Introduction
The modern television (TV) is a complex phenomenon. The TV is not homogeneous; in fact, its genres, styles, and ways of addressing the audience are extremely numerous, which makes describing the purpose of TV more difficult (Miller 2010, p. 9; Bignell 2012).
The TV of different cultures and countries is also usually diverse; it both reflects and shapes the worldview of the communities that it serves (Penati 2012). Still, certain general tendencies do exist, and in this paper, the key features, functions, and outcomes of TV usage are going to be described.
Television: A Brief History
The word “television” appeared in 1900, coined by the Russian academic Constantin Perskyi, but it seems that people had been dreaming of the possibility of transmitting images for centuries (Miller 2010, p. 2). According to Catholic Church, the first transmission took place in the 14th century, when Saint Clare of Assisi had the vision “of images from a midnight mass cast upon the wall” (Miller 2010, p. 2).
In the twentieth century, the saint then became the patron of television, and this story appears to reflect the desire of people to be involved in the magic of a personal TV set. In the 1920s and 1930s, the technologies of television were developing fast, but before the 1950s, there were few TV viewers (Miller 2010, p. 2).
The upcoming TV distribution was anticipated both with interest and wariness: TV was expected to become an informer, an educator, a personal miracle, and a personal curse. It was expected to provide experience and spread lies, ensure world peace or provoke conflicts, educate people, and make them passive and indolent (Miller 2010). In the end, the TV turned out to be everything it had been expected to be.
Television: Features, Functions, Outcomes
Functions and consequences of TV are numerous; apart from that, they are also not always immediate or obvious. Here, we will try to mention as many of them as possible.
Miller (2010), for example, mentions the physical object (TV set), that is designed, produced, consumed, and then disposed of. This object has a value for the global economy, technological development, and even environmental situation (it is a pollutant, it requires electricity, its production produces waste and so on). However, the primary functions and consequences of TV are typically described as those that have a connection to human development.
One of the specific features of TV is its ability to present the real world and provide information about it. In fact, TV was not initially expected to fulfil the entertainment function, only the informative one (Bignell 2012). This feature, however, was very often misused. Indeed, TV has been used for propaganda since its creation, in every country it entered, including Nazi Germany (Bignell 2012).
Another specific feature of TV, its domestication, gives particular power to the messages sent through it; people trust TV, and it is not difficult to use this fact for a proper or improper purpose (Penati 2012). As a result, according to Miller (2010), TV “became the most important cultural and political device in people’s homes” (p. 8).
Another function of TV is established in the cited statement, that is, the ability of this (or any other) type of media to become a cultural mediator. Indeed, what can be used for political reasons, could also be used to ensure the communication of cultural values, proper or improper ones.
The capabilities of TV as a promoter of all kinds of negative stereotypes is a notorious fact that has been researched in modern studies; its capability of mitigating the negative tendencies and promoting the “correct values” is not denied either (Ndlovu 2013).
The educational function of TV is also commonplace. In this connection, it appears to be logical to mention children as the consumers of this kind of product (even though it is obvious that adults are also capable of gaining knowledge from TV). For children, TV offers a blend of education and entertainment, which teachers find difficult to achieve in class.
However, even in this respect, the TV turns out to be nothing but a tool that can be used for a good or a bad purpose. Indeed, the outcomes of watching TV are not always positive for children. TV watching (especially excessive TV watching) can cause psychological problems (that often feature depression, aggression, and sexual behaviour), as well as physical consequences like, for example, obesity (Kettl 2011).
In fact, there is a distinction between a “good history [experience] of television” and a bad one; when children are concerned, the good history would include a moderate amount of TV watching in the company of the parents (Kettl 2011, p. 60; Abelman 2007).
Parents are capable of providing the necessary mediation by explaining and interpreting, that is, communicating with children, which turns TV watching into another common activity. Indeed, when properly used. The TV is capable of bringing the family together, as it is capable of promoting proper values and providing relevant information.
Future of Television
There is historical evidence to the idea that every new media tends to cause a decrease in the interest to the previous one (Miller 2010). Nowadays, the Internet is effectively substituting things like paper newspapers or compact disks. Should the Internet be considered a threat to TV?
Such a conclusion is not probable. In fact, modern research shows that TV indicators (for example, the size of the audience, quantity of hours spent in front of the screen and so on) continue to grow (Miller 2010, pp. 12-19). This process spurs and is, in turn, spurred by the development of related technologies; the product becomes more and more available; the industry is developing and stays profitable (Miller 2010, p. 19).
This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that the Internet is incorporating other types of media, including TV. In other words, the promise of removing the line between the two media types that have been made by Steve Ballmer (Microsoft executive) is being carried out (Miller 2010, p. 12). Instead of being a threat to each other, the Internet and TV begin now work together to provide their users with new opportunities.
Nowadays, TV is not as omnipresent as it seems to be. There exist countries where people cannot afford a set and the service, which, however, means that the industry has a room for expansion (Miller 2010, p. 2). In fact, the future of TV appears to be most promising. All the worries caused by the ambiguity of this media are well-grounded, but they also appear to be insufficient to put an end to its triumphant conquest of the world.
Here, it should be mentioned that while TV is described as a “maker and marker of identity,” this media is defined by the people who use it and the people who create it (Brunsdon 2008, p. 128). Therefore, if one finds TV to be a promoter of commercialism and consumerism (and believes it to be a negative outcome), it is not the media that should be blamed, but those involved in its creation and consumption (Brunsdon 2008, p. 128).
Reference List
Abelman, R. (2007) ‘Fighting the War on Indecency: Mediating TV, Internet, and Videogame Usage among Achieving and Underachieving Gifted Children,’ Roeper Review 29 (2), pp. 100-112.
Bignell, J. (3rd ed., 2012) An introduction to television studies. London: Routledge.
Brunsdon, C. (2008) ‘Is Television Studies History?’ Cinema Journal 47 (3), pp. 127-137.
Kettl, P. (2011) ‘Exploring the Mental Life and Home Life of Children: The Role of a Television History.’ Child and Adolescent Mental Health 16 (1), pp. 60-62.
Miller, T. (2010) Television studies. London: Routledge.
Ndlovu, T. (2013) ‘Fixing Families through Television?’ Cultural Studies 27 (3), pp.379-403.
Penati, C. (2012) ‘Remembering our First TV Set: Personal Memories as a Source for Television Audience history.’ Journal of European Television History and Culture 3 (2), pp. 4-12.