Television does tackle many social issues, but when you put total reality into a show, it is usually considered stale and boring. So, to make it better they put in their own ideas and ways of handling social issues. "For many adult Americans, prime time television is the only continuing education available". If this is what people are using to learn to deal with their social issues, I believe that this won't end well. Most of these issues are not solved in the best way possible, as such people will be finding themselves in more and more troubles.
I also believe that no television show can really totally capture the pain of some issues, such as rape or murder. In those cases i believe that people can be desensitized to these social issues. In these cases we could lose our feelings and conscience at the severity of these problems. This I feel is wrong and it just shows what we consider entertainment is other peoples pain. For that reason, people are profiting off peoples pain and I don't think television has handled these issues right.
I also don't think that television, or any medium for that matter, can accurately describe/encapsulate the reality of people's lives. But isn't that okay? If we are watching TV for entertainment then should we hold it to a "reality" standard? Or is there a confusion between entertainment and truth? Why do you suppose that is?
ReplyDeleteGreat clip - I haven't heard that song in ages.