Wilbur Schramm received a Master of Arts in American Civilization at Harvard University and a Ph.D. in English at the University of Iowa. Schramm was a journalist, writer and academic and most of his publications dealt with mass communication and he is indeed sometimes called the father of communication studies. Frey Bruno on the other hand, received a Master in Economics at the University of Basle and a Ph.D. in Economics. Bruno worked as a Professor of Economics at the University of Constance and later at the University of Zurich. From the year 2010, Bruno has been Distinguished Professor of Behavioral Science at the Warwick Business School and most of his publications deal with the study of behavior.
Schramm (17) is of the opinion that television is more beneficial than it is harmful especially on children. He further states that the effects of television on people would be very hard to study because we are unable or unwilling to experiment on humans as we do on other things. Bruno (3) on the other hand believes that many people are subject to a self control problem because although television is entertaining and relaxing, the future costs of watching television such as not having enough sleep, and the underinvestment in social contacts, education, or career are not considered.
Schramm’s research can be considered to be biased towards television because it is not balanced and it is mostly based on the previous researches conducted to explain why people go to watch films. The majority of his research tends to focus on the benefits of television to children and its positive effects towards their development especially in their interaction within society and in the development of their vocabulary. Schramm states that television offers security and reassurance through the familiar format of many of its programmes but Bruno’s research on the other hand is fairly biased against television. The tone of his research, as opposed to Schramm’s, is generally negative and it focuses more on the negative effects of television than on the positive ones. He even goes as far as to declare that it is quite plausible that unhappy people watch more television than happy people.
Schramm’s article was published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) which is an agency of the United Nations founded in 1946 whose purpose is to promote global co – operation through education, the sciences, and culture. The UNESCO publishes material that deal with the various issues concerning education, science and culture. Frey Bruno’s article was published by the Center for Research in Economics, Management, and the Arts which he and other colleagues founded to promote scientific research in economics, management and the arts based on the rational choice of approach and from insights from neighboring social sciences.
Schramm’s article was published in 1965 at a time when the age of television was just at its infancy. This was a time when not much had been learned about its effects because most of the people who lived then were not so focused on television they ignored other activities. There were many other sources of entertainment such as the various outdoor activities. Bruno’s work, which came forty years later in 2005, was written at the peak of the television age when many aspects of our lives revolve around the television. Everything from news to television programmes to advertising can now be seen on television and this has led many to spend most of their time watching television.
Parke (307) agrees with Schramm when he states that television programmes have been shown to have positive effects on children’s cognitive and language development. He however disagrees with Schramm’s opinion (and agrees with Bruno’s) that television depicts what is familiar and that it gives us a secure feeling. Parke states that television’s representation of life and society are often inaccurate and as a result, people who view it extensively tend to overestimate the degree of danger and crime in the world and underestimate the trustworthiness and helpfulness of other people. Hamilton (322) further elaborates on this by stating that the most common theme when discussing television today is violence. Television violence is very harmful especially on impressionable children who as they grow up try to emulate the violence they saw on television.
The tone in Schramm’s article depicts his very positive view of television and it also shows a part of the general view of the sixties as being very optimistic about television. The writing style in this article is fairly broad addressing the various issues which were a concern at the time of the article’s writing. Bruno’s style is more contemporary and it gets directly to the point. He addresses the issues even more broadly than Schramm because he has forty years more worth of data to work with than Schramm did.
In the writing of Schramm, we notice that he mostly used periodicals as sources for his articles. He uses a diverse range of periodicals from those dealing with psychology, sociology, and mass communication. Bruno on the other hand mostly uses sources dealing with issues related to his field of study, that is, economics. He however also touches on the very same subjects that Schramm did especially in psychology and sociology but all of these in relation to economics.
Cited Works
Bruno, Frey. “Does Watching Television Make Us Happy?” 2005.
Hamilton, James T. Television Violence and Public Policy. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2000.
Parke, Ross D & Clarke-Stewart, Alison. Social Development. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 2010.
Schramm, Wilbur. “Effects of Television on Children and Adolescents.” 1965.
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