Mart Vaher Essay

Is Today's Television A Source Of Entertainment Or A Source Of Information

 

 

I think that today's television is more a source of entertainment than a source of information, because people are more interested in things what gives them pleasure but care less about things what would give them important information. People's attitude towards life has changed in recent decades and that's why television is changed too. At the beginning televisions where used for telling people about the news, weather and politics but now it is more like a show business.

First of all I think that people are more interested in things what gives them more pleasure than just knowing the information. Usually in the news the information is always bad and makes people worry all the time. Too much negative information. Also even if there is something positive then people do not even care about it. For example if there would be a news about Juhan Parts being deceived by a bank then people would read it much more than a news about Kaia Kanep winning Wimbledon. People have changed because they are sick of listening to the negative things and now they look negative news from the different angle and are happy over it as long as it does not affect themselves.

Secondly television is now more used for commercials and TV shows than forwarding the news what is happening around us. I remember when  ,, Seitmesed Uudised,, showed actual news rather than some reporter is making an entertaining interviews for viewers. Also same thing is with MTV channel, 7 years ago it showed only music but now only reality shows where 16 years old stupid teenage girls are pregnant and do not know what to do with their life anymore.  Also in Estonia the most watched news are ,,Reporter,, because it is 1h long and 98% of it is entertainment not actual news what people need to know.

All in all there are also some TV shows and news what give people information instead of entertainment and people who want to know information can listen to them. For example ETV channel news are for information and on that channel is also ,, Riigikogu infotund,, where ministers are being questioned on live cast.  So television is still a little bit a source of information but not so much as it used to be in old days.

Finally I would say that people have changed and take serious information more like a joke because hearing all the negative news all the time is just frustrating and people try to make good out of it. All you hear in news at the moment is Greece going to hell and taking almost whole Europe with it. What I am trying to say is that even if television would be more source of information then not many people would watch it. So for me television is more a source of entertainment than a source of information.

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Tervitades,
Mart Vaher