Tv Stations Keep Producing More and More Tv Programs That Contain the Elements of Sensationalism

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Television (TV) according to yourdictionary.com is the practice or science of transmitting scenes by the transmitter, by means of a camera tube, such as an image orthicon or vidicon, converts light rays into electric signals for modulation upon transmission over wires; the televise receiver reconverts the signals into electron beams that are projected against the fluorescent screen of the kinescope, or picture tube, reproducing the original image. Sensationalism on the other hand is the use of strongly emotional subject matter, or wildly dramatic style, language, or artistic expression, that is intended to shock, startle, thrill, excite and such. These researches entitled sensational TV programs toward youth of UiTM Shah Alam students’ and were being related to the Social Learning theory by Albert Bandura.

The life and death of each newspaper and TV station is at stake here when the income from advertising and sponsoring is proportional to the number of readers or viewers. The printed media have problems competing with the electronic media as sources of news. In order to survive, they are increasingly turning to other strategies such as entertainment, titillation, scandal mongering, and spreading fear – and spending fewer resources on serious researching of news. Not only printed media, the electronic media especially the TV is also doing the same thing in order to survive in the fast growing TV business.

This research was carried out in order to understand how sensational TV programs impact the behavior of the viewers towards social development. According to Bandura based on www.wisegeek.com, there are several conditions that must be met before successful modeling of behavior can occur. The individual, also referred to as the model, must pay attention to and possess the ability to reproduce the actions witnessed and demonstrate what has been learned. Theorist and proponents of Bandura’s theory insist that attention is the...