Mass Media as an Agent of Socialization- The Un T.V. Experiment

Television – A Love Story
In American society the TV is in many ways like a good friend of ours waiting for us in our living room. It's there with us giving us the feeling that we are connected and engaged to society, when the reality is exactly the opposite. A closer examination of TV reveals that in its essence it is quite boring. You will discover it use of technical events shapes TV's   message that you may believe it is entertaining and exciting, but in reality you are caught mindless trance that TV creates.

Tracking Technical Events
Non technical events represent pure, unedited television (surveillance cameras). They tend to be grainy and boring and  only ends up on T.V. when  Tosh plays back some kid snapping his wrist while illegally skateboarding in an Applebee’s parking lot. Technical events are carefully orchestrated production maneuvers designed to shape and package the content you are consuming. This can include a camera zooming in; watching someone talking and moving switching to someone responding; car moving down the road; music playing in the background.

THE ASSIGNMENT/EXPERIMENT

Please create a new page and save the document  as YOUR INTIALS  ___ Televsion  ex RH Television  

OPTION #1 Watch a news program for 10 minutes with no sound

Keep a tally of technical events during the news cast and offer comments about the content of the news cast. What was the lead story? What issues were addressed? 

OPTION #2  Watch someone watching TV for 15 minutes and observe how they interact with the programming.  Look at their body language. Do they multi-task? Are they interacting withe the program? Are they half asleep? Are they even look at the TV. In your comments, please make note of the program they watched and the time of day the watched it.