Immorality In Television Essay, Research Paper
Vulgarity in Television
In the early years of television people
where much more sensitive to what was said and took offense to any form
of obscene language. Even in the movies it was unacceptable. However, for
many the standard for the use of vulgar language has expanded. In many
shows on television vulgar words are used way to often. In many cases unnecessarily.
These words do not bother me in the least. However, there are many parents
with young children who are offended by this. This would not such a big
deal if only the shows that carried these vulgarities would be shown later
at night, as they where for many years. Also, most of the programs are
not correctly rated to warn of there content.
Besides using the basics of the swear words
some programs take it to a different level. Instead of using the words
themselves they use a form of slang in order to get around the censors.
Although these words are not the same as the ones commonly used, they do
share the same meaning. By having these programs use these words they are
encouraging the children to use a new language that there parents do not
understand. And because the parents do not understand the words the children
then think it is all right to use profanity.
Profanity in television is not so much
a problem as it is an annoyance. It makes television more interesting to
watch and can occasionally make a situation more humorous, but I do not
enjoy it when a five-year-old calls their parents a– holes to there face.
Rating System
Recently introduced to all the television
shows is the new rating system. This system was implemented to warn about
the kind of shows on television. The system tells whether the show is to
mature for young children. However, does the system still have flaws?
Although it does give an idea as to what
the show contains, it does not tell as to the extent to which it is. An
example would be the television show “Strangers with Candy.” This program
is extremely crude with little humor. Normally I enjoy crude humor, but
this show is gross. It contains vulgarity, drug use, and sexually references.
And to top it off the show is at 10:00. Shows like this should not be viewed
any time. My point of bringing this up is to show how lose the system is.
I believe that it should be remolded to a different, more precise version
of what it is.
The current rating system is as follows:
TV-Y–This program is appropriate for
all children.
TV-Y7– Directed to children age seven
and above. May include mild physical or comedic violence, or may frighten
children under age seven.
Categories for programs directed at entire
audience:
TV-G– Suitable for all ages. Contains
little or no violence, no strong language and little or no sexual dialogue
or situations.
TV-PG.– Parental Guidance Suggested.
May contain infrequent coarse language, limited violence and some suggestive
sexual dialogue and situations.
TV-14– Parents Strongly Cautioned. May
contain sophisticated themes, sexual content, strong language and more
intense violence.
TV-M– Mature Audiences Only. Unsuitable
for children. May contain mature themes, profane language, graphic violence
and explicit sexual content.
Sexually Themes and Drug Use
The limitations of sex in television as
far been expanded since when the television first became popular. In the
past twenty years shows have been made which prove my point. Lately on
television their has been much leniency towards this subject. Shows such
as “N.Y.P.D. Blues” and “Beverly Hills 90210″ constantly try to see how
far the can take a situation before they agitate the censors. Once again
it does not bother me to see these things, but when thinking about it I
really would not approve of my younger sister to see these things.
Another blight on television would be the
use of drugs. Unlike vulgarity and sex I really do have a problem with
drug use. There is really no use for it on television and I would prefer
to never see it. Although I am totally against it really do think that
their is a difference between seeing someone spark a joint and watching
them stick their arms with a dirty needle. It is my opinion that if young
children see this they will become curious and want to experiment. And
if this happens they will someday be eating a steady diet of government
cheese and be living in a van down by the river.
Subliminal Messages in Television
Although this subject is often overlooked
it is a great cause for concern when it is exposed to young children. Subliminal
messages can warp a young child?s mind into thinking that they should do
something that is subconsciously being placed into their minds. These thoughts
are usually harmless. Most advertisers try to promote there product by
either having an actor rapidly saying the products name or by constantly
showing pictures of the product. By doing this they are sending messages
toy young minds that they need to have what is their. A good example of
this would be “Pokemon.” Because of all the publicity kids feel the need
to have what is being shown. The result to this is parents going out and
buying over one-hundred-fifty-one toys of little monsters that their children
will forget about in a year. This is exactly what the advertisers want
so they can put out another toy that will have kids begging their parents
for money.
Violence in Television
Probably the most talked about subject
when it comes to bad-mouthing of television. This has become a serious
problem in television. Even in the days of early television violence has
been around. However, since those days it has become much worse. Instead
of kids jumping of cliffs thinking they are superman, or hitting each-other
over the head with a frying pan, they are hitting each-other over the head
with a steel chair and choking out their friends like a wrestler. Their
is no real place to put the blame because violence is every where. However,
it does not need to be placed on television where it can be broadcast to
anyone who wants to watch it.
Unlike the other topics I mentioned I do
not think that by only moving the more violent programs to later at night
would work. This is manly because it would be to difficult as to determine
what is violent and what is not. By this I mean that people have different
views as to what they find violent. Some people may find an angry dog chewing
a small toy violent enough, while someone else finds decapitation is nothing
to loose sleep over. Either way I believe that violence does influence
the young mind, and unfortunatly thier is very little our society can do
about it because we have let the situation get to far out of control.