Television and Social Change

Television constitutes an important medium widely used to disseminate information to its viewers. It has the unique feature of combining audio and visual technology, and thus considered to be more effective than audio media. It serves multiple purposes of entertainment, information and education. Besides performing motivational function it helps in providing discovery learning and cognitive development of its viewers. Because of its better accessibility, it can bring learning materials to the masses in more direct, effective and personal way than other media.

Television as an Educational Instrument:

In India, since the inception of TV network, television has been perceived as an efficient force of education and development. With its large audience it has attracted educators as being an efficient tool for imparting education to primary, secondary and university level students.

Edutainment: This project was designed for the secondary school students of Delhi. With an aim to improve the standard of teaching in view of shortage of laboratories, space, equipment and dearth of qualified teachers in Delhi this project started on experimental basis in October 1961 for teaching of Physics, Chemistry, English and Hindi for students of Class XI.

Television from Social View:

Over the years, critics, scholars, industry representatives, politicians and parents have offered a range of opinions on television's social impact. Many suggest that TV is responsible for the 'dumbing down' of society, while others argue in favour of television's contribution to a shared culture, which transcends geographic and ethnic boundaries. Another interesting subject of debate deals with television's influential role in transforming our society from one dominated by print to one dominated by the image. There are compelling arguments that champion television's educational influence and others still that suggest TV's biggest impact has been in simply affecting social change.             

From beginning to end, television is an ever-changing process of interpreting, encoding, decoding, and reinterpreting. To suggest that television's influence on society is specifically one thing or another risks taking for granted the fact that every time programming is produced or consumed, its effect can be different. To appreciate television's influence on society, it is necessary to take as broad and rudimentary a perspective as possible. Television's greatest influence on society is simply its capacity to communicate the values of those who produce it, these values can be negative or positive and that on receiving these values, audiences may react in any number of ways.  

 Television's impact on society is indeed global, for the purposes of this discussion. But considering it from other side, television's social impact from a primarily western perspective.

However, the overwhelming prevalence of phrases such as 'moral decay', 'encourages violence', 'promotes sexual and racial stereotyping', and 'stimulates consumerism', that one comes across in television impact studies suggests that overall; critics believe TV has a generally negative influence on society.

In terms of specific programs or genres, such negative opinions may be well deserved. However, to assume TV's effect on society to be wholly negative demonstrates a narrow view of television's influence. Evidence can be found both in television's past and present landscape to support or counter practically any argument on the medium's social effect. 

Although TV has lost some popularity to the internet, by most accounts, it remains society's most widely consumed media. The television is as common to our environment as a bed or a kitchen table, so much so, that it must be admitted that to look upon those who manage to live without a TV as distinctly odd. 

Conclusion:

Television's influence on society is facilitated by both the nature of the medium and the nature of the audience. As a medium, television takes the values and concerns of the few and amplifies them. In return, audiences, which are heavily dependent on TV and not nearly critical enough of what they see, accept television's offerings and begin building them into some sort of meaning. Once reinterpreted and set into motion by the audience, the values of television producers lay the foundation for the "images, sounds and spectacles (that) help to weave the fabric of daily life" (Vorraber Costa 179). As a value-laden staple of society, television is not only responsible for influencing society; it is responsible for defining society.