TV/Radio Culture

Network programs have a strong impact not only on the education market, but also on religion, personal values and national culture. With a rise in population, the planet is becoming smaller as we interact with more people than we might have imagined before. National culture is important in defining states and thus plays a major role in deciding how we vary in terms of philosophies, customs, norms and beliefs. Various ways of networking mechanisms guarantee that the national identity has spread to as many individuals as possible in the population (Medoff & Barbara 12-13). After the diffusion, common habits are instilled like drinking coffee, using a certain brand of detergents or smoking a specific type of cigarette. Network systems, therefore, play an integral part in ensuring that every citizen is socialized and aligned to think and act in an almost uniform manner.
Television has a great influence on the learning mechanism of any given societal context, especially when there are differences that make to choose another language of communication instead of their own. The communication behind this device makes it more important in the diffusion of the cultural ideas than the written or spoken word. It is through the television that people learned from the Chinese that after waking up in the morning, it is necessary to have a cup of tea. There are many groups of people within any given nation that makes it difficult to learn about each. The information about these groups of people can only be aired on the television to appreciate diversity and learn from one another. Citizens, therefore, get a chance to appreciate diversity and promote tolerance even to those communities where there are few shared interests.
Televisions can determine a national culture on which forms of entertaining are more appealing. The entertainment can be fine-tuned to focus on the specific groups like the aged and the lonely (Medoff & Barbara 40). There are however other aspects of the television that spread bad influence to the people. For, example, they are used to expose criminal items and expose people to sensuality as well as other anti-social elements that have adverse effects to the future generation. These negative themes feature in films, interviews, and advertisements. The positive side of the traditional national culture is thus run down with values and ideal losing their meaning in the long-term. Besides, viewers can also be dehumanized through the exposure to militancy, criminality, and extreme negative treatments.
Entertainment can also spread a bad culture to children within a given country. In many countries, there are filming boards that are responsible for regulating the content that the children are exposed to. The guidelines observed by these officials are derived from the national cultural norms that the entertainment sector must conform to (Medoff & Barbara 73-82). In some countries like France, the exposure of children to materials with homosexuality theme in cartoons is considered as a crime because of the importance of reserving some views until they reach an age of reason. Whenever children spend too much time watching television, the addiction results to negative impacts on their socialization skills, performance in school and the participation in entertainment activities.
Television can also be used as a control tool by the government to ensure that the subjects are always submissive. Some nations like North Korea have been using the television only to spread those propagandas that guarantee the survival of the current regime. The national culture, in this case, is thus determined by the presidency through telling the citizens what to and what not to believe. Besides, it should be noted that the television too can be used to spread positive aspects such as democracy and the awareness of the peoples’ fundamental human rights. The United States is the extreme opposite of the North Korean case, with the former using the media to spread positive values in the society like making the citizens aware of their civil rights during search and seizure as stipulated in the fourth amendment.
Radio broadcasting is one of the most effective broadcasting tools that have played a primary role in educating and ultimately, civilizing humankind. Before the discovery of the radio, oral communication was important in passing over the accepted values systems from one generation to the other. However, this method changed, and the efficiency of communication was taken a notch higher because of the ability to reach a wider population and within a short period (Medoff & Barbara 53-55). Regardless of the citizens social class, they can always tune in and get the latest news either local or international. While local news are used to make the audience much aware of their immediate environment, international news is essential in understanding the developments in the international arena that may directly or indirectly impact on the affairs of the citizens. Before the invention of the television, people were relying on the radios to get important information regarding the common enemies of the state that may be planning attacks.
The concept of controlling the people through media regulation began with the passing of information through the radio and has changed over time to include the internet. The control had both the positive and the negative aspects. For example, religious broadcasting that followed the discovery of the radio played a significant role in spreading doctrines that were aimed at promoting social order hence the peaceful coexistence among the people. The state also supported this idea until a need arose to establish a dichotomy between religious and political affairs. Besides the role that radio played in religion, it also influenced the manner in which education was done. There were radio programs that could be presented on the air in the form of text books. The media system therefore helped the citizens to ease their work in the understanding of the work in the hall of academia.
The press, either when considering the radio or television, often reflect the political and the social culture of the region within which it operates. The influence of the state, however, tends to differ from that of the media and is scrutinized through the concepts of journalistic professionalism and political parallelism. The ideas are also in line with the constructivist approach which holds that the audience plays a significant part in defining the shared meanings in language and conceptual maps. Armed with this information regarding the representation the language, people are familiarized with various aspects, most importantly, the cultural knowledge.
The constructivist approach can also be used to scrutinize the manner in which the society is influenced by the cultural values and the lifestyles of the people. For example, the theory explains the role that the mass media play in the transmission of the social values. These social values are thereafter responsible for the establishment of the rules that guide the family, education, and religion. Because of the dynamic nature of the national culture, advertising has been left to play a major role in giving a social guide. Through advertising, citizens get exposed to many situations and factors that affect their freedom of choice, morality, style, and behavior.
Conclusively, the network system were and are still an important tool in the establishment of a national culture. The goal is achieved through the entertainment, advertising and political broadcasting efforts that are aimed at promoting common ideas and ideals. The television and the radio were the earliest forms of the network system that are proven to have shaped the peoples’ thoughts in creating a uniform belief in the social, economic and political affairs. It should, however, be noted that these systems were at times used to spread propaganda and to force the citizens to be obedient to the rulers. However, the positive aspects out do the negative ones making these inventions to be of great importance to the traditional and the modern world. Work Cited
Medoff, Norman J., and Barbara Kaye. Electronic media: then, now, and later. Taylor & Francis, 2017.