Ethical judgments and persuasion in television

Ethics and Television

How has television influenced persuasion? Be sure to provide examples to illustrate your discussion. Which effect has been most significant?

Television has influenced persuasion in a number of different ways, but the most powerful way is by creating an easy means of creating familiarity. First, television has made it possible to repeatedly present images to a passive audience, so that it can use the simple power of repetition to help in the persuasion context. The textbook discusses elections and the idea that candidates with greater financial resources can afford more advertising. This advertising puts the candidate's name into the mind of the voters. Simply by repeating the message that people should vote for the candidate, even without giving substantive reasons to do so, increases the likelihood that people will vote for that candidate. Therefore, television, because it is both passive (does not require participation by the audience) and invasive (the messages come into the viewers' homes) is able to capitalize on its persuasive abilities.

Another way that television persuades people is by making the people on television seem familiar. NBC's Today Show broadcasts from a street level studio so that audience members could feel like they were part of the experience, a trend that other major networks continued. Likewise, local stations broadcast via remote feeds from locations other than the studio, which helps develop the feeling of a relationship between the audience and the broadcaster. The sense of familiarity makes the news source seem more credible, even though the entire relationship between the broadcaster and the audience is fictitious.

This same sense of familiarity helps television sell products to viewers without seeming to me engaged in marketing. The brands that the people on television wear, consume, drive, or have in their homes seem more desirable because they seem familiar to the viewing audience. Moreover, because a character who has come into their home likes a brand, people feel as if the brand somehow has that same trustworthiness, forgetting that, in many cases, these people are fictional characters.

2. Evaluate the various ways that our culture passes judgment on a persuader's ethics. At what level do you feel ethical judgments are most effectively made? What role do individuals play in influencing how our culture makes ethical discussions?

According to Baker and Martinson, there are five main ways that our culture passes judgment on a persuader's ethics. First, they evaluate the truthfulness of the message. Next, they evaluate the authentic of the persuader. Third, they determine the persuader's level of respect for the persuadee. Fourth, they examine the equity of the persuasive appeal. Finally, they look at the social responsibility for the common good of the action they are being urged to take. Combining all five elements together, a person is able to make a judgment about a persuader's ethics.