Learning from Television
Where can someone learn about new cultures
without leaving the country? Television is a great place to learn about
cultures from all over the world within the comforts of home. Some may say that
television turns people into mindless drones that believe whatever propaganda
they are fed through the programming they watch. However others would argue when
used properly, it can be a source of education.
For many years, there have been studies done
to evaluate the educational value of television. There are two sides on this
issue: one side believes people can learn about other cultures by watching television,
and others believe that not only can they not learn from watching these shows,
people will learn less when they watch more because they are taking time away
from activities such as reading (Lin, Cherng and Chen) . This is has become
more of a concern as American watch television more time as the years pass. Neil
Postman suggests that the average American watches about 5000 hours within the
years before starting school (Postman) . Some of the
concerns raised include the reasons for making the shows, the effects on the
memory, the quality of the shows children are watching, and the amount of time
they are watching television overall. As a result, networks such as Nickelodeon
and PBS have produced programming geared toward teaching young children skills
such as “problem solving, planning, and social relationships (Anderson) .” Such educational
programming was started in 1969 with Sesame Street with the goal to “help kids
everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder (Sesame Street) .” All of the goals
set by these stations and programming are presented through educational
programming. To discover rather television could have a positive impact, studies
have been done on children, adults, and refugees to discover the positive and
negative results of watching television each coming to their own conclusion.
One of these conclusions was that television
is more about entertaining the masses rather than educating them. If fact, it
has been said that the more popular television is, the more it forces areas
outside of entertainment to become more entertaining. For example, Neil Postman
claimed, “As our politics, our news, our religion, our education, and our
commerce are less and less given expression in the form of printed words or
even oratory, they are rapidly being reshaped and staged to suit the
requirements of television (Postman) .” He is essentially
saying these fields care more about entertaining the public rather than
providing quality programming or even providing content outside of the
entertainment realm such as books or even speaking to one another. However, not
all fields focus only on entertainment. The news industry is one example of a
field that places their concerns on things other than entertaining. Journalism
is based on economics and ratings. They cater to specific economical profiles
which demand up to date information. Because journalists want to keep their
viewers, they are more interested in the “opposition between the ‘old’ and the
‘new (Benson) .’” This means that
they will search out the most current statistics and stories available to
please their viewers and readers showing that they are interested in what the
public wants, but not necessarily how entertaining their content is.
Another issue that people claim to have with
watching television is they believe it will cause memory problems, but it has
actually been shown to aid memory. There have been studies done on small
children to see how watching many hours television affects them. One such
study, done at National Cheng University Hospital in Taiwan, concludes by
stating, “Viewing excessive television may have adverse effects of child
development, potentially contributing to poor verbal and memory skill…” They
claim that this is partially because as a child watches more television, they
have less time for other activities such as playing outside or having a parent
read to them (Lin, Cherng and Chen) . This study does not
say what the content was of the programs the children were watching. It does,
however, point out that the children who watched less television seemed to have
more of the developmental skills they were looking for. On the other side of
this particular argument, there have also been studies done with adults which
show how watching television can help with memory. According to Cennamo, when a
person is watching educational television, they use more mental effort which
can help “facilitate retention and retrieval of the new material (Cennamo) .” Another study on the memory shows, “Through
its repetition and continual re-narrativization of grand historical
narratives…Along with a host of new electronic technologies, television prompts
a contemporary fascination with memory (Holdsworth) .” Therefore,
television can help the memory process through repetition and a greater use of
the brain as people are introduced to new material.
As shown in the previous paragraph, it is
claimed that watching too much television may cause developmental delays, but
it has also been shown to help children learn some important developmental
skills. Continuing their evaluation of their study on the effects of television
on children, the team of doctor in Taiwan claimed, “Children who were
frequently exposed to television were more likely to have delayed in cognitive,
language, and motor development… (Lin, Cherng and Chen) .” Again, this is
attributed to the fact that these children are participating in other
activities less than children who are not in front of the television for an
extended amount of time (Lin, Cherng and Chen) . Also, in a study
done by a team lead by Elizabeth Vandewater, they claim children in homes where
the television is on more than one or two hours, are less likely to be read to
by their parents, which is a factor how well a child learns to read (Vandewatr,
Bickman and Lee) .
In contrast, when studying a group of Sudanese refugee in America, Kristen
Perry and Annie Moses found that there were, “Multiple exposures to literacy
content and messages on television, in books, and in other media can enhance
children’s overall literacy development… (Perry and Moses) ” By looking at this
one measure, it can be seen that there is programming available to teach some
developmental skills especially language whish was claimed to be something the
children were lacking in the study from Taiwan. The key to assure that the
children learn the skills they need, is television in moderation. All three of
these studies point out that printed material is important when a child is
learning, but it could be supplemented by quality programming when learning
about things in which people may be unfamiliar.
Those against the popularization of
television also make the claim that it has no value for learning saying that it
is no more than just junk. For example, Postman stated, “What is dangerous
about television is not its junk…What is happening in America is that
television is transforming all serious public business into junk (Postman) .” As discussed
earlier, there have been studies showing the benefits of watching television
such as being an educational tool. As explained by Ellen Wartella and Gary
Knell, “…young children’s readiness to learn about new and unfamiliar things
makes television and an especially effective teacher about people, ideas, and events
outside the child’s own experiences (Wartella and Knell) .” This shows us that
children’s brains are like sponges, ready to soak up all of the information
they can no matter where it is coming from. She even points out that guardians
need to be careful not to watch shows containing adult topics such as the news
because it may overwhelm them and teach them about topics that are not
appropriate for them to learn about such as violence. Also, a study of
elementary school teachers was done to discover if they thought educational
programming was a helpful tool in the classroom. The teachers who participated
crossed many demographics such as their education, experience, and income
level. Overall, “Teachers attitudes were found to be favorable toward the use
of instructional television (Ayers) .” The evidence shows
that not all television shows are junk, some are educational and can teach
children at home and at school.
When speaking of educational television,
there have been concerns that the producers of the shows are more concerned
with making money than making quality programming. An article in the LA Times
was centered on this topic. In it, the author Matea Gold expressed concerns
about the Corporation for Public Broadcasting announcing they were trying to
launch their programming into middle and high schools, it was seen as a way to
advertise for high tech companies who contribute to the funding for the
programming (Matea) . In reality, this
type of programming, along with the funding of it, is regulated by the
government in the United States. As of 1990, educational programming has been
regulated by the United States government under the Children’s Television act
which “mandates that, as a public service condition for license renewal,
broadcast television stations provide a minimal amount of education and
informative programming for children (Anderson) .” This means that
television station have to adhere to the standards that were set in this act
that was not only voted into action by congress, but signed into law by the
president. These standards include the educational value of the programming
aimed towards children. An example of a television network caring more about
their programming than their bottom line is Nickalodeon. In 1993, Nickolodeon
changed their programming to include educational programming for preschool aged
children. Not only did this cost them $30 million, they ran the programs
without commercial breaks and only showed commercials between shows (Anderson) . Since at least one
network used their funds to change programming directed towards children, this
shows that not everything on television is only produced to create
revenue.
Those in opposition of children’s programming
make many claims about television being the downfall of education. However,
they have ignored a few examples of how educational television has helped.
Sesame Street is one of the greatest examples of valuable programming. With the
goal of educating children across world, Sesame Street has adapted their television
shows to help introduce different cultures in different countries. In fact,
they broadcast in over 120 countries in over 30 languages while addressing
“issues of global awareness… (Wartella and Knell) ” In the United
States, Sesame Street has a character named Global Grover who introduces
cultures from around the world to children while explaining there is no reason
to be afraid of people just because they are different (Wartella and
Knell) .
Another example of how television could help with society was a study done of
Sudanese refugees who learned about American culture including language by
watching American television. “Television…appeared to mediate learning about
the [United States] context for the families that went beyond using television
for entertainment value, particularly as they watched the news and other
informational or educational programming…by providing information about U.S.
history, or historical figures and also current events (Perry and
Moses) .”
Both of these example show how television can be used to teach and learn about
other cultures in which they may not be familiar.
People can learn many things from television
when it is used for that purpose. Not everyone agrees with this point of view.
Some say that it takes away from what children can be learning when involved in
other activities such as learning. However, through repetition and
storytelling, they can learn about cultures from all over the world without the
expense of travelling any further than their own living room. This particular
medium can be used to teach about many different cultures and languages. It has
also been used to help people acclimate to counties where they moved. Educational
television is a useful tool for children and those who are curious and want to
learn.
Works
Cited
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