Submitted to: - Submitted by:-

Mr. Brahm Prakash Chaturvedi Tanish Arora

305, B.A. (Hons.) Journalism
Third Year
Delhi College of Arts and
Commerce

TELEVISION: AN IDIOT BOX (FAVOUR)

TV!

As we hear this word, the first image which strikes our mind is of a box. A box, which acts as the
best alternative for conventional sources of information and entertainment. There is no denial
to the fact that it is the best alternative. But the question is, ‘Can the alternative be the best?’

To find the answer of the question, let’s go back to the time of the invention of TV. In the
1920s, TV was invented with the main objective of disseminating vital information to the large
number of audience in the audio-visual form. But, from 1920s to 2020s, the journey of TV has
changed the whole objective. Now, TV provides everything but not information. And, the culprit
behind is popularly known by the name of TRP. The commercialization of the television is the
main reason behind this shift. With the abundance of meaningful sources of information and
entertainment, TV content producers found it difficult to make the audience sit ideal inside 4
walls. So, for the sake of TRP, the producers made something which was not available earlier,
i.e. an easier way to sit ideal doing nothing.

Yes! The box which we call the alternative for entertainment has become the assassinator of all
the entertainment sources. Sports are no longer meant to keep you fit, but to gamble. Dinning
time is no longer the family time but the time to sit alone in one’s room and watching one’s
favorite genre. And, the case of its other objective, i.e. the information, is even worse. The so
called information providing news channels have turned into the propagandists, catering the
advertisers than the viewers.
 TELEVISION: AN IDIOT BOX (AGAINST)
Before discussing anything about the TV, let me first talk something about the human
psychology. Whenever, a human being observes any harm in oneself, then, instead of looking
the source of the harm in oneself, one looks outside for it. Same is the case with the TV.

The human being is considered as the master of converting a resource into an enemy. This is
what he/she has done with millions of resources, whether it is the biggest resource, i.e. nature
or others such as computers, mobile phones and infinitely others. The problem lies in the way
the human being uses it, and in the end the resource is blamed.

TV, which has hundreds of channels, to cater the infotainment needs of the viewers. And now,
in the smart era, it even has the option of OTT. The device, providing such a rich variety of
infotainment with an absolute choice in the hands of the viewer, is criticized not because the
device is an idiot but because the consumer is the one because it’s rightly said that too much of
anything is bad. And, hence, even the researches proving TV as the defaulter are self
contradictory as all of them end up providing the evidences for the harms of excess watching of
TV. So, who is watching the TV excessively?