Midterm Exam: Question A

Jordan Bateson

CM 203.01

Midterm Exam: Question A

Due: June 25, 2012

The required reading for chapter 3, “The Next Room,” by Mitchell Stephens discusses the increase in digital media consumption over the past few decades. The extent of media available to consumers was at one point limited to print (newspapers, magazines, books, etc…) as well as media distributed via the radio. Television is a fairly new technology. The first full scale television came out in 1947 and a mere eight years later “half of all American homes had a black-and-white television set” (The Next Room, pg. 96).

The three major revolutions in communications include writing, print, and video. This article focuses on the video revolution and how the television has taken over and become the dominant force in media and its production and has remained that way for decades. This article also places focus on how the introduction of the television and video media has impacted the first two communications revolutions: writing and print.

The introduction of the television was huge and much more effective than words printed on a screen or regular still shots captured using a camera and placed in newspapers or other printed sources. Television media began to gain momentum and increase rapidly in popularity during the second half of the twentieth century. It began to look as though images and that sort of media were becoming more popular than the standard written media people were accustomed to.

One primary aspect of television media that sticks out and sets it apart from that of other sources such as computers, newspapers, magazines, radio, iPods, cell phones, Internet, email, skype, ect… is the fact that “no medium or technology, before or after, “penetrated,” as the researchers put it, our homes more quickly” (The Next Room, pg. 96). To put it into perspective, the spread of the telephone in American homes took almost eight times longer than the spread of the television into homes, making it a fast growing media outlet.

The extent of which American families have included the television in their lives and the lives of their families is drastic. American homes, on average, have the television on for 8 hours a day and people sit in front of it (doing nothing but watching) for an average of about 2-5 hours per day. This finding is huge. The amount of time Americans spend in front of the television converts to less time spent reading, interacting with family members by talking, less time studying, less time spent outside or on work and so on. Television has been shown to take time away from other important aspects of everyday life. Many Americans are beginning to feel overwhelmed with the amount of formal education given in school and the amount of reading that is required. This demand on students had pushed them away from reading in their spare time and towards the television.

An article in USA Today provided some interesting and informative statistics about media consumption in the United States. Kids in the United States spend a gargantuan amount of time with all different types of electronic media including cell phones, computers, iPods, video calling, text messaging, email, and so on. USA Today reports a study finding that adolescents spend on average 53 hours a week with electronic media. Also reported was the amount of free time kids spent listening to music, watching television, watching movies, or time spent in front of the computer. The numbers show that children spend 79 more minutes on average than those of the same age 10 years ago did on the previously stated types of electronic media consumption.

The Kaiser Family Foundation survey reported findings from a group of 2,002 participants ranging from the ages of 8-18 and their media consumption. The findings may seem surprising. The average person in the range 8-18 years old spends 7 hours and 38 minutes using media on any given day; this is an increase of 1 hour and 19 minutes per day from those 10 years earlier. The survey also reported “cell phone ownership has increased sharply since 2004, from 39% to 65%. Ownership of iPods has jumped even more since 2004, from 18% to 76%. Additionally, 20% of kids’ media comes via mobile devices” (USA Today: Kids’ electronic media use jumps to 53 hours a week). This information provides proof that the television isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.