Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Was my generation given a specific purpose?

Willravel · 03-08-2005, 10:49 AM

This trend is not limited to children by any means. Watch the news tonight. Tell me this, are tehy trying to tell you the news, or are they trying to sell you the news? The same applies to childrens programming. I know most of childrend programming has been fluff for many years (after the death of loony toons, probably), but there were always that small group of shows that had a driving intelectual purpose. While Sesame Street is still on, it is not there to assist anyone outside of maybe toddlers. I've just changed the channel to the local PBS station to see grover teaching about digging holes(?) and how rabbits hop. Just as I am about to change the channel back to the history channel, I see a cartoon come on. It's about sharing. "Not me, we." seems to be the message. While this is important, I see it as some of the most basic social and moral skills. When I go searching for educational programming for children maybe beyond the age of 6 or 7, I see nothing. Watch an episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! and you'll quickly realize that you're watching a program to vege out watching. No storyline and all action. What do kids seem to want to watch? Based on ratings, they want to see serious violence, whether it is martial arts, machines, or monsters. So what do the networks do? They frantically change all of their shows so that tehy can get kids to watch.

I'm changing the channel to CNN. I'm watching a story called "Charming Crocs?" about the river crocodiles of Northern Ghana living in harmony with the local villagers. The villagers have given the crocodiles names and the crocodiles don't seem to mind. Yikes.

I think that much of what we get from media is simply there for it's entertainment value, nothing more. The reason behind this slow change is that with entertainment comes ratings, with ratings comes funding. Media is a buisness, and a good buisness does anything it can to gain profit. If your child turns on the tv or opens a magizine or newspaper, teach that most of it is tripe and that the only education your children might get will be from you and perhapse some of their teachers. It's a sad reality.

03-08-2005, 10:49 AM	#18 (permalink)
Willravel ... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.	This trend is not limited to children by any means. Watch the news tonight. Tell me this, are tehy trying to tell you the news, or are they trying to sell you the news? The same applies to childrens programming. I know most of childrend programming has been fluff for many years (after the death of loony toons, probably), but there were always that small group of shows that had a driving intelectual purpose. While Sesame Street is still on, it is not there to assist anyone outside of maybe toddlers. I've just changed the channel to the local PBS station to see grover teaching about digging holes(?) and how rabbits hop. Just as I am about to change the channel back to the history channel, I see a cartoon come on. It's about sharing. "Not me, we." seems to be the message. While this is important, I see it as some of the most basic social and moral skills. When I go searching for educational programming for children maybe beyond the age of 6 or 7, I see nothing. Watch an episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! and you'll quickly realize that you're watching a program to vege out watching. No storyline and all action. What do kids seem to want to watch? Based on ratings, they want to see serious violence, whether it is martial arts, machines, or monsters. So what do the networks do? They frantically change all of their shows so that tehy can get kids to watch. I'm changing the channel to CNN. I'm watching a story called "Charming Crocs?" about the river crocodiles of Northern Ghana living in harmony with the local villagers. The villagers have given the crocodiles names and the crocodiles don't seem to mind. Yikes. I think that much of what we get from media is simply there for it's entertainment value, nothing more. The reason behind this slow change is that with entertainment comes ratings, with ratings comes funding. Media is a buisness, and a good buisness does anything it can to gain profit. If your child turns on the tv or opens a magizine or newspaper, teach that most of it is tripe and that the only education your children might get will be from you and perhapse some of their teachers. It's a sad reality.