Our Lives Benefited By Tv Essay, Research Paper

Our Lives Benefited By Television

Television has become an important part of our society. There are all types of genres ranging from informative cooking shows, to old classic reruns of I Love Lucy , to reality based programs. There are television shows for every occasion. Even when a person s schedule is full, he or she will always have time for a little television. Television serves us with many purposes including information, entertainment, reality and loss of reality.

Information about varies things can be found in many places besides television, but is it really the same? When we opened a newspaper to read about the presidential elections, it did not give the same effect that television does. Sure there were articles that opinionated which president was the better candidate, but by watching television the presidential elections on TV we could form our own opinions more easily. As some of us sat there and watched the republican versus the democrat, we experienced more of a personal interaction rather than just reading some black and white words out of a newspaper. Television makes information more lively and interesting. When the news is shown, the reporters always try to focus in on the emotions of all the surrounding people, whether it be the saddened students at a school shooting or ecstatic sports fans celebrating a victory. These types of emotions are what stimulate us to watch television, instead of listening to the radio or reading the newspaper.

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News is not the only place where information can be found on television.

Programs such as cooking shows, home repair, and documentaries also contain valid information. Cooking shows can be more informative because unlike a cookbook, we can understand more by watching the chef cook the meal step by step. The same goes for home repair shows; we learn the steps in both an audio and visual way. Information through television is more beneficial since we experience more emotion and can comprehend the ideas with more ease because of audio and visual learning put together.

Another benefit we receive from television is entertainment value. Without television we would not have the opportunity to watch Lucy come up with hilarious schemes convincing Ricky to let her be in show business. I Love Lucy is a classic television program, based on Desi and Lucy s marriage, that can be enjoyed by all generations. Some other ways we receive entertainment through television are sports programs, game shows and talk shows. Talk shows such as Jay Leno or Rosie O Donnell feature interviews with celebrities and musicians which may seem more entertaining than Jerry Springer or Oprah, but everyone has their own preferences of entertainment. Some of us would rather be entertained by watching a college championship basketball game or Monday Night Football. Since people cannot attend every sporting event, this is the closest thing. Some feel as if they are at the game, clapping for or booing at the competing teams. We also tend to interact with game shows when the final jeopardy or million-dollar question is being asked. We find ourselves shouting out the answers as if we are playing along with the contestants. This interactive entertainment permits us to feel emotions towards the TV programs. As Neil Postman

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explains in his essay The Age of Show Business, American television, in other words, is

devoted entirely to supplying its audience with entertainment (595). Without entertainment we would all live very boring lives.

One of the vastly growing types of programs is reality television, which also can benefit us. By watching these types of programs we learn more from the occupation, situation or environment that is being shown to us. Cops and True Stories of CHP are programs that focus in on the exciting and dangerous details of the life in law enforcement. Even though what is seen on these shows is less likely to happen all the time, we get a feel for how the job of a police officer or county highway patrol can be risky and sometimes life threatening.

Types of programs that are reality based on the life and career of a music group are Making the Band and Popstars . With these shows, people are informed of how difficult it is to be in a music group and all of the responsibilities that go along with being in the music business. Some people may have believed that being in a band is all fun and games, but after watching one of these shows they will probably realize it takes a lot more work. The band members must deal with conflicts among each other, having to work all day and night and leaving their family behind. These shows try to represent the real life of music groups.

Other reality programs that include reactions of people in different situations and environmental settings include The Mole and Survivor . In The Mole , ten players must work together knowing that one of them is the mole, trying to sabotage the challenges so that less money is earned. This type of situation is reality because in real

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life we have trouble trusting strangers and we begin making some false assumptions of

other people. As for Survivor , this shows us exactly what people are willing to go through in order to win money. Some of the things include eating bugs, making alliances, and jumping off a cliff into a river. By watching these reality programs we can understand more about the lifestyles and reactions of people in different occupations and situations.

The final aspect of television that we are benefited by is the loss of reality. Sometimes when we come home from a hard day of school or work, we need to escape our own world and enter the life of television. This is a way of taking off the pressures that we have endured throughout the day. Soap operas, which can be seen five days a week and never any reruns, are a life in itself. Some people use these types of shows to escape their own life for an hour or two, wanting to find out if John has pulled out of his coma or if Christine and Paul have patched up there differences. This is an escape from reality into a fantasy world that is needed sometimes.

Soap operas are not the only shows we can watch to lose reality. Boston Public , a show about the life of a high school with many extreme problems, allows us to escape our problem filled life and accept that maybe our lives are not really that problematic compared to TV. We can even lose our own reality and encompass the unnatural and unexplained by watching X-Files . Watching these shows enable us to relax and not think of our own lives, but to live in a fantasy life for a short time.

There are a number of reasons why television affects us in a positive way. No matter what others say television will always be a part of us. Allegreta Behar-Blau

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admits, When I need some time alone and there s a good movie on, or a sitcom I like, or

a one-hour murder mystery, I ll turn on the television and watch. I always will (604). With out television, receiving information would be less stimulating and lively, entertainment not be as easily accessible, we would not have the opportunity to understand as much about different occupations and situations, and loss of reality would be more difficult to enhance. Our society includes television as a part of our life. There is no reason to condemn television when it has brought us so many positive aspects to our life.