Research Paper

Television has shaped American culture by showing them the image of what the ideal “American Family” looks like. With shows like “Leave it to Beaver” people decided that this was the way that life should work. After laws concerning the way a divorce went about was changed many shows changed the aspect of how a family was supposed to look. TV shows began to show controversial relationships such as single parenting, same sex marriages, and interracial couples. The American people who were influenced by TV saw this as acceptable and once again life in America changed. With gay marriages and single parenting still on the rise more and more TV shows are airing the new ways of living. After “Greys Anatomy” was introduced to viewers on ABC the rise in nursing school graduates and entries shot up. People think that because a certain way of life it is being shown on TV that it’s how it is in reality. I used to like the show “Army Wives” until I realized that the life they were portraying to lead was so off course it was painful to watch. When news breaks out it is shown all over TV showing real footage shot from people in the crowd and people who saw terrible things in person. America feeds off negativity shown to the public. When news television first started airing live war footage and the news constantly poured in bad thoughts people stayed stuck to what was going to happen next which in my opinion may be why a lot of people stay in constant fear that something bad is going to happen. When people realized that all these bad things were all they were watching they turned to fantasy type TV shows to escape from what was going on in the real world. I think TV has shaped us all in negative and positive ways and even made us stronger as a country. When 9/11 hit America came together and was very closely knit for such a long time. It’s good to see the footage from different states that were dealing and coping with the same emotions and issues we all had. Sometimes you have to...