In a 1958 speech, legendary broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow
said about TV, "This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and
even it can inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans
are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise, it is nothing but
wires and lights in a box." Imagine if Murrow were around today with
all talk shows full of hot air, vitriol and salaciousness. That box is
a delivery system for media corporations to sell eyeballs, audiences,
to other corporations called advertisers. That's the political economy
of TV. Viewers are bombarded with ads wrapped around inane programming.
The box has great potential as Murrow says, but it is barely
approaching it. TV is more of a device to get people to buy things they
don't really need.
Sut Jhally
Sut Jhally is Professor of Communications at the University of
Massachusetts-Amherst. He is the founder and executive director of the
Media Education Foundation and the author of The Codes of Advertising.
He co-directed the critically acclaimed documentary, Hijacking
Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of American Empire.
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