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¶ … Quality of Television Programming in the United Kingdom
During its heyday during the 1970s through the 1990s, British television programming help model the way in comedy, news reporting, action features and drama that remain influential today. Indeed, programs such as "Upstairs, Downstairs," "Doctor Who," "Fawlty Towers," and for "something completely different," Monty Python and its zany band of performers were enormously popular at home and abroad, especially in the United States where fan clubs for these shows still exist. Alas, the golden era of television programming in the United Kingdom appears to have faded in recent years, with current offerings representing poor substitutes for their former hits. This paper provides a review of the relevant literature to support the contention that the quality of television programming has declined in recent years, followed by a summary of the research in the conclusion.
Review and Discussion
During the 1970s, the quality of British television programming attracted growing interest...
Recent trends in television programming, though, reflect what Yates (2004) describes as "the societal, technological, and commercial changes that have affected the television structure in the United Kingdom" (p. 715). To its credit, current television programming efforts in the UK include discussions of minority issues and the provision of minority programming, as well as local and international news (Yates, 2004). Lawmakers in the UK have also taken steps to prevent advertisement of foods high in fat, sodium, and sugar in programming that is targeted at children under the age of 16 years (Darwin, 2009). There is a growing tendency to rely on sex and violence in UK television programming, though (Yates, 2004). In fact, despite the continuing popularity of British television programming at home and abroad at late as the 1990s, and as Blake, Lovegrove, Pride and Strauss (1999) point out, "Quality content alone doesn't win market share" (p. 18), and that trends in programming reflected a need to respond to competition from…
References
Balinksa, M. (2010, Fall). "It's the Audience, Stupid!' Using a New Approach to Storytelling
'We Managed to Broaden Our Audience, Expand Our Coverage And-This Is Critical-Not
"Dumb Down" in the Process.'" Nieman Reports, vol. 64, no. 3, pp. 16-19.
Blake, A.D., Lovegrove, N.C., Pryde, A. & Strauss, T. (1999, Autumn). "Keeping Baywatch at Bay." The McKinsey Quarterly, p. 18.
Television/Smarter Watching TV Makes You Smarter -- Really? A number of television programs of today are praised for their grittiness and realism. It is true that dramas such as Law and Order draw from real-life events, particularly ones whose circumstances and outcomes are controversial. Compared to the idealized families of Father Knows Best and The Brady Bunch, shows such as Modern Family portray likeable but flawed human beings whose problems are not
S. (Larson-Duyff, p.412). As cable television increased the availability of youth-oriented television programming and children spent even more time in front of the T.V., several sociologists made observations similar to those previously published in connection with the amount of advertising absorbed by children in connection with their exposure to violence on the screen (Henslin, p.67). According to them, constant exposure to violence on television, (even if it was mostly fictional), corresponded
TV Commercials The role of advertising, especially television commercials, in influencing social lifestyles has long been a raging debate between public interests groups, government and industry. Critics believe that advertising imagery, coupled with television programming, preys on susceptible minds. Pro-choicers, on the other hand, point out that freedom of speech and expression constitutes a basic, inviolable constitutional right, and that advertising merely facilitates consumers to exercise choice in their lifestyle decisions.
Cable television also opened up the medium to numerous types of television programming that had previously been excluded, simply because it could never have competed with the demand for mainstream types of programs during the same time slot. Initially, cable television was only available in the largest markets like New York and Los Angeles and it was priced out of the range of most consumers. The technology also required a cable
Quality of Television in the United States Television may be viewed as a potentially dangerous device, as a device that has no useful purpose although it is great in the area of entertainment and still others many view television as a tool for use in their daily living. Certainly, Hollywood never runs out of ways to entertain the masses and is very experienced at doing just that. Television entertainment plays
Television's Depiction Of American Family In The 1950s And 1960s Television depiction of the American family in the 1950s and early 1960s Television has for many years shaped the American society depending on the prevailing circumstances at that time. Ordinarily it is expected that television as a form of art would mimic the real life, but this has not always been true across the eras since at some point, television shaped and