Technology and Power :: Essays Papers

Technology and Power TV-Y All children. The themes and elements in this weapons platform are specifically designed for a very offspring audience, including children from ages 2-6. TV-PG Parental guidance suggested. The program may contain infrequent vulgar language, limited violence, some suggestive inner dialogue and situations. TV-M Mature audiences only. This program may contain mature themes, profane language, graphic violence, and explicit sexual content (Craig ). These are just a few examples of the new order system passed by the US Federal Communications Commission in January 1997. What television shows are appropriate for different age groups has been decided by the government. Is it not still up to the parents to decide what television their children will hold over? In addition to the TV evaluates that are now displayed at the detonate of each show, in the upper left hand corner, they now have tautological defining ratings. These include such things as V for violence, L for violative language, and D for dialoguesexual innuendo (Craig). At first glance, these types of ratings may seem like a good idea. All the responsibility of modulate a childs television viewing is g iodine, but this is not the case. Each rating is assigned by the shows producers, but there is no formal come of guidelines to apply. (NCTV). So it is not the government regulating television shows and setting standards for FCC ratings, it is the shows producers. This is something that many people may not realize when they sit down to watch a show and await the icon to appear in the left-hand corner of the television screen. There are many criticisms that go along with the validity of these ratings. For starters, violence, sex, and language are all placed in one category, for mature audiences. This gives us an extremely jaded view of what the show actually contains. There is violence in almost every news broadcast, which do not use the rating system, and some may fee l a show containing a similar amount of violence is not categorise as mature. Also, each TV icon is displayed for only thirty seconds during the curtain raising credits of the show. How many of us actually get to see the opening credits of every television show we watch? Media analyst, George Gerbner has established a set of four major problems with FCC television ratings. First, it does not work.