Effect of Television on American Family Life - Research Paper Example

Effect of Television on American Family Life: A Comparative Analysis with Sports as an Entertainment Medium Introduction Every aspect of American family life is included in the expression that ‘we are in an age of entertainment’ (Bryant 1990, 47). Work week is shortened. Family life has transformed in identity and character. Traditional bases of control, such as the elders of the community, parents, or the church, are no longer in power. People travel from state to state. An entire dimension of visual images fills people’s homes. There is now a large population of aged people in the American society. People move about to all corners of the world. Individual clothing patterns have brought about disorders to that industry. American houses are being designed in a different way. The pursuit of a different lifestyle has resulted in an urban lifestyle. A revolution in printing and availability of books has influenced the paths of people’s literacy. Enhanced material conveniences have reached a larger segment of the American population. Traditional concepts about social class are adjusted. Labor union agreements are more interested with leisure time (Bryant & Bryant 2001). Mass media, especially television, have been charged of transforming family life. Assertions that media seize socialization authorities, aggravate family conflict and tension, and make family members passive individuals, have received academic and public attention. These accusations indicate a common apprehension: Media, especially television, destroys family life (Bryant & Bryant 2001). A growing number of mass communication researchers claim that a more positive standpoint views television as a symbolic and social resource employed in the formation and sustenance of interpersonal and, specifically, familial relationships. This standpoint is similar with the view that media behavior is just one of several forces within a family system (Bryant & Bryant 2001). Any analysis of the effect of television on family life should begin by regarding the family as the framework in which viewing is carried out and made significant. If the family is seen as a system governed by rules characterized by structured and cyclical behaviors, a communication paradigm on the family would put emphasis on the interactive mechanisms in which family systems are formed and sustained (Bryant 1990). A mass communication paradigm on the interaction of television and family life entails that researchers explore the use and impacts of media with regard to the communicatively formed family patterns, structures and systems (Bryant 1990). The objective of this paper is to compare and contrast the effect of television and other entertainment medium on family life. Sports are selected as the other entertainment medium since it is one of the most popular leisure activities before the advent of television. The concluding section of the paper will discuss the present status of the relationship between television and American family life. Effects of Sports and Television on American family life: A Comparative Analysis Before the advent of television, sports are considered a solidifying activity in the American society, or an instrument of a ‘community of experience’ (Boyle 1963, 81). This view does not have to be about cooperation, but about other people, such as Jack Dempsey or a basketball team. A large portion of the male population in the first half of the twentieth century reported very frequent engagement in sports. Among these men, majority come from the lower or middle socioeconomic echelon. Nevertheless, more women than men talk about sports at home, specifically women of the upper- and middle-class groups (Kaplan 1960). These women, as emphasized by Stone, … rarely exhibit expertise in matters of sport; yet, their efforts to acquaint themselves with the area were characterized by great self-consciousness and resolve. I have the distinct impression that these women are rather compulsively entering the world of sport—grasping at this among many other straws—to reassure themselves that their marriage is, indeed, ‘companionate’ (Kaplan 1960, 192). Any particular activity can turn out to be a source of entertainment. Stone substantiates this even in line with the activities that individuals relate with the expression ‘sports.’ Popular games include wood working, dancing, movies, television, and sex (Kaplan 1960). Other findings by Stone may be succinctly summed up: ‘men develop loyalties to teams earlier than women. Interest in golf increases with wealth; not so with baseball and basketball’ (Kaplan 1960, 192). Groups belonging to the middle class seem to overshadow more affluent men as sport viewers rather than participants. Yet again, referring to the family, Stone assumes from his respondents from Minneapolis, that “a kind of desperate situation is suggested, where the middle-class husband is pulled away from home by sport while the middle-class housewife strains mightily to pull him back into home” (Kaplan 1960, 193). Stone reports data to confirm an assumption that “as the professionalization of sport continues, socioeconomic differences in the audience will disappear” (Kaplan 1960, 193). Ultimately, Stone has a number of perceptive ideas on spectatorship. With the commercialization and massification of sport, viewers start to outnumber competitors in great percentages, and the spectators, as the term indicates, promotes the spectacular, the show (Boyle 1963). In relation to this the spectator could be considered as an instrument of destruction in so far as the pride of sports is concerned. There is a strain between the amorality of the viewers and the morality of the sport (Boyle 1963). Nonetheless, spectators are barely disheartened from going to or viewing the game. Spectatorship, as shown in the literature, may have significant effects for advancing the solidarity of the society and its established affairs, such as the family, and other normalized relations. Furthermore, spectatorship may not be as persistent as it appeared to a spectator (Boyle 1963). Ultimately, the outcomes of spectatorship may not be substantially dissimilar from the outcomes of membership. It appears quite apparent that what worries people about the present condition of American sport is its sponsorship, not its popularity or viewership. Hence, as Stone suggests, an examination of sports can barely be accomplished without a close analysis of several institutions of life in America (Boyle 1963). But sports have a long history in America and, likewise, show attributes of the general culture wherein they find themselves. Similarly, television’s connection with other entertainment activities, such as sports, in which families become involved, is both intense and exceptional. Its introduction into American society has impinged on the use of time like no other advances in the last century, including sports technology which transformed American life more spatially than temporally (Bryant & Bryant 2001). Instead of settling at a static level, time for television is not merely coping with the greater leisure time that has become accessible and obtainable but has been receiver of virtually all this improved resource (Bryant & Bryant 2001). Television essentially stripped time away from other entertainment activities, such as sports, that were useful counterparts, both at the outset, as in the case of radio listening, movie going, and book reading, and later, as in the case of magazine and newspaper reading. It also stripped away time from non-entertainment activities, such as gardening and cooking (Bryant & Bryant 2001). Most intense, possibly, has been the constant weakening of social interaction and decline in visiting that has occurred outside the family unit since the beginning of television. To be certain, empirical evidence does indicate that family members spend more time in conversation and in the company of each other than transpired before television is brought home (Bryant 1990). However, interests about the deceit of the higher parasocial relationship created by the medium appear to be expressively substantiated by this basic information portraying everyday behavior (Bryant 1990). The literature, at the individual level, is also rather reliable in suggesting that television viewing is related to a reduced active and dynamic lifestyle, specifically in relation to less time devoted on social interaction, work, and personal activities. On the other hand, heavier viewing is escorted with more newspaper reading, radio listening, and sleep (Halttunen & Lewis 1998). More developed studies of particular activities strengthen this assumption, chiefly for ‘high culture’ involvement. Participation in arts is much lower among frequent television viewers, even when other key determinants of television viewing and cultural involvement were controlled (Halttunen & Lewis 1998). Throughout the literature, scholars have emphasized how the findings and conclusions do not vary that significantly for those individuals who live in nuclear families as opposed to those who are not. Levels of viewing are influenced much more by an individual’s educational achievement or work tasks than by whether an individual in single, married, or has children. Furthermore, as Bower (1973 as cited in Bryant & Bryant 2001) discovered, the bigger the family, the higher the probability that there will be more than one set; then, in this fashion, family life becomes more disjointed into individual behavior (Bryant & Bryant 2001). In order to be certain, television is a strong center of discussion and unity in many family units. However, there is little support or verification that viewing together generally cultivate more family conversation or leads to any greater family solidarity. In order to be certain, individual family members as well as individual families do have the ability to exploit this invasive medium to strengthen family relationship and unity. How much they recognize these opportunities to change disjointed reactions to normalized predetermined cultural content into significant, constructive and socially common experiences is a concern that merits a lot more research efforts. Conclusion Early television such as The Sound of Music and the Simpson’s has intricate narrative in which the lives of the characters and the characters themselves are an image for our own. These television shows narrate stories about solidarity and companionship within various family systems. They inform and help us appreciate and understand our identities and roles within the larger society. But with the current popularity of reality TV, these narratives appear to have vanished from the television scene and are rather displaced with stories that require nothing of the spectator. Television is at this point like watching a parade and a carnival as people act more and more odd and lustful while rivaling for money. Possibly any encouraging influence that television once had will eventually disappear with the increasing popularity of reality TV; because reality TV is a culture in itself, a fresh reality in which individuals exist. It appears apparent to most people nowadays that television has an enormous influence upon our culture and more particularly the institution of the family. In spite of a change in patterns of social interaction, eating habits, reading, Church going brought about by the electronic age, it was an exceptionally silent transition with virtually no one challenging the change. With new television catchphrases and expressions being integrated into everyday vocabulary, even language itself transformed. Essentially, television is progressing from a simple entertainment medium to a position in the same way that family, school, and Church are regarded focal points of meaning. Religion invites us to create or build our identity through spirituality and thus for Christian families to heavily watch television may result in uncertainty about our own identity and our future. Television has strongly affected all facets of human life hence we have to revisit our own values and life’s meanings in order to escape the threatening confusion. References Boyle, Robert H. Sport: Mirror of American Life. Boston: Little, Brown, 1963. Bryant, Jennings, ed. Television and the American Family. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1990. Bryant, Jennings & J. Alison Bryant. Television and the American Family. Ed. Jennings Bryant. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001. Halttunen, Karen, & Lewis Perry eds. Moral Problems in American Life: New Perspectives on Cultural History. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998. Kaplan, Max. Leisure in America: A Social Inquiry. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1960. Rapoport, Rhona & Ziona Strelitz. Leisure and the Family Life Cycle. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1975. Read More