Why do consumers put up with the intrusiveness and extent of annoyance in today's TV viewing?

There is not much one can do against the monumental power house of big business. If politicians can't or won't fix this how can moms and dads? They can of course refuse to participate and turn the television OFF and get busy on tasks and play, indoors and out. Which is really not such a bad idea is it?

"The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little." - Ray Bradbury, The Golden Apples of the Sun


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Corporate Media and News Bias

One-sided and influential commercial broadcasting.

Society is pretty messed up with business and consumer greed running rampant, human injustices, poverty and starvation. There are high and low end criminals and very much waste and pollution. Prevalent unhealthy lifestyles exist for so many who should be mentally and physically fit but for the daily persuasions towards harmful habits.

Why does this trend in the same direction for so long and with so little resistance?

Corporate profit would seem to be the main determinant in how we are 'progressing' as a society. The need to increase these profits keeps pushing negative social trends forward, promoting and selling still more excessive, unneeded and even useless and harmful stuff.

But why is there practically no backlash? Criticism is stifled!

The information that citizens absorb in their daily lives influences their future actions and developing lifestyles. World and local social topics from the media and the NEWS are a main source. Friends and acquaintances are another source but most of their information has come from media, perhaps indirectly.

NEWS broadcasting is almost totally dominated by private commercial broadcasting and they are in business for profit. They do not exist to improve society or to make their audiences healthier and happier. What are the chances of seeing on your local news a negative report on a local company's wrong doings when the business is a regular advertiser on the station? Or will a network seek to expose a company's bad ethic if it is a large shareholder?

Government interference is unlikely where wealthy politicians are part owners in these companies or industries, or feel indebted to them in other ways.

And so we get biased reports, excessive and questionable advertising and what ever business chooses to dish out. Public broadcasting is so much more useful but lacks the corporate funding to take any kind of prominence in our daily lives. The chances for future positive social trends looks grim.

What's Wrong With the News?
Independent, aggressive and critical media are essential to an informed democracy. But mainstream media are increasingly cozy with the economic and political powers they should be watchdogging. Mergers in the news industry have accelerated, further limiting the spectrum of viewpoints available to us. With U.S. media outlets overwhelmingly owned by for-profit conglomerates and supported by corporate advertisers, independent journalism is compromised.

Ultimately, FAIR believes that structural reform is needed to break up the dominant media conglomerates, establish independent public broadcasting, and promote strong, non-profit alternative sources of information.

Corporate Ownership
"Almost all media that reach a large audience in the United States are owned by for-profit corporations - institutions that by law are obligated to put the profits of their investors ahead of all other considerations. The goal of maximizing profits is often in conflict with the practice of responsible journalism.

Not only are most major media owned by corporations, these companies are becoming larger and fewer in number as the biggest ones absorb their rivals. This concentration of ownership tends to reduce the diversity of media voices and puts great power in the hands of a few companies. As news outlets fall into the hands of large conglomerates with holdings in many industries, conflicts of interest inevitably interfere with newsgathering.

FAIR believes that independent media are essential to a democratic society, and that aggressive antitrust action must be taken to break up monopolistic media conglomerates. At the same time, non-corporate, alternative media outlets need to be promoted by both the government and the non-profit sector."

Read What's Wrong With the News? at FAIR including advertiser influence, official agendas, telecommunications policy, the PR industry, pressure groups, and more.

Corporate Media Ownership: "The Project Censored team researched the board members of 10 major media organizations from newspaper to television to radio. Of these ten organizations, we found there are 118 people who sit on 288 different American and international corporate boards proving a close on-going interlock between big media and corporate America. We found media directors who also were former Senators or Representatives in the House . . ."
Read more from Project Censored.

Media Conglomerates, Mergers, Concentration of Ownership - is a report from Global Issues, an interesting source for detailed coverage of social concerns.

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TV and Media Fluff

Stretching media for commercial placements

What's in the TV news you are watching? Depending on your choice of local or world, commercial or public, you may not be getting much for the time you watch.

I have strayed away from watching the local commercial stations' news hours as there is usually about 10 minutes of what I consider personally newsworthy. The rest of the time is filled with an extended weather forecast, hyped up sports clips, much unneeded traffic video, numerous over-detailed local incidents and accidents, chit-chat, and commercials. Lots of commercials.

Local news might round up the worse local accidents, fires and crimes, going into extensive details. I may want to know about some of these events but is it necessary to pour over each sad detail. With a billion people starving and suffering and so many other important world issues I find that watching public TV, world and local, is better coverage of need-to-know events. There is not sufficient good news stories aired as shock apparently works better.

Broadcast strategies might include a snippet of news to come but, "details after the break." They used to be commercials but are now called breaks.

Often half way through a very long commercial break the anchor desk appears for a few seconds as if to continue the news. This brings you back if you are straying - to the commercials that continue. Similar techniques are used during TV movie commercials where you are reminded of the movie you are watching for a second or two but the ads keep flowing.

The news teasers worsen for some of the popular topics that you might be waiting for. "Coming up: Doctor Shmocter gives important new health findings." He does come on after the break but not immediately. You gotta hang in there for 20-30 minutes and check out the advertisements.

The morning after civic elections in the greater district we watched the morning news for one hour wanting to see the results for the Mayor of our city. Each 10 minutes or so they would announce the elected mayor of 2-3 cities. In other words, watch the entire hour and get all the results. Exasperating!

To know what's going on locally news can usually be picked up briefly on the radio, public if available. BBC TV World News covers the globe and actually supplies significant information on current newsworthy events in other countries including here, in North America.

Broadcasters (and their employees) are in a difficult situation. There is a demand for quality local programming and it's important for communities and the stations need revenue to survive which is coming from advertising. So a familiar problem arises, one that is embedded in wide areas of our commerce dependent society. Too many are competing for the same money with too many things to sell. In that environment product or service quality is so often diluted to maintain acceptable profits.

I wonder how long can this continue and will a saturation point be reached where viewers will no longer wish to view.

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