Television: Dominant form of Entertainment in the Twenty-First Century - Research Paper Example

?Is Television still considered a dominant form of entertainment in the twenty-first century, or are people straying to other forms of amusement? Word count (2484 words) Introduction: Technological innovations within the last decade have been extremely rapid, not only internet but various handheld entertainment devices have taken over everyone’s lives. Over the last few years internet has progressed into an unfathomable force, it has become a source for entertainment, knowledge, leisure and work alike. Previously the only form of entertainment people used to watch was the television, every family had one or two television sets and watching TV shows was considered as family time. The networks used to be the primary source of news and information and this is where everyone turned to. But now the rate of watching television has steadily declined, even the same TV show is viewed online on the internet. Watching television is no longer a family activity but it has become a solo one. News websites are used for updates; in fact breaking news is often shared more on social networking websites as people don’t even bother to go to the source of information anymore. The whole dynamics of society has changed which has resulted in a decline of television watching. People prefer their laptops, iPads, eReaders and other handheld devices as a source of entertainment, sitting down and watching television has become a tedious exercise. “Fully 25% of U.S TVs sold in January 2010 were connected by consumers to the Internet”1 This statistic clearly shows that even thought television sets are being sold people want more from the device, they want a device which is ‘smart’ and has the ability to be interactive. With the advent of internet everyone has realized there are endless possibilities of obtaining entertainment. Consumers want more and more options that enhance their viewing pleasure and this is where the television media companies try to differentiate themselves from others by trying to be innovative and bringing in new technological changes as fast as possible. In fact the younger the person is the more reluctant they are to watch television and prefer their own technological devices instead. Thesis statement: Television viewing has declined significantly in the 21st century due to the advent of new technologies and the constant need of being connected to internet. Body: Internet has changed the way everyone performs activities, obtains information, and derives entertainment and basically the way they live their lives. Previously the only form of entertainment within the house was a television set. Getting together watching TV shows was considered family time but over the period of years society has changed resulting in everyone searching for new forms of entertainment. From desktop computers to laptops and to tablet devices, technology has brought everything on our fingertips; we are constantly connected to internet on the move and have become increasingly reliant on it. “In the past 25 years, the big three broadcast television networks, ABC, CBS and NBC, have experienced a significant decline in the share of three prime time viewing audience. In 1980 more than 90% of television viewers were tuned into one of these networks during primetime. By 2005, the season ending average primetime share of the big three networks had fallen to 32%”2 These statistics clearly show the decline, explanations for this decline greatly vary, from the beginning relatively primitive technologies like VCR and DVD players were the cause of this decline. They provided another option to watch pre-recorded videos or new movies that could be bought. Also cable networks and other channels started emerging on the market providing people with other choices catering to their individual tastes. Although critics of the three big networks also argue that there is less program diversity as they cater to the masses instead of niche audiences, so their share has declined. Cable programming caters to every one with specific programs. This is also related to the social differentiation that has taken place over the years. People are now divided into subcategories; they have different ethnicities, occupations, lifestyles etc. Providing entertainment for every specific group is a major challenge that not every network can keep up to. For example Hispanic population has grown the fastest, so preference of Spanish language programming also has increased. So it can be argued that greater the diversity in population the greater the decline in big network shares. Different societal differences like dual income households, couples having children later in their lives have made it increasingly difficult for a family to sit down and watch a single TV show, the choice of entertainment has become highly fragmented. Trust in television network news has also declined over the years, between 1985 and 2002, the average percentage of Americans who rated ABC, CBS, NBC news as highly believable decreased form 83 to 65% (Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2004). Cross media usage is another phenomenon that television stations want to tap into. Simply put it means that after a person watches a television show to get more information they do visit the TV programs official website. Results show that those viewers who are highly involved in the program tend to stay on the website longer than those who are not involved. This shows their loyalty to the webpage and provides marketers with another channel for selling their products. Different sponsor messages can be placed on the website, products can be sold and consumer behaviours monitored. The higher the level of interactivity on the advertisement will result in more purchase intentions. “For marketers and advertisers, TV websites provide valuable opportunities for interactive marketing applications”3. This sentence explains a lot about the advent of e-commerce. E-commerce is spreading as trust has been built over secure online transactions. One of the advantages of e-commerce is that you can target your product to your audiences correctly. For TV websites, it becomes easy to find out your target population, their tastes, their favourite celebrities and viewing habits. This provides a great advantage to online marketers over the traditional marketers. The target market is more focused, interactivity results in feedback and they can find out for sure that the message has been received by the audience. Online marketing takes clear precedence over television marketing that is more or less focused towards the masses. Television has therefore also become an afterthought for the marketers as they now have a different, better and less costly channel to reach their customers. The same case is with news channels, traditional news media still plays a major role in society but all these news outlets now have their online versions. Every news channel, newspaper has an online presence where they usually try to overcome the limitations of traditional broadcasting. With everyone being connected to the internet online news websites have become their primary source of information, social networks share the news stories in seconds. For news outlets this has become another source of revenue as various newspapers have started charging subscription fees for readers to access their online versions. The level of interactivity in a simple news article has increased as there is an increase in hyperlink usage. The whole internet can be connected through hyperlinks in one article a reader can be lead to other content with a single click. The amount of links a website receives is invaluable, the more they are the more visible the website is, the more it is accessible over the internet. Search engines algorithms also work on this method as much the site is linked to others; the more visible it is in the search engines results. (Brin and Sage, 1998; Sullivan, 2003) Reliability of a website also increases the higher it is featured in a search engines results. Another advantage of having an online news outlet is that now people can choose to read or view the content they prefer. Traditional news channels broadcast each and every bit of news available. For someone who wants specific content and is not interested in irrelevant news, the online version is more suitable as now he has the choice to read according to his interests. Television news again takes a backseat here to the ease of usage catering to everyone’s individual interests. There are more options of displaying news online; it can be through multimedia presentations, slide shows, videos etc. They can also receive instant feedback through emails their viewers/ readers send. “Research has described a peak in children’s amount of television viewing at the ages of 12 and 13 and a steady decline in television viewing after that age”4 Cartoons are the only form of entertainment in childhood which is why they still watch television. But as the above quote proves once they reach their teenage years their needs change and develop which is when they start moving towards other forms of entertainment. Individuality and separation are other two processes that take place in adolescence, which is when they try to separate themselves from their parents and focus on them, television is seen primarily as an activity to be undertaken with other people which is why watching television declines. Teenagers who have personal TVs do carry on watching television as their viewing habits are found to be higher. As they grow up their bedtimes are also less regulated so research shows that their viewing period increases during later waking hours instead of primetime. Here it can be argued that access to a private television does not contribute to the decline in watching television, however that point does become redundant as teenagers are now becoming increasingly reliant on their technological devices. Devices such as iPods, iPads, and Gaming consoles are now gifted to kids at an early age taking them away from television programming. There is a lot of research that shows television usage in the west but Gareth Davey’s paper shows the television habits in China. “Findings showed that a greater proportion of children in the urban sample used media such as television, Internet, and computer games, and that rural-urban residency had the most significant influence on television viewing.”5 These findings are fairly predictable as discussed above as well that socio economic changes are those that affect television viewing habits the most. In rural areas where people have less access to television or have a single television which is their only source of entertainment their viewing habits are higher as there are no distractions. One advantage that television can be seen to have over the internet is its use of theatrical performances. “Television uses theatricality as a means of establishing its ongoing appeal in an Internet era.”6 Internet only consists of sources of information; social networking which in all parts is superficial, while TV has the advantage of attracting audiences through portraying real life characters that can be related to and showing their life’s journey. This attractive factor cannot be found on internet where life can be seen as somewhat artificial. The youth has changed as they have constant access to internet, which is why there is growing concern about the risks that are posed online. Youngsters at this point in time are especially vulnerable to safety issues as they are not well versed and don’t know the harm that can be caused. Pornography, sex predators and other extreme dangers are existent on the internet and without constant monitoring by parents any kid can fall prey to this. A study adapted from Finkelhor et al's (2000) showed the characteristics of online youth and the results did prove that they were beginning to show signs of undertaking high risks online like giving out persona information, talking to strangers and posting their pictures online. This is a new and exciting time period for them and with such an uncontrolled world available to them on the internet the attraction level is very high. “College students are a group that may be particularly vulnerable to addiction, as they have largely unfettered, unsupervised access to the Internet and independent control of their time.”7 Other than youngsters another group that is again vulnerable to uninhibited internet usage is the college going students. They have unrestricted use of the internet available to them, usually they use it for research but this developing into an addiction is becoming an increasing concern worldwide. Results of Problematic internet usage in US college students study showed that “Overall, 4% of students scored in the occasionally problematic or addicted range on the IAT, and 12% had moderate to severe depression”8. This is an extremely troubling data however it again proves that most of the time is spent online instead of divulging in other forms of entertainment. Usually college going students do stay online longer than required as there are abundant activities to be done online, once a person has the ease of just opening up a laptop and being connected to the world there remains little or no need to interact with outside elements unless it is really required. Another segment that faces troublesome usage of internet is the employee sector. It obviously has become necessary for every organization to have internet connections on every single workstation. However again here usage of internet poses great risks and has numerous downsides. Most organizations have not yet developed a policy that regulates online usage for their employees; this severely affects their productivity and output. “64% of employees admit to using internet for their personal purposes during work hours, 37% of workers say that they surf the web constantly at work”9. These are worrisome statistics and they also highlight the addiction factor internet poses. Conclusion: Every statistic that can be found in the 21st century about internet usage will show a great increase in the population of internet users. Internet has taken over all of our lives and this is evident everywhere. The traditional form of media has suffered the most because of internet, television being the most hurt. Over the years there has been a steady decline in television viewing as people now prefer other forms of entertainment. A single dumb machine has now taken a backseat over highly interactive media channels that are currently being offered. The variety and richness of the content available online cannot compete with the mass broadcasting of television. Society changes are also an important change as they affect viewing habits; unless a program is catered specifically to an individual it is not watched. Television manufactures and network broadcasters have however slowly realized this and now try to offer the same content rich version within the televisions, Smart boxes can be connected to internet, live streaming of above 20000 channels is available and also other options are available trying to lure the viewer back to the TV screen. The problem lies in the fact that people have numerous options online; with handheld devices they are constantly connected to internet on the go, making them sit down and watch the television requires a great effort on the part of marketers. At the end of the day all the statistics cannot be denied which do prove that other forms of entertainment have taken precedence over the television. 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"The International Network Structure of News Media: an Analysis of Hyperlinks Usage in News Web Sites." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. 54.3 (2010): 373-390. Print Lin, Jhih-Syuan, and Chang-Hoan Cho. "Antecedents and Consequences of Cross-Media Usage: a Study of a Tv Program's Official Web Site." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. 54.2 (2010): 316-336. Print. Dowell, Elizabeth B, Ann W. Burgess, and Deborah J. Cavanaugh. "Clustering of Internet Risk Behaviors in a Middle School Student Population." Journal of School Health. 79.11 (2009): 547-553. Print. Kosnik, Abigail D. "Drama Is the Cure for Gossip: Television's Turn to Theatricality in a Time of Media Transition." Modern Drama. 53.3 (2010): 370-389. Print. Davey, Gareth. "Children's Television, Radio, Internet, and Computer Usage in a City and a Village of China."Visual Anthropology. 21.2 (2008): 160-165. Print. Read More