Have 75 years of television made us smarter??

Article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/05/television-75-years-made-smarter


Last tuesday was marked by the 75th anniversary of the first TV broadcasting from the BBC studios. Television became one of the principal media of information, implying huge audiences who constituted later on attractive spots for advertisers. The main goal of television mostly drifted away from informing audiences to selling their tastes and interests to companies and advertisers.
It is important to question the main values and cultural benefits of television in order to see whether the past 75 years made us smarter or not.
The television's educational value is worth zero, It is all about advertising and written contracts that manipulate audiences' emotions and thoughts as some may think. Even in some programs, such as University Challenge or The Weakest Link , that actually seem to be providing audiences with useful knowledge, the aim to inform seems to be far away. Peter Conrad, observer writer and cultural commentator claims that " It's not a medium for the discussion of ideas. You don't watch University Challenge or The Weakest Link to acquire information, but to enjoy the distress of the contestants who can't get the right answer."
 As others argue the diversity that exists in channels and great informative programs offered, it is still believed that whatever content television would broadcast is always including some subliminal messages and dissimulated calls to buy a certain product  or opt for a specific option. For this purpose, Conrad emphasises that "education was the television's alibi. Its main purpose was and is to sell stuff. TV has always been an evangelist for consumerism: it's a truism that the programmes interrupt the commercials, rather than vice versa – or else the two seamlessly merge. Every talk-show guest, even on the channels protected by the licence fee, is selling a book or a CD or another TV programme."
Television could make us smarter if its economic purposes were better regulated and managed and if its economic policies could go in parallel with its educational goals. Audiences should not be considered as robots who buy, but as individuals who would change the world for a good cause.