Television

Television is surely the most pervasive and influential mass medium of the late twentieth century. It is popular around the world, across social classes and among all ages. At the same time television is one of the most poorly understood media, eliciting both praise and superficial criticism. Moreover, the uses of television defy simple classification since the medium pervades every aspect of life. The merging of film, video and the computer with television is making it even more difficult to define and evaluate the medium.

Television as Technology

Technologically speaking, television is a means of communicating a combination of moving image and sound. Sometimes the images and sounds are broadcast via the electromagnetic spectrum. Other times they are transmitted via coaxial cable or projected from magnetic tape, laser disk or compact disk (CD). Television differs from film in the manner in which the sounds and images are both stored and played; film projects light through celluloid, whereas television relies on a cathode-ray tube to project the images, thus making it more difficult and more expensive to create large, high-quality images.

Television and video are increasingly difficult to distinguish. Many people use the term television to refer only to cable or broadcast television and video to refer to videocassette and computer-generated images. In the future, however, this kind of distinction will be challenged by new technologies that combine such media. In any case, television will still be the major form of home entertainment, regardless of how the images are produced or transmitted.

The Appeal of Television

Television’s appeal to humankind is apparently universal. Television lures viewers almost mysteriously, certainly more than the printed word, which requires literacy and greater mental and physical effort on the part of the user, and even more than radio, which lacks the attractive images. From early childhood to the end of their lives, human beings will normally watch television if it is available and if they have the time. Indeed, there is considerable evidence that television viewing is steadily eclipsing all other types of entertainment and all other forms of leisure. In North America, for instance, television viewing time is greater than that of all other forms of entertainment combined.

Probably the two most appealing aspects of television are its drama and persona. The most popular uses of the medium present messages as dramatic stories. This is true, for instance, not just of situation comedies, soap operas and police dramas, but even of many commercials, nearly all news stories, documentaries, sporting events (the drama of the game), movies, animated children’s shows and music videos.

Television’s appealing use of persona similarly pervades the medium. In fictional programming, television represents all types of people, who are played by celebrities or stars. At the same time, television presents people who are more or less acting as themselves (for example, talk-show hosts and guests, news reporters and anchors, variety-show emcees, sports players and commentators, and televangelists).

This combination of drama and persona creates a pseudorelationship between viewers and television personalities. Viewers feel as if they know various celebrities. In some cases this kind of pseudorelationship creates an uncritical, largely irrational trust (for example, trusting a TV preacher or a news reporter), an inability to distinguish between fact and fiction (for example, soap-opera viewers’ emotional involvement in fictional weddings) and even a greater viewer commitment to televised characters than to real-life relationships.

Balancing Television with Real Life

Viewers should maintain a healthy balance between the medium’s pseudorelationships and the viewers’ real interpersonal relationships. Parents in North America on average spend over four hours daily watching television, a mere four minutes conversing with spouses and an unbelievable thirty seconds daily conversing with their children. Novelist and social critic Jerzy Kosinski in Being There has suggested that many solitary viewers are becoming “videots”—passive, nonthinking, solitary viewers incapable of normal social intercourse. Although this kind of thesis cannot be proven, there is abundant supporting anecdotal evidence from teachers, psychologists, social workers and other professionals.

For most families, a daily limit of one or two hours of television viewing would adequately control the tendency to overindulge, especially if the viewing is familial and not individual. In addition, regulating the number of personal television sets in the home can help enormously; too many parents try to solve the problem of deciding what to view by giving each family member his or her own set. Finally, the placement of the television set in the home is also important; if the living- or family-room furniture is organized around the set, for instance, television viewing, not conversing, will dominate in-home leisure time.

Viewing Versus Watching

It is important that Christians learn how to view television instead of only watching it. Viewing is an active, discerning response to televisual messages, whereas watching is passive and largely uncritical. Viewing requires the audience to look for the values and beliefs that animate television messages.

Neil Postman suggests that television tends inherently to eclipse critical thought by emphasizing image over word. Although there is undoubtedly some truth to this generalization, it wrongly assumes that viewers cannot be taught to think about the meaning of images, especially moving-image narratives. By equipping people to evaluate and reflect on programs, this type of visual literacy combats the tendency of the medium to trivialize subjects.

From a Christian perspective, viewing fosters spiritual discernment of the winds of secular doctrine (Ephes. 4:14) communicated through popular culture. Viewing places all television programs in the context of God’s Word, enabling viewers to identify and evaluate the worldviews behind this popular entertainment.

Viewing can be fostered especially by parents, pastors and schoolteachers. Parents should view and discuss programs with their children. This is most effective as a regular, informal activity. Pastors have considerable potential to foster discernment by using popular TV characters and programs as illustrations in sermons and other Bible teachings. Schoolteachers have many opportunities to encourage discernment by integrating video segments into lectures and discussions across the curriculum. Students thereby learn to think about what they see, as well as to relate popular images to schoolwork.

Children and Television

Children often watch enormous amounts of television to relieve boredom. Many parents encourage this by using the medium as a baby sitter, particularly before and after school, on Saturday mornings and during meal preparation. Significant research suggests that this type of unsupervised use of television by children is not wise.

Until they reach about eight years of age, children are not capable of interpreting programs on their own with much critical ability. Younger children have difficulty separating television’s fictional content from real life. Moreover, they cannot easily make sense of the meaning of televisual stories; their understanding of television is limited largely to describing dramatic action or events. Often children’s understanding of a show is significantly different than the commonplace understandings of adults.

Therefore, it is essential that parents carefully monitor and supervise their children’s use of the medium. This should include (1) wise selection of appropriate programs for young viewers, particularly shows that are slow-paced and provide their own explanations of the stories; (2) parental viewing with children; and (3) parental discussion of programs with children, especially discussion of how each child is responding emotionally to programs.

Parents also need to balance their offspring’s television time with other important activities. Reading skills are often undeveloped in children because of excessive television viewing. Social skills are sometimes similarly retarded when a child does not spend adequate time interacting with other children. Children’s normal patterns of sleep are even interrupted in homes where parents do not adequately regulate viewing time.

Finally, television viewing can exacerbate a variety of childhood disorders, although the reasons are not precisely known. For example, television apparently worsens hyperactivity among some children. The medium also contributes to attention deficit problems in susceptible children. Because these links between television and childhood behavior are often idiosyncratic to specific children, it is essential that parents monitor the viewing of their offspring.

The Future of Television

Television is a rapidly evolving medium that will likely play a growing role in all areas of society, especially family life and education. As computers merge with television, the medium will expand and specialize its content. This will further challenge Christians to use television wisely.

Television is shifting from a “broadcasting” system to various forms of “narrowcasting.” The growth of cable television, with its specialized drama, sports and information, is only one step on the road to channel-free programming. Viewers will increasingly be able to select specific programs at any time from a broad menu of available options. So-called channel surfing (rapidly switching from one channel to the next, usually with a remote-control device) will be transformed into menu surfing. This technological revolution will change the television landscape into a cornucopia of specialized fare.

Televisual abundance of this kind offers positive opportunities as well as serious challenges to Christians. There will be many more worthwhile programs, including all kinds of instructional educational material and quality drama. But the new televisual landscape will also challenge the limits of Christian morality by providing specialized fare for people who practice unacceptable lifestyles or who believe in non-Christian religions.

It is imperative that Christians avoid a mindless adoption of the new television technologies. Parents need to establish in advance standards for familial use of new technologies. In addition, local congregations and Christian schools need to help individuals and families to live faithfully by cultivating critical viewing skills and sharing suggestions about worthwhile programs.

» See also: Culture

» See also: Home Video

» See also: Information Superhighway

» See also: Mass Media

» See also: Televangelism

» See also: Virtual Reality

References and Resources

J. P. Ferré, ed., Channels of Belief: Religion and American Commercial Television (Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1990); T. Inbody, ed., Changing Channels: The Church and the Television Revolution (Dayton: Whaleprints, 1990); N. Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (New York: Viking, 1985); Q. J. Schultze, Redeeming Television: How TV Changes Christians—How Christians Can Change TV (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1992); Q. J. Schultze, Winning Your Kids Back from the Media (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1994); also available as a five-part video series with Gospel Films.

—Quentin J. Schultze