Comment on Class Discussion: Consequences of Television

    In class we discussed the consequences of television by using a consequence tree. A consequence tree is a diagram used to show consequences of a central idea. In this case television was the central idea. Since the introduction of television, communities have been impacted in major ways such as the influencing of violence, increase in money spent, and also it is more life like.
   
          Unlike the radio, on television people could physically see the characters/actors, the movement, the emotion, and the situations being acted out. With these aspects, TV became a hot medium or something required the audiences full attention. This ability to physically see the material increased standards on society by setting a bar for women to be beautiful and skinny, for men to be not so modest and romantic towards women, in present day these things still occur in everyday life.
         
           We all know and love shows such as law and order, NCIS, and even the news, all of which show violence all the time. Children watch these shows and get an idea that violence is the answer to any unsolved problem, but that's not the case. Although we see and hear that violence is increasing, that's not the case. Further studies have shown that crime rates are going down from previous years but, shows like law and order and NCIS are persuading people to believe that crime is everywhere.

            Television is increasing money spent due to the well known commercials and advertisements. Companies know that the best way for them to increase sales is to reach a large, specific audience. And what's the best way to do that? Put the product on TV. Stations such as Disney Channel have a younger audience so advertisements will play trying to sell toys, this is causing their sales to go up because they know kids will beg their parents to buy them toys. HGTV will show paint ads for basically the same reason, they know hat the audience will take up on the offers. But advertisements aren't the only ones making money, they are also the ones spending it. Yes that's right, those annoying advertisers have to buy air time from the TV stations in order to produce their ad. In return, television stations are receiving more profit.
     
          To conclude, all of the above examples are explaining the effects and impacts of television, good and bad.  Many of which we don't normally think of when watching TV but are prevalent to each and every one of us.