Television as an Agent for Youth and Adults
Television is a continuous evolving thing. Whether it is a sitcom, reality show, cable movies, music channels, etc. the route that it takes to grad a certain audience’s attention constantly changes. As I get older, I’ve started to consider the way television impacts my generation and the generation to follow. The impacts are obvious as it affects the ideas, thoughts, reactions, and actions of young people today. As a young black woman, it is important to me that I know the affects that black television has on the black community and young kids today. Although many stations such as MTV, VH1, and E! defend my argument as how they are an inconvenience to children, I found one was more realistic than the others. As I focused on the station BET also known as Black Entertainment Television, it was easy to find some aspects that younger children and adults unfortunately use to their disadvantage.
BET is well known station that gravitates more towards a black audience and features reality shows, music shows, and movies to do so. While I do enjoy watching it myself, it has crossed my mind what types of people also enjoy watching. It is easy for me and for most adults to watch something without being fully influenced by what they are seeing on the television. Some things, if not viewed my mature eyes can be taken out of context and not fully evaluated properly. For example, the show “College Hill” is supposed to depict the lives and experiences of several college students all living together in one house. It is a reality television show which I suppose would mean there is bound to be fights, arguments, and disagreements. However, during every season I have seen, there is always a major fight in which one person has to be sent home. It occurred to me that if a child was watching this, they may think that this is a constructive way to solve problems and that it just not the case.
In addition to fighting on the...