This essay will attempt to explore the connection between what is fed to the American culture through television and how those ideas are reflected in today’s society. Additionally, it will highlight how television’s departure from scripted television aided in the dissipation of the values of American families. This essay will give an overview of how television has refocused the ideas and goals of the family unit by using television to plant false expectations of normal everyday life. It will argue the point that reality television, which is the majority of TV programming, is not reality at all. Finally, it will point to the One who should be shaping and maintaining the believer’s idea of family and proper standard of living. In conclusion,
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Sadly, this new form of entertainment would eventually leave an unmistakable mark on the family unit and American culture as a whole.
People could point to the age old argument that television is not reality and people should not be so easily influenced. Nevertheless, people are influenced by what they view on television, as well as what they see in magazines, and hear in music. The world of advertisement disproves that argument every day. John Fiske explained, in his book Television Culture, how television is the biggest advertising agency of them all:
But we start by considering television as a cultural agent, particularly as a provoker and circulator of meanings… that television broadcasts programs that are replete with potential meanings, and that it attempts to control and focus this meaningfulness into a more singular preferred meaning that performs the work of the dominant ideology. (Fiske, 2010, …show more content…
The American culture has given into mass consumption of ideals portrayed on television that have torn at the very fabric of its life. Normal people are now deemed celebrities because of reality television. A thirty-minute preview into their world creates an idea that what they wear, what they drive, and where they go to eat is accessible to the average person. Especially, when the commercial that follows is advertising the car just seen in the reality show, which is also driven by real celebrities and all the rage right now. The Bible encourages us, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2 KJV). The Lord knew that His people would need a compass to keep them focused in this day and age. The boundaries of reality must be determined by the input of real people actively, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually participating in their lives. Television should not get to determine America’s
Sadly, this new form of entertainment would eventually leave an unmistakable mark on the family unit and American culture as a whole.
People could point to the age old argument that television is not reality and people should not be so easily influenced. Nevertheless, people are influenced by what they view on television, as well as what they see in magazines, and hear in music. The world of advertisement disproves that argument every day. John Fiske explained, in his book Television Culture, how television is the biggest advertising agency of them all:
But we start by considering television as a cultural agent, particularly as a provoker and circulator of meanings… that television broadcasts programs that are replete with potential meanings, and that it attempts to control and focus this meaningfulness into a more singular preferred meaning that performs the work of the dominant ideology. (Fiske, 2010, …show more content…
The American culture has given into mass consumption of ideals portrayed on television that have torn at the very fabric of its life. Normal people are now deemed celebrities because of reality television. A thirty-minute preview into their world creates an idea that what they wear, what they drive, and where they go to eat is accessible to the average person. Especially, when the commercial that follows is advertising the car just seen in the reality show, which is also driven by real celebrities and all the rage right now. The Bible encourages us, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2 KJV). The Lord knew that His people would need a compass to keep them focused in this day and age. The boundaries of reality must be determined by the input of real people actively, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually participating in their lives. Television should not get to determine America’s