Television today controls much more than just our time nowadays; it controls many of our actions and many of us actually depend on television everyday of our lives. Many of us use the television as a source of entertainment, but there are those individuals who use television as a source of information for commerce, as a guide for the weather and what they will wear for that day, or even for items such as daily horoscopes or stock quotes. From basic news programming and commercials, to full-length movies and weekly sitcoms, television has grown immensely. To say that television may have the power to affect our lives is most certainly an understatement. Television plays a major part in our lives some way or another. Either from the daily news, CNN stock quotes, or even daytime soap operas, television has become an essential element to almost the entire American culture. Without the television, some people could not go on living, whereas the others would just struggle.

Most individuals who own a television use it in its most standard fashions. To relax in front of a television after a long day of work to be comforted by the warmth of our own family, and a little sitcom to cheer you up and produce a smile upon your face has slowly become the standard for American living. Relaxing on weekends, watching your favorite sports teams go head to head, with snacks and a beer by your side has only become so routine for the household. Television has become such a routine aspect of life, that many individuals would most likely be lost without a TV in their own house. Television is a source of interests, interests that suit each individual needs. Some days there are times when an individual will want to watch NYPD Blue, or other days an old episode of Seinfeld. In times of boredom, television provides with easy entertainment. It is seemingly a way to watch people interact with each other, in a way that pleases us. Whether it is action, comedy, drama, or sci-fi, television fills our minds with entertainment that wasn’t there before.

Although entertainment is a main interest in owning a television one of the most used sources of the TV is news. The television news casting was spawned after radio shows that caught the attention of the users through sound waves. Once TV incorporated a picture into news casting, it quickly became a fad. The news on the television is one of the most valid ways to keep up to date with current events. News brings information directly into the household from all different areas. Tragedies that happen 3000 miles away or even from the other side of the globe can be watched on television. Especially at times like now, with the World Trade Center tragedy, the television has become a magnet to human eyes. America gazes on as fear the possibility of World War Three. People are continuously watching, knowing that if something extreme happened, the news would be the first place to show it. Often sometimes the media is considered as just a giant propaganda machine, and that our sources cannot always be valid. In times of war, most of the time the TV media is our only source of information. Even in wars very hidden from the media, such as the gulf war, we are still informed enough as to how we are doing. The media is a very useful resource for information regarding our country, something the United States seems to be very interested in.

Weather forecasting is another type of news casting that has become a very frequent service of the television. Parents going off to work in the morning will tune into the television to see how the weather is going to be for the day, so that they can pick out an appropriate outfit. Individuals are looking into the five-day forecast, just to make sure that they’re plans for the weekend won’t be disrupted by bad weather. It is just another way that news is brought to the television users in order to make the user tune in to their station, by providing them with helpful information, so that they, the television network, can make money themselves. Individuals that own a television have probably used this resource for their own needs. In fact, I can almost guarantee that weather predictions have played an important role on every individual’s life, at some point in their lives. Ask yourselves, when you left on vacation, did we make sure that the weather was alright before you went out and drove? When we went skiing or snowboarding, did we make sure that the weather was acceptable? Chances are that if you ski, or if you go on vacations, you have looked into weather forecasting in order to help you make decisions about your travel. Weather can be a major downfall to vacations, or even traveling conditions in general, and this resource is a major importance to television users.

Based on these reasons, it’s not hard at all to say that television most certainly does affect us. But does television affect us in a negative way? It’s hard to say whether or not television actually does affect us in a negative fashion because there is no clear proof that it does. Skeptics however will argue that television degrades some races in manners so malicious and falsified that it implies a negative stereotype of certain ethnicities. Authors like Patricia Raybon argue that television supports false stereotypes upon ethnicities, especially African Americans. She believes that television implies black people as illiterate crack addicts, who are whores and unintelligent. Obviously, this is not the way the black population actually is, but in her view is the way blacks are construed through television. Raybon continually discusses blacks shown in this matter, but from my personal television experience, blacks are not always construed this way. Shows such as The Cosby’s or The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, are both shows where African American’s are held in high places.

Raybon’s arguments are vague and lack awareness of television. There are two sides to every story, and for the most part in my opinion I don’t believe that TV is a way to produce extreme bias. Yes, I can say that stereotypes are presented in many cases, but this is only done through acting. It is just the acting of an individual through a made up character. No actor plays real life characters, obviously unless it’s an autobiography in which then you can only hope they play a truthful roll or else it isn’t so biographical. In fact, all of Raybon’s negative comments come from her own subtle opinions about the media, without any given examples. I find her arguments very vague, and all of her opinions come without any subtle backup whatsoever. For all we know, there is no paper describing her town as a "gang territory". Raybon’s arguments rely completely on the fact that we do not know whether or not she is telling the truth, or not, it is clearly just opinion. Raybon’s one example talks about one of Spike Lee’s films "Do The Right Thing" where Raybon argues that a New York City depicted as a addicts and drug pushers town is not really as so. However, Lee’s film is intended to be a purely fictional film, and is story based, not biographically based.

Author Joanmarie Kalter in her essay, "Exposing Media Myths: TV Doesn’t Affect You As Much As You Think" describes television as a great tool for information. I agree with Kalter in this sense as described above. People depend on news for many things, such as weather, or just general information for what’s going on in the world. News media is such a fantastic way to find out exactly what is going on in today’s world that to say TV is a bad source of information, is simply ridiculous.

However, Raybon proposes many issues about general entertainment on television. Her statement about stereotypes being set through television is not to far off to be false, but she at the same time has missed a big issue. Many adults have seen many things in the world, and have experiences lots of different people throughout their life; however the sheltered life of a child may be juristically affected by television. A simple minded child can learn from television, about cultures and races simply by watching because a young kid has yet to experience the real world. Television to young children can be very influential in how they construe races in the real world, whereas to change an adult’s mind with television can be an impossible process. To alter an adult’s mind through a television sitcom would be very rare, because of the experiences of adults in the real world, but a young mind is still growing, and the television can be used only as a source of growth for a child.

Television is a source of entertainment, and information. It provides individuals with hours of pleasure, self-satisfaction, and mounds of information that could only help a person to grow smarter and more knowledgeable about the world. However do not let these upsides to television fool you about the possible backfires of such a tool? It is used for our everyday information needs and our everyday entertainment. For young minds the stereotypes mentioned by Raybon can very possibly exist. The acting of actors and actresses play very influential and realistic roles about life, and to young minds this may be as close to the truth as they have found, and thus providing them with an information falsified to how the reality of the world really is. Most of the population would be absolutely LOST without television; however, and the stereotypes of people in televisions are generally taken as acting. However, it may be the job of parents to make sure that this is how acting is taken, and that the reality world of everyday life, and the virtual lives that we watch on television, are not combined to leave our minds in a warped state, stranded in a world in-between virtual and what is reality.