George Gerbner was one of the former researchers to canvas how television sham the world . He conceive that TV shows were commune a lie about how awful aliveness is . Not one show . All of them put together .
If anyone know that the world could be knotty , George Gerbner know . He had fled Hungary in 1939 , seek to head for the hills fascism . In 1943 he returned , a soldier , botch up up bridges for the Allies . His brigade was reduced by over three - quarters by the last of the European warfare . This was not a man who saw the world through rose - touch glasses .
So when he was traumatize by the characterisation of the worldly concern that he saw on television set , it was n’t just naïveté . Gerbner had spend the fifties getting a doctorate in communication , and was one of the first researcher to look at how video shaped the public cognisance . In 1968 , he started sing about what he thought telly was doing to citizenry ’s picture of the world . The modern populace was suffering from “ Mean World Syndrome . ”

Sure , life was hard , but look at the television made it seem a lot laborious than it really was . multitude who spent a great deal of time watching television , he encounter , had an inaccurate picture of the world . They felt that vehemence , rottenness , and danger were more far-flung than they were in realism . And that was just the tip of the iceberg .
Gerbner found that the fictional world on idiot box was short of woman , except when it total to murder victims , where women far outnumbered man . The same applied to minorities , except for young , poor , man , who tended to be the villain . Other than villainy , hapless hoi polloi did n’t have much to do on screen . Anyone who was n’t middle - class or higher simply was n’t on television unless they were about to stab someone to end .
Gerbner believe that the violence and fright - pitch on boob tube was n’t just an verbal expression of the lowest common denominator of democratic taste , it was a method of social control . It made the great unwashed fearful , easily manipulated , and dependent on authority . They saw a scary world , they believe it , and they reacted accordingly .

If Gerbner is right , this is a society - wide job . There is no single television show , news program political program , or realness show , that is source of public misconceptions about the world . The grouping of all of them together is the job . People may be capable to process a show for defamation , or pick apart a show for misleading data , but there is no real way to fight against the medium in general selecting stories – fiction and nonfiction – that paint a lowering picture of the world . It is a kind of meta - lie that ca n’t be corrected .
Or can it ? This would credibly not earn Gerbner ’s approval , but if the aggregate media is telling a Trygve Lie , should there be some aggregated reception ? If people are so entirely off in their view of the dangers of crime , or of certain segment of beau monde , or of natural disasters , is there good in forcing the media to change ? Should authorities impel medium mercantile establishment to inform the public in such a way of life that people who consume medium will have a more exact view of the public , instead of a less accurate view of it ? Should there be meta - laws to battle the meta - lie ?
Obviously , this opens the doorway to propaganda , and stifles free speech . Even if such laws were act out , it ’s doubtful that they would actually mold . There ’s always an underground paper . There are always banned books in circulation . I do n’t believe it ’s a good approximation . But I have to marvel , is there good in restrict speech , if you know the speech you are restrict communicates a lie ?

[ ViaThe Atlantic , University of Texas . ]
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