The wide spread of increasing news coverage is a topic to be discussed about, is it good or bad? The BBC news coverage is on in the morning, midday, afternoon and at ten at night. ITV, channel 4 and 5 both have their news bulletins daily as well. Isn’t just having one channel showing the news enough? We’re getting déjà vu here! What’s the point of having two channels covering the exact same topics at the exact same time? The BBC now have their own 24-hour news channel on digital/satellite showing non-stop news from around the world coverage. The boundary of allowing more graphical images being aired has been pushed back little by little. People now have got used to it. The news used to not allow viewing gruesome scenes, but they are allowed to show it now, like the scenes from the New York tragedy and images of the dying. The news keeps you aware of what is happening around us, bringing us up to date with live images of events. They can sometimes be ominous, they warn of us any dangers, which have occurred, if bad weather is heading our way or not.
On television today, there are more and more growing trends. We have this sudden increase over the past few years with DIY programmes, first it was changing rooms, which got us hooked to watching neighbours remake each others houses, then we had programmes such as Home Improvement and Real rooms. The two most recent growing trends, are those of realism programmes and audience involved programmes. Due to the massive impact that the programme Big Brother has made on us, we are now demanding for more realistic programmes, showing real life characters in real life situations, such as those in Castaway, Shipwrecked and Survivor. We seem to find watching other people go through hell, e.g. On Fat club, entertaining. With Big Brother, the nation was mesmerised by the actions of the housemates. We enjoy watching others try and survive through difficult times, in a house or on a remote island with no means of escape. These programmes become news, during the Big Brother season, everyday in the tabloids, was a section about what happened inside the house the previous night. People are talking about it at school, work, in the car, everywhere you go there are people talking about it. With the audience being able to ring in and evict a housemate each week, we become even more hooked on to the programme. This makes us continue to watch with eager anticipation all the way through to the end to see who survived and won the grand prize. This trend is irrevocable, there’s no stopping it, and you can’t go back. Once people have seen it they will demand more.
There is an increasing amount of audience involvement programmes. Quiz shows, such as the ‘Weakest link’ and ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’ involves viewers at home, because viewers can pretend to play along at home. We, the viewers can act quite vehemently towards the show, by shouting out the answers, thinking the person on the programme is an ‘idiot’ to not know the answer. With the presenter, Chris Tarrant dragging out the answer to the question, it leaves the audience in suspense. This idea of winning instant money by just answering a question correctly triggers the human greed and expectation of wealth. On the ‘Weakest Link’, the presenter had developed their own unique trademark character, of this mean and wicked woman, with the, “You are the weakest link, goodbye!” catchphrase. People then copy her actions and catchphrase and within weeks, everyone knows it. We like to watch a group of people go onto the show and be humiliated by Anne Robinson and go home with nothing! We find this amusing and very enjoyable to watch.
This idea of elimination can link to another growing trend of competition programmes, where people battle it out to become a pop star or a soap star. Here we get to see people humiliate themselves and on pop idol, we, the home viewers, actually get to ring in and vote for who we think should win. Here, we also have this idea of involving the audience more. These shows also become topical news story. People discuss it with others and it’s in the newspapers. Everywhere you go they are there.
The future of television will always be developing, but one day, it will come to a point, when television can no longer be developed anymore, television will have reached its peak or will it? With some people in the world never having seen a television, we are now purchasing flat screen, wide screen with surround sound television. Instead of watching the now ‘old’ videos, we’re watching DVD’s. Television is advancing as we now speak.
In 1993, wraparound ‘sport’ television glasses went on sale in America, enabling the wearer to watch television whilst walking. If we keep on demanding for more and more realistic television, will it come to day, where there will be actual people dying on our screens, just for our own entertainment? That thought, to me, is a frightening one, because I’m sure no one would enjoy watching someone die for real. We have developed from watching analogue to digital televisions. According to the government, soon all people will have to be digital users, as they will be cutting out some transmitting waves. This will lead to people having to up grade their television and having a whole variety of channels on their television.
We have virtual reality games now, so could in the future, we have virtual reality television, and where we can actually feel as though we are on the set of a programme? We can now use the television as a computer, just add a keyboard and connect to your phone line and you’ll be surfing the net in no time! With this way of accessing the net, you could do everything in the comfort of your sofa and television. You could order food, book holidays, communicate with others, watch television, videos, DVD’s, vote, do your homework all within one technical box sitting in your living room. Wouldn’t that be great or would it just make us human beings more indolent?
Before, you had to leave your television when you leave the house, but now, there’s no need to fret, pocket television is at hand, television in cars and planes also. So even if you are taking the bus home and it’s delayed, no need to feel worried, you could soon one day be watching television on the bus, so you wouldn’t have to miss much. Or maybe one day, we’ll be able to record more than one programme at the same time, so we won’t have to sacrifice one programme for the other. Though if all of the developments that I have talked about do happen, and some of it has already, wouldn’t it just put television constantly on our minds? Everywhere you go, you could watch television, whether you’re on a bus or in a restaurant. Television would become perhaps more than addictive, but it would become a part of our lives, without it we would not survive, like without food we wouldn’t survive.
I feel quite ambivalent about the power of television and its effects on our everyday lives. In some ways television can be good for you and in others it’s bad for you. With the aid of a television, we can learn about places we shall never visit, other planets, we see important events as they take place, the moon landing, though some programmes we watch purely for entertainment, Soap operas. I admit I like watching television. I like watching the American sitcoms e.g. Friends and soap operas such as Eastenders and Hollyoaks. I enjoy watching them because I find them amusing and somehow interesting to watch. They explore through real life crisis’ and people can relate to them, they can get help from the help lines, which are given at the end of Hollyoaks, which I think is quite a good idea.
Television can be educational. I find the visual concept of learning easy to take in, than reading from a thick textbook. Educational television programmes for young children are far more appealing to them, than books. If it makes learning easier and enjoyable, then I don’t see why television can be all that bad for children. Though children are being exposed to watching unsuitable programmes, with bad language and sexual images. The boundary for allowing these kinds of programmes is after nine, but we get the odd swear word in Eastenders at half seven or eight in the evening. The boundary is being pushed back each time, the broadcasters are surreptitiously sneaking more violent and sexual scenes before nine o’clock.
Though some may argue, that it is up to the parent’s responsibility to protect their children from any detriment from such programmes. The parents buy them a television for their room, which allows the children to still watch television in their room after they’ve been sent to bed. Now a days, children’s bed times are becoming later and later. Such unsuitable programmes can teach children to learn bad language and unnecessary actions. They set a bad example.
Television, I feel can destroy people’s lives, they can corrupt their minds and health. People tend not to exercise, as there are too many good programmes on television to watch, this leads to an unhealthy life style. Children will not bother to go out and socialise with friends, when they could easily just phone, or email them, especially now that you can have access to the net via a television.
At Christmas time, the programmes on television tend to be invaded by movies, special spin-off programmes or Christmas specials that will only be shown once and never again. These encourage people to watch more television and you find the best programmes are on during the time when you are eating your Christmas lunch/dinner. This irritates people and they have to record it, or try and leave the dinner party early to go home and watch it. Christmas is a time when you spend some quality time with your family, not watching Mission Impossible or some other film.
Television has far improved since it first came out. In less than 100 years, we are now seeing better quality images and sounds. This idea of subscribing and paying for a television channel is very good moneymaking scheme, but not everyone can afford it, which is a problem if the government plans to turn everyone into a digital user someday, though it is becoming increasingly popular. I overall think television can be good for you. We can learn a lot from it, quicker and more enjoyable. We can be updated with around the world news coverage and be warned of any arousing dangers. Other programmes we watch purely for our own entertainment, but it doesn’t mean that television has to take over our lives, that all depends on the person’s own will power or if you’re a child, the parent’s restrictions. I think that we still have much to expect from the development of the world’s most powerful ‘mind controller’ I think there is much to come yet and we’ll continue to watch more of it, see more of it and demand more from it.
