Hong Kong Teenagers and Televisions

Hong Kong Teenagers and Televisions

The goal of this essay is to demonstrate how television has had an impact on the lives of people in Hong Kong. A conventional analog television is a device which decodes analog signals into sound and visual effects. Starting from the first black-and-white television in 1929 to the present color television or even HDTV, televisions are becoming part of our lives (Genova 2001). This essay focuses on discussing how televisions convey messages and alter the mind of teenagers. It begins by explaining the structure of a cathode ray tube and how it is applied to the working principle of a television. The essay then concentrates on showing how TV undermines moral standard through featuring violence and concludes by describing the cost of impact.

A cathode ray tube is the fundamental structure of all display devices, including televisions (Whitaker 2001).Cathode rays are streams of fast moving electrons emitted from a heated cathode (i.e. negative terminal) of a vacuum tube(Duncan 2001). Inside a cathode ray tube, a heated filament is connected to the cathode of an extra high tension (Whitaker 2001). Under this situation, the negative electrons are emitted from the filament surface, which are then focused by two pairs of deflection planes and accelerated by a positive anode (Duncan 2001). The resulting tight beam of cathode ray will hit a phosphorescent screen, which will glow when struck by the ray (Duncan 2001). Thus trace of input signals can be seen.

Inside a television, production of image is accomplished by similar operations, with the use of steering coils (Whitaker 2001). These coils can create magnetic fields according to input signals, which control the position of electron beam that hits the television screen (Whitaker 2001). The magnetic field is set to move the beam from left to right on a horizontal line (Whitaker 2001). After each sweep, the beam returns rapidly to the left side to start striking the next line (Whitaker 2001). This process continues until the whole image is displayed to complete one frame (Whitaker 2001). As the intensity of the beam is changing according to the input signals, images with black, grey and white color are seen across the screen (Whitaker 2001). Normally, the screen is painted 60 times per second, in such a speed that our brain will integrate them into images and form smooth video (Whitaker 2001).

The impulse of televisions on the lives of Hong Kong people can be reflected from its ability to reshape peopleÐŽ¦s attitude. According to BanduraÐŽ¦s social cognitive theory, values and behavior are learned through repeated observations (Bandura 1986). When some actions are repeated and vicariously reinforced, the viewers will feel competent in adopting them (Bandura 1986). This suggests that when some values or realities are portrayed in a television, the audience would accept or adopt them.

TelevisionsÐŽ¦ ability to reshapes peopleÐŽ¦s attitude helps develop aggressive behavior in children. In fact, Hong Kong youthÐŽ¦s most favorite media is television. 79% of them watch TV every day, with an average time of 3 hours (Chan and So 1992). By age 18, it is estimated that a teenage watches 16000 murders on TV (CyberCollege 1996). With such a concentration of physical violence shown on TV, it gives a high potential of generating aggressive behavior on children (Belson 1978). Those television programs describe killing as a quick and acceptable method to resolve conflict. Children, lacking of understanding of its consequence, would just imitate the ЎҐheroesÐŽ¦ on TV. In fact, children can easily learn to behave aggressively from modeling each other, and gain a sense of successfulness (Joy, Kimball and Zabrack 1985). Those behavior are stored quietly inside childrenÐŽ¦s mind and will be triggered even by some minor or irrelevant cues (Joy, Kimball and Zabrack 1985). As a result, more and more children will become aggressive and violent, not only through direct learning from TV but also through imitating the others. This indicates that televisions could undermine moral standard.

The cost of impact can be reflected by the increase in violent acts by teenagers. It is estimated that 33% of violent crimes in Hong Kong are