From dumbing down to brightening up

THE MASS medium of television has for a long time now been dismissed as “a vast wasteland” of trivia and escapist stuff and fluff.

Other arch-eyebrowed critics describe it as a huge, gaping maw that’s forever hungry for new material to feed itself and its “addicted” viewers, so anything is acceptable to show on it—including the unacceptable.

Then, there’s the snide observation that, in trying to hook everybody into watching it all the time for profitable ratings’ sake, TV has resorted to “least common denominator” programs, appealing to the “universal” viewing public’s most basic wants and needs.

This often results in a regrettable “dumbing down” of the mass TV audience, dragging the “A-B-C” audience to a “D” level, along with everybody else.

Even if their better instincts and “education” go against it, the “seductive” nature of television and its production values seduce them into putting those better instincts and more seductive “tastes” temporarily on hold.

Thus, they “take” most everything that the mass medium hurls at them, including the goop and slop—which helps account for the across-the-board popularity and huge viewership that improbable, over-the-top and cheerfully illogical teleseryes enjoy!

Some “intelligent” viewers may admit to watching them “only for a lark,” to superciliously laugh at their gaucheries and unintended humor—but, the key point is, they watch.

So, know it or not, they too are being subtly or not so subtly “dumbed down”—along with everybody else.

This hidden negative effect is what worries some educators, civic leaders and parents. What are the short- and long-term consequences of this national erosion of taste and judicious judgment?

If everything is “fun” and “dandy” and “OK lang,” will this insidious lack of selectivity seep from “harmless” entertainment, into more “important” aspects of the nation’s life and concerns, as well?

We hope not, but there are indications that the “seepage” is indeed taking place, as evidenced by the voting public’s increased susceptibility to “colorful” rather than thoughtful persuasion in the recent polls.

To slow down the “dumbing” process, TV people should themselves raise the level of their work. We see far too many TV people opportunistically making themselves more popular by going down to their viewers’ perceived lower level of taste and judgment, instead of lifting them up to a more judicious perception of events, both fictional and real.

This is the opposite of public service, so TV workers who really want the nation to attain its full potential for everyone’s benefit, should vivify this new mantra: Help our viewers brighten up, not dumb down!