Television has a responsibility to portray minorities in proportion to their numbers in American society.?

Question

Is this statement true or false and what are your opinions about the statement.

Answer 1

False. Television stations has no responsibility to anyone. They are privately owned corporations, and can show whatever they want on their station. Responsibility. There only responibility is to make money.

Answer 2

Commercial television exists, like most businesses, to make a profit. If it is clear to them that equitable or representative portrayal of racial groups will sell more commercial time and create a larger viewership (leading to the selling of more commercial time and therefore, profit), then, that will happen. The problem is creating a show that will appeal to the greatest number of viewers. This becomes an issue of appealing to the greatest number while alienating the fewest, which often means treading lightly on racial bias issues. Once you have amassed a significant audience, how can you influence them to buy what you are selling? The product has to match the audience that you have attracted.

I may have given an economic answer to what appears to be a moral question but, I think that minorities will be portrayed relative to their proportion in the general population when economic parity exists between racial groups. Television has no responsibility to do anything other than make profit.

We are the ones who are responsible for teaching our children, not racial tolerance, which implies that we are somehow holding back our innate racism, but embracing racial diversity and the novelty of other points of view.

Answer 3

Broadcast licenses are granted to television stations by the Federal Communications Commission based on an application that the station makes each year. Succeccful applicants show a certain percentage of public service broadcasting, and have a successful file of comments from the public.

If you don't feel that the station is serving the community well, you can leave a comment with the FCC, and they will consider it the next time the station license is up for renewal.

A station has the responsibility of pleasing the community that has the power to determine whether they get their license renewed. However, if the community has a history of not caring enough to comment to the FCC, the station generally broadcasts whatever it darned well pleases.

Answer 4

If you owned a broadcasting company and could make $1 showing the Cosby Show or $100 million showing Rush Limbaugh which would you choose? Be honest, I would program Jerry Springer holding hands with Bill Clinton if that was where the money was.

Sponsors buy air time based on audiences and that is what makes the money. It is a business, if the bucks are bigger with all minority programming that's what will happen. On the other hand if the audience goes to ZERO and the sponsors leave because of the programming you will either change the programming or start drawing welfare.

Answer 5

tv is both public and private so that's a stupid argument. The problem is what portion of america.. deep south, north, latino south, steel city squabble?? Why not just portray to the slummy people that live in my building... this is a globabl open economy they portray what the people want. I used to live in a town for 15 years that only had white people in it and still does. But on tv even if I saw what asian, african american or martian then they had gone over the proportion numbers of my time a million fold. I now live in a town of latinos only, but I only watch asian movies, it's what the viewer wants and their are plenty of choices out there.

Answer 6

In an ideal world this would be true. However, the harsh reality is that television is driven by advertising dollars so they will portray exactly what will result in the most viewers.

Answer 7

False.Television has a responsibility to make profits for it's company and it's investors.

Answer 8

Are they required by law? ....No

Are they making more shows targeted to blacks and other minorities? ...Yes

Do activist organizations like Jesse Jackson Rainbow Coalition extort them by threatening boycott? ...Oh yea..