Television’s Effect on Political Knowledge and Behavior

                Ever since the early 1900’s we have been obsessed with television, it was September 26, 1960 that a presidential debate between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon was broadcasted to the whole United States via television.  70 million people turned on their televisions in 1960 to watch this famous and controversial debate.  Prior to televised debates, people would listen to the debates by radio and read about them in the newspaper.  It was not until then that the public could see their candidates in battle against each other for the presidency.  Television has helped educate the world on politics and some say it has even swayed elections.

                Television happens to be one of the strongest forms of mass media in the world.  Television programs span from news programs to reality television to cartoons amongst many others.  Television has been criticized for being non educational and it is said to make people less intelligent, but is that because of television or what people are watching?

                Yes, many people enjoy watching reality television shows such as, “Jersey Shore” and “Real World”, and these shows are not very educational.  But the remote is in your hand, you decide what channel you put on.  Just because many people flock to watch television that can melt your brain does not mean that television is all that bad.

                Television has actually had a large impact on learning about politics.  Studies show that a person will pay attention to a candidate talking on the television over reading about it because it is much more interactive (Neuman, Just, Crigler).  In fact, in the Kennedy Nixon debates, Kennedy was largely praised because of his appearance.  Viewers that watched the debate on television said that they thought Kennedy won while radio listeners claimed Nixon won the debate.  Kennedy was set up to win the election based on his image over his politics, I am not saying he was not an accomplished politician, but clearly the television influenced people right from the beginning.

The biggest point here is that people pay more attention to what a candidate has to say when it is televised so they therefore know more about the standpoints of each candidate.  The United States political system is reliant on the voters to choose the president.  The public should know each candidates standpoint on relevant issues so that they can make an educated vote rather than just pick one because of their political party affiliation.  It is important in today’s society to focus on politics with all of the domestic and foreign turmoil that has been going on.

The following link shows some of the United States’ bright young minds lacking simple political knowledge http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2fHQ9eULzk. Choosing the right television programs to watch is crucial in this day and age because there are so many television shows out there that are for pure entertainment.  We all need some entertainment sometimes but if the US was more educated in politics, then it would have a better voter turnout which would lead to more effective elections as a country.  Television is a useful piece of mass media if it is watched correctly, turn on the news and watch a debate for once if you haven’t you may be surprised with what you learn.

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=1953616

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=94ffb836-f56e-4e67-80d7-0a4ccebeff03%40sessionmgr13&vid=6&hid=12

http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=kennedy-nixon

GPS, Google and Facebook, Tracking Your Life

In today’s day and age technology is constantly upgrading itself.  Some of the most recent advances in technology have been in the GPS and internet browser fields.

Recently, GPS systems have been hopping off the shelves for many different reasons, some legal some illegal.  The reasons range from jealous spouses to police surveillance, but how can we decide whether or not it is an invasion of personal space to watch someone’s every step without a warrant? 

Yes, these new advances in GPS tracking could definitely help police forces all across America make arrests, but not everyone is using these GPS systems legally.  It is controversial because although GPS systems are made for good use, they could be used illegally by stalkers and criminals alike.

One of the better uses of the new GPS systems are in Wisconsin where Winnebago county uses Fleet GPS Tracking to follow where their salt and snowplow trucks are when snow falls.  The Fleet Tracking system also allows the county to know how much of each kind of salt was used to help clear the roads.  This use of GPS tracking is genius because it helps the county understand how much salt they use and it allows them to follow their workers so that they know that the workers are doing their job (http://www.fieldtechnologies.com/fleet-tracking-system-helps-keep-winnebago-roads-clear-in-winter/).

Along with the new technology in GPS, Google has made new technology that literally knows the user.  It will be able to tell anyone the answer to their search according to their preferences.  This means that Google will know as much about you as your spouse.  It seems a little too personal to some but in some ways this new way of searching could assist the user greatly.  Google will now have the power to track all of your searches and use them to more accurately know you specifically.

Not only is Google making you more available to the public, but Facebook is moving towards making it easier to see people’s profile with less privacy settings.  Facebook claims it is for sharing purposes, but companies are using it to look at employees to make sure they are worthy of a job.  I actually had a teacher in high school who was fired for the Youtube videos she had online.

The question remains, are these advances an invasion of your personal space?  It is difficult to say because with a little investigative work, you can find out a lot about someone off of the internet with the current privacy settings.