6. Television and revealing events
Some experts consider television as a tool to reveal various issues. According to him, one of the reasons for this is that television allows people to contact facts that are not accessible to the public.
Television creates a kind of belief in its audience by creating fictional stories and legends on the sidelines of written material, so that when a person watches it, it is as if he sees himself in a real scene on the other side. He finds the world and personal experiences in these scenes.
Most television programs have a mythological aspect; because they turn the identification of the scenes into a belief; In addition, with the help of the art of reporting and imaging with appropriate movements and angles, what is normal and very mundane is prominently displayed.
Neil Poussin (1997) also considers television to reveal and conceal many issues, especially in the fields of sex and violence. In his opinion, children learn about what is related to adults. In the past, the unknown and mysterious world of adults’ lives distinguished them from children, and in simpler words, this separation was based on shame. Children keep their mouths shut about sex, money, violence, illness, death, and the like; But gradually and with the acquisition of new knowledge through television, all those secrets are forgotten. The reason for this is the generality of television programs that reveal all the secrets of life regardless of age and sensitivity. The audience displays its communication structure in a way that leads to the loss of childhood.
7. Television and manipulation of programs
Another criticism of television programs is their manipulation. Television programs may also be manipulated in some way like written media and may not display the images as they are. It should be noted that “seeing” cannot always be a correct criterion for understanding the truth. People should know how television programs are created and learn how to protect themselves from manipulated programs.
Another point that must be reviewed in the design of television programs is that mass communication media, especially television, are not designed to provide cultural cores to the audience; Rather, on the contrary, they assume that a person already has developed culture, and according to that, he can choose from among the various programs that are prepared and broadcast, according to his tastes and expectations.
Regarding the inversion of events on television, Regiz Debrai (1997) considers television as a kind of pretending technology whose logic is deceptive and has little affinity with the category of reading and writing which has a logical and rational logic.
8. Television, children’s entertainment
Children come to the classroom between 13 and 15 minutes late in the morning and are sleepy due to spending a lot of time watching television programs that continue until late at night. Research shows that most of these people have a lower-than-normal IQ and perform poorly in school. The late sleeping of these children is usually observed in families that do not have special control over their children. Such children do not have a good academic conditions without watching TV and are inattentive and sleepy in the classroom.
Watching a lot of TVs also causes physical and mental inactivity in the child, and as a result, most children have fewer opportunities for active activities and socializing with their peers. In fact, television actually replaces the activities that children can and should be directly involved in. Playing, studying, participating in sports competitions, etc. are among the positive entertainments that children get from watching television. They remain open.
9. Television and children’s learning
Wilbur Schramm (1997) believes that learning through television is often accidental; That is, when watching TV for entertainment, a person learns things unconsciously without seeking information. Most viewers usually do not watch TV for the purpose of gaining knowledge and information; Especially, the percentage of children who watch TV to get information is very small. For example, it is rare to find a child who is interested in watching a press conference or an educational program at an early elementary school age.
It has been said a lot that television accelerates the learning process; But on the other hand, the effect of this type of learning is not permanent. For example, children of this era are expected to know more words and are familiar with a wider world of concepts compared to children of the pre-television period, and at a young age, to adult issues, including crime. to be more aware of artistic issues and social problems; But after children enter school and learn to read and write and use written media to learn about the world around them, television will no longer have much value for them as a source of information; Therefore, it is expected that after a few years of the child’s initial acquaintance and experience with television, his knowledge will not differ much from the knowledge of the child before television. The reasons for this may be attributed to the monotony and repetition of the contents of the television programs.
In the first years of development, television has a lot of attraction for children, so children spend more time watching it and learning a lot. During this period, children who voluntarily learn the material from media other than television, i.e. radio, cinema, story books, magazines, etc., after a few years, their knowledge will be at the same level as children who learn from television, and this way, their lack of awareness is compensated.
In general, research has shown that the increase in obtaining information through television continues for a short period of time. For example, the difference in learning in children aged 10 to 12 in the mentioned period is not significant.