下面为大家整理一篇优秀的essay代写范文 -- Television does not necessarily help the viewer's cognitive abilities,文章讲述在观看电视让您变得更聪明的第三章中,史蒂文·约翰逊(Steven Johnson)从认知能力的角度说明了电视如何使观众变得更聪明。但是并不是所有的观众都能通过观看电视节目来增强他们的认知度。本文将从以下三个部分讨论该问题。
Television does not necessarily help the viewer's cognitive abilities
In Chapter three of Watching TV Makes You Smarter, Steven Johnson illustrates how TV makes the audience smarter from the aspect of cognitive capability. But not all the viewers can strengthen their cognition by watching TV programs. The paper will discuss the issue from the following three parts.
I.Many Factors Form Cognitive Faculty
Cognitive faculty is “cognition”, in another word. “ cognition is the mental process of knowing, including aspects such as awareness, perception, reasoning and judgment (“cognition”)”. Cognitive faculty is closely related to many factors. Since the Old Greek time, there have been numerous research on cognition from many aspects, such as psychology, sociology or philosophy. Many studies show that the development of cognition is influenced by many factors such as genes, personal experience, age and etc. “Differences in the above factors are brought together to suggest that individuals have different cognitive styles and are different in intelligence, ability, personality, and achievement (Danili and Reid, 66).”
Steven believes that “Audiences happily embrace that complexity because they’ve been trained by two decades of multi-threaded dramas (Johnson, 172)”, which adheres to the point that the audience’s capability of decoding complexity comes from the long-time TV show. The author here exaggerates television’s function as the main stimulus to the viewers’ grasp of complexity. Another TV drama “Nikita” tells the story how the female warrior conquers the evil one by one with the aid of high-technology and her shrewdness. Assuming that a bunch of people, living in a backward village where only TV sets are available while computers are totally new to the villagers, are now watching the show. Is it possible that they understand what’s really going on in the show? So it’s reasonable to say that only the viewers who are already endowed with necessary cognitive ability can understand the complexity of a TV drama.
Besides television, many other sources foster cognitive faculty. In the fast-moving society, new things sprout every single day. Human beings can enrich their knowledge from various choices, among which television is usually the most direct and least time-consuming. However, still many prefer books or the scripts on which dramas based. Before the boom of television, books take up most of people’s leisure time. Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle got its fame and enhanced the readers’ logical reasoning ability long before the emergence of its television version. The fact that more dramas with more complicated narration or plots appear on screen doesn’t mean that there are fewer complex forms such as fictions off screen. Therefore, better cognitive faculty is not necessarily from television dramas.
I.Not All TV Dramas Are Complex
Steven points that TV programs requiring of more cognitive demands mainly ascribe to three reasons. “This growing complexity involves three primary elements multiple threading, flashing arrows and social networks (Johnson, 172)”. “Hill Street” is taken as a typical example of “to marry complex narrative structure with complex subject matter (Johnson, 173)”. To Steven, complex narration, multiple plots or multiple subjects offer the viewers good resources to facilitate their cognition. Nevertheless, the listed TV drama in his book as supporting evidence cannot represent all the existing dramas. In “24” or “Hill Street”, complex narrative structure or subject matters may be adopted, but still there are many more other dramas with simple narration or subjects. Mark Cherry’s “Devious Maids”, a television comedy-drama series showed by Lifetime, is one of the latest popular dramas with thrilling plots. It’s favored by the audience because of it’s suspense. Although the drama centers on five characters’ lives, the show always focuses on one leading point. Either in season 1 or season 2, the main plot is to solve one mysterious murder despite of other parallel plots. The main purpose of season 2 is for Marisol to uncover her fiancé, Nick’s murder along with other sub-plots. There are indeed more than one plots in the show, but the other mysteries are not secrets to the viewers. In episode 1 of season 2, it seems that Alejandro’s death lays a veil on the story first, but just after Alejandro is shot, one of the gang, later appears as Spence’s nephew pulls off his mask and has a little conversation with another member, from which the audience get the idea that Alejandro’s death is an accident rather than a mysterious murder as in other characters’ or the police’ eyes.
Besides thrillers, TV channels also provide the audience with other sorts of series, such as sitcoms. Popular programs such as “Modern family”, “2 Broke Girls” or “Friends” literally have no linear plots. What the viewers have to do is follow the show and laugh at whatever suggests humor.
Another feature which is deserved some attention is that all dramas are likely to end up with cliché even if they do have complex narrative structures or subject matters. They are often stimulating or enlightening when the first seasons are released but the audience can always figure out the same pattern, thus predict the end. Take “Nikita” as an illustration, every episode begins with a challenge to make, then with throat-cut enduring processes and end with Nikita’s success. In another sense, television dramas are deprived of the function in cultivating people’s cognition when they are already finished with some episodes.
II.Not All Television Dramas Are Instructive in Confronting Difficult Social Issues
Steven believes people can learn how to confront difficult social issues so as to enhance cognitive faculty by watching the characters’ behaviors in “Hill Street”. The show “had richly drawn characters confronting difficult social issues and a narrative structure to match (Johnson, 173)”. Nearly all the TV dramas originate from reality, but they are also forms of art and lack authenticity, which are futile to educate how to tackle difficult social issues.
“Prison Break”, the one-time hit drama shows how the hero successfully breaks a heavily-guarded prison by a series of delicate plans. On July 8th, many Chinese news websites issued a piece of news that 18 addicts broke a rehab center in Guangxi province by digging an underground passage, but only get caught within the following 24 hours by the police. It’s described as a live “prison break” show. It’s self-evident to us that mastermind like Michael Scofield only exists in fiction. The play writer portraits the hero as a master in every aspect, and even the prison he is jailed in is designed by him, which all ensures his success in breaking the prison. But in reality, most people are average-minded. Therefore, it’s very doubtful that the audience can deal with complex social issues by sitting “in the comfort of the sitcom living room (Johnson, 173)”.
To sum up, television doesn’t necessarily improve people’s cognitive faculty. Firstly, the viewers have many methods to enhance their cognition besides television. Secondly, not all television dramas own the features of multiple threads or complex narrative structures. Lastly, what shows on the programs are not all efficient in guiding the viewers’ action in real lives.
Works Cited
“Cognition”. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2009.
Danili, Eleni and Reid, Norman. Cognitive factors that can potentially affect pupils’ test performance, Chemistry Education Research and Practice, July 13th, 2014.< http://www.pdfph.com/load/a2V5d29yZD1mYWN0b3JzK2FmZmVjdGluZyt0aGUrcmVhZGluZytwZXJmb3JtYW5jZStvZitncmFkZStvbmUrcHVwaWxzJmxpbms9aHR0cCUzQSUyRiUyRnd3dy5yc2Mub3JnJTJGaW1hZ2VzJTJGRGFuaWxpUmVpZCUyNTIwZmluYWxfdGNtMTgtNTIxMDgucGRm>
Johnson, Steven. Watching TV Make You Smarter. 出版城市: 出版社名称, 年份.
51due留学教育原创版权郑重声明:原创优秀代写范文源自编辑创作,未经官方许可,网站谢绝转载。对于侵权行为,未经同意的情况下,51Due有权追究法律责任。主要业务有essay代写、assignment代写、paper代写、作业代写服务。
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Television does not necessarily help the viewer's cognitive abilities
In Chapter three of Watching TV Makes You Smarter, Steven Johnson illustrates how TV makes the audience smarter from the aspect of cognitive capability. But not all the viewers can strengthen their cognition by watching TV programs. The paper will discuss the issue from the following three parts.
I.Many Factors Form Cognitive Faculty
Cognitive faculty is “cognition”, in another word. “ cognition is the mental process of knowing, including aspects such as awareness, perception, reasoning and judgment (“cognition”)”. Cognitive faculty is closely related to many factors. Since the Old Greek time, there have been numerous research on cognition from many aspects, such as psychology, sociology or philosophy. Many studies show that the development of cognition is influenced by many factors such as genes, personal experience, age and etc. “Differences in the above factors are brought together to suggest that individuals have different cognitive styles and are different in intelligence, ability, personality, and achievement (Danili and Reid, 66).”
Steven believes that “Audiences happily embrace that complexity because they’ve been trained by two decades of multi-threaded dramas (Johnson, 172)”, which adheres to the point that the audience’s capability of decoding complexity comes from the long-time TV show. The author here exaggerates television’s function as the main stimulus to the viewers’ grasp of complexity. Another TV drama “Nikita” tells the story how the female warrior conquers the evil one by one with the aid of high-technology and her shrewdness. Assuming that a bunch of people, living in a backward village where only TV sets are available while computers are totally new to the villagers, are now watching the show. Is it possible that they understand what’s really going on in the show? So it’s reasonable to say that only the viewers who are already endowed with necessary cognitive ability can understand the complexity of a TV drama.
Besides television, many other sources foster cognitive faculty. In the fast-moving society, new things sprout every single day. Human beings can enrich their knowledge from various choices, among which television is usually the most direct and least time-consuming. However, still many prefer books or the scripts on which dramas based. Before the boom of television, books take up most of people’s leisure time. Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle got its fame and enhanced the readers’ logical reasoning ability long before the emergence of its television version. The fact that more dramas with more complicated narration or plots appear on screen doesn’t mean that there are fewer complex forms such as fictions off screen. Therefore, better cognitive faculty is not necessarily from television dramas.
I.Not All TV Dramas Are Complex
Steven points that TV programs requiring of more cognitive demands mainly ascribe to three reasons. “This growing complexity involves three primary elements multiple threading, flashing arrows and social networks (Johnson, 172)”. “Hill Street” is taken as a typical example of “to marry complex narrative structure with complex subject matter (Johnson, 173)”. To Steven, complex narration, multiple plots or multiple subjects offer the viewers good resources to facilitate their cognition. Nevertheless, the listed TV drama in his book as supporting evidence cannot represent all the existing dramas. In “24” or “Hill Street”, complex narrative structure or subject matters may be adopted, but still there are many more other dramas with simple narration or subjects. Mark Cherry’s “Devious Maids”, a television comedy-drama series showed by Lifetime, is one of the latest popular dramas with thrilling plots. It’s favored by the audience because of it’s suspense. Although the drama centers on five characters’ lives, the show always focuses on one leading point. Either in season 1 or season 2, the main plot is to solve one mysterious murder despite of other parallel plots. The main purpose of season 2 is for Marisol to uncover her fiancé, Nick’s murder along with other sub-plots. There are indeed more than one plots in the show, but the other mysteries are not secrets to the viewers. In episode 1 of season 2, it seems that Alejandro’s death lays a veil on the story first, but just after Alejandro is shot, one of the gang, later appears as Spence’s nephew pulls off his mask and has a little conversation with another member, from which the audience get the idea that Alejandro’s death is an accident rather than a mysterious murder as in other characters’ or the police’ eyes.
Besides thrillers, TV channels also provide the audience with other sorts of series, such as sitcoms. Popular programs such as “Modern family”, “2 Broke Girls” or “Friends” literally have no linear plots. What the viewers have to do is follow the show and laugh at whatever suggests humor.
Another feature which is deserved some attention is that all dramas are likely to end up with cliché even if they do have complex narrative structures or subject matters. They are often stimulating or enlightening when the first seasons are released but the audience can always figure out the same pattern, thus predict the end. Take “Nikita” as an illustration, every episode begins with a challenge to make, then with throat-cut enduring processes and end with Nikita’s success. In another sense, television dramas are deprived of the function in cultivating people’s cognition when they are already finished with some episodes.
II.Not All Television Dramas Are Instructive in Confronting Difficult Social Issues
Steven believes people can learn how to confront difficult social issues so as to enhance cognitive faculty by watching the characters’ behaviors in “Hill Street”. The show “had richly drawn characters confronting difficult social issues and a narrative structure to match (Johnson, 173)”. Nearly all the TV dramas originate from reality, but they are also forms of art and lack authenticity, which are futile to educate how to tackle difficult social issues.
“Prison Break”, the one-time hit drama shows how the hero successfully breaks a heavily-guarded prison by a series of delicate plans. On July 8th, many Chinese news websites issued a piece of news that 18 addicts broke a rehab center in Guangxi province by digging an underground passage, but only get caught within the following 24 hours by the police. It’s described as a live “prison break” show. It’s self-evident to us that mastermind like Michael Scofield only exists in fiction. The play writer portraits the hero as a master in every aspect, and even the prison he is jailed in is designed by him, which all ensures his success in breaking the prison. But in reality, most people are average-minded. Therefore, it’s very doubtful that the audience can deal with complex social issues by sitting “in the comfort of the sitcom living room (Johnson, 173)”.
To sum up, television doesn’t necessarily improve people’s cognitive faculty. Firstly, the viewers have many methods to enhance their cognition besides television. Secondly, not all television dramas own the features of multiple threads or complex narrative structures. Lastly, what shows on the programs are not all efficient in guiding the viewers’ action in real lives.
Works Cited
“Cognition”. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2009.
Danili, Eleni and Reid, Norman. Cognitive factors that can potentially affect pupils’ test performance, Chemistry Education Research and Practice, July 13th, 2014.< http://www.pdfph.com/load/a2V5d29yZD1mYWN0b3JzK2FmZmVjdGluZyt0aGUrcmVhZGluZytwZXJmb3JtYW5jZStvZitncmFkZStvbmUrcHVwaWxzJmxpbms9aHR0cCUzQSUyRiUyRnd3dy5yc2Mub3JnJTJGaW1hZ2VzJTJGRGFuaWxpUmVpZCUyNTIwZmluYWxfdGNtMTgtNTIxMDgucGRm>
Johnson, Steven. Watching TV Make You Smarter. 出版城市: 出版社名称, 年份.
51due留学教育原创版权郑重声明:原创优秀代写范文源自编辑创作,未经官方许可,网站谢绝转载。对于侵权行为,未经同意的情况下,51Due有权追究法律责任。主要业务有essay代写、assignment代写、paper代写、作业代写服务。
51due为留学生提供最好的作业代写服务,亲们可以进入主页了解和获取更多代写范文提供作业代写服务,详情可以咨询我们的客服QQ:800020041。