Television Delivers People

Richard Serra’s Television Delivers People warns of the controlling effects that media has on the people, especially when propagated through television. Serra gives his opinions of the corporate controlled media that we view on television but he also gives some analytical data to support his sentiments. He does not site where the information comes from but his figures support the idea that he believes that the average American citizen is being controlled by the news media; that the majority of our opinions and judgments are based on the news we receive unless we have some kind of first hand account. He states that seventy-five percent of the news we receive in the US is through television programming.

These programs are controlled by corporate companies, which Serra believes seek only to turn a profit and continue existing. The rolling script reminds us several times throughout the piece that “you are the product of TV… you are the controlled product of news programming”. If that is true, then companies delivering the news may report the news in any way that will increase their ratings and popularity regardless of whether or not the viewer receives “the whole truth”. Thus, television media in the US may be biased causing viewers to predicate their conclusions on issues based on incorrect data or data that is incomplete. This piece makes me wonder how much information the viewer really knows about the events being reported through television media. Since television is controlled by Corporations, which are funded by advertising dollars, the American citizen receives only as much information as Corporate America deems necessary or to promote their own welfare. Our judgments and commercial consumption is thus created by the only what we know, and the majority of what we know or the information we have access to comes directly from media delivered by the television.