Assignment #5- Miller Luhan- The Reality of Television

Based on my experiences of television, it seems that most people- especially in our culture- primarily watch television for entertainment purposes. That statement is based on the fact that our culture in the television industry revolves around sports, reality television (as well as other broadcasted shows and commercials), and fictional entertainment. I personally rarely watch television in the sense of cable- but with the development of streaming services, I tend to gravitate towards shows on those devices. One of my favorites is Friends, a show created solely for entertainment, with no educational intentions whatsoever, but I also enjoy the occasional documentary- some of my favorites being Fed Up and Waiting for 'Superman'.
The Emmy's, an annual event held to recognize greatness and excellence in the television industry, nominates actors and directors worthy of receiving awards. Even though I enjoy watching the shows and the people that get nominated, I question who is to judge whether or not one well-respected actor's achievement is greater than another's. Another problem that I have with much of the television industry is their emphasis on advertisements. These broadcasters are masterminds- they know that viewer rates are high during these shows, and that they will make the a huge profit selling commercial slots for large companies. An example of this is The Super Bowl. Every year, a bunch of companies buy spots for their silly, entertaining commercials so that people will correlate their product with the happy feeling they got viewing the advertisement. I remember the 2015 Snickers commercial that aired at half time- using The Brady Bunch to not only market their product but also a funny plot line to portray a diaphanous relationship with the audience.
In terms of Nobel Prizes, the reason I think they are less recognized is because humans desire to be sensationally pleased- this is not to mean that Nobel Prizes are not interesting, in fact I like to read about the winners on the news because of their developments in their fields of study, but to assume that the general population wants to watch hours of television in honor of research is not reasonable. This is not to say, "Yes! Let's focus on stuff that is not as important," but it does demonstrate how our society tends to focus on material/pop culture rather than education and achievements in academia.