Most of what we know about how the world works comes from the stories we are told. In recent decades, most of the stories have been created by the corporate elite and told though the corporate-owned mass media--especially TV. Researcher GEORGE GERBNER discusses how American TV distorts our understanding of the world.
Example: TV violence does not increase real-world violence. But it does make people more afraid of violence--and more supportive of harsh "anti-crime" measures. (See "Notes.")
Gerbners words--and the TV sound clips here--come from a 1997 educational video, "The Electronic Storyteller."
New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "Yum-Yum tree") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.
Gerbner's research found that the more you watch TV, the more afraid of your environment you're likely to be. And the more you watch, the more you are likely to believe that women are not as capable as men, that racism does not exist, that most Americans are middle-class, that most Black Americans are middle-class, that poverty is not a social problem, and that the cure for crime is more police, more jails, longer sentences, and more capital punishment.
Gerbner's career as a communications scholar included 25 years as Dean of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School of Communication (1964-1989). He died in 2005.
This installment is available also on The Internet Archive (www.archive.org).
More details, photos, great links, & other good stuff on the show's Web site: http://newworldnotes.blogspot.com
SERIES OVERVIEW -- Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for. "Date recorded," below, = date of first scheduled broadcast.
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