SCORE Paper Final Draft

Eileen McTiernan

Score Paper

5-4-13

The Effects of Television Media on Viewers

The Problem and Resolve

Score Advisor

Mrs. Edgerton

Since adolescence, peoples’ minds have been imbued with the influences around them. Whether family or religious influences, these gigantic parts of their lives dictate the outcome of their thought process and opinions. The biggest power looming over the developing mind in this century is media. Monitors light up a persons eyes even before they are able learn how to walk, allowing one to grow accustomed to making this source of media something that one counts on every day. The second biggest form of media is television, with the internet first respectively. Currently, Americans spend thirty four hours a week watching television: a number that is only going to rise [1]. Because of all of the time spent in front of this quintessential part of a person’s day, most humans count on television as a source of information, advice, and for role models in some circumstances. Youth accustomed to television programs tend to find similarities and aspirations in fictional characters in shows, influencing their development and habits for their later years. With televisions having the power to control the type of person an individual can be, this can become a serious issue with what is shown on television. Social interaction on television shows such as reality TV can teach a child violence in a manner that depicts it as normal or even seen as cool. Eating habits of characters or depiction of obesity on a television show can lead massive movements of eating disorders in a viewer audience, inflicting damage physically and/or psychologically on a person just trying to live up to what is smiled upon on the screen. Drug use among teenagers or children can easily increase or decrease by simply what a character in a drama show decides to do. Television watching in general can have detrimental effects on the developing mind, teaching children three years or younger poor social interaction skills, and preventing them from growing accustomed to their real environment. Television can affect the outcome of a generation more than people think, giving it power to infiltrate the minds and actions of someone simply to get a profit. Without awareness of how the television media can mold a developing mind into what it wants, from what it drinks to what it wears, the population has no way of filtering what is to be seen. By limiting the mind control this media has, they can prevent mental damage to viewers so that they can be their own person.

The correlation between the viewers of television and the readers of this research paper are more intertwined than one might think. The readers of this research paper probably also all fall into the viewer category. Everyone reading has watched television at least sometime in their life creating them into a viewer as well.  Because of this, every situation brought up in the paper will directly affect the reader in some way. This makes the topic immensely important to the people reading, so the information given should be absorbed by the reader in order to learn from the report given.

It is no secret that television affects the minds of viewers, the only thing that isn't realized is how much it actually does. In the article, Television Viewing and Forms of Bullying among Adolescents from Eight Countries, from Journal of Adolescent Health the reader can find that “By the mid-1980s, 65% of the participants of an American study agreed that their worldview was formed mainly through television” contrary to seeing it for themselves [2]. Of course everyone cannot set out and explore the world on their own, but being at the mercy of what the television depicts is not the best alternative. Television Viewers typically see the world as a more beastly place than it really is. One study from Hawkins and Pingree, two literary philosophers, studies 1,280 elementary students in Australia about the portrayal of their country. They would place some children in front of the television and some not, both groups filling out diaries and questionnaires. The children with the television based view of Australia saw it as a more mean and violent place, contrary to the children who did not watch the television. This experiment is a prime example of two theories about the effects on television on viewers: The Agenda-Setting theory and the cultivation theory.  

The Agenda-Setting theory is a theory proposed by Walter Lippmann, a newspaper columnist dating back to 1922,  That said that the “media plays an influential part in how issues gain public attention” [3]. This means that public issues are created by the media; viewers learn not only about an issue but also how much importance is attached to that issue from the amount of information in a news story and its position. With this power it’s no wonder that the children in the Hawkins and Pingree experiment saw Australia as a more harsh place because typically only grotesque stories get the most publicity on television. With media agenda fueling the public agenda, Television is able to create the scenarios that should be talked or cared about more, turning public thought into just an echo of the media.

The Cultivation theory was created by George Gerbner, a professor of communication, stating that television actually has the power the influence the viewers reality and is “primarily responsible for [one’s] perceptions of day-to-day norms and reality” [3]. His research stated that the more heavily someone watched television, the more they picture the world as a fearful place. This can lead to viewers mistrusting the world and people, creating possible violence. From the article Early Television Exposure and Subsequent Attentional Problems in Children, from the Department of Pediatrics in the University of Washington, studies have shown that having exposure to television viewing at age four can be associated with being a bully at ages six through eleven years [4]. With growing minds, what children see on the Television can directly affect their actions, and when it is later night, more violent show the worse the outcome can be.

The article previously mentioned, Television Viewing and Forms of Bullying among Adolescents from Eight Countries, from the journal of adolescent health, they constructed an experiment to see how much television actually effects bullying in elementary school. They studied children in 2001-2002 from the countries of: Canada, Estonia, Israel, Latvia, Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, and the United States. What they did was hand out questionnaires on how much television a child watches on weekdays and weekends [2]. They make this division because when children stay up late on weekends they are exposed to shows that are meant primarily for adults, a show that may be more violent than what a child should see. The forms of bullying were categorized into three sections: name calling, rumor spreading, and physical contact. This is the result of the study:

Children in all eight countries watch an average of three to four hours of television in the week, with an additional hour on weekends, the only country that has higher numbers in the week is Israel. The results show a worrisome outcome, clearly stating that the more television watched, typically more bullying is done. Another result shown is that although all the forms of bullying were analyzed, the verbal forms are the most significant. With all of the countries, frequent television watchers are prone to do more name calling, more rumor spreading, and more teasing of other children.

Television shows are obviously not hoping for this outcome of children hurting other children influenced by something they have seen on television, it’s due to the obscene amounts of television being watched by a younger and younger audience. There is a rapid change of tastes in television for more older viewers, throwing this media into a dark state. Most of the shows on television are drastically more violent than what was on less than a decade ago. Reality Television shows such as Big Brother in the 1990’s would kick a star out of the show if a physical outburst has occured. Today, the show harbors nothing but violence in order to reel in viewers and keep ratings up [5]. If violence in television shows do not go down or viewing restriction for adolescents, television will continue to be one of the leading causes of the increase in violence among children and adults, creating the world into a more fearful place.

While advertising wreaks havoc on Television, viewers sit idly by becoming consumers to what image is shown on their screen. One of the biggest double-edged swords that is shown on television is the perception of obesity. While there are numerous advertisements for dieting and exercise, there are countless of other advertisements for high calorie non nutrient foods. On top of all this, the perception of obesity in television shows can deconstruct the self confidence of an individual.

In the research report, Priming Effects of Television Food Advertising on Eating Behavior, by Jennifer L. Harris, John A. Bargh, and Kelly D. Brownell, they carried out an experiment on both children and adults on the effects of eating habits after television viewing. In the first experiment, elementary school children were placed in front of a television either watching a cartoon with food advertisements or advertising for other products. The children were also given a snack while watching said programming. The results show that “children consumed 45% more when exposed to food advertising” [6]. In the Second experiment, “adults watched a television program that included food advertising that promoted snacking and/or fun product benefits, food advertising that promoted nutrition benefits or no food advertising” and recorded the results [6]. The adults after then taste tested both healthy and calorie rich snacks. After watching television, the adults consumed far more of both snacks than the one ones who didn't watch television. Both of these experiments show that just being exposed to copious amounts of food advertisements alone raise one’s desire to binge in return increasing obesity in television viewers. Today, children are on average exposed to fifteen food ads on television, and 98% of these ads are for unhealthy, fatty foods [7]. While children are primarily affected the most from these advertisements, adults do not escape the advertisment’s messages either. The best way to escape this subliminal contamination is to first raise awareness of this grasp advertisement has on the community and then lift the motivation of the population to stop it.

Along with the hundreds of food advertisement flashing on a person’s television screen, countless dietary supplement ads, television shows, and weight loss programs push the idea that obesity is disgusting into the minds of viewers. When america entered the 21st century, ideas and thoughts on human interaction and body image have changed dramatically. The media provides ideas on true beauty for the viewers, filling their minds with goals and perspectives that are near impossible to reach. Judgement has increased on television along with the strive for the media’s perfection. Television shows like The Biggest Loser and America’s Next Top Model are prime examples of exploiting others for showing viewers what true beauty is, along with entertainment value.

One study done by the Staff of the Federal Trade Commission, titled Weight-Loss Advertising An Analysis of Current Trends shows the increase in advertisements for weight loss over the course of nine years. They selected five magazines: Family Circle, Cosmopolitan, Women’s Day, Glamour, McCall’s, Ladies Home Journal, Self, and Redbook to document how many times they bring up weight loss. the FTC documented ad placement, actual ads, and products. The outcome was rather alarming.

Over course of nine years most of the ads doubled in all of the magazines. All readers were bombarded with more solutions to live up to the perfect image the media has created. From the graph the reader can see that “the number of times weight-loss advertisements appeared in these magazines increased 129%, the number of distinct advertisements increased 212%, and the number of products increased 157%” over a time period of not even a decade [8]. This is just one example of the increase in diet advertising in all media. With this as solid proof of the increase in magazines, one can infer that there was a dramatic spike in all forms of media, such as television. Advertisements are on the rise, talk shows are constantly bringing in specialists to teach the viewers how to “look good”, and shows are born revolving around weight loss or changing ones image. As viewers are shown the media’s body image to live up to while swimming in a sea of ads promoting fatty foods, Television creates a paradox that they fall into. If viewers were able to break the grasp that television has on the definition of beautiful and raise their self confidence, then the world revolving around the media could make a step towards eradicating the excessive power television holds.

Its no shock that what one surround themselves with effects some of the choices one makes. What one does not understand is the magnitude it has on the growing mind and the human behavior on its own. So far the topics discussed in this paper have been violence and body image, and the mild physical damage or large mental damage that can be caused. What hasn’t been brought up yet is the alarming effect it can have on human life itself. Drug references are scattered across television shows, primarily popular ones. These shows typically show cool, attractive people doing a wide variety of drugs. Because of this viewers, typically ones with still developing minds, learn and even try to copy from the fictional characters who they see as a role model. One only needs to look at trending shows to see the amount of drug use being seen by viewers. Three of the the current top five television shows listed on IMDb have massive amounts of violence, two of the shows literally revolving around drugs [9]. Whether being exposed to drug use in public or on television, viewers cannot escape its presence. The issue that arises is how the Television portrays drug users and how that will affect viewers.

Typically its hard to document if a television show actually affects drug overdoses or not due to the fact that once never really can document both before and after the broadcast. This is true because the public rarely knows what will happen in a television episode of any show weeks in advance.

This was not the case for an episode of the British television show Casualty. Weeks before an episode was to be aired, the public was informed  that there would be a serious drug overdose for one of the characters coming up. Seeing a chance professor of psychiatry at Oxford, Keith Hawton, decided to see how much this will affect drug overdoses in reality. He assembled a research crew and wrote a paper titled Effects of a drug overdose in a television drama on presentations to hospital for self poisoning: time series and questionnaire study. With this experiment, readers are able to see the truth behind the repercussions of drug use in Television shows.  

Forty nine large accident and emergency departments in the United kingdom were chosen to give data on the number of drug overdoses they had three weeks before the television show episode of Casualty and three weeks after. All of this research was done in October - November in 1996. The clinics were also asked to fill out questionnaires about the patient with the questions as followed : their age, their sex, the time of their O.D., the drug they used, if they are viewers of the show Casualty, and history of drug abuse.

In the first three weeks, 2,127 patients were treated for drug overdoses and by the end of the last three weeks the number increased to 2,276 patients. The graphs to the left simply shows the overdoes over the course of six weeks. One graph is for overdoses from paracetamol which is the drug used on the episode of Casualty, the other graph is for overdoses on other drugs, and the last one is for the total drug overdoses. As one can see, after the television show the number of O.D.s either stayed the same or increased during the following weeks. The paper explains that “self poisoning rates were 17% higher in first week after the broadcast, 9% higher in the second week, and returned to the baseline level in the third week” after the broadcast of Casualty [10].

Out of the patients after the episode aired, thirty two were interviewed. All of the interviewed patients had seen the episode and from that thirty two 20% admitted that the show influenced them to have a drug overdose. Of the interviewed 17% said that the episode of Casualty influenced their decision for the choice of drug being paracetamol making the use of that drug for overdosing double the old rate.

What can be inferred from the research paper Effects of a drug overdose in a television drama on presentations to hospital for self poisoning is that popular shows that introduce the abuse of drugs can create devastating short term effects of spikes in drug overdoses. Viewers need to be wary of not always interpreting what they see on the screen as a proper thing to do. Although this research was from 1996, the repercussions of having an O.D. in a television show has stayed the same if not increased. The amount of gore, violence, and drug use in television shows has transformed in the last few years, ushering a new era of television.

This problem holds importance to readers because the all of the readers watch television, hence are exposed to this kind of atrocity on the screen. Even if the reader is smart enough to not copy what is seen on television, they must be able to also protect their children or younger siblings from falling into the fictional reality that everything on television is socially acceptable.

Too much television for any age is not considered healthy, but when toddlers or younger view too much television, the repercussions are much larger. Over exposure to television or any screen between the ages of zero to three create problems in development. When one has implications in development, the outcomes massively affect a person for the rest of their lives.

During an interview with one of the top rated pediatricians in America, Dr. Paul Thomas from Portland, Oregon, The doctor was asked questions about the effects of brain development for a child zero to three years while being exposed to television. Dr. Thomas explains that children between the age of zero to two undergo the fastest development a human goes through in the course of a couple of years. Within that time the infant is able to learn how to roll, crawl and just grow accustomed to their surroundings. When the child is around television, it takes away time from them interacting with their environment, delaying their development [11]. Children need this time to grow and learn attention skills, movement, and speech; with this massive distraction their minds are stunted. Time spent watching television is also time spent away from parents. If a television is on in a household words spoken to a child from a parent is reduced from 1000 per hour to only 200 per hour [11]. Although the content of the television program does not matter for infants, the older they get the more power what they are watching has. Because a child is still developing their minds and finding out their personality and interests, typically a child is seen manifesting what they see on television. By the end of the interview the biggest thing one needs to get out of the information is the solution to these problems that may arise in a zero to three year old is simply to not introduce them to television until an older age.

In another interview about the effect of young kids watching televison, a senior clumnist from educationnews.org was able to talk to Fredrick Zimmerman, an assosiate proffesor of pediatrics at the Univeristy of Washington in Seatle. In his research he was able to find that out of one thousand children ages two to twenty-four months, by three months 40% are already regular viewers of video games or television. By twenty-four months this number rises to 90% [12]. Out of all of the questions asked, this was the only statement that was based on solid fact. Zimmerman answers mostly the same way in numerous questions such as: What do you see as the major detrimental effects of excessive television watching or In your mind, how does all this TV watching affect the development of young infants or In your opinion, how do all these video games affect the physical development of young children. All of the answers in some way were brought back to the fact that there is not enough research available to draw too many conclusions. Enough evidence is there that shows that television can negatively affect a viewer, but there is not enough information is there to explain how. Part of the reason why there is not enough research is because of the little amount of knowledge the public has on the topic of the effects of television media on viewers. When the viewers of television come to the realization or are told about the astonishing amount of negative impacts it has limitations on research funding or publicity will eradicate, allowing for everyone to know the complete truth about the past time that so many have come to depend on.

Due to the setback of the little amount of awareness the topic of how the television media effects viewers, some questions are left unanswered. The public still does not know exactly how the television companies are able to completely soak into the mind of a viewer, they just vaguely know that it happens. Even if awareness skyrocketed and people wanted to make a change to what is seen on television, and how much of it, another question arises. If limitations are put on, how will the television companies react? If these limitations are successful what will happen to advertisement or content of television shows? Most of these theoretical questions rely on a chain or events to unfold to usher forth a permanent change to the television the people have now. Hopefully this paper can help make a spark to ignite the transformation of what appears on society’s television screen.

When the wave of television hit the public in the mid-twentieth century, the new form of entertainment enveloped the society creating it the number one form of media. Today, the television still is one of the most popular forms of media, the problem it causes lies on the content. Television has grown into an incredibly revealing, harsh outlet that has begun to do more harm than good for the public. The television media has begun to exploit the alarming power they have over viewers, creating problems ranging from developmental defects to physically harmful tendencies that may end in death. There is no question about the supremacy this media has on the personalities, social interactions, thought process, and self esteem of viewers. What needs to happen is people must have a revelation and come to the reality that the television media has too much control; it forms a bind to society and television media. This bind makes the viewers become the embodiment of the television media. Once the power is eradicated, television will stop shaping the society the public lives in. When this happens, the world will be able to become a more independent thinking, humane place to grow and live.

Works Cited

Cleland, Richard L., Walter C. Gross, Laura D. Koss, Matthew Daynard, and Karen M. Muoio. Weight-loss Advertising: An Analysis of Current Trends. 2002 ed. Washington, DC: U.S. FTC, 2002. Print.

Dohnt, Hayley, and Marika Tiggemann. "The Contribution of Peer and Media Influences to the Development of Body Satisfaction and Self-esteem in Young Girls: A Prospective Study." Developmental Psychology 42.5 (2006): 929-36. Print.

Durie, Eric. "Literature Review." Literature Review. N.p., 27 Feb. 2002. Web. 10 May 2013. <http://www.ou.edu/deptcomm/dodjcc/groups/02B2/Literature_Review.html>.

Harris, Jennifer L., John A. Bargh, and Kelly D. Brownell. "Priming Effects of Television Food Advertising on Eating Behavior." Health Psychology 28.4 (2009): 404-13. Print.

Hawton, Keith. "Effects of a Drug Overdose in a Television Drama on Presentations to Hospital for Self Poisoning: Time Series and Questionnaire Study." Effects of a Drug Overdose in a Television Drama on Presentations to Hospital for Self Poisoning: Time Series and Questionnaire Study 318:972 (1999): n. pag. BMJ. Web. 17 May 2013. <http://www.bmj.com/content/318/7189/972>.

Healy, J. M. "Early Television Exposure and Subsequent Attention Problems in Children." Pediatrics 113.4 (2004): 917-18. Print.

"Highest Rated TV Series With At Least 5,000 Votes." IMDb. IMDb.com, 15 May 2013. Web. 15 May 2013. <http://www.imdb.com/search/title?num_votes=5000,>.

Hinckley, David. "Americans Spend 34 Hours a Week Watching TV, According to Nielsen Numbers." Http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/americans-spend-34-hours-week-watching-tv-nielsen-numbers-article-1.1162285 [4 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004 Read More: Http://www.nydailynews.com/services/contact-us#ixzz2UB97UYoi] 19 Sept. 2012: n. pag. Print.

Pickett, William, Mary Overpeck, Wendy Craig, William Boyce, and Margarida Gaspar De Matos. "Television Viewing and Forms of Bullying among Adolescents from Eight Countries." Journal of Adolescent Health. By Emmanuel Kuntsche. 2006 ed. Vol. 39. Atlanta, GA: Elsevier, 2006. 908-15. Print.

Powell, L. M., G. Szczypka, F. J. Chaloupka, and C. L. Braunschweig. "Nutritional Content of Television Food Advertisements Seen by Children and Adolescents in the United States." Pediatrics 120.3 (2007): 576-83. Print.

Reality Show Violence Getting Too Real? Prod. ABC Nightline. Perf. Jayde Nicole, Stacy Kaiser, Holly Madison. Reality Show Violence Getting Too Real? ABC Nightline, 30 Mar. 2011. Web. 13 May 2013. <http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/reality-tv-show-violence-real-life-consequences-teen/story?id=13256971#.UZgqWCvwIhw>.

Thomas, Paul, MD. "Effects of Television On Young Children (Interview With Top Voted Pediatrician)." Interview. Http://www.youtube.com/user/paulthomasmd. Youtube, 10 Apr. 2013. Web. 7 May 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaR48W_BlsA>.

Zimmerman, Fredrick. "An Interview with Frederick Zimmerman: Young Kids Watching T.V." Interview by Michael F. Shaughnessy. Education News 9 May 2007: n. pag. Educationnews.com. Web. 17 May 2013. <http://www.educationnews.org/articles/11217/1/An-Interview-with-Frederick-Zimmerman-Young-Kids-Watching-TV/Page1.html>.

____________________

[1] Hinckley, David. "Americans Spend 34 Hours a Week Watching TV, According to Nielsen Numbers." Http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/americans-spend-34-hours-week-watching-tv-nielsen-numbers-article-1.1162285 [4 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004 Read More: Http://www.nydailynews.com/services/contact-us#ixzz2UB97UYoi] 19 Sept. 2012: n. pag. Print.

[2] Pickett, William, Mary Overpeck, Wendy Craig, William Boyce, and Margarida Gaspar De Matos. "Television Viewing and Forms of Bullying among Adolescents from Eight Countries." Journal of Adolescent Health. By Emmanuel Kuntsche. 2006 ed. Vol. 39. Atlanta, GA: Elsevier, 2006. 908-15. Print.

[3] Durie, Eric. "Literature Review." Literature Review. N.p., 27 Feb. 2002. Web. 10 May 2013. <http://www.ou.edu/deptcomm/dodjcc/groups/02B2/Literature_Review.html>.

[4] Healy, J. M. "Early Television Exposure and Subsequent Attention Problems in Children." Pediatrics 113.4 (2004): 917-18. Print.

[5] Reality Show Violence Getting Too Real? Prod. ABC Nightline. Perf. Jayde Nicole, Stacy Kaiser, Holly Madison. Reality Show Violence Getting Too Real? ABC Nightline, 30 Mar. 2011. Web. 13 May 2013. <http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/reality-tv-show-violence-real-life-consequences-teen/story?id=13256971#.UZgqWCvwIhw>.

[6] Harris, Jennifer L., John A. Bargh, and Kelly D. Brownell. "Priming Effects of Television Food Advertising on Eating Behavior." Health Psychology 28.4 (2009): 404-13. Print.

[7] Powell, L. M., G. Szczypka, F. J. Chaloupka, and C. L. Braunschweig. "Nutritional Content of Television Food Advertisements Seen by Children and Adolescents in the United States." Pediatrics 120.3 (2007): 576-83. Print.

[8] Cleland, Richard L., Walter C. Gross, Laura D. Koss, Matthew Daynard, and Karen M. Muoio. Weight-loss Advertising: An Analysis of Current Trends. 2002 ed. Washington, DC: U.S. FTC, 2002. Print.

[9] "Highest Rated TV Series With At Least 5,000 Votes." IMDb. IMDb.com, 15 May 2013. Web. 15 May 2013. <http://www.imdb.com/search/title?num_votes=5000,>.

[10] Hawton, Keith. "Effects of a Drug Overdose in a Television Drama on Presentations to Hospital for Self Poisoning: Time Series and Questionnaire Study." Effects of a Drug Overdose in a Television Drama on Presentations to Hospital for Self Poisoning: Time Series and Questionnaire Study 318:972 (1999): n. pag. BMJ. Web. 17 May 2013. <http://www.bmj.com/content/318/7189/972>.

[11] Thomas, Paul, MD. "Effects of Television On Young Children (Interview With Top Voted Pediatrician)." Interview. Http://www.youtube.com/user/paulthomasmd. Youtube, 10 Apr. 2013. Web. 7 May 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaR48W_BlsA>.

[12] Zimmerman, Fredrick. "An Interview with Frederick Zimmerman: Young Kids Watching T.V." Interview by Michael F. Shaughnessy. Education News 9 May 2007: n. pag. Educationnews.com. Web. 17 May 2013. <http://www.educationnews.org/articles/11217/1/An-Interview-with-Frederick-Zimmerman-Young-Kids-Watching-TV/Page1.html>.

Eileen: Post 21 (15)

Last sunday I completed my last in the field shoot at the Essex County Club in Manchester. The shoot was mostly for showing what the gloucester middle school has been up to, and also a mini eulogy for a couple of people prominent through the county club recently passing. the shoot lasted from 8:00 - 9:30 so they packed in quite a bit.

When I arrived they already had a place for me to set up picked out, which at first I thought was pretty nice. To my dismay, it was not. They placed me in the corner out of the way of the tables, facing all of the windows, right next to the buffet. My boss Lisa said there was going to be food there, as a way to coax me into doing an 8:00 shoot, but she didn't say anything about eating it. There really was no place for me to sit nor could I leave the equipment so here I was standing next to delicious food not able to eat any. The worst part about being next to the buffet though was that there were so many people around, I couldn't set up until everyone was clear of the buffet and were sitting at their seats. Of course once everyone was in their seats they immediately start the ceremony. I had to scramble to put the tripod in place and once the camera was turned on I immediately pressed record.

This is when I got hard. Because I was facing all of the windows, I got such a huge backlight that the people at the podium were completely silhouetted. Unfortunately this takes some time to fix and I couldn't stop recording to do it so I needed to do I while recording. To most people this task would be near impossible because you would need to switch the camera to manual, but I've been around long enough to figure out what to fiddle with. I had to shoot up the iris and gain, forcing light particles in to the picture. I was able to fix the picture, but at the cost of white spots showing up in the video. After I finished I was able to fiddle with the first 10 minutes of just silhouettes in final cut to make them match up with the rest of the footage.

A rule that any photographer or filmmaker needs to know: Never face a window unless you want a silhouette. If you take anything away from this post that is the most important thing to take to mind.

Eileen: Post 20 (14)

Due to my last post I might as well finish the story about Don Campbell and his emanate demise. A couple of days after his speech was filmed the big debate happend between Eliza Lucas. The best way to describe the debate was a complete domination from one of the candidates. That candidate is not the one that may have first come to mind.

During the debate, Don completely creamed Eliza. Eliza Lucas was this well meaning, motherly figure who owns Top Dog out on bearskin neck. She's really nice and the hopes she had for Rockport were all well-meaning; It was clear that she was running just because she would love to be more involved in her community and help the people. Don unfortunately was not the nurturing sweetheart Eliza was. He was no foreigner to politics and was able to speak with force and perfection on the topics that were brought up. Multiple times he would claim to do something and aggrandize it as the obvious right choice of the matter, then he himself would fire the question at Eliza to see if she would do the exact same thing. If she didn't he would scoff and belittle poor Eliza, leaving her rattled and self conscious about the matters. My coworker/boss Andrew and I were both feeling bad for Eliza in the studio and hoped that she would get redemption.

By the end of the night, you could see the full transformation of the wide-eyed, hopeful Eliza turn into the crushed and defeated candidate barely having any parting words for the final goodbyes on air. By the end of the night, the election didn't look good for Eliza.

Fortunatly, you can always count on human kind's love for hot dogs to turn around an election. In the end, Eliza Lucas won in a landslide due to all of her supporters and her delicious food. From this experience I learned about the horrors of politicians and for the most part how to deal with them. I can't say I would like to go through it again, but at least next time I will be prepared for whats coming.

Eileen: Post 19 (13)

Like I have mentioned before, my age occasionally gets in the way of being taken seriously in film and television. One of the most alarming examples of this was a couple of weeks ago during the voting for the rockport selectman.

The two runners were a man and a woman, Eliza and Don if I remember correctly. Anyway, each candidate was allowed to do a 5 minute speech to be broadcasted on Cape Ann TV to tell the public why to vote for them. The candidate comes in and has half an hour to do as many takes as they want to try to find the best one. This means that the candidate can do it six times if they want to use the full five minutes.

After coming back from a late night on the field shoot, I decided to stop by the Station late at night to return the equipment so I don't have to deal with it in the morning. When I walk in I realize that one of the candidates, Don, was doing his speech. My coworker/boss Andrew needed at least one person in the set and one in the studio so he asked if I could help. I agreed, it can only be 30 minutes so it wont be that bad. I helped out with Elizas so it probably will be exactly the same. Wrong. The guy was so full of himself (like most politicians). He would get 90% of his speech in before he just stopped without finishing it, making it completely useless to use. The man brought in que cards and an easel with him so he can be official. Andrew was running the one camera and I was running audio in the studio. After more than 4 messed up speeches he continually blames the que cards until he comes up with a brilliant idea. He asked If I could come out of the booth, its not like I was doing anything important (that statement is a joke), and hold up his que cards for him. Both Andrew and I politely say no, to his response being, "It's not like the girl is doing a job in there." We both said no again and he attempts to go through another speech. By the end of 30 minutes for a three or four minute speech, Don only had one speech that he could use. When we told him that he was out out time he whined and negotiated, to which we simply put our foots down. We couldn't give him the better advantage over his opponent by allowing him more time. He finally stopped and we striked down the set. When we were all geting ready to leave, Don demands that he has the final copy by tomorrow morning. Both Andrew and I just look at him again. Theoretically we could have it done by then if we dropped everything that we are doing and edit it for him but there was no way we were doing that. After we told him no multiple times he finally left. The next few mornings Cape Ann TV kept geting bombarded by Don asking when his copy will be ready. After a couple of days it was finally done and he went on his merry way. Both Andrew and I hoped that a guy that rude wouldn't win.

Eileen: Post 18 (12)

Yesterday while directing one of the scariest things during a shoot happend. Before I get into what happend, I'll first set the scene so the reader better understands the situation.

I was directing that shoot, but the Cape Ann TV directing so I was actually technical directing. My coworker/boss Andrew was assistant director, Charlotte Fackre was my audio, two teenagers were my CG and cameraman and the last person was a new volunteer who's in college who is from the czech republic. The Shoot was Superintendent's corner so it was just a full 28 minutes with no breaks. Before the show started a stressed multiple times for cell phones to be off. A couple of weeks ago when I directed this shoot before the host's phone literally went off in the middle of the shoot and he texted back. It was actually sort of hilarious. I didn't want this to happen again so I wanted to make perfectly sure that nothing would ruin the relatively easy shoot. Boy was I wrong.

About seven minutes into the shoot, the backlights literally failed. This doesnt mean that the the entire set was black, only the back drop. They went from talking with a deep blue curtain behind them to basically floating in darkness. This isnt a reoccuring thing so we didnt know if we should cut the shoot and restart or not. I made the choice to keep going and make Andrew jump on the lighting board and fuses to try to fix it. My thinking was even if we cut it, there isn't a sure fix to it and it may happen again or we wont be able to fix it at all, so I decided to keep going. Andrew was able to fix it a little bit and we were able to finish the shoot. In the end the shoot went well aside from the horrendous lighting and we were able to get out of there at the time we hoped. The only problem is that we dont know why they failed and we dont know how to prevent it from happening again. Just more adventures for later.

Eileen: Post 17 (11)

Last weekend I did yet another on the field shoot for my score project. This time is was for Gloucester good samaritan awards at the universalist church. I actually knew quite a bit of people there. The awards ranged from builders rebuilding a landmark to people in the art community who flourished the art scene here. Basically the awards are given out to people who have bettered the community for tourism and whatnot. The church was rather small, and there was a balcony in the back. Apparently its been around since the mid eighteenth century, so it had a really worn in vibe to it.

 When I arrived I found the person in charge and told them where I'm from and why I'm here. Because of it I was allowed to go up to the balcony to get a better shot. No one was allowed up there primarily because of safety reasons. This is a good example of one of the many reasons I like film. Typically you are able to go behind the scenes or some place the public is not allowed. Because of the safety reasons, I probably shouldn't have been up there either but It was nice being left alone and having nothing getting picked up on the mic except for what needs to be due to the silence around me. 

The shoot was extremely quick and I was able to leave in less than two hours. There wasn't much to film so I basically just had to point the camera at where the action was and stood there waiting for it to be over. This happens from time to time and it is a good reason why I don't like on the field work that much. Sometimes its loads of fun and sometimes it's just not. 

Eileen: Post 16 (10)

Remember how I said I hoped that I dont have to do Local Music Seen again? Hoping doesn't help that much. Cape Ann TV was in a bind for another cameraman and I didn't mind putting on more hours so I accepted to helping, not wanting to let them down.

Once again I was camera 2. Oh camera 2, how much I loath you. At least with local music seen camera 2 isn't always stationary. You sometimes get a one shot instead of a two shot, meaning instead of two people in the shot you just get one, and once in a blue moon you're able to do close ups of the guitars. The problem I always run into is that while I have my perfectly fine two person shot one of the other mad men camera people truck their camera like a child flying down an isle with a shopping cart and get into my shot. This automatically makes me forced to do a one shot and then I have my director questioning why I switched up my shot. At this part it takes all my restraint to quietly whisper into the headset to the director that camera 1 is in my shot without walking over to the dancing fool and moving the camera myself. But that wasn't even the best part of the shoot.

Allen Estes wanted a coffee for him and his guest and with me being on the lowest rung of the ladder (for this shoot only I assure you), he was looking for me to go out for a coffee run. Oh the coffee run, a staple in any interns job. Luckily my coworker/boss Andrew was already on a run for himself, so I was able to get in touch with him to pick something up saving me from having to abandon my post and make the run myself. While I was walking over to Allen asking what he and his guest want, a rather old obese woman/groupie from the tiny audience they had waltzed up to me and says she also wants an iced something or whatever late with skim milk and two sugars. I just looked at this woman. This sad pathetic woman with a fanny pack bulging out around her already rather large stomach. With Allen next to me I had now way of telling her to scram because she wasn't part of the talent or the crew, so I just stared in her eyes with her hastily done heavy make up and raised the phone to my head asking if Andrew can get another coffee. In the end everyone was happy and the shoot finished with its always informal fun, with me in the end staying behind after everyone left striking the set and cleaning up the iced something or another spilled on a seat and the ground.

Eileen: Post 15 (9)

One of the coolest things I have done over my internship is a completely solo, fully live directing of the gloucester town meeting. I've done this twice now and both times I have a pretty amusing time. Whenever I say a live shoot in my posts, I typically mean were live to the recording, if something terrible happens we can cut the show early, fix it, and try again. This is not the case for the Gloucester Town committee. Whichever camera I go to immediately goes live to one of the Cape Ann TV channels. This puts on quite a bit of pressure, but for me It just makes the job more fun.

If your not familiar with the Gloucester town hall, its a rather large room with a semicircle table at the end directly below a small stage. Above the large open is a balcony running around half of the large hall. On that balcony is the smallest little set up of a studio I have ever seen. The set up is probably smaller than the desk of one of the teachers at Manchester Essex and the equipment is rather old and also dusty. The equipment is as follows: A switcher board from the 90's, one tiny monitor showing the live broadcast with a saturated screen, a very dusty and tiny audio board, a computer from 2004 for the computer graphics, four screens a tad bigger than a cellphone screen previewing the cameras, and a joy stick. You might be wondering to yourself, "Tierney, how can you single handedly live broadcast a whole show yourself?! With referencing the other beautifully written posts about a television station crew, its impossible to do it all alone!". Well thats where you are wrong kind reader. I shall explain. At the two ends of the balcony and in the center there are three cameras no bigger than the security cameras we have at our school all pointing to the semi circle table at the front of the hall. Using my handy-dandy joystick I am able to pan, zoom in and out, and tilt the cameras, being able to get the perfect shot. While also maneuvering the cameras I also have to take the cameras on the switcher, making them a live shot, throw up CG every now and then, and also babysit the audio, and make sure everything is recording. To most people this probably sounds rather horrible, but for me it just sounds like a fun new challenge. The first time I did it, it was rather hard, a couple of times I accidentally took camera 4, a non existant camera that has a button on the switcher for no reason making the live broadcast go blue for a few seconds, but other than that, I was able to handle all of the work that was thrown to me. The next time I did it I became so accustomed to the layout and the load that towards the end it got rather boring. Not camera 2 boring of course, but a little lonely. Even though solo live directing is pretty fun, working in the studio at Cape Ann TV is stil my favorite thing to do.

Eileen: Post 14 (8)

On one of my many excursions on the field, two weeks ago I made it to the town hall for a presentation on how gloucester middle schools are doing. On the field work is typically for the weekends, this one not being an exception. It was a sleepy sunday and I was not feeling well. I clearly couldn't just blow off the shoot so a got myself into my car and drove to to town hall.

To be honest, it was never really clear what I was filming, there were countless decorations the middle schoolers made and a lot of robotic toys. From what I was prepped on from my boss Lisa, it was just a public viewing on what the middle schoolers have been up to. Nonetheless I went around and filmed the events around me. Like I said, there were a lot of robot toys. The toys children have now a days is actually sort of ridiculous. There was this one robotic tyrannosaurus rex that must have been as big as a three year old, able to move around on its own pretty easily and roar frequently. If I were a little kid again, I would be all over that. Along with the robots there was a section for food, which I never got around to because I didn't want to leave the equipment unattended. The main event was a number of various things, such as the Gloucester high school chorus singing a lot of songs and ballroom dancing from the fifth graders. The event didn't last a long time, so I was pretty relieved about that and was able to make it home in time for dinner.

Eileen: Post 13 (7)

At Cape Ann TV, there are a dozen or so shows that go on our channel along with on the field shoots around the Cape Ann area. Last week though, I filmed for the first time Local Music Seen, a show about music in the Gloucester area. The host is Allen Estes, none other than our own Dylan Estes father. The best way to describe Allen Estes is that he is a lot like his son. For this show, all of the crew is with the show itself, rather than volunteers from CATV so I was around strangers, really lively and loud strangers. You would think that if they bring in their own personal crew that it would be very professional, but that is not the case for the set. The studio is probably a different story, because the audio engineer looks rather capable, but I can't say the same for the other cameramen.For that shoot I was camera 2. If you remember what I have said already about camera 2 from previous journals you can see my dilemma. Because I was brand new to the show I understood and took it without a verbal complaint. The show has live music, it can't be that bad right? I was sadly mistaken.

Im not saying that the shoot was a bad shoot, I just wasn't my cup of tea. I have grown to worship being official and organization, at least for film that is (joke about how I'm probably one of the worst people at organization for all high school purposes). The other cameramen in the set, while they were rolling, were shouting and laughing, asking questions to the guest (a job strictly for the host), and dancing. From a drama perspective, they were really breaking the fourth barrier. Obviously this was fine with this show and mostly everyone was fine, but here I am in the back of the set on camera 2 completely mortified. The show went well for the most part, the audio was amazing and the host did a great job, I just really didn't like how they carried on the shoot and hoped I didn't have to do it again. Hoped.

Eileen: Post 12 (6)

Usually during a shoot at cape ann TV the crew is as follows: Camera 1, Camera 3, Technical Director, Audio, and CG. These rolls were explained in my previous posts if the reader needs further explanation about it. During my hardest shoot though, we had a rather large crew and the producer was present. I took the command of an actual director, siting in a seat and commanding my TD, audio, and CG.

The show today was a Cape Ann Report, a forty minute show with two twenty minute segments. Cape Ann Report is our most popular show with the most viewers and the most episodes, so usually it needs to go off as perfect. As I sat back in my chair taking command next to the producer who was easily four or five times older than me I did start to get nervous. You may be thinking that it was due to the shoot but this is not the case. I am perfectly capable a commanding everyone and all of my directed shows have gone fine. The reason I was nervous was because my producer was next to me. She was on the board committee for cape ann TV and I did not know her that well. Strangers aren't a foreign territory and I am good at making first impressions, the problem lay with my age. Countless times my age has been ridiculed and scoffed at whenever I am on the field or directing. They typically shut up when they realize what I am capable of, but when someone on in my studio or set at the time is wary of me or can not depend on me it gets me a little nervous. Everyone else during that shoot knew me for some time now so I felt comfortable with them, but not with my producer. But I digress. The show today was a little different, having multiple pictures to show on the screen for the second half, my TD for that day was actually my coworker/boss, Andrew. I've known him for 3 years now and I can clearly count on him so I left him in charge of when to take the next picture.

By the end of the shoot, no real problems arose and the shoot was over. The producer actually told me I did a good job, which was much appreciated because she can be rather mean most of the time. After everyone left my Boss Andrew evaluated me and told me what to improve on. During the shoot because of all of the commotion, I started to stop paying close attention of the set up of the shots my cameramen took and occasionally they were pretty sloppy. I had a new cameraman that day who was a junior at gloucester high so I should of paid more attention to her. At the end of the day, the shoot for the most part went well and I was rather proud of the job I accomplished.

Eileen: Post 11 (5)

Last time where I left off, I was discussing the inter-workings of a television station. We roughly covered what goes on inside the set of Cape Ann TV, but before I go on I'll stress that in this studio we just have the bare bones of a proper set. If we had a more luxurious set we would also have: lighting crew, make-up assistance, interns, an audience, etc. Here at Cape Ann TV, we take pride in our alarmingly small crew. Thats mostly a joke, but on an actual positive side we can all communicate to each other very well and for the most part are all friends.

Now I'm going to discuss the studio at CATV. This is most definitely my favorite place to be in a television station and if I do end up in a television network I hope my job can be in there. The studio is a typically small room with a dozen or less people inside make the show happen. We have: A director, a producer, a lighting board guy, an audio guy, a CG guy, a technical director, a timer, and maybe a few assistant producers and directors. Thats the list from the top of my head for an official television studio. I have never really worked in an official studio nor have I been educated on the matter so this is my intellect from what I've picked up over the course of a few years. The director is the master of the show,  he sits in a chair and calls out the commands, making sure the show does not go terrible. At Cape Ann TV though, we usually dont even have a director due to the small numbers we have. We typically make technical director the main director. The technical director is in charge of the switcher. They preview a camera and take a camera for the live show called out by their director. From what I've been told, a proper technical director shouldn't even be looking at the shots, so that they are completely at the mercy of what their director tells them. At Cape Ann TV, the TD does this job along with making sure everything is ok with the other crew. The producer Usually has no part in the studio, just sitting there watching the timer after their job is done in the set. Most of the other jobs are self explanatory  audio guy, lighting guy, timer, etc. The only one left that needs explaining is the CG guy. CG stands for Computer Graphics, they are the guys who throw up the banner at the bottom of the screen showing the title of the person in the picture. The job is fairly easy but if a mistake happens its usually very noticeable and embarrassing.

This post turned out the be actually twice as long as a regular one, but it was only necessary to explain what goes on in the Television station before I finally get into my story about the hardest show I have directed yet.

Eileen: Post 10 (4)

Last week during my internship at CATV I had to direct one of the hardest shoot I have ever done there. To explain my part in the show i'll go into the other rolls the crew has while doing a shoot.

On the set, there are the cameramen. There are Cameras one, two, and three. Camera one films the guest, camera three films the host and and camera two does the wide shot. In a more well funded and well populated set there would be a floor director as well. The Floor director shouts out if everyone is ready and make sure the crew is ok and cell phones are turned off; they are basically in charge of on the set and have a headset directly to talk to the director in the studio. At Cape Ann TV the floor director is also camera three, telling everyone when recording has started and when the host should start. The set is for the most part fun, except if you have to be camera two. Camera two never really moves so if you are assigned there you are basically just standing there for half an hour or so doing nothing (not the most enthusiastic job).
Also on the set are of course the talent, but I for one am not a fan of coddling or even talking to the talent. Talent aren't technically disposable at last minute, nor are they easy to please, so whenever talking to the talent one must be disgustingly polite and coddling, making sure they have everything they need and feel pretty. This is usually the producers job so I probably don want to be that when I grow up.

Surprisingly I haven't even managed to get inside the studio's jobs let alone my own experience  so i'll save those for my next posts.

Rough Draft Revised

The Effects of Television Media on Viewers

Since we were children, our minds have been imbued with the influences around us. Whether family or religion, these gigantic parts of our lives dictate the outcome of our thought process and opinions. The biggest power looming over the developing mind in this century is media. Monitors light up our eyes even before we learn how to walk, allowing us to grow accustomed and making this source of media something that we count on every day. The second biggest form of media is television, with the internet first respectively. Currently, Americans spend thirty four hours a week watching television: a number that is only going to rise (daily news cite). Because of all of the time spent in front of this quintessential part of a person’s day, most humans count on Television as a source of information, advice, and role models in some circumstances. Youth accustomed to television programs tend to find similarities and aspirations in fictional characters in shows, influencing their development and habits for their later years. With televisions having the power to control the type of person an individual can be, this can become a serious issue with what is shown on television. Social interaction on television shows such as reality TV can teach a child violence in a manner that depicts it as normal or even seen as cool. Eating habits of characters or depiction of obesity on a television show can lead massive movements of eating disorders in a viewer audience, inflicting damage physically and/or psychologically on a person just trying to live up to what is smiled upon on the screen. Drug use among teenagers or children can easily increase or decrease by simply what a character in a drama show decides to do. Hurtful and demeaning stereotypes depicted for males in females can create detrimental effects on a developing mind, teaching them social interactions that could stagger their inward image or hopes for the future. Television can effect the outcome of a generation more than people think, giving it power to infiltrate the minds and actions of someone simply to get a profit. Without awareness of how the television media can mold a developing mind into what it wants, from what it drinks to what it wears, the population has no way of filtering what is to be seen. By limiting the mind control this media has, they can prevent mental damage to viewers so that they can be their own person.

It is no secret that Television affects the minds of viewers, the only thing that isn't realized is how much it actually does. In the article, Television Viewing and Forms of Bullying among Adolescents from Eight Countries, from Journal of Adolescent Health the reader can find that “By the mid-1980s, 65% of the participants of an American study agreed that their worldview was formed mainly through television” contrary to seeing it for themselves (cite PDF Download). Of course everyone cannot set out and explore the world on their own, but being at the mercy of what the television depicts is not the best alternative. Television Viewers typically see the world as a more beastly place than it really is. One study from Hawkins and Pingree, two literary philosophers, studies 1280 elementary students in Australia about the portrayal of their country. They would place some children in front of the television and some not, both filling out diaries and questionnaires. The children with the television based view of australia saw it as a more mean and violent place contrary to the children who did not watch the television. This is experiement is a prime example of two theories about the effects on television on viewers: The Agenda-Setting theory and the cultivation theory.  

The Agenda-Setting theory is a theory proposed by Walter Lippmann, a newspaper columnist dating back to 1922,  That said that the “media plays an influential part in how issues gain public attention” (lit rev cite) . This means that public issues are created by the media; viewers learn not only about an issue but also but also how much importance is attached to that issue from the amount of information in a news story and its position. With this power it’s no wonder that the children in the Hawkins and Pingree experiment saw Australia as a more harsh place because typically only grotesque stories get the most publicity on television. With media agenda fueling the public agenda, Television is able to create the scenarios that should be talked or cared about more, turning public thought into just an echo of the media.

The Cultivation theory was created by George Gerbner, a professor of communication, stating that television actually has the power the influence our reality and is “primarily responsible for our perceptions of day-to-day norms and reality” (cite lit review). His research stated that The more heavily someone watched television, the more they picture the world as a fearful place. This can lead to viewers mistrusting the world and people, creating possible violence. From the article Early television exposure and subsequent attentional problems in children, from the department of pediatrics in the university of washington, studies have shown that having exposure to television viewing at age four, are associated with being a bully at ages six through eleven years. With growing minds, what children see on the Television can directly affect their actions, and when it is later night, more violent show the worse the outcome can be.

The article previously mentioned, Television Viewing and Forms of Bullying among Adolescents from Eight Countries, from the journal of adolescent health, they constructed an experiment to see how much television actually effects bullying in elementary school. They studied children in 2001-2002 from the countries of: Canada, Estonia, Israel, Latvia, Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, and the United States. What they did was hand out questionnaires on how much television a child watches on weekdays and weekends. They make this division because when children stay up late on weekends they are exposed to shows that are meant primarily for adults, a show that may be more violent than what a child should see. The forms of bullying were categorized into three sections: name calling, rumor spreading, and physical contact. This is the result of the study:

Children in all eight countries watch an average of three to four hours of television in the week, with an additional hour on weekends, the only country that has higher numbers in the week is Israel. The results show a worrisome outcome, clearly stating that the more television watched, typically more bullying is done. Another result shown is that although all the forms of bullying were analyzed, the verbal forms are the most significant. With all of the countries, frequent television watchers are prone to do more name calling, more rumor spreading, and more teasing of other children.

Television shows are obviously not hoping for this outcome of children hurting other children influenced by something they have seen on television, its due to the obscene amounts of television being watched by a younger and younger audience. Most of the shows on television are drastically more violent than what was on less than a decade ago. Reality Television shows such as Big Brother in the 1990’s would kick a star out of the show if a physical outburst has occured. Today, the show harbors nothing but violence in order to reel in viewers and keep ratings up (http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/reality-tv-show-violence-real-life-consequences-teen/story?id=13256971#.UZgqWCvwIhw). If violence in television shows do not go down, or viewing restriction for adolescents, television will continue to be one of the leading causes of the increase in violence among children and adults.

While advertising reeks havoc on Television, viewers sit idly by becoming consumers to what image is shown on their screen. One of the biggest double-edged swords that is shown on television is the perception of obesity. While there are numerous advertisements for dieting and exercise, there are countless of other advertisements for high calorie non nutrient foods. On top of all this, the perception of obesity in television shows can construct the self confidence of an individual.

In the research report, Priming Effects of Television Food Advertising on Eating Behavior, by Jennifer L. Harris, John A. Bargh, and Kelly D. Brownell, they carried out an experiment on both children and adults on the effects of eating habits after television viewing. In the first experiment, elementary school children were placed in front of a television either watching a cartoon with food advertisements or advertising for other products. The children were also given a snack while watching said programming. The results show that “children consumed 45% more when exposed to food advertising” (cite http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov//pmc/articles). In the Second experiment, “adults watched a television program that included food advertising that promoted snacking and/or fun product benefits, food advertising that promoted nutrition benefits or no food advertising” and recorded the results (cite http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). The adults after then taste tested both healthy and calorie rich snacks. After watching television, the adults consumed far more of both snacks than the one ones who didn't watch television. Both of theses experiments show that just being exposed to copious amounts of food advertisements alone raise your desire to binge in return increasing obesity in television viewers. Today, children are on average exposed to fifteen food ads on television, and 98% of these ads are for unhealthy, fatty foods (Powell LM, Szczpka G, Chaloupka FJ, Braunschweig CL. Nutritional content of television food advertisements seen by children and adolescents. Pediatrics. 2007;120:576–583. [PubMed]). While children are primarily affected the most from these advertisements, adults do not escape the advertisment’s messages either. The best way to escape this subliminal contamination is to first raise awareness of this grasp advertisement has on us and then lift the motivation of the population to stop it.