“He who controls the media
controls the minds of the public” –Noam Chomsky
Television Statistics
According to the A.C. Nielsen Co.,
the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day (or 28
hours/week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year). In a 65-year life,
that person will have spent 9 years in electronic suspension.
I. FAMILY LIFE
Percentage of households that
possess at least one television: 99
Number of TV sets in the average
Percentage of
Number of hours per day that TV is
on in an average
Percentage of Americans that
regularly watch television while eating dinner: 66
Number of hours of TV watched
annually by Americans: 250 billion
Value of that time assuming an
average wage of S5/hour: S1.25 trillion
Percentage of Americans who pay
for cable TV: 56
Number of videos rented daily in
the
Number of public library items
checked out daily: 3 million
Percentage of Americans who say
they watch too much TV: 49
II CHILDREN
Approximate number of studies
examining TV's effects on children: 4,000
Number of minutes per week that
parents spend in meaningful
conversation
with their children: 3.5
Number of minutes per week that
the average child watches television: 1,680
Percentage of day care centers that
use TV during a typical day: 70
Percentage of parents who would
like to limit their children's TV watching: 73
Percentage of 4-6 year-olds who,
when asked to choose between watching TV
and
spending time with their fathers, preferred television: 54
Hours per year the average
American youth spends in school: 900 hours
Hours per year the average
American youth watches television: 1500
III VIOLENCE
Number of murders seen on TV by
the time an average child finishes elementary school: 8,000
Number of violent acts seen on TV
by age 18: 200,000
Percentage of Americans who
believe TV violence helps precipitate real life mayhem: 79
IV. COMMERCIALISM
Number of 30-second TV commercials
seen in a year by an average child: 20,000
Number of TV commercials seen by
the average person by age 65: 2 million
Percentage of survey participants
(1993) who said that TV commercials
aimed at
children make them too materialistic: 92
Rank of food products/fast-food
restaurants among TV advertisements to kids: 1
Total spending by 100 leading TV
advertisers in 1993: $15 billion
V. GENERAL
Percentage of local TV news
broadcast time devoted to advertising: 30
Percentage devoted to stories
about crime, disaster and war: 53.8
Percentage devoted to public
service announcements: 0.7
Percentage of Americans who can
name The Three Stooges: 59
Percentage who can name at least
three justices of the U.S. Supreme Court: 17
Compiled
by TV-Free
(202)
887-4036
For decades, research and studies
have demonstrated that heavy television-viewing may lead to serious health
consequences. Now the American medical community, which has long-voiced its
concerns about the nation's epidemic of violence, TV addiction and the passive,
sedentary nature of TV-watching, is taking a more activist stance, demonstrated
by its endorsement of National TV-Turnoff Week.
The average child will watch 8,000
murders on TV before finishing elementary school. By age eighteen, the average
American has seen 200,000 acts of violence on TV, including 40,000 murders. At
a meeting in
Millions of Americans are so
hooked on television that they fit the criteria for substance abuse as defined
in the official psychiatric manual, according to
Violence and addiction are not the
only TV-related health problems. A National Health and Nutrition Examination
Survey released in October 1995 found 4.7 million children between the ages of
6-17 (11% of this age group) to be severely overweight, more than twice the
rate during the 1960's. The main culprits: inactivity (these same children
average more than 22 hours of television-viewing a week) and a high-calorie
diet. A 1991 study showed that there were an average of 200 junk food ads in
four hours of children's Saturday morning cartoons.
According to William H. Deitz,
pediatrician and prominent obesity expert at Tufts University School of
Medicine, "The easiest way to reduce inactivity is to turn off the TV set.
Almost anything else uses more energy than watching TV."
Children are not the only
Americans suffering from weight problems; one-third of American adults are
overweight. According to an American Journal of Public Health study, an adult
who watches three hours of TV a day is far more likely to be obese than an
adult who watches less than one hour.
Sometimes the problem is not too
much weight; it's too little. Seventy-five percent of American women believe
they are too fat, an image problem that often leads to bulimia or anorexia.
Sound strange? Not when one takes into account that female models and actresses
are twenty-three percent thinner than the average woman and thinner than
ninety-five percent of the female population.