¶ … TV Series and the Society Ekin Ozan

Lanfranco Acetti

The social set up in most communities in the world is indeed eroded with lots of images and teachings especially from the media. Among the major influences the lives of individuals in the society are affected by television programs and series. Most of the TV series that are relied to the individuals of a family in a particular setting basically influence the decision and the activities of the many individuals in either a negative or a positive manner. Indeed the most affected are the minor in the society, which are the children1.

From the healthcare providers' point-of-view, the media especially the television play a very important role in the escalation of the chances of teenage pregnancies and adolescent malpractices among the youths in America. These youth frequently use the media like television series, music movies and magazines in their plight for some knowledge in life. This eventually drives the minor community into premature practice of the events that they watch in such TV series2.

There exist a major drift from what the reality portrays, and what the media portrays in such programs. The media tends to bring out these issues as mere societal norms that bear no consequence at all. They portray issues like casual sex and sexuality as having no consequence at all to the immediate society at large. This is in contradiction to the real issues that border such acts to the lives of the individuals involved therein. These teenagers should indeed be taught on the information about the human sexuality and the need for this contraception when having sex3.

1 Plunkett, John. "Holby City walks the thin blue line." The Guardian London: Guardian Media Group, (2006) 78

2 Jim Shelley." Goes For The Jugular 03/01/2006." The Daily Mirror.(2006). 89

3 Green, Kris. "Casualty', 'Holby City' crossover planned." Digital Spy. (2010) 67

Most TV series are increasingly becoming sex explicit and this seems to be the major theme in the story lines of such programs. These call for a major disconnect from what the society especially the religious groups' teachings towards abstinence from sex till marriage. This indeed...

About 46% of high school seniors in America have had sexual intercourse. This is according to the 2009 Youth risk behavior. It is even amazing that 14% of these individuals have had sex with more than four partners in a very short time span. America still leads in the rate of teenage pregnancies in the developed countries category. Early intercourse increases the chances of contacting HIV / AIDS and other STIs. All these facts and figures only come out as elevated due to the rise in the exposure to such individuals to the TV series that are not educative at all4.
These youths spend more than seven hours behind TV sets at the expense of doing some constructive chores in the society. All this happens at the unconcerned members of the family who may take the whole issue as being very normal to the society. Indeed some reality shows try and create the possibility of a couple hooking up in some form of shows. It is very absurd that these TV series contain over seventy percent of pure sex content and this greatly influences the decisions of the individuals that watch such programs5.

4 John Plunkett. "Holby City walks the thin blue line." London: The Guardian. (2006) 56

5 Kris Green . "Holby Blue' returns with crossover ep." Digital Spy.( 2000) 89

Amazingly a large proportion of the young generation watch these programs in one way or another more often than the adults. Most of the reality shows portray men as sex driven while the women are portrayed as sexual adversaries. Less active students sexually would watch the programs with much zeal as compared to the more active students in their sexual life6.

Introduction

It can said that a few generations previous, people's grandparents and parents had a childhood full of hop scotch, jump rope, ring games for instance apple on the stick and attending to thing such as folk stories. However, light years later and through the creation of technology, television has turned into some popular form of art. This form…