Televison
...has granted Svengalian power to those who control its content. Specifically, its visceral capacity couples with the ability to reconfigure "reality" in ways that heighten the power of the visceral appeal. Its multimodal nature makes analytic processing of rapidly emerging claims all but impossible. And its status as entertaining wallpaper grants television the privilege of surrounding us with claims that education has taught us to reject, were it lodged on the printed page. On both radio and television, the identity of the unseen voice-over announcer is unknown, and in that anonymity, not accountable in any useful way for the claims he or she insinuates into our consciousness. In politics, as well as in life, what is known is not necessarily what is believed, what is shown is not necessarily what is seen, and what is said is not necessarily what is heard.
Television's multiple modes of communication and powerful ability to orient attention can invite strong unthinking negative responses in the low-involvement viewers. By overloading our information-processing capacity with rapidly paced information, televised ads or material can short circuit the normal defenses that more educated, more highly involved viewers ordinarily marshal against suspect claims.
Television's multiple modes of communication and powerful ability to orient attention can invite strong unthinking negative responses in the low-involvement viewers. By overloading our information-processing capacity with rapidly paced information, televised ads or material can short circuit the normal defenses that more educated, more highly involved viewers ordinarily marshal against suspect claims.
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