Elaine Yuan - Television & Media

Professor Yuan spoke all about the research she has done concerning television and its audiences. Television has changed a vast amount over the years. Today, we are able to access over 100 channels on a standard television - usually even more. It's highly intriguing to find out how many people actually watch television on a daily basis. We may not even realize we're watching television as it's happening. I think Prof. Yuan's interest in television audiences was one of substance. You are able to figure out a lot about a person by the kinds of shows they are watching. For example: their perception of beauty, views on politics/world affairs, etc. The types of shows a person watches gives insight to their cares and concerns.

Many television shows can instill fear into the viewer. Networks air shows about death, supernatural, and all kinds of things that can make us feel a bit uneasy after watching them. This can create a false perception of what the real world is actually like. Imagine a child who is home schooled or maybe just has really strict parents. This child may watch quite a bit of television in his spare time. He may stumble upon a show like Law & Order and have a false perception of what crime is like in real life. Sure, people are dying everyday, but not everything is as dramatic as the show portrays it to be. In class we talked about the Pygmalion effect. This child's expectations of how the world is will eventually become his reality. The simple solution would be to just stop watching the show. What if Law & Order really interests this child and becomes his routine show to watch. The child's loyalty to the show is what creates his scary world perception.

Loyalty to television shows are another topic to be discussed. Haven't you ever noticed how there are fairly similar shows on various networks? My theory is that due to audiences' loyalty, the same types of shows are on every network. Reality television is a big hit now-a-days. It's far from difficult to name at least five at the top of your head. The networks have obviously done their homework on all types of audiences. There are multiple reality shows about rich people doing rich people things. These kind of reality shows are all the rage these days. For the record, I would love to have a reality television show. I have no shame in saying this. They're what Americans care about! These no name reality television stars are making lots of money because of our loyalty, too. Watching these types of shows doesn't really fall in with the scary world theory, although, it does give a distorted perception of what everyday people are like. This, too, is like the Pygmalion effect. We see Kim Kardashian acting like a ditz on television and we would assume she will act the same in person (even though that's probably a true statement).

I think it's very interesting to gather information and observe these types of things. Television plays a huge role in how we view everything. You name it, television has already come up with a way to portray it. We need to be careful with how often we spend our time watching television. It is very easy to become brainwashed into believing something that isn't reality.