Race

I will be writing a counterargument to two of Marie Winn's assertions in her

essay titled, "Television and Reading." The first assertion that Winn points out is that,

"acquired through years and years of television viewing, has influenced adversely

viewers' ablity to concetrate, to read, to write clearly-in short, to demonstrate any of the

verbal skills a literate society requires" (49). I don't think this is true at all. There are a

lot of good writers out there that grew up watching tv. Most preschoolers and toddlers

now and days, whose parents can't afford school, learn how to have a conversation from

tv programs and the basic essential they will need to know by the time they get old

enough to attend school, so this gives them the verbal skills in order to talk right and to

know how to pronouce certain words. Some kids can't sit still long enough to have a

book read to them so the programs on tv introduce them to characters or people they

wouldn't meet other wise opening up their imaginations.

The second assertion pointed out by Winn is that, "If someone enters the room

while we're watching television-a friend, a relative, a child, someone, perhaps, we have

not seen for some time-we must continue to watch or else we'll lose the thread" (50).

This may be true but the same goes with books, if the book is really interesting what

happens most of the time is that, you can't seem to put the book down. You can't stop

turning the pages because you already placed yourself in the book and to get back into

the groove might take a couple of pages and to put the book down right now might leave

a feeling of regret and a sense of being uneasy because you have to