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Television’s Importance 

APSC 176-003

Dr. Cathi Shaw

September 30, 2011

Dylan Flegg

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The television is one of many important inventions of the last century. Similar to when Gutenberg

began printing Bibles leading to the era of the printed book, the television began a new era of accessible

information. Today many homes in North America have more than one TV, and the reach of TV is felt

around the world. By turning on a TV, one has access to more information than at any other time in

world history. This information, though, comes at a price. Television influences what we purchase,

affects how we talk to other people, and changes how we view the world. Television is the greatest

invention of the last century because of the influence it has in people’s minds.

For most people, “seeing is believing”: they need only see something happen tobelieve in it. Many

shows on television today are full of information that claims to be accurate and true, and most people

receive a majority of their information from TV, thinking everything is accurate and true. People receive

education about the past, the present, and the future, from TV. Current events are the realm of 

privately-owned news stations that change perception of the world. Importantly, television chooses

who we vote for: attention is given to certain issues and certain candidates who support those issues

(Iyengar, 1994). Some studies show news stations reporting about terrorist activities often hundreds of 

times without mentioning any causing factors. These omissions leave blame on the public for

performing acts of terrorism, and allow policymakers to go unchecked (Iyengar 1994). This subtle

refusal of information, along with many other psychological tricks, make it difficult to be cynical of the

television. “I can’t imagine a general viewer getting so sophisticated with techniques that they could

discount them” observes a former president of NBC (Fiske 1987). These techniques account to

brainwashing, of which there is evidence in the children’s food market, as well. Children were found to

most often demand foods that they could remember the ads to (Hitchings & Moynihan, 1998).

Advertising watched by children is often interpreted as truth because children do not realize the

purpose of ads (Brucks, Armstrong& Goldberg, 1988). Similarly, the purpose and bias of today’s

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television media is often misconstrued as truth by adults as well. Sophisticated television programmers

take advantage making everything on TV seem true.

Television sometimes convinces people without trying. The inter-personal communication shown on TV,

however silly in appearance, can be influential in a person’s life. Even shows which seem simple often

deal with complex, important issues (Freedman and Schuler, 2003). The popular sitcom “Friends”, for

instance, was arguably the first major ‘Generation X’ show. Friends was conceptually about the new

“tribal bonding” taking place between young adults who had moved to a new city, and found

themselves with only a “surrogate family” of friends (Ticha, 2004). This marks a definite change from

previous shows, which showed parents who were knowledgeable and involved in their children’s lives

(Rapping, 2004). This shift away from family to friends was seen by Generation X as reassuring; Seeing it

happen on television made it seem normal. Youth look to these shows for guidance, adopting the

actions, beliefs, and speech of the actors in it (Reese, 2004). A study by the University of Toronto found

that Friends may even be affecting our linguistics, pointing to a change in the modifiers used in everyday

language (U of T, 2004). Another popular show, although aimed at a different age group, is “Sex and the

City”. Darren Star, creator of Sex and the City and Beverly Hills 90210, admits to creating a show not

about how women act, but about how women could act as men (Maclean’s). This subtlety is lost on

younger viewers who cannot help but take in the show at face value. Furthermore, the steady amount

of sex and substance abuse seen in these shows is portrayed as in the norm(Kalyaneraman, 2003). This

show is often watched by children too young to understand its influence: young girls now have

promiscuity to live up to(Leupold, 2003). Television shows deal with very important issues: the role of 

the parent, in the case of Friends, and the suggestive imagery of an often misinterpreted satire, Sex and 

the City . These are examples of shows which shape the norm, often without actively trying to.

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Not everyone will agree that television is the most important invention. Most people will suggest that

health care improvements are more influential. Good health care, however, only allows you to live your

life, but it does not influence how you go about it. Gasoline and the technologies that come with it are

incredible achievements for humankind. Furthermore, the electrification of the world is the dawn of a

new modern era. However, new technologies have been occurring at all points in human history, only at

the present are these improvements becoming more incredible. Humans with intention to control

others have been searching for a tool that is even a fraction as influential as television.

Today’s world is in the age of the television. Our eyes tell us what is true as they feast upon vivid,

saturated colors, our ears listen to lavish orchestration and hilarious banter, and along the way our brain

gets confused. Clever news reporting leads to a misinformed public willing to put up with incompetent

politicians. In addition, colorful, enticing advertisements allow children to decide what food their

parents feed them. Seemingly lighthearted teen comedies may in fact subtly shift our perception of 

those around us. And finally, an unsophisticated audience is unable to deal with the psychological

attack on their minds. Television changes how we think and how we act, this is what makes it the most

important invention of the last century. The future of the world does not rely on current technologies,

but rather with the hopes and dreams of the future generations. The outcome of the next few

generations will be written by the sitcoms and news reports of today.

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References

Brucks, Merrie &Gary Armstrong &Marvin Goldberg. “Children’s Use of Cognitive Defenses Against

Television Advertising: A Cognitive Response Approach”. Journal of Consumer Research Online. 1988. < 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-277X.1998.00133.x/abstract>.

Fiske, John. “Television Culture”. Taylor & Francis E-Library. 1987.

Freedman, Kerry and Karen Schuler. “Please stand by for an Important Message: Television in Art

Education”. Northern Illinois University Online. 2003.

Hitchings, E & P.J. Moynihan. “The relationship between television food advertisements recalled and

actual foods consumed by children”. Journal of Human Nutrition and Diet. Volume 11, Issue 6, pg 511-

517. December 1998.

Iyengar, Shento. “Is anyone responsible? How television frames political issues”. University of Chicago

Press. 1994.

Kalyaneranan, Sri. “Sex and the City: A content analysis of sex and substance abuse”. May 5, 2003. 

Leupold, Julie. “Sex and the City screws with feminism”. http://journalism.nyu.edu. May 12, 2003.

Maclean’s Online. “Interview with Darren Star”. April 17, 2008.

Rapping, Elayne. University of Buffalo News Release. http://www.buffalo.edu/news/6680. 

Reese, Jodi. “The Heterosexual Masculinity in the Sitcom Genre: The creation and circulation of the male

idiot character type”. http://www.georgetown.edu/cct/thesis/Jodi_reese.pdf . April 20, 2004.

Ticha, Tom. “They leave as they began: with a buzz”. The Baltimore Sun Online. May 2, 2004.

University of Toronto Online. < http://www.magazine.utoronto.ca/leading-edge/friends-tv-show-effect-

on-speaking>.

Weinman, Jaime. “The curse of Sex and the City”. Maclean’s Online. April 16, 2008.