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How TV Influences Societies
It is common knowledge that television is a powerful social engineering tool. Often it is used to manipulate public opinion and teach particular values. Whether the influence is positive or negative depends on who decides what to communicate.
In both my country of origin and that of my residence – Russia and Italy correspondingly – TV has played the important role of uniting the nation. Think that in such a vast country as Russia, there are no dialects, despite groups of population are cut off from each other by thousands of kilometers of taiga forest. As for Italy, dialects change one another every thirty kilometers. Before the introduction of TV, Italians from different areas didn’t even understand each other.
During the pandemic, I also appreciated how efficient TV was in reporting recent statistics and guidelines. Unlike the Internet, where you could find a lot of misguiding advice, TV was selective and more accurate.
On the other hand, TV remains the main tool when it comes to imposing opinions on society. I remember discussing the 2009 Russian – Ukrainian gas dispute with my Polish colleague. It was a revelation to me that Russia was responsible for cutting off gas supplies to Southeastern Europe. According to the information I had been exposed to back then, Russia was the only injured party. Both Russian and Polish TV was far from impartial. Such presentation of information leads to xenophobia.
All in all, though TV is a quick and efficient way of communication with the masses, it gravitates towards reporting information one-sidedly. I would like it to present more points of view and encourage viewers to decide for themselves.
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2 Replies
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This is a fascinating account @Elena – thank you for sharing this experience.
Essay feedback: introduction is perfect, well done. You sum up the argument and introduce your topic. Structure, word choice and content – all spot on 🌸
Here are some suggestions:
Think that in such a vast country as Russia – this doesn’t sound very natural (I fear there is some ‘Italian interference’ going on here 😂 .. Pensa che ….)
‘despite’ – please read this:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/in-spite-of-and-despite
Here are some ways you could word it:
It’s incredible to believe that in such a vast country as Russia, there are no dialects, despite THE FACT THAT groups of THE population are cut off from each other by thousands of kilometers of taiga forest.
If we consider, for example, a vast country such as Russia; there are no dialects, despite groups of THE population BEING cut off from each other by thousands of kilometers of taiga forest.
> As for Italy, dialects change FROM one TO another every thirty kilometers.
> misguiding advice – misleading advice
Excellent work Elena 👏
More on despite: See here: https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/intermediate-to-upper-intermediate/in-spite-of-despite-although-even-though-and-though
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Thank you very much for your feedback. Honestly, although I checked this “one another” thing in the dictionary (with no success), there is nothing better than asking a native speaker. It was also useful to brush up on ‘despite.’
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