Viewers urged to ‘tune in’ to TV-Turnoff Week
■ Americans watch TV
almost four hours a day, a
statistic that anti-TV groups
are trying to change
By Jessica Blanchard
Oregon Daily Emerald
Just as the major television net
works are gearing up for the May
sweeps, organizations such as
Adbusters and TV-Free America
are teaming up to urge Americans
to turn off the TV.
The idea behind National TV
Turnoff Week, now in its seventh
year, is to get people to turn off
the television long enough to real
ize that it’s overwhelmed society
to the point that we’re unable to
have meaningful relationships
with each other, said Carl Bybee,
an associate professor in the Uni
versity’s journalism school.
“I think it’s a good idea,” Bybee
said, referring to the event. “One
thing I found to be particularly
shocking was that the average
person, by the time they turn 65,
has spent nine years of their life
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watching TV. And of that, about
two or three years will be spent
watching commercials.”
One of the overall goals behind
the TV-Turnoff movement is to re
mind people that there are other,
more educational or fun ways to
spend free time than lounging in
front of the TV.
But statistics show that the av
erage American youth is spend
ing a majority of his or her free
time parked in front of the televi
sion - usually watching TV a
whopping four hours a day, ac
cording to the Center for Media
and Public Affairs, a Washington,
D.C.-based nonprofit, non-parti
san research and education organ
ization that conducts scientific
studies on the news and enter
tainment media.
Statistics for adults can vary,
but tend to be slightly lower —
usually around three hours a day
— according to Matthew Felling,
a spokesman and media analyst
for the center.
“That can give people a skewed
sense of reality, where all the
good guys are attractive, it all
works out in the end, and bad be
havior, such as violence, has no
repercussions,” he said.
Bybee added that television
also encourages us to conform to
its ideals.
“Our very sense of identity is
becoming less and less individ
ual,” he said. As a result, we feel
we have to meet the ideals that
the media hold up.
For example, men feel they
have to meet the ideals of mas
culinity portrayed on TV; women
try to mimic ideals of beauty; and
realistic portrayals of issues be
tween men and women fall by the
wayside as networks worry more
about how to attract viewers and
increase ratings, he said.
Network television programs
not only portray unrealistic ideals
of gender roles, but reinforce
racial stereotypes as well, accord
ing to Tim Wise, a prominent so
cial critic who spoke on campus
earlier this week.
Wise said there are usually two
types of television programs: real
ity-based shows and entertain
ment-based shows, which both
give viewers a skewed look at real
life.
“Real-life TV is not usually a
very good representation of real
life at all,” he said, noting that tel
evision shows tend to dispropor
tionately portray blacks as crimi
nals or deviants and whites as
victims.
And entertainment-based
shows aren’t much better: there’s
still segregation of roles between
whites and people of color.
“The networks have very few
roles for black people,” he said.
And when viewers do see black
characters, they never see them
grappling with issues that people
of color face, such as race rela
tions, he said.
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“Even when they have decent
representation, stereotypes are
certainly still maintained,” he
said.
The sponsors of the TV-Tumoff
Week are also hoping to draw at
tention to the small number of
mega-corporations that own most
media outlets.
“Even as the number of chan
nels that we can view are increas
ing, the overall number of compa
nies owning them goes down,”
Bybee said.
Combatting boredom
Watching television has be
come “a habitual thing” for many
people, Felling said, and it can be
difficult for them to turn off the
TV — even for a week.
“It’s interesting to see the rela
tionship of television to our
lives,” Bybee agreed. “We have let
go of all kinds of other things to
watch TV.”
But at the Eugene Public Li
brary, librarians are hoping to in
crease turnout in this year’s TV
Turnoff, especially among
children, and are working to
show them that there are other
great alternatives to TV.
In the Youth Department, chil
dren can pick up “survival kits”
to help them get through the TV
free week.
The kits include free passes for
ice skating, roller skating, and
swimming, along with a list of
ideas for alternatives to television.
In addition, several events are
planned for the weekend, for
those who make it through the
week without caving.
Cara Haakanson, an assistant li
brarian in the Youth Department,
said the library has been encour
aging families to participate in TV
Turnoff Week for several years.
“People have started to look
forward to it,” she said. “And the
teachers all get very excited —
they want to know when it’s com
ing up.”
Many people remain unaware
of the upcoming turnoff week,
though, largely due to a refusal on
the part of major television net
works to air ads promoting the
event.
Adbusters, a national, nonprof
it, nonpartisan organization that
encourages Americans to reduce
the amount of television they
watch to help increase their quali
ty of life, was finally able to buy
some air time last year on CNN.
Other ads, which the group
calls “un-commercials,” that they
have been unable to air can be
found at their Web site, at
www.adbusters.org/campaigns/tv
turnoff.