The advent of television in the first half of the 20^th Century revolutionized media.  The first mechanical television broadcast took place in select cities across the United States in 1928.  The diffusion of television brought into the homes of citizens across the world access to local broadcasting.  With the advent of satellite communications this access became national and then international.  The “tube”, as it is affectionately called, allowed people across the globe to become more attune to their communities, neighborhoods, countries and the world at large.  Television has brought with it the ability to laugh at some of the past century’s greatest comedic talents, to be informed in the face of war or natural catastrophe, to cry due to news tragedies and to be entertained with quality dramatic programming.  Television has also provided an outlet for the expansion of educational programming, children’s programming and news reporting.  Originally considered at its inception and well into the 1960s as a unifying social force, televisions united families who huddled around their TV. Sets watching that night’s hit show.  Television allowed people in remote parts of their countries access to the rest of the nation and promoted the open transmission of communication and news.  While television has become much more predominant since its inception its role as a social medium and force during the past two centuries is undeniable.

What is fascinating to note is not so much the change in television’s role now and fifty years ago, rather what is intriguing is to note the different way television is perceived by society at large in the 21^st Century.  Whereas the first forty years of television’s history saw it as unifying familial catalyst, today television is blamed for driving a wedge in families and creating domestic discord.  How did this shift happen?  Why has television gotten such a bad rap?

It is important to note that the role of television has not changed much since 1928.  Television was then, and still is now, a medium used to entertain, to disseminate information and to generate money through advertisement.  On a fundamental level the purpose of television is the same in 2009 as it was in 1929.  Yet, what has changed is clearly access to television and the amount of it that is consumed.  According to the Vanier Institute of the Family, on average Canadians watch more than 22 hours of television a week or slightly more than 3 hours a day.  Furthermore, according to the UNESCO Global Study on Media Violence, by the time the average North American child graduates from high school, he or she will have: 


◦                spent 11,000 hours in the classroom

◦                watched 15,000 hours of television

◦                seen 350,000 commercials

◦                watched 40,000 violent deaths

◦                listened to 10,500 hours of pop music

◦                gone to 400 movies

The figures are clearly staggering, but do they allow us as a society to demonize television?  Why is it that suddenly television has become a bad word?

The reality of the situation is really that television has not changed, we have.  In lieu of family evenings sitting around watching a common television show, we allow fragmentation within our family units because it is easier to have several television sets so that each member of the family can watch what s/he wants.  Instead of monitoring the amount of television we watch, never mind the amount our children view, we blame the television for “sucking us in” – as if the television itself had a giant electro-magnetic band that suctions us in front of it and will not release us from its clutches.  Television is an object, it is no different than a radio, a cell phone, or a computer, its objective is to inform and entertain.  How we interact with television is as much our responsibility today as it was in 1928.  We cannot blame television for the moral decline of North American society anymore than we can blame the Internet for a rise in crime.  The reality is that humans control these objects; it is not the objects that control us.  The question that needs to be posed is whose purposes are served by blaming television for moral decay and the deterioration of the social fabric of humankind?  There are plenty of bad words out there: murder, war, hunger, poverty, aggression, etc. – should we really include television on this list?