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Chapter 1

   Digital imagery, an all-pervasive and ingeniously manipulated part of media, is in the process of molding our society's culture (Eagleton, 1991; Macionis, 1998; Mander & Goldsmith, 1996; Iyengar, 1991).  The ties to the past that we, as individuals, pass on to our children are at risk of being diluted into oblivion. Our thoughts are being molded into a homogeneous lifestyle devoid of diversity and history (Gerbner, 1995; Huxley, 1946; Mander, 1991; Postman, 1986; Orwell, 1949).  Those who control how our thoughts are being shaped control our future by having control of how we perceive the past and the present (Kocher, 2001; Ross, 2001).  This research paper explores and studies the array of technology-based formats that allow this to occur and the implications that are not only possible but also highly probable (Bagdikian, 1992; Anonymous, 1997; Iyenger, 1994; Johnson, 1999; Klass, 2000; Mander, 1992; Mander, Goldsmith, 1996).

   In my research of literature, I have identified a significant gap in the correlation of information as it pertains to television and computers.  Although there is a wealth of data on how television viewing effects behavior (Johnson, 1999; Mander, 1992; Postman, 1986; Huffman, Vernoy & Vernoy, 1995), there is a critical shortage of information that pertains to the advancing utilization of digitalization in both television and computer imagery (Bauder, 1998; Cringley, 1999; Froomkin, 1995) as a means for providing a highly advanced; viewer-specific; targeted behavior modification campaign.  The progression to fully digitized media that replaces the commonplace TV (Cringely, 1999; Froomkon, 1996) with that of a combination computer browser window/TV viewing multi-media presentation device that can be used as a corporate data collection tool and market manipulator, is the main focus of my study.
Much has been written about the effects on television viewing and its possible connection with violent behavior, memory, and anger (Bushman, 1998; Gore, 1994; Greto, 1999; Murray, 1999) plus its effects on children's abilities to learn how to read and to write (Kaufman, 1998; Winn, 1985; Johnson, 1999).  This research focuses more on the potential for a directed, viewer-targeted initiative where the main goal is the modification of a viewer's behavior at an unconscious level (Sutphen, 2000; Hunter; 1958).  This viewer-specific targeting could be easily accomplished via the use of the commonly used browser window on the computer (Netscape, 1999; Froomkin, 1995; Ladd & O'Donnell, 1998).
Once one researches the literature concerning such topics as Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson's studies in behavior modification (Knight, 1998, Sutphen, 2000); and the historic uses of brainwashing techniques (Hunter, 1958; Kocher, 2000; Sutphen, 2000), and then reads accounts of studies of an individual's behavior after prolonged viewing of television (Johnson, 1999; Mander, 1978; Skinner, 1979; Shanto, 1994) the need for asking more questions concerning why there is such an overall acceptance by society of this everyday occurrence (Neilsen, 1999, 2000) with hardly any public outcry to the political and behavioral conditioning that could be occurring, needs to be addressed.  That was precisely what I attempted to accomplish within this study.

Overall Questions that guided the research:
-    In our society, what habits have evolved into becoming part of a daily routine that includes television and computers?
-    In what ways have television and computers affected communication between people in our society?
-    Are there certain conditions that may increase or decrease the potential for behavior modification in an individual when using a computer or television?
-    What technological advances increase the potential for subverting individual thought?

Other questions that were addressed throughout the study included:

-    How is television a tool for corporate goal attainment? Why?
-    Why does society exhibit so many signs of denial (Hunter, 1958; Mander, 1991) when confronted with the negative effects of television?
-    Why are we not asking "why?' when told that violent programming is on the rise (Clinton, 1996; Murray, 1999) in visual media?
-    What are we not questioning? Is there a 'smokescreen' being put up to keep us from looking further into what television really is?
-    Who would benefit from such research?  Who would not want such research pursued?
-    Does violent programming do more than increase violent behaviors (Everett, 1997; Johnson, 1999;Murray, 1999) in some people?  What does it do?  Who would benefit if our society had a perception of an increase in overall violence occurring around us?  Why?
-    How is/could TV and the media contain our society's outcry by manipulating the problems and channeling the discussion?  Why?
In the science fiction classic, Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, the following passage bests explains this research paper's main focus and the significance to the problems posed:

" You can't build a house without nails and wood.  If you don't want a house built, hide the nails and wood.  If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one.  Better yet, give him none.  Let him forget there is such a thing as war.  If the government is inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it.  Peace. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to popular songs or names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year.  Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so darned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information.  Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving.  And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change.  Don't give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with." (Bradbury, 1943, p. 56)

This paper studies the possible effects of viewing digital images on the subconscious. The introduction in Chapter 1 has provided the problem and offered numerous questions to be studied.  Chapter 2 provides a review of related literature.  The problem studied is complex and so is the review. This second chapter provides historical and technological information along with information on behavioral and psychological studies all pertaining to my research.  Chapter 3 outlines the entire research plan, describing the methodology, timeline and rationale and limitations within my study.  Chapter 4 presents the data and analysis of my own research into this complex problem, and Chapter 5 not only summarizes this research but provides my own insights into the political and behavioral manifestations that I believe are occurring within our society due to television's presence and its metamorphosis with computer technology into a tool for the homogenization of thought. 




























Chapter 2
This review encompasses a multi-faceted array of literature topics that are each separate entities in their own right.  In addition, they have a commonality among themselves that will be more evident to you as this review progresses.  The main focus of this paper is concerned with our understanding of visual learning and the implications involved when the practice of it is combined with the digital media of television and computers (Hardebeck, 2000; Hobbs, 1996, Calvin, 1998). Media and information technology are molding our culture (Eagleton, 1991; Macionis, 1998; Mander & Goldsmith, 1996; Iyengar, 1991).  Much has been written about the effects of television viewing and its possible connection with violent behavior, memory, anger, and its effects on people's abilities to learn (Bushman, 1998; Gore, 1994; Greto, 1999; Johnson, 1999; Kaufman, 1998; Murray, 1999; Winn, 1985).  This research focuses on another aspect, the possible effects that viewing digital media may be having on society in general in the manner of behavior modification (Johnson, 1999, Knight, 1998, Macionis, 1998; Skinner, 1979; Spock, 1998; Jana, 2000).


Overall Questions that will guide this review of literature are the following:
-    In our society, what habits have evolved into becoming part of a daily routine that includes television and computers?
-    In what ways have television and computers affected communication between people in our society?
-    Are there certain conditions that may increase or decrease the potential for behavior modification in an individual when using a computer or television?
-    What technological advances increase the potential for subverting individual thought?
This paper will be subdivided into the following perspectives:
-    Historical/Educational
-    Technological
-    Societal
Historical/Educational
This part of the research paper focuses on how education is at its most succinct and successful level in all of history, where more people are being taught concurrently than ever before (Neilsen, 1999; Iynegar, 1994; Johnson, 1999).  This paper is about the education of the many by the very few, where the past is being re-written and the future is being for-ordained, where we can feel free because there is no longer any awareness of the discrepancy between truth and falsehood (Eagleton, 1991; Fromm, 1955;  Gerbner, 1995; Mander & Goldsmith, 1996; Orwell, 1949).  This review examines how industry and education ran a parallel course in their need for efficiency in dealing with the increasing demands of a growing population (Mander, 1978; Postman, 1986).  This review also examines how society's concept of time has changed as it relates to work and to leisure (Mander, 1992; Winn, 1985).
Prior to the 1940's, before television, society spent its time in doing things that required an active involvement of the individual, where one learned to do new things as an active participant (Eagleton, 1991; Mander, 1978; Piaget, 1972; Pinar, 1975; Neilsen, 1999).   With the introduction of television into the every day activities of most people (Neislen, 1999, 2000), there has been a steady and not so readily discernible transformation of not only 'what' is being learned, but with 'whom' is doing the teaching in regards to people of every age (Eagleton, 1979; Gerbner, 1995; Huffman, Vernoy & Vernoy, 1995; Johnson, 1999). No longer is education occurring from only that which is near (Macionis, 1998; Mander, 1978; Eagleton, 1991).  According to the Neilsen Media Research Services, there were 99.4 million households in the US who had at least one TV set as of March 1999.  With up to 106 million people tuned in on any given day during prime time, approx. 8PM-11PM (Neilson Media Research, May 1999).  Education can now occur directed by those who may be in a totally different locale (Mander, 1978; Johnson, 1999; Iyenger, 1994). Changes have taken place within our society that would have been almost impossible to predict, although a few sci-fi writers did a seemingly amazing job in foretelling many aspects of these changes (Asimov, 1982; Waugh and Greenburg, 1982; Bradbury, 1953; Huxley, 1945; Orwell, 1949). 
In the late 1800's and early 1900's conceptual-empiricism evolved, according to Franklin Bobbit, because the age of science was “demanding exactness and particularity” (Bobbitt, 1918, pg. 61).  The industrial revolution was running at ‘full steam ahead’.  Immigrants were entering America at record levels (Postman, 1985).  The training of the uneducated masses seemed a daunting task to the businesses that required skilled laborers (Mander, 1978; Postman, 1985).   There “seemed to be a growing acceptance of a powerful and restrictive bureaucratic ideal for education which looked toward the management techniques of industry as its ideal of excellence and source of inspiration (Pinar, 1975, pg.51)".   In 1891, a Boston architect well known for his design of sleek high-rise buildings is quoted as saying, “form follows function” (Legrand, 1989, pg. 1007).  Functionalism defined as “a philosophy of design holding that form should be adapted to use, material, and structure; a theory that stresses the interdependence of the patterns and institutions of a society and their interaction in maintaining cultural and social unity: (Merriam-Webster, 1973, pg.465). This belief of form following function can be traced back to the works of Charles Darwin and his book, The Origin of the Species, published in 1858.  Darwins’ entire theory of evolution rested on the premise that the development of all characteristics and differences in nature results from the needs of the organism to survive.  This thinking platform of functionality also could be seen in other industries such as the automobile industry (Postman, 1986).  As Henry Ford and other major industrialists were actively pursuing ways to increase production efficiency in their factories, the design of the automobile was adjusted to allow for easier production techniques (Postman, 1986).  Postman goes on to write how the signs of individuality of design were lost in the new production methods of the time. Form does follow function.   Function in the way the manufacturing process could be streamlined thereby predicating the form of the product.  In 1913 Ford introduced his Model -T assembly line in Detroit, Michigan.  The true era of mass-production was born.  Each worker was assigned a specific task to perform in a repetitive manner.  In the true form of efficiency, the time necessary to build an automobile from start to finish was dramatically decreased. Customized automobiles would prove to be too costly and slow down the process time from raw material to marketable product. 
Along with the fast-paced production lines of the factories, communication technology was also developing at a heightened rate of speed. In 1902 the development of movable images in the film industry brought a sense of vitality and realism to the static look of the photograph. It was not long until the industries’ advertisers realized the potential of the moving image in providing a format to carry their message more efficiently too (Postman, 1986).   The production industry and the newly developing marketing industry formed a lucrative partnership in their quest to educate the population of the necessity of purchasing their products (Hobbs, 1996; Mander, 1992).  Advertisers were needed to make the consumer believe that the ever changing, new and improved ‘form’ better met the users needs, that is, the product’s ‘function’ (Postman, 1986).
The late nineteenth century brought about many changes in society that would influence the development of Franklin Bobbitt’s and David Snedden’s philosophical theories (Postman, 1985).   Pinar states, “ the bureaucratization of the school curriculum that was to take place in the twentieth century was manifest in the general social and intellectual climate of American society at the turn of the century” (Pinar, 1975, pg.52).   In the late 1800’s, inventions such as Thomas Edison’s light bulb; Christopher Latham Sholes’ first practical typewriter; Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, and Louis Daguerre’s daguerreotype (photograph) brought about a new sense of time and its use (Postman, 1986).  With the invention of the light bulb, no longer was it necessary to stop production work in a large factory because of the dim lighting of kerosene lanterns.  Night and day could be now treated equally.  Speed of information transmission brought an increased sense of urgency to matters that would have once seemed of less importance.  An example of this could be the effects on the production levels of a certain item caused by hearing news about some event happening hundreds of miles away.  The typewriter brought a speed to the printed word that had previously been unheard of.  It was then possible to time the words per minute of a typist and then to set speed goals that had to be adhered to (Postman, 1986).  Quality of the shape of the letter was no longer a factor as it had been with handwriting.  Quantity was now the overruling factor.  “The late nineteenth century saw the breakdown of a community-centered society and with it the ideal of the individual as a unit element in social life.  The press of the corporate expansion and urbanization made the individual merely a cog in a great machine” (Pinar, 1975, pg.52).
Scientific management, as it related to the study of efficiency in the factory, was now being turned towards all aspects of everyday life.  Frederick W. Taylor, known as the principal spokesman of the scientific management bureaucracy (Pinar, 1975), studied every aspect of efficiency as it related to industry.  Taylor’s concept was that “productivity is central, and the individual is simply an element in the production system” (Pinar, 1975, pg.53).  One of the strengths of this viewpoint is that it “carried with it an ethical dimension which bore a superficial resemblance to some of the tried and true virtues of the nineteenth century” (Pinar, 1975, pg. 54).  An example of this would be the combination of increased production levels to the employee’s level of energy output.  The ideals of such virtues as doing an honest day’s work would be used as a means to eliminate employee laziness and slow work (Pinar, 1975).   Pinar gives as another example of how morality came to be intertwined in the issues of efficiency, the Eastern Rate Case of 1910-11.  The railroads had begun asking for an increase in their freight rates.  By faulting their use of efficiency-management methods in the workings of the railroads, Louis Brandeis was able to talk the American middle-class into believing that it was the misuse of time management methods that were causing all of the problems.  In time, many Americans let this belief of the all importance of efficiency and time management seep into the workings of every day life. This was all happening at the same time that Ivan Pavlov, a Russian medical researcher, began publishing his findings concerning “conditioned reflexes” in 1907.  “Animals, Pavlov says, need to form conditioned reflexes in order to survive in a changing, predictable environment.  His experiments are confined to dogs and monkeys, but there is no doubt in Pavlov’s mind that humans, too, form these conditioned reflexes” (Legrand, 1989, pg.103).
The entire concept of utilizing scientific management theory as a method of controlling the educational systems’ curriculum put the student in the position of ‘raw material’, to be molded, processed and packaged into a viable, marketable and productive ‘product’ (Postman, 1986).  J. Franklin Bobbitt’s only concern for the individual was in determining his/her predetermined role, as it would suit the corporate world.  Individualism was never a factor to be considered.  By the 1920’s the curriculum was under a massive upheaval in order to make it fit the standards being laid out by the production metaphors.  Bobbitt believed that the curriculum of the schools needed to focus on the objectives that would not be attained in the normal, day-to-day undirected experiences. (Bobbit, 1918).  “Systematic labors of directed training” (Bobbitt, 1918, pg. 44) were required to correct any aspect of failure on the part of regular upbringing in society in teaching the correct manners of language usage, mathematical skills and other scholastic subjects.  Bobbitt felt that the “controlling purposes of education had not been sufficiently particularized…and the scientific task preceding all others is the determination of the curriculum” (Bobbitt, 1918, pg.61).
With the mind-set of the conceptual-empiricists making such an impact on education, and the scientific management principles being put into every aspect of industrial decision-making, ripples could be felt in other sectors of society.   Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, published in 1932, gave voice to his concern of what could result from society’s fascination with social efficiency.   According to Ross Finney (1929) and written just prior to the release of Huxley’s work, “if leadership by the intelligent is ever to be achieved, followership by the dull and ignorant must somehow be assured” (Finney, 1929, pg.386).  This was exactly what Huxley warned about in his book.  Through the use of a science fiction type of story line, Huxley described how there was not only predetermination being made from studying a group of students, but an actual “Social Predetermination Room” where there were test tube embryos.  As explained by the fictitious character, Mr. Foster, in the story, “We also predestine and condition.  We decant out babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future sewage workers or future…” He was going to say “future World Controllers,” but correcting himself, said, “future Directors of Hatcheries,” instead” (Huxley, 1932, pg.12). In Huxley’s book historical time was dated in relation to the ‘Year of Our Ford’ and ‘A.F.’ instead of our ‘A.D’. In the forward of the second printing of Brave New World in 1946, Huxley wrote, “A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.  To make them love it is the task assigned, in present-day totalitarian states, to ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors and schoolteachers” (Huxley, 1946, pg.xv). Others in society also were reflecting their interpretations of the dynamic implications that would result from the full incorporation of such a philosophy as conceptual-empiricism.  The artists of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s displayed their internalized reactions to such a controlling philosophy by rebelling in how they created their works.  The opposite philosophies of the Futurists, “who extolled the machine world and saw in mechanization, revolution, and war the rational and logical means, however brutal, to the solution of human problems” (Arnason, 1977, pg.307), and the Dadaists who felt “that the only way to salvation was through political anarchy, the natural emotions, the intuitive, and the irrational” (Arnason, 1977, pg.307) could be interpreted as society’s confusion with which philosophy was the best.  Rebelling against any kind of societal control, the Zurich Dadaists “were violently opposed to any organized program in the arts, or any movement that might express the common stylistic denominator of a coherent group (Arnason, 1977, pg.307).  The inner conflict, which can be best exemplified by Marcel Duchamp’s post 1911 works, shows his struggle with the validity of art.  His works were at the opposite extreme of the Cubists.  “Their dynamism, their “machine aesthetic”, was an optimistic, humorless exaltation of the new world of the machine, of speed, flight, and efficiency, with progress measured in these terms” (Arnason, 1977, pg. 310).  One playwright, Raymond Roussel, in 1911, portrayed the “notion of a painting machine to render all man-made forms of representational art obsolete” (Arnason, 1977, pg.310), in his performance of Impressions of Africa.  There is a continual expansion on the effects of the industrial mode of thinking on life and on art.  This can be seen in the works of a school of machine painters and sculptors from Germany.  Their art “both extolled the machine as a hope for the future and pointed out the danger that men might be turned into robots in a soulless machine society” (Arnason, 1977, pg. 327).  By the 1930’s the art form known as Abstract Expressionism, was building in popularity among artists.  “The essence of abstract expressionism is the spontaneous assertion of the individual” (Arnason, 1977, pg. 508).  The works were so fluid and spontaneous from unpredictable actions of the artist that they would be impossible to be copied.  It was a powerful and successful way to combat the mechanization of movement in the growing industrial age.
According to Pinar (1975), there was a temporary decline in society’s interests of the efficiency model of education by the late 1920s.  There was a renewed interest in this philosophy soon after World War II.  Pinar explains this renewal of interest on the two revolutions in society, “just as the first great drive toward standardization, predetermination, and fragmentation in the school curriculum came about in the aftermath of the first industrial revolution, so the renewal of these tendencies has come about in the aftermath of the second one- what is sometimes called the electronic or technological revolution” (Pinar, 1975, pg.64). 
As the worlds of art and education were coming to terms with the philosophies that dealt with efficiency and technological advances, there occurred a very famous conference.  This conference was held at the Mt. Washington Hotel, Brenton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944.  This conference created the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and soon after, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).  The goals of the world leaders who met at this conference were to create the institutions that would promote the vision of a world united in peace through economic prosperity (Korten, 1994).   These leaders were powerful members of the U.S. corporate and foreign policy establishments.  David Korten, Ph.D., who, at Bretton Woods, gave the keynote address at the fiftieth anniversary of this conference to the Environmental Grantmakers Association of America, is the president of the People-Centered Development Forum in New York.  He feels that beginning in the 1930s with the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations and continuing through the 1940s from Bretton Woods and onward, there has been a systematic and unified progression of steps being taken economically and politically that are meeting the goals set forth at this conference.  “The structure and ideology of the existing Bretton Woods system is geared to an ever-continuing expansion of economic output- economic growth- and to the integration of national economies into a seamless global economy” (Korten, 1964, pg. 23).  After World War II, the factories that had been running around the clock to provide to the war effort were facing the dire consequences of scaling back to pre-war production.  Fears of returning to the days of the Great Depression loomed over everyone. “With industrial capacity and capital investment expanded as they were, the consequences of a drop in production could make the 1930s look like the golden years” (Mander, 1977, pg. 135).  Right after the Bretton Woods conference “government and industry started making identical pronouncements about re-gearing American life to consume commodities at a level never before contemplated… a new vision was born that equated the good life with consumer goods.  An accelerated economy, continuing the booming expansion of wartime, added to a new consumer ideology, achieved the greatest economic growth rate in this country’s history from 1946 to 1970 (Mander, 1977, pg.136).  In 1954 another extremely important meeting occurred among North American and European corporate and government leaders. This group was known as Bilderberg and played a critical role in advancing the European Union.  “Participants included heads of state, other key politicians, key industrialists and financiers, and an assortment of intellectuals, trade unionists, diplomats, and influential representatives of the press with demonstrated sympathy for establishment views” (Korten, 1964, pg.27).  As time went on, Japan, which was becoming more influential in the world market, needed to be included in this forum.  The Trilateral Commission was formed in 1973 to meet this need.  This commission was formed by David Rockefeller, then Chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank, and Zbigniew Brzezinski, who, until, 1977, served as the commission’s director/coordinator.  He then left to become the national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter. Decisions concerning global economic and political policies were being made by a select group of individuals.  These policies affect every aspect of our lives, including educational curriculum. 
    “The members of the Trilateral Commission include the heads of four of the world’s largest non banking transnational corporations; top officials of five of the world’s largest international banks; and heads of major media organizations.  U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter, George Bush, and Bill Clinton were all members of the Trilateral Commission, as was Thomas Foley, former speaker of the House of Representatives.  Many key members of the Carter administration were both Bilderberg and Trilateral Commission Members.  Many of President Clinton’s cabinet and other appointments are former members of the Trilateral Commission…Particularly significant about these groups is their bipartisan political membership.  Certainly, the participation of both George Bush and President Clinton in the Trilateral Commission makes it easier to understand the seamless transition from the Republican Bush administration to the Democratic Clinton administration with regard to U.S. commitment to pass GATT and NAFTA.  Clinton’s leadership in advancing what many progressives saw as Bush agendas won him high marks from his colleagues on the Trilateral Commission” (Korten, 1964, p. 27)
The implications of this partnership among industry and government leaders for every aspect of education in America are immense (Korten, 1994).   For corporations to make the greatest amount of profit that is possible necessitates them to streamline the needs of their consumer market and to control those needs in a very predictable manner (Barlow & Robertson, 1994; Mander & Goldsmith, 1996).  The article written by Finney holds the answer to the corporate requirement to control the wants of society, effectively determining what will be purchased and when.  Finney believed that democracy is short lived unless the leadership was able to control the masses since he also felt that most individuals were so absorbed with their own private affairs that they were unwilling to contemplate anything else.  By using that as a basis for developing a rationale for control and by combining it with Finney’s other beliefs.  “Even the most intelligent of persons who pride themselves inordinately upon the direction of their lives by reason, will be surprised upon introspection at the extent to which their own behavior is conditioned by such short-cut intellectual methods” (Finney, 1929, pg. 392). That it could be so simple to control the patterns of behavior of the masses by including in their educational experiences proverbs, slogans, rhymes, catchwords and epigrams tailored to the values that those in control deemed important was of great interest to Huxley as well as to Finney.  Finney further argued that “the dull and the bright behave similarly in response to epigrams and slogans which the intelligent are at great pains to rationalize, but which the dull accept through the most passive sort of social suggestion… the safety of democracy is not to be sought, therefore, in the intellectual independence of the duller masses but in their intellectual dependence.  Not in what they think, but in what they think they think” (Finney, 1929, pg.391).  Through the fine-tuning of the art of advertising since the mid 1940s and the introduction of television into the households of nearly every American family, this theory of controlling the masses is being used with unprecedented success.  Through these suggestive slogans and sayings combined with another factor that Finney was unable to predict, the even more thought controlling image on the television screen, values and perceived needs and desires are being introduced to the sub-consciousness of the masses (Hardebeck, 2000).  The feelings of apathy and powerlessness among the nation’s voters could be attributed to this method of suggestion (Hardebeck, 2000; Hunter, 1958; Stuphen, 2000).  Our entire educational system is at risk of being taken away from local government control yet individuals feel that it is beyond their abilities to change the course that it is following (Barlow & Robertson, 1994; Hunter, 1958; Klass, 2000).  Under the agreements signed under GATT and NAFTA, our schools could very easily become under the control of transnational corporations that have no vested interest in the democratic principles of our country (Barlow & Robertson, 1994).  As political leaders continue to mouth metaphors tearing down every aspect of our present educational system the public slowly begins to repeat the defeatist slogans (Hunter, 1958; Iyengar, 1994).  Heard enough times by those who don’t take enough effort to find validation, seemingly benign slogans can turn an entire populace into docile sheep (Sutphen, 2000; Mander & Goldsmith, 1996).  Once a community makes the grave error of accepting privatized schools for their children they will be unable, legally, to change their minds. “Once a service is privatized, it must be governed by NAFTA rules of “national treatment” and cannot be returned to the public sphere without financial compensation to private interests that were making money in that area or might one day” (Barlow, Robertson, 1994, pg.64).  Yet communities don’t combine resources to help combat the forces that are trying to break them up because they are too busy working at odds with one another.  This is yet another ploy used by large corporations to gain advantage over other smaller entities.  One way that corporations work is by externalizing the firm’s operations on the community, “pitting localities against one another in a standards lowering competition to offer subsidies, tax-holidays, and freedom from environmental and employment standards… workers are pitted against one another in a struggle for survival that pushes wages down to the lowest common denominator” (Korten, 1964, pg.29).  Korten continues with the theme by saying that this can be seen all too easily as state mandated reform initiatives are forced upon school districts without adequate funding to help them to be implemented properly.  School Choice is an example of how school districts are pitted against each other vying for the extra dollar while sometimes trying to get expensive students out from under their budget and into another systems by withholding information about needed services. Even the federal government’s promise of hiring 100,000 new teachers to help alleviate over crowded classes is a false claim of help without also including the money to improve the school structure.  A teacher cannot be added if there isn't any classroom for he or she to teach in (Barlow & Robertson, 1994; Korten, 1994)
By utilizing the strategies laid out by educators such as Finney, Bobbitt and Snedden, the transnational corporations soon realized that education could occur not only in the classroom, but also in the world at large (Barlow & Robertson, 1994).  The corporate world built upon the premise that education does not necessarily mean learning just the basics of math and grammar, but in learning values and habits, subjects that could be manipulated to be conducive to the betterment of the global economy (Barlow & Robertson, 1994; Mander & Goldsmith, 1995).
The many philosophies of education agree on a major point, that we all do learn (Best, 1970; Knight, 1998; Skinner, 1979; Tyler, 1949).  What we learn, how we learn and why we learn are all topics for debate, yet studies are in agreement that learning occurs throughout our lives and through many ways (Joyce & Calhoun, 1996; Knight, 1998; Piaget, Skinner, 1979; 1972; Spock, 1998).  In his book, To Understand Is To Invent, Piaget said the basic principle of active methods can be expressed as follows: "to understand is to discover, or reconstruct by rediscovery, and such conditions must be complied with if, in the future, individuals are to be formed who are capable of production and creativity and not simply repetition" (Piaget, 1972, pp 20).  Yet many realists feel that "students can be programmed in a manner similar to the way computers are programmed (Knight, 1998, p. 49)".  Knight goes on to says that this programming may not be successful at first and may require reinforcement for the student to be disciplined and shaped. With this point in mind the examination of how children sit in front of the television for hours at a time (Jana, 2000; Neilsen, 1999; Spock, 1998) and its effect on behavior modification needs to be done. B. F. Skinner suggests a need for studying the technology of behavior (Skinner, 1979) and in Robert Kocher's studies of attitude channeling and brainwashing we find evidence that rationality and truth are no guarantee of protection against the irrational forces used in behavior manipulation.  Kocher wrote, "The function of intellectual process seems to be the fabrication of some excuse enabling the individual to bring his thought and behavior in line with outside pressures.  To mean anything, rationality must be disciplined and a prevalent element of the environment" (Kocher, 2001, pg.5) These findings are not new, for centuries ago similar words were written, "We are called upon to use our reason when our senses receive opposite impressions, but that when they do not there is nothing to awaken thought" (Plato, 375 B.C.,p. 331 as cited in Lee, 1987).
 Learning occurs in many places (Knight, 1998; Macionis, 1998; Postman 1986; Skinner, 1979).  The school, one of society's specific centers of learning, is not necessarily the most responsible for the vast amount of teaching that is happening each and every day (Gerbner, 1995; Knight, 1998; Postman, 1996; Tomlinson, 1999). "Educators are finally coming out of denial: Students are more interested in "The Simpsons" than in Socrates" (Conover, 1996. p.2).  By conservative estimates, students spend 1,500 hours a year in front of the TV and 1,100 hours a year in school (Jana, 2000; Conover, 1996).  In a Children NOW Poll, it was found that the average American family has 2.4 TV sets with 54% of children between the ages of 10 to 16 having a television set in their own bedrooms (Gardner, 1995; Neilsen, 1999). Combinations of family participation, the media, peer group and church all contribute towards the learning event (Knight, 1998; Postman, 1996; Tomlinson, 1999).  It may be argued that the family and media play the major role in the education of most children. (Dickenson, 2000; Haredbeck, 2000; Knight,1998 ). Children view, on the average, more than 25,000 hours of TV before they graduate from high school (Clinton, 1996; Neilsen, 1999; Spock, 1998).  We seem to be learning less and less about more and more until one knows nothing about everything (Best, 1970, p. 19)".  Media specialists, taking advantage of deregulation of the telecommunications and media markets over the last ten years, have launched an array of commercial programming aimed at young viewers (Gerbner, 1995; Smillie, Crowell, 1997; Rushkoff, 2001).  The 'teacher' need not be an employee of the school system but may be any of those who become involved in the student's lives throughout a given day (Barlow & Robertson, 1994). Learning takes place through what an individual experiences and how he reacts to the environment (Gerbner, 1995; Shujaa, 1997; Skinner, 1979; Taylor, 1949).  A television show has all the pre-requisites of a curriculum including a sense of truth and reality and teaching methodology (Gerbner, 1995; Knight, 1998; Mander, 1978).  It is up to the producer of the particular program, influenced by the corporate sponsor, to decide on the lesson being taught, in stark contrast to a teacher who has completed the many pre-requisites for obtaining a teaching certification and has been hired by a school department (Barlow & Robertson, 1994).  According to Jerry M. Landay, writing for the Christian Science Monitor (1995), the content of television influences events and the way we perceive them. Since behind everything that commercial TV airs is profit (Hobbs, 1996), the message being taught has but one purpose, "the delivery of the large, targeted audiences to the sponsors as a commodity, in exchange for sales dollars (Landay, 1995)".  "The purpose of TV is not to entertain you… it is for the profit the companies make on the products they're selling (Hardebeck, 2000)".
The act of imitating has long been recognized as an instinctual practice by infants to help them to begin the long process of learning how to survive in the world (Erikson, 1963, Piaget, 1972; Spock, 1998).  Imitating a smile from a primary caregiver usually produces more smiles in return and a lesson in successful interaction sets the foundation for further social development (Piaget, 1972; Spock, 1998).  The same can be said of the imitation of sounds that an infant hears.  The coos and babbles of an infant are again, instinctively repeated by the mother and father, which produces a powerful, happy sense of interaction and control to the developing infant (Mander, 1996; Spock, 1998).  The ramifications of cause and effect are continuously explored and experimented with by the infant with the results, either pleasant or not so pleasant, being internalized and stored for future use (Mander, 1996; Huffman, Vernoy & Vernoy, 1995). The use of the instinctual and many times subliminal participation in imitation is used with extreme success by advertisers to obtain the necessary marketing share for their clients (Hobbs, 1996; Rushkoff, 2001; Warrebey, 2000).  Observational learning, or social learning theory, occurs when the viewer's behavior changes after viewing the behavior of another person, be it in an actual situation or one viewed from the TV or computer screen (Huffman, Vernoy & Vernoy, 1995; Murray, 1999).  There are four separate processes involved with observational learning: attention, retention, production and motivation (Murray, 1999).  When learning through observation in the 'real' world there are a combination of factors that combine to increase the degree of learning retention that takes place (Jana, 2000; Needlman, 2000; Spock, 1998).  From the behavioral point of view, an internalized representation of the learned event is formed in the brain during both conscious observation and active examination (Rybak, Gusakova, Golovan, Podladchikova, 1999)
Education: Physiology
Epistemology, a branch of philosophy that studies the nature, sources and validity of knowledge (Knight, 1998) provides the questions, "What is true?" and "How do we know?"   We take these questions for granted as being the foundation for our education in the schools, yet, as children view television, they are bombarded with images that are sometimes true (real) and at other times fictitional (Janas, 2000; Needlman, 2000; Spock, 1998). How is the child to sort out the false from the true when the images all hold equal weight in their memory (Calvin, 1998)?  How are they to know?  As the child sits in front of the television an environment is created that assaults and overwhelms the child (Moody, 1980, Spock, 1998).   The child's response is to allow his shutdown mechanism to take over and to become more passive (Janas, 2000; Needlman, 2000).  In order to continue to receive stimulation from the television, the passive child must accept the predetermined flow rate of the images (Janas, 2000; Spock, 1998).  In this alpha state, the mind and body are in a highly receptive stage ready to ingest the image information that is being sent to it (Johnson, 1999; Kocher, 2001; Mander, 1978; Rybak, Gusakova, Golovan & Podladchikova, 1999).  Brain waves, measured by an EEG, show that variations in recorded brain waves correspond to different states of activity in the brain (Johnson, 1999; Kaufman, 2000; Mander, 1978).  Reading, in general, produces fast, active beta waves in contrast to the increased slow alpha wave state induced during television viewing, especially in the brain's right hemisphere (Buzzell 1998; Fizel, 1997; Warrebey, 2000) The pulsating, fluorescent light of television, due to the manner that the cathode tube projects the light, may be the case for the typical trance-like quality the viewer takes on along with the darkened room and a non-moving viewing position  (Johnson, 1999; Mander, 1992).  Within this stimulus-deprived environment that is inherently boring (Mander, 1992; Postman 1986), television producers create the semblance that something unusual is going on (Kaufman, 1999).  They are able to fixate the viewer's attention to what would have normally not been paid attention to (Mander, 1998).  This is done by two methods, increasing the frequency of new images, using such visual tricks such as flashing colors, close-ups, and using startling, even loud sounds to momentarily re-gain the viewer's attention yet still maintaining the alpha brain-wave state that is critical for the passive, information collecting condition that occurs while viewing TV (Peper, Mulholland, 1971)  "The picture on the TV changes every five or six seconds, either by changing the camera angle or cutting to an entirely new scene",  writes Kate Moody, thereby conditioning the brain to change at the expense of continuity of thought.
During TV viewing only the observation can take place since there is no active involvement from the viewer (Mander, 1978; Mander, 1992; Postman, 1986).  When an image is introduced to the brain via the retina there is a certain interval of time required for the highest thinking level of the brain, the neocortex, to fully assimilate the necessary information for understanding (Rybak, et. al, 1999).  When images are broadcasted from the TV screen they are actually being shown pixel by pixel, right to left, line after line across the screen.  The image is never fully visible and it is up to the brain to make some semblance of order and reason out of the moving dots (Mander, 1978).  Due to this unending pouring or visual data the human brain cannot take the time to send the visual data to the neocortex.  The image information makes it only as far as the primitive core brain and the limbic (feeling) section of the brain.  The action and limbic brains cannot distinguish real from imaginary sensory output, be it from the television or the computer screen.  During childhood development it is crucial for the child to have as many repetitive and rhythmical experiences in movement combined with visual exploration for the optimal development of the progressive myelination of nerve pathways that are created as part of the sequential development of the most primitive (action) brain to the limbic (feeling) brain to the most highly evolved (thought) brain, the neocortex (Johnson, 1999, Spock, 1998).   Mylenation, which is the covering of the developing nerve axons and dendrites with a protective fatty-protein sheath, is about 80% complete in the core and limbic brains by age 4.  It shifts to the neocortex by age 6 or 7 and progresses from the right-side hemisphere initially.  Interactive learning, where there is whole body involvement, provides the optimal experience.  The brain's response to novelty and color occurs in the dominant right hemisphere when watching television (Healy, 1990, Everett 1997).  The memory of a face, a spatial configuration, activates the right hemisphere.  Since no movement learning is taking place, the left hemisphere, which governs movement and touch, is not utilized (Begley, Wright, Church, Hager, 1992).
 Watching television has been characterized as a type of sensory deprivation that may be stunting the growth of children's brains.  Studies have show that brain size decreases 20-30% if a child is not touched, played and talked to (Healy 1990).  Healy has also found that when young animals are placed in an enclosed area, only viewing the activities of other animals and they, themselves not participating, their brain growth decreased in proportion to the time spent in inactivity.  Television does not present information to all five senses but to only two (Johnson, 1999; Kaufman, 1999; Mander, 1992). Knowledge, to be fully internalized, must not merely be transmitted verbally but must be constructed and reconstructed by the learner in a physical manner (Jana, 2000; Spock, 1998). Piaget felt that for a child to know and construct knowledge of the world the child must act on objects and it is this action that provides knowledge of those objects (Piaget, 1972).
The media, in utilizing images on television and computer screens, is able to maintain a permanent presence of their product within our thoughts (Landay, 1995; Macionis, 1998; Skinner, 1979). "Human beings have not yet been equipped by evolution to distinguish in our minds between natural images and those which are artificially created and implanted." (Mander, 1972. pp. 217)  Mander goes on to argue that we are not equipped to defend ourselves against the implantation of an artificial image.  Two kinds of images, artificial and natural, merge in the mind as equals.  Images viewed from television are held in our thoughts on as equal a basis as those in which we viewed in the natural world. In doing my research I found the following type of example to be extremely powerful: Bring to mind any of the following: John F. Kennedy, Albert Einstein, Captain Kirk, Santa Claus, Harrison Ford, Napoleon, Darth Vader, Bugs Bunny, Abraham Lincoln, Kramer, Lucy Ricardo, Dale Earhardt, Bill Gates…where you able to bring any of these images to mind?  Where you able to make a picture of them in your head?  An example such as this was written in Jerry Mander's book, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television. He felt that this was proof that once an image entered your brain it remained there, together with all the other memories of your life.  You do not know these people, many are fictitional characters, yet, according to Mander, they all hold equal weight in your image recall.  He goes on to challenge you to try to erase any one of the TV people from your mind.  Could you do that?  Can you forever forget how Darth Vader looks?  "Once television places an image inside your head, it is yours forever (Mander, 1987 pg. 241)".
 Mander writes in his book titled In the Absence of the Sacred, that ours is the first society in history of which it can be said that life has moved inside media (Mander, 1992). This is an important point being made, for when people are viewing TV their senses become extremely dimmed, akin to being in a hypnotic trance.  This state of being is even referred to by former Vice-President Al Gore in his statements made to the Children's Television Conference (Washington 1996).  In his speech, Gore was talking about the advent of the long awaited V-chip that was being implemented to help provide parents with a means of limiting the amount of violent programs that their children view on TV.  Gore states, "… with the V-chip some programmers and advertisers for the first time have to worry that inappropriate programming is going to lead them to lose some of the audience that would otherwise be hypnotically transfixed by their programming." Reed Hundt, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, was cited by the Christian Science Monitor concerning his pro stance towards government responsibility in curbing TV violence (Hundt, 1995). Continuing with this premise of image equality, should we not explore the vast amount of images that steadily flow from the TV nightly into the minds of our children? (Jana, 2000; Mander, 1978; Postman, 1986).  "If the sheer volume of absorbed images is considered, how can what is shown on television have no effect on one's own mental image? (Gerbner, 1995; Kaufman, 1998)"  "It is the nature of the medium that it must suppress the content of ideas in order to accommodate the requirements of visual interest; that is to say, to accommodate the values of show business." (Postman, 1986, pg 92)
The advertisement agencies whose main directive is to promote their sponsors' marketable product understand some very important truths of education, the need to control behavior, the success of repetition and the power of images (Huffman, Vernoy & Vernoy, 1998; Warreby, 2000).   A popular culture created to promote the marketing goals of the corporate model can be quickly and universally transmitted to the whole society, uniformly designed for the quick and profitable selling of goods (Bagdikian 1992; Landay, 1995; Rushkoff, 2001). To change the behavior of the viewing masses to meet the corporate goals of product sales is a major undertaking (Mander, 1978; Mander, 1992; Rushkoff, 2001). Yet the need for behavioral manipulation is critical for these changes in human behavior do not happen overnight (Hunter, 1958; Kocher, 2000; Skinner, 1979; Warreby, 2000).  Watching one advertisement on television would not have the same influence on a child's behavior as if the child viewed the same commercial message 20-50 times over a period of weeks (Hunter, 1958; Murray, 2000). No single learning experience has a very profound impact upon the learner (Hunter, 1958; Spock, 1998; Sutphen, 2000).  To change the ways of thinking, in the fundamental habits and the major operation concepts in attitudes, may take years of carefully orchestrated behavioral modifications. (Hunter, 1958; Mander, 1978; Postman, 1985; Sutphen, 2000; Taylor,1949; Warreby, 2000).  The key here is the combination of marketing strategies to produce the desired effect in the populace, for in order for educational experiences to produce these effects they must be organized as to reinforce each other. (Hobbs, 1996; Taylor, 1949; Warreby, 2000).
In his writings about progressive education, Taylor talks of the necessity to investigate the interests, hopes and aspirations of a people and of their dominant values in order to ascertain the most effective curricula to be used for their education.  Such methods are used on a continual basis with polls and contests given by advertisers to help them in their endless pursuit of understanding their target audience (Alwang, Mendelson, Edward, 2001; Neilsen, 1999; Rushkoff, 2001; Schwartz, 2001).  The careful manipulation of the developing behavioral tendencies of a large group of children who will someday become the main purchasers of their communities is a very important goal (Bolding, 2000; Landay, 1995; Mander, 1978; Rushkoff, 2001; Warreby, 2000).
A challenge that exists for a profit-minded business is the creation, in the minds of the consumer, of need. For marketers to be able to create a sense of need where there is none is no small feat yet is accomplished on a daily basis (Mander, 1978; Rushkoff, 2001). In a capitalist, profit-oriented society, there is a constant challenge to create a 'value-added' commodity to replace an item, which is naturally occurring and thus not marketable in the true sense. (Kaufman, 2000; Mander, 1978).  This term, 'value-added' is one element of economics, which means that the value is derived from all the processes that alter a raw material from something with no intrinsic economic value to something, which does.   Value added can be a confusing concept.  To help clarify, I will provide an example: whole wheat flour, used for centuries, proved to be costly to store since the nutritionally high content of vitamins and minerals attracted vermin.  Processing the flour and removing most of the nutrients into what we now call white flour lessened its attraction to vermin.  It was also a lot cheaper to store for it could be stored for longer periods of time since the oils were also removed, which decreased the rate of spoilage.  The "value added" comes into play when one is told that the loaf of white bread that is being sold is a special, new and improved, nutritionally enhanced product that has added vitamins and minerals, while, in reality, only a small percentage of the originally present vitamins and minerals that had been removed are put back in.  Bread has been around for centuries, but now it is being marketed with an increased and artificial value that is created for the sole purpose of profit (Mander, 1978). A second element in the creation of commercial value is scarcity, "the separation of people from whatever they might want or need (Mander,1978, pg 118).  In our artificial environments, everything obtains a condition of scarcity and therefore value. (Mander, 1978)  This premise, where scarcity of an item brings with it increased value, brings with it a complex strategy that addresses the need to manipulate the behavior of the consumer to meet the needs of a continual onslaught of 'value-added', yet actually un-needed commodities.  Mander writes that this manipulation is targeted at human experience, feeling, perception, behavior and desire.  To manufacture products efficiently and cost- effectively they need to be mass-produced so the impetus to create the artificial sense of need that is identical throughout the many viewers is paramount.  Reshaping needs to fit the environment, which is what occurs through advertisement, is well illustrated in the following experiment related by Mander.  There were chimpanzees isolated into separate rooms.  For them to communicate with the scientists, a button with a specific symbol had to be pushed.  For example, if a banana was desired, the button with a banana symbol needed to be pushed.  Cost was a factor in limiting the amount of buttons that were available to the chimps.  Water, light and even human attention were provided but not much else.  Items that were convenient to the scientists were also a prerequisite so choices that would have provided experiences to the chimps that would have provided a duplication of their natural habitat were not offered.  The results of the experiment were hailed as a significant breakthrough because it showed that the animals had the ability to interact through abstract forms of communication, yet the experiment also showed that although the animals were satisfied for a time with the few options provided, in time, the need for other options that were not included caused a high death rate, even suicide rate among all of the confined animals.  Other animals tested had the same problems, especially with the more intelligent ones such as dolphins.  A high lethargy rate was also evident (Mander, 1978, pg 120).  This study mirrors the reality of our society today (Landay, 1995; Mander, 1978; Moody, 1980).  Children are being given a finite set of artificial choices via the television screen (Jana, 2000).  Focused so intently on the television, we as a society forget that there are an infinite amount of options for us to choose from all without 'value-added', if we would only turn off the TV and walk away (Kaufman, 2000; Spock, 1998). 
    Information that is most easily retrieved from memory is that which had most recently been introduced (Iyengar 1991).  Iyengar goes on to say, "In the arena of public affairs, where people are highly dependent upon the media for information, more accessible information is information that is more frequently or more recently conveyed by the media."  Since the major news providers are owned by the twenty-three dominant corporations (Bagdikian, 1992, Mander & Goldsmith, 1996) it is simple to see the simplicity of corporate goals being maintained through televised media.
Technical
A more powerful method of targeting a specific viewer for behavior-manipulative advertising has just recently been instituted (Bauder, 1999).  On March 30, 1999, a new form of advertising was explored on television that could have a profound impact on the success of individually targeted marketing ploys. A digitally created ad was inserted into a scene in a program.  The ad was not present at the time of the original filming. (Bauder,1999).  The product placement was done as an experiment in which a soda can of Coca-Cola and a billboard depicting the Wells Fargo Bank were inserted into the background.  According to Bauder it could have been just as easy to have a variety of soda brands shown dependent on the region of the country the show was being aired.  Other, similar additions to pre-filmed shows have already taken place, such as addition of commercial billboards in the backgrounds of baseball games to the insertion of images of network TV stars into the audiences of big games being televised.  "There is certainly the sense that the bleeding of the commercials into the programs is getting more extreme than it ever has been, " said Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University (Kaufman, 1998).   The marketing possibilities that this type of digital manipulation can afford the advertising community are immense.  With the difficulty of determining if an image being viewed is real or not real already a major obstacle to most, if not all, viewers (Johnson, 1999), it will become increasingly difficult to know when we are being advertised to.  It may even be difficult for the producers of the program to know when there is advertising occurring since the digital insertion of images can occur between the site of origin and the site of destination once everything becomes fully digitized. Hackers inserting images into a program during the data transmission process introduces an entirely new dimension to this study.  The inserted images themselves continue to improve in resolution quality and would be difficult if not impossible to detect (Cringely, 1999).  The steady merging of the Internet with TV, as is being done with Web TV, streaming video and HDTV, plus the overlap of demarcations of other types of communication such as cell phones and hand held PDAs will become more and more blurred (Cringely, 1999).  Research shows that the same devices will be used to access capabilities and resources that are both personal-oriented and business-oriented (Seltzer, 1999).  The lines between fact and fiction, true and false will also blur (Mander, 1978). 
One of the main hurdles that advertisers today still face is the fact that when a commercial is being broadcasted it is reaching millions of viewers at once, yet only a certain percentage will find the information to be pertinent to them or be in the right mental frame of mind to be optimally effected by the information (Bagdikian, 1992; Mander, 1978; Neilsen, 1999).  The true goal of the advertiser is to have target-specific ads go directly to the chosen viewer (Bagdikian, et. al; Rushkoff, 2001).  Bagdikian goes on to say that ability to broadcast such viewer specific commercials, though now only in it's infancy, is available today. Transnational corporations have already been successful at targeting their products to age specific audiences on television using the type of program as a guidepost for the interests of the viewer (Mander, 1978).  With the emerging digitized video output of television programs available to be viewed through the computer in conjunction with the browser interface an entirely new marketing potential has materialized (Froomkin, 1995). Broadcasting commercials to individual viewers based on information stored on databases that are developed using the data obtained by tracking each person's Internet use is now within the capabilities of advertising producers.


A.    Michael Froomkin (1995) states,
"Anonymity may be the primary tool available to citizens to combat the compilation and analysis of personal profile data, although data protection laws also may have some effect also. The existence of profiling databases, whether in corporate or public hands, may severely constrict the economic and possibly even the political freedoms of the persons profiled; although profiling may not necessarily change the amount of actual data in existence about a person, organizing the data into easily searchable form reduces her effective privacy by permitting "data mining" and correlations that were previously impossible" 
With the advent of Web TV, a browser window is open as the viewer is watching the program (Netscape, 1999).  This open browser provides the portal of information that connects the specific viewer to an immense database where millions of bytes of data have been stored about that individual's purchasing history; credit rating; hobbies; political affiliations; educational status, etc. (Anonymous, 1987; Ladd, O'Donnell, 1998).  With the Java enabled Browser Capabilities Component along with Content Linking Component scripted into the programming, the connection is made where it is possible for the database to work in conjunction with another database collection of pre-determined commercial ads that could then broadcast a very specific commercial that would have the highest potential for producing the desired effect in the viewer (Ladd, O'Donnell, 1998).  One may wonder about the actual potential for this to occur, yet the information that would be needed to set up such a client-specific database has already been in place for years (Alwang, et al, 2001; Ladd, O'Donnell, 1998; Medford, et al, 2001).  Part of this can be done with what are termed "cookies", which are pieces of data that are stored on the hard drive of an individual's computer when that person enters a web site that utilizes the technology. The cookie stores information about the user that is then available to the web site's database when that user returns in the future (Anonymous, 1997).  First instituted by the Netscape Browser, cookies, (which Netscape calls persistent client state HTTP cookie), are a general mechanism which server side connections using, for example, CGI scripts, can use, store and retrieve information on the client side (the user's computer) of the connection.  According to support documentation at the Netscape web site, cookies provide a simple mechanism that is a powerful tool enabling many new types of applications to be developed which could store information about online purchases and choices; store registration information automatically in order to free the client from having to re-type the information in each time the site is visited, plus store user preferences for repeat visitors.  This information, though, is also available for countless other uses, for example, to find out one's political affiliations; medical interests and needs…anything (Alwang, et al, 2001; Ladd & O'Donnell, 1998; Medford, et al, 2001).  The goal of the advertiser is to manipulate the viewer into wanting and purchasing a marketable product (Huffman, Vernoy & Vernoy, 1995; Warreby, 2000).  The more the marketer knows of the targeted client the more personalized the marketing message can be, with a higher success rate for profits (Alwang, et al, 2001; Rushkoff, 2001). Specific commercial targeting utilizing the Internet and now digitized television is not only feasible, it is reality (Cringely, 1999; Medford, et al, 2001).
Societal
International advertisers, as they bring their brands to the world, are promoting products as commodities that connect cultures. (Smillie, Crowell, 1997) The answer to the question, "What defines culture?" is critical in trying to understand what it is that we now have so that we will know when it is being changed (Dover, 1996; Gerbner, 1995).  Michael Mazarr, in his paper that deals with culture as it relates to economic potential for growth, Culture In International Relations, believes that culture is "not a singular thing, but rather a loose collection of characteristics." (p.10).  He goes on to cite Huntington, saying that culture in a civilization "is the broadest level of identification with which a person intensely identifies "(p.24). Culture is composed of "inherited ethical habits", binding religion, linguistics, family and politics into a cohesive whole. (Mazarr, 1996).  As cultural symbols, brands such as Converse sneakers are portrayed not just as the item they are, but as a symbol of success that one should aspire to.  "Conveying 'aspirational values' has become a common strategy among marketers.  It's an approach Pepsi took in it's recently announced $500 million global marketing alliance with MTV to promote it's "Generation next" campaign, says Massimo d'Amore, vice-president of international marketing of Pepsi-Cola.  Like the "Pepsi Generation" campaign in 1963, this year's message embodies youthful optimism and irreverence, coupled with a search for authenticity, he says."  According to Roy Edmondson, director of global marketing for products and programs at Levi's, marketing Levi's overseas is "not about selling, but about symbolizing youth and originality" (Smillie, Crowell, 1997).  These marketing philosophies all hidden under the guise of fashion and greater choice to the consumer are in actuality the homogenization of cultures to further the corporate goals of efficiency (Smillie,Crowell, 1997).   The ultimate goal is a promotion of lifestyles rooted in consumption and patterned mainly around the United States.  She quotes the president of Nabisco Corporation as saying, "One world of homogeneous consumption…[I am] looking forward to the day when Arabs and Americans, Latinos and Scandinavians will be munching Ritz crackers as enthusiastically as they already drink Coke or brush their teeth with Colgate." (Smillie, Crowell, 1997)
Douglas Rushkoff, a professor of media culture at New York University was the correspondent of Public Broadcasting's FRONTLINE episode titled "The Merchants of Cool".  The transcripts of the many in-depth interviews that were conducted for this program can be found at www.pbs.com.  Here I found a wealth of information concerning the attitudes and goals of the key players of teen-focused marketing. The following statement by Rushkoff pretty much sums up the reality of current marketing:
"It's gotten to the point, I think, where almost anywhere a kid sets his eyes he's gonna be marketed to.  Someone's trying to program a decision of one kind or another.  Now whether he's looking at a bus or looking at a phone booth or going to a club or looking at his own feet there's marketing going on everywhere.  So the only choice for a kid is to close his eyes or to come up with strategies for defending against those messages…We've had a real contraction of public space both mentally and in the media and in the real world, where there's nowhere to go where you're not being marketed to…"  Rushkoff, 2001
    In the FRONTLINE transcripts were interviews with three top executives of MTV, Brian Graden, President of MTV programming; David Sirulnick, MTV's Executive Vice President for News and Production, and Todd Cunningham, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Planning.  The quotes and information from these individuals were extremely relevant to this study. 
    Brian Graden, when asked to compare the experiences of the teenagers of today with how he remembered to be when he was younger, replied that, in the past, kids actually went outside to play, while now a teen must create and construct their own realities, a whole new social experience.  Interaction was more face-to-face and now e-mail is the type of socializing occurring.  According to Todd Cunningham, MTV considers themselves an important news source for teens.  "Young people are not typically in the habit of reading newspapers.  They certainly go online and find out about news.  But in terms of television, they don't watch national news shows often."  He believes that the most critical principal that they must adhere to is keeping the programming relevant.  Their research teams' goal is to get into the mindset of what young people are all about.  "We believe that it gets us in the hearts and minds of the viewers.  It makes us much more relevant.  Of course, the currency that we're exchanging today is ratings, and it gets higher ratings and makes us continue to be the number one rated network for 12-34 year-olds, and certainly for teenagers. (Cunningham, 2001)".  When questioned about trust versus skepticism in what MTV is trying to market, Cunningham felt that the more relevant the marketing was to the audience the more often they succeed in "terms of developing a relationship and a bond with them, a great brand relationship…so the next time that we come out with a program, the next time that we come out with a message, anything that we are building in terms of our brand, they're more open to it, because there's an understanding: "This is my brand."  They, in fact, talk about MTV as being "their brand" and seeing it as something that is an extension of themselves….they are a TV media-rich society in their own right…for their whole lives, they've seen nothing but customized content made for them (Cunningham, 2001)".  David Sirulnick explains the phenomenal draw that MTV has on viewers by the programming awareness to relevance:
    "…People, viewers, talk about MTV in a very different way than they talk about other television stations.  The norm of most television is that you have favorite shows.  'Oh, I know when 'West Wing' is on.  'I know when 'Buffy' is on.  'But not a lot of people say, 'I watch a channel."  Maybe ESPN is like MTV in a way, and maybe HBO.  We feel that MTV has done a really good job so that young people grow up with this identification of MTV.  And then, within that, they obviously have shows that they like to watch, favorite shows, and whatnot.  But it's just a different kind of mindset to say that you want to create an environment where somebody between the ages of, like, 16 and 34, feels really at home.  They can put on the channel and they can feel like, 'All right.'  'This is for me.'  'This is good.'  'This is my thing.' Sirulnick 2001".
Media critic Robert McChesney, research professor in the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois, was quoted on the FRONTLINE site as saying, "On MTV its all a commercial.  Sometimes it's an advertisement paid for by a company to sell a product.  Sometimes a video for a music company to sell music…Sometimes a set filled with trendy clothes to sell a look that include products on the set."  He went on to compare the past relationship with commercial factors with how it has now evolved into.  He believes that, although there has always been a nebulous relationship between the creative and the editorial side that there had traditionally been a distinction between the two for much of the twentieth century, but that the relationship "has really collapsed in the past ten years.  The barrier between them, the notion that there should be an integrity…to the creative product or to the editorial product-distinct from the needs of commercial interests to make as much money as possible to just stand on its own- is corroded (McChesney, 2001)".  He feels that the market research is done, not to better serve teens, but to better manipulate teens.  When asked how he felt about the chance of MTV having control of teen culture, he stated that since the entertainment companies are a handful of massive conglomerates, owning 4 of the 5 music companies and selling 90% of the music in the United States in addition to owning all the film studios, major TV networks and nearly all the TV stations in the ten largest markets, "they look at the teen market as part of this massive empire that they're colonizing".  The parent corporation of MTV is Viacom, which also owns VH1; Black Entertainment Television; CBS; Paramount Pictures; Showtime; Simon & Shuster Book Publishers; Blockbuster video rental and approximately 160 radio stations, is one of the most commercialized of all media companies (Rushkoff, 2001).  When discussing whether there is a separation of the show/program and the commercial, the debate is over when it concerns Viacom interests, "it's really a 24-hour infomercial…every second on the air is selling something…it's a global phenomenon…all about commercializing the whole teen experience, making youth culture a commercial entity that's packaged and sold to people (McChesney, 2001)".
 In George Orwell's classic fiction, 1984, the central technique of oppression and control of the population was the absolute control of all kinds of information.  Orwell wrote, "Who controls the past controls the future: Who controls the present controls the past".  With the corporations having such a monopoly on the various forms of media this statement seems extremely poignant.   Another writer of fiction who has prophesized the dangers and potential control of society was Aldous Huxley. In his book, Brave New World, Huxley writes:
    "A really totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.  To make them love it is the task assigned… "  (Huxley, 1946, pp xv)
This could be achieved, Huxley believed, by new technologies offering, "a greatly improved technique of suggestion…by the dissemination of drugs, by mass spectacles to unify experience and feelings…(Huxley, 1946, xvi)".  All depends on the confining of experience and awareness to predefined patterns (Eagleton, 1991; Huxley, 1946).  With so many younger people receiving their news information from TV and having the political issues presented to them in a filtered and channeled manner (Rushkoff, 2001) it is "a troubling notion…the idea that our references are so commercialized now that all our dissidents, all our autonomous voices, are getting their cues from MTV on how to revolt (McChesney, 2001)".  Mander writes that even back in the '70's, on an average evening, more than 80 million people would be watching television, 30 million of these would be watching the same exact program.  In special instances, 100 million people may be viewing the same program at the same time…. The confining of experience and awareness to a population that loves it (Mander, 1992).
    In a 1958 Congressional Report submitted by Edward Hunter, author and correspondent to the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-Fifth Congress, titles: Communists Psychological Warfare (Brainwashing), they have based their technique of brainwashing primarily on the total abandonment of morality. "No man has ever been brainwashed whose mind has not been first been put into a fog (Hunter, 1958 pp 17)". The report continues in explaining about the necessary components of successful brainwashing, including the feelings of tenseness, violence and hypnotism (Hunter, 1958).  Many researchers use these same terms in describing the type of programming available on TV and how the viewing audience is affected (Janas, 2000; Kaufman, 2000; Landay, 1995; Mander, 1978; Mander, 1992;Murray, 2000; Postman, 1985). The Webster's Dictionary definition of the term brainwashing includes this: "persuasion by propaganda or salesmanship (pp 133)".
Summary
    The study of the impact of visual imagery on the act of learning and behavior modification is very complex (Janas, 2000).  The outcome of such learning can be positive or negative depending on the manner that it is being done and by whom (Janas, 2000; Skinner, 1979; Spock, 1998; Mander, 1996).  From my review of related literature, I have identified a significant gap of information that would point to any correlation between television viewing and its current possible behavioral effects (Johnson, 1999; Mander, 1992; Postman, 1986) combining with the advancing utilization of digitalized images into both television and computer viewing (Bauder, 1998; Cringley, 1999; Froomkin, 1995).  This progression to the fully digitized media that now replaces the traditional non-interactive television with that of a fully integrated computer browser window/TV viewing multi-media device warrants further study.  Once one researches the literature concerning such topics as Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson's studies in behavior modification (Knight, 1998, Sutphen, 2000); and the historic uses of brainwashing techniques (Hunter, 1958; Kocher, 2000; Sutphen, 2000), and then reads accounts of studies of children's behavior after prolonged viewing of television (Johnson, 1999; Mander, 1978; Shanto, 1994) the need for the asking more questions concerning the acceptance of this everyday occurrence needs to be addressed.  When one reads about the potential of totalitarianism taking hold (Huxley, 1946; Orwell, 1949; Mander & Goldsmith, 1996); brainwashing and the prerequisites for its success (Hunter, 1958), and the increase of monopolies controlling the information sources (Iyenger, 1994; Mander & Goldsmith, 1996) and all the while knowing that at on any given evening there are millions of people viewing the exact same image and hearing the exact same message over and over again, repeatedly. Night after night this occurs (Neilsen, 1999). Combining these facts with the knowledge that it was once impossible to know who was actually viewing a commercial or show and what the particular person's interests and socio-economic status was, but now it is possible to know this information.  Brainwashing is most successful when the subject's interests, fears and political affiliations are known beforehand.  There is no anonymity in TV and computer entertainment anymore (Froomkin, 1995; Froomkin, 1996).   This research study is very much concerned with society's involvement with television and how it has become such an all-consuming occupation for so many.
There seems to be a major avoidance, throughout the related literature, to tie together the threads that bind the various media formats together with the reality of how simple it is to create massive databases of information on everyone who uses these technologies.  How those databases are used and by whom are questions that need to be answered.
Gathering information concerning topics that include 'keywords' such as brainwashing; communism; totalitarianism; tri-lateral commission; corporations, etc. on the Internet can and will lead a researcher into many types of sites, some not too pleasant.  I am very cognizant of the ability of others to trace a site visitor's origin and I was diligent at masking my research trail as much as I could.  I do not wish to have SPAM (unsolicited email messages) sent to me from those who run various web sites.  I do not want my name added to someone's' list as being interested in certain subjects.  I mention this as information important to other researchers. Information on the Net is two-way.  Information on the Net should be questioned at all times.  Check the source of the information.  Sometimes, when an author's name is not listed you will be able to ascertain critical information to use as a resource by checking out the source code for the site;Toolbar | View | Source… in Internet Explorer, similar directions for any other browser window).  I have always made it a point to email any web author whose work I enjoyed reading or have found useful.  I have received replies often.  Those who have been cited in my paper and who were from the Net have all received an email from me and I have several requests for copies of the research once it is completed.  The Internet can and is a very useful tool.  It needs to remain in the hands of the many, not the few (Froomkin, 1996).
Chapter 3 explains the design and methodology that I used in my research.  The resulting analysis that I have provided in Chapter 4 will tie in with the information given in this review.























Chapter 3
    My research proposal is concerned with the design and methodology that I have used in my qualitative research dealing with the effects of viewing television and its possible behavior modification capabilities (Buzzell, 1998; Miles, 1997; Greto, 1999; Heally, 1990).  This study focuses on increasing our understanding of the potential for societal and individual behavior modifications that could result from the involuntary ingestion of visual cues and thematic messages carried through digitized visual media (Bauder, 1998; Gerbner, 19950.  The questions that are studied throughout the following research are as follows:
-    In our society, what habits have evolved into becoming part of a daily routine that includes television and computers?
-    In what ways have television and computers affected communication between people in our society?
-    Are there certain conditions that may increase or decrease the potential for behavior modification in an individual when using a computer or television?
-    What technological advances increase the potential for subverting individual thought?
The review of literature in Chapter 2 has provided a historical perspective to the developing philosophy that has guided my research into the possible effects on television viewing as it concerns the individual, the child and society in general.  Documentation concerning various theories that support a concerted effort to manipulate societal behavior has also been presented within the literature review.
Limitations to this study were mainly due to time factors.  Since the research of literature pointed to various gaps in correlative data that would support my premise of the increased potential of behavior modification due to the combination of newly developed technological advances in media, I decided to focus my own study on trying to fill in some of the identified gaps.  The information that I needed to find is so new, and so volatile, that there has not been much written and published that combines the necessary factors.  This, in itself, is both a limitation and a perfect challenge for a researcher. The following questions fuels the research:
-    How is television a tool for corporate goal attainment? Why?
-    Why does society exhibit so many signs of denial (Hunter, 1958; Mander, 1991) when confronted with the negative effects of television?
-    Why are we not asking "why?' when told that violent programming is on the rise (Clinton, 1996; Murray, 1999) in visual media?
-    What are we not questioning? Is there a 'smokescreen' being put up to keep us from looking further into what television really is?
-    Who would benefit from such research?  Who would not want such research pursued?
-    Does violent programming do more than increase violent behaviors (Everett, 1997; Johnson, 1999;Murray, 1999) in some people?  What does it do?  Who would benefit if our society had a perception of an increase in overall violence occurring around us?  Why?
-    How is/could TV and the media contain our society's outcry by manipulating the problems and channeling the discussion?  Why?
These questions were introduced in Chapter 1 of this study and literature that was related to these questions was explored in Chapter 2. They have remained as a focal point to every step that I took in my data collection and analysis and continue to be explored in depth throughout Chapters 4 and 5.
Strategy Guidelines:
Using the guidelines offered by Marshall and Rossman (1999), I will present the strategies that I used and the outline that I followed.


Overall Strategy and Rationale
In making the decision to which of the three main design strategies in qualitative research would best fit my particular study (Marshall & Rossman, 1999), I have concluded that I would focus on the genre of society, culture and the tradition of ethnography as defined by Creswell as "a description and interpretation of a cultural or social group or system" (Creswell, 1998, p. 58).  I examined two groups' observable and learned behaviors (Harris, 1968 as cited in Creswell, 1998).  The groups that were studied were students at an area high school and several families in their home settings.  I based my approach along the lines outlined in Creswell (1998), where he cites the sociological approach of Hammersley and Atkinson (1995) and the educational anthropology of Wolcott (1994b) and Fetterman (1989).  The approach being that one studies people in interactions in ordinary settings, discerning pervasive patterns of daily living, including behavior, language and what they make and do.  Information was gathered through surveys, interviews and observations.  A brief outline is presented below and a more detailed description of these approaches to information gathering will be given further on in this chapter.
Survey:

2-part Online Survey:
-Survey 1: 18 questions
-Survey 2: 30 questions
Information obtained from the online surveys was used to develop questions for subsequent interviews and observations.
Interviews:

1.    Frank: 35 years old; married with 2 children, a boy 6 years old and a girl, 9 years old; employed as a high-school English teacher.
2.    Tina: 25 years old; single; attends college part-time; lives alone; works full-time.
3.    Joe: 18 years old; single; high school student; works part time at mall
4.    Ann: 28 years old; single; high school social studies teacher
5.    Tricia: 19 years old; single; college student; works part time at McDonalds
6.    Ed: 45 years old; married; 3 children, all teens; professional
7.    Marie: 67 years old; married; grandmother, retired secretary
Observations:

-Area high school
-Peoples' homes
 Research Paradigms:
Critical Theory, dating back to the 1920's, was developed by German scholars at what was collectively called the Frankfurt School (Morrow and Brown, 1994 cited in Creswell, 1998).  Feminist theory, having many similar characteristics to critical theory such as emancipatory; educative; transformative and participatory, is different in that its subject matter is "gender domination within a patriarchal society (Creswell,1998, p. 83). 
As cited in Creswell (1998), the central themes that might be explored by a critical researcher would include "the scientific study of social institutions and their transformations through interpreting the meanings of social life; the historical problems of domination, alienation, and social struggles; and a critique of society and the envisioning of new possibilities" (Fay, 1987: Morrow & Brown, 1994).  Critical theory is emancipatory with the goal being to end all forms of domination, and, in doing this, bringing about the transformation of society (Creswell, 1998; Denzin & Lincoln, 1994). This paradigm of research is different in the other forms explored further in this paper by it being a potential tool for social/political activism.    There is the interplay of researcher and those being researched with possible goals, including action-oriented groups being formed, and encouragement of individuals self-examining the conditions of their existence (Thomas, 1993).  The researcher, in using critical theory practices, can often become the catalyst for social change. Critical theory's orientation is towards action.  Action research "challenges the claims of neutrality and objectivity of traditional social science and seeks full collaborative inquiry by all participants" (Marshall & Rossman, 1999, p.5) The critical theory researcher, in contrast to the feminist researcher, may be interested in bringing attention to the needs of people and social action instead of focusing on research for women and gender issues (Creswell, 1998).  A more focused research is put into play with the feminist paradigm.  Both the critical theorists and the feminist researcher could be included in the postmodern perspective that challenges meta-narratives and is considered by Boland (1995) as a post-theory perspective (Creswell, 1998).
    Feminist theory, embracing many of the aspects of post-modern critiques, challenges the current society (Creswell, 1998).  The focus of the feminist paradigm is the ending of women's unequal position in society (Lather, 1991, p. 71, cited in Creswell, 1998). Both feminist and critical theory often have emancipatory goals (Marshall, Rossman, 1999). Critical theory and feminist theory assumes the inquiry is done in a natural setting, not one artificially created yet they differ in their focus of interest (Marshall, Rossman, 1999)
    The interpretive and constructivist paradigms involve the acceptance of the researcher having bias inherent in their work.  Interpretivists work to understand and to capture a subject's point of view along with understanding the world of experience (Dezin & Lincoln, 1994).  According to Friere, the researcher must first bracket his or her own experiences before attempting to understand the experiences of those being researched (Friere, 1993). By doing this, a more holistic approach to the study is accomplished that is both naturalistic and value bound with the ideal of provoking cultural criticism (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994).  Constructivists believe that each word has an inherent history or bias within it and that everything needs to be questioned as to what that bias is and how it would affect what is being studied (Rogers, 1996). Constructivism is similar to both feminist and critical theory in that it is political in nature and could be action oriented although, in its differences, the action may be only inward, as in the individual's self-questioning.  Constructivist theory is very concerned with how verbal and non-verbal symbols are used to create society's version of the world.  The manipulation of these symbols is the cornerstone to the constructivist theorist's paradigm (Rogers, 1996).  A constructivist may work through feminist theory by concerning itself with the realities of women's lives and how the symbols, inherent in the language of society, form that reality.
    The goals and concepts of positivism treat reality as one truth, a single reality.  Research is value free and the research subject is an "object".  This paradigm is measurable, value free and objective (Lincoln, & Guba, 2000).  The methods used are structured experiments; interviewing, indexes and is deductive. Positivism has its roots in a quantitative methodology rather than qualitative (Lincoln & Guba, 2000).  Constructivism, on the other hand treats reality as relativistic (Lincoln, Guba, 2000).
    In learning about these various paradigms of research theory I found that the constructivist paradigm is where my research was headed.  The premise that one needs to question the very basic symbolic roots of our language, of our forms of communication as it concerns both visual and auditory information, and never cease questioning it, is central to my research.  My research concerns itself with what our society has taken for granted, television (Mander, 1978; Klass, 2000; Sutphen, 2000).  How our lives are becoming molded into a lifestyle that is not of our individual making (Bushman, 1998; Buzzell, 1998; Iyenger, 1994, Mander & Goldsmith, 1996) and yet, because of the words and symbols surrounding us, many are unable to notice it occurring (Bauder, 1998; Peper & Mulholland, 1971).  Critical theory and its action research methodology somewhat fits into my research but not fully.  My research is grounded in the premise that we each have our own reality to live in and be aware of.  Changing someone's reality is not a goal of my research.  To understand and to question what is reality is the goal.  A value judgment is not part of my research so the interpretive approach does not fit, although it is similar, in ways to constructivism. Feminist theory could become part of my research but would complicate the main theme so I will maintain a more constructivist/critical theory approach. The positivist controls the research while I will not.  Control was shared between myself, the inquirer, and between the participants of my study. 
Bias
The research into the brainwashing potential of television viewing (Bolding, 2000; Klass, 2000; Sutphen, 2000) poses questions of bias that would be inherently enmeshed into the researcher's psyche (Marshall & Rossman, 1999).  I have viewed television during my life and since the findings of my research supports the potential for brainwashing from watching TV I know that it will be impossible for me to know the difference between which biases that I have that are unique to me and which that have been formed from the very sources that I am researching (Bolding, 2000; Hunter, 1958; Klass, 2000).  From that perspective I will add that brainwashing needs reinforcement to maintain its physiological hold on an individual (Hunter, 1958; Sutphen, 2000).  I have not viewed television programming since the summer of 1992. To not view television was a conscious decision on my part.  I have greatly restricted my movie viewing in theater and rented video.  I state these facts in an attempt to show that I have been aware of and concerned about the possible effects of viewing television (Mander, 1978; Winn, 1985; Landay, 1995) for many years and may have the ability to question its effects with a less restricted mindset than others who view it on a daily basis (Sutphen, 2000). Another bias that I have and need to remain cognizant of while I continue in my research is that I am both a mother and a teacher.  Being a mother holds a bias towards responsibility in what our children learn (Spock, 1998; Erikson, 1963), and being a teacher holds a sense of responsibility towards what our students learn (Knight, 1998). In following the constructivist and interprevitist paradigms, I will try to bracket my experiences before attempting to understand those of whom I study (Friere, 1993).
    In Gloria Ladson-Billings' article titled Racialized Discourses and Ethnic Epistemologies, she cites Shujja (1997) as saying that worldviews and systems of knowledge are symbiotic in that one cannot view the world without the knowledge that one already processes having an influence on that view along with that knowledge having been influenced by one's worldview.  The article goes on to say that the conditions under which we live and learn shape both our worldviews and our knowledge. (Shujja, 1997 as cited in Ladson-Billings).  It takes active intellectual work on one's part to develop a worldview different from that, which is the dominant (Ladson-Billings).  On this, I base my perceived differences with society, in reference to my un-acceptance of television as part of my daily life, which is the dominate worldview in this society, to my taking an active position in questioning television's role in our daily lives (Neilsen, 1999).
Site Selection and Population
    I selected a high school in western Massachusetts for most of my observations.  The school has a mixed population of students in areas of socio-economic, ethnic and academic backgrounds.  Having this mixture of backgrounds at the school enables me to have a more diverse population mix at my disposal.  The high school has approximately 1000 students and is located within a city. The students, being that they are in the middle of the downtown district, are allowed to leave the grounds during lunchtime to walk to nearby eating establishments, so they are used to having a fair amount of freedom. The school is an old building that includes 4 floors of classrooms where the various departments are divided around the building, for example, science on the third floor, east wing.  Much of the architecture has remained unchanged in the building, floors and walls show their age, yet some of the quaintness of past times still permeates parts of the building.  It is a large school requiring much maintenance and the building can be either over-heated or freezing dependant on where you are, just like most old public buildings.  The technology available within the school for teachers and students is average.  The library has a dozen networked computers for general use plus many of the classrooms have a computer that is networked for security, file sharing and Internet access.  The school runs a dual-platform system using both Macintosh and Intel based machines. There are 3 computers labs in the school used primarily by the business department and the vocational department. The level of technical expertise throughout the general staff is mainly in the beginner stages while the student population is a bit more advanced in the level of user capability and understanding.
I continued with the observation portion of my research at numerous private homes. The homes that I was able to visit and do observations at were those of some of my co-workers and their families.  All are nestled in the Berkshires, known for its natural beauty, numerous cultural attractions and quaint New England charm.  This piece of information is important to keep in mind, since we, who live in the Berkshires, are really never more than a few minutes away from nature.  We can escape the rigors of our technologically driven society very easily…if we wanted to. This is an important point to keep in mind.  The data that I have collected through observations and interviews may have been very different if it was gathered in a different location.  The online surveys, on the other hand, were collected from a wide range of geographical areas, making the analysis of the resulting data more 'worldly' in nature.
Researcher's Role
    My role as researcher was to gather information on the television and computer viewing habits of my subjects and to ascertain if any behavior modification is resulting from those habits. I also wanted to determine how pervasive the two technologies had become in our daily lives. I studied primarily television viewing habits; yet, due to the increased melding of both media into one (anonymous, 1997; Cringely, 1999; Greto, 1999) I also included the use of computers.  I felt that if I did not include computers, as they are similar to televisions in their digital projections and use, my collected data would be of less value to others pursuing similar research.  Relatively inexpensive adaptive devices that can be connected to one's computer are now readily available that allow viewing and editing of televised content from cable and local television stations (Weissenstein, 2000).  My experience with the uses of digital imagery in both television and computers enables me the technical expertise to study this problem with professional knowledge and ability.  I have the experience of being a network administrator for dual-platform networks at both the high school that I did my research and at another western Massachusetts high school, encompassing approximately 2500 users, over 500 computers; and 10 servers.  In addition, I have the added experience of owning and operating a computer consulting and web design business, affording me first hand knowledge of database systems; active server pages; JAVA; CGI; HTML; and much more.  I am deeply entrenched in the world of computers, and, because of the demands of both of my jobs, I am required to keep up to date on the latest technological information. This enables me to have a clear and accurate knowledge of the capabilities required to use various technologies to accomplish whatever task one may deem necessary.  Due to my computer background, I have the knowledge to be cognizant of what the trends may be and where they may be taking us in the next few years. I am also aware that there are so many variables that it is impossible to predict anything accurately.  I also understand what can be and is being accomplished today, with computer technology (Cringely, 1999).  Security issues have always been of particular interest to me.  The students often see me in their classrooms, computer labs and in the various support offices as I work on repairing the many computers in each building.  I have often talked with students about various technical subjects and enjoy the comfortable relationship that has developed between them and myself.  Including the students in the observational section of my research will seem natural to most of the students since it falls within my role in the school.  When I observed others at their various homes I was always clear about what I was researching.  My role was as a student of education, a position that was non-threatening and easy for others to accept.
Data Collection Methods and Data Management
    In an attempt to gather information concerning viewing habits of our society's teenagers along with other segments of our population, I used questionnaires posted on the web.  Questionnaires can be used to learn about the distribution of characteristics, attitudes, or beliefs in a sample population (Marshall & Rossman, 1999).  I utilized structured responses that work well with a graph representation although I did include some open-ended questions even though they are more difficult to use in presenting analysis in graph form (Marshall & Rossman, 1999).  I did test the questionnaire out on a few test subjects to check for bias, sequence, clarity, and face validity along with usefulness (Marshall & Rossman, 1999). I used unobtrusive measures as another means for collection of data.  This method does not require the students to be aware of my data gathering.  Marshall & Rossman describe this method of data collection as one that does not interfere with the normal flow of events and requires careful observation and unobtrusive data collection (1999).  My position as Computer Specialist often provides me the opportunity to sit and work on a computer in a corner of a classroom while a class is being conducted.  I am a 'fly on the wall' so to speak.  I am able to observe students and listen to conversations while remaining in an almost invisible position within the room.  I was able to accomplish the same observations within the library at the school. The students are very used to seeing me work on or at a computer.  I have become part of the background to them.  I am in the perfect position for observing without intruding.  Ethical considerations that need to be factored in remain the same as if I were not doing research.  I am always listening to conversations since such usually surround me in the course of my day.  If and when I hear of something that would cause concern to the safety and welfare of another student I have always interjected my thoughts and concern to those that were discussing the topic, I did not stop in my role as a responsible adult/teacher/educator during my role as researcher. I enjoy talking to students and have never had any problems becoming involved in a discussion with them.  I remained in the role as an observer, though, as much as possible.
Data Collection Methods:
-    Two part online Survey
-    Interviews
-    Observations
Survey
I asked questions concerning television and computer viewing habits; attitudes about viewing; locations of TV's in the respondents' homes; if TV is viewed during mealtimes; when sleeping; timing and duration it is viewed in the homes, and how one feels after having watched television for an extended period of time. I included questions about ones computer recreational habits since TV, in a digitized form, is now readily available on home computers.  Copies of the two surveys, in their entirety, are included in the appendices (see Appendix TT and Appendix UU). 
Interviews
    From the analysis of the two online surveys I formulated a set of questions that would be critical to focusing the discussions that would occur during the interview process.  A large age range was represented from the online survey respondents.  I carefully chose individuals to interview that would represent a variety of generational perspectives.  In doing the selection I avoided using anyone under the age of 18 for the main reason that most of the online respondents were over 18 years old.  I wanted the analysis that resulted from the online data to be able to be compared and contrasted with an equal age range as that used in the interview process.  There were seven people who I interviewed, 4 women and 3 men. 
Descriptions of those interviewed (all names have been changed):
-    Frank, a 35 year old high school level English teacher readily accepted my request to interview him for my study.  Very out-spoken on issues that involve society in general, he seemed pleased to be asked to participate.  The interview was held in one of the computer labs after the students had left for the day.  We actually sat in front of 2 computers and both logged onto the Net and began discussing the merits of online research.  This proved to be a great way to focus both of our thoughts directly on the technology being discussed.  Frank is married, lives in a rural community and raises a few farm animals.  He has two children at home, a little boy who is 6 years old and in the 1st grade, and a daughter who is 9 years old and attends 4th grade.  Frank admits that he loves being a teacher and could not envision himself being anything else.  Frank enjoys raising farm animals as a way to maintain a "connection with reality".  He felt that it was important for his two children to have the experience of learning the responsibilities associated with taking care of livestock.  He told me that his family has 3 televisions, one in the kitchen, one in the living room and one in his and his wife's bedroom.  He also has a computer that is kept in the family room and is used mainly by himself and his children.
-    Tina, a 25-year-old woman who works full time in a professional field of work, was hesitant at first, to participate in the interview.  Anonymity is crucial for her due to the type of work that she does.  I promised her that all comments that she made would be used very carefully, with any identifying remarks either omitted or changed.  This young woman was very articulate and seemed to be adept with information concerning security and technology.  Currently enrolled as a part-time college student, she will have her bachelor's degree in another year.  She seemed to have thought about issues relating to my research on here own, prior to my seeking her out.  She has her own apartment, and it was there that we held the interview.  Her place was an interesting retreat from the busy world.  A casual tour of her home showed her to be a person who enjoys using colors creatively.  Bookcase after bookcase were over-flowing with books on a wide range of subjects.  She had two TV sets, one in her living room and one in her bedroom, plus a study with a computer.  Her kitchen spoke of one who enjoys the art of cooking, with an eclectic array of cooking tools and cookbooks.  Over numerous cups of coffee, she and I discussed television, society and commercialism.  She provided me a wealth of information and a clear insight into the mind of the young professional.  Her comments were extremely helpful.  She promised to contact me if she had more to add after the interview, and she did, on several occasions, call me with more insights into what we had discussed previously.
-    Joe is a high school student who will be graduating this June.  He works part-time at the local mall and likes to snowmobile and play video games.  He also enjoys going on the Net to chat with friends and to play online games.  I interviewed Joe at his house.  He has a TV in his own room along with his own computer.  His family has 4 other TV sets and one other computer.  Joe is a very laid back individual who is not too sure of what he plans to do after graduating from high school.  He thinks that it would be "cool to program video games" and to do the artwork for some comic strip.  He has not taken any courses in either of these subjects but he felt that he could learn the programming skills on his own.  Joe was very open about his views on TV and computers.  He added an important dimension to the study.
-    Ann is a 28-year-old social studies teacher at an area high school.  Living alone, she enjoys going out with her friends and shopping.  Ann admits that being a teacher is not exactly what she had hoped it would be.  She had some interesting comments about teenagers and education that were insightful and informative.  The interview with Ann took place in her classroom during her lunch break.  Noises from neighboring classrooms and people in the hallway filtered into our space as we talked.  The classroom was large and 'dusty feeling'. There was one poster hung up on the wall, faded and torn at the corner, having to do with reading and featuring a movie star holding a book.  We both sat in uncomfortable plastic molded chairs that had a side desk attached.
-    Tricia, another high school student, also graduates this year.  She has a part-time job at an area McDonalds. Tricia is a business student at her high school and does not have plans for further education after she graduates.  I know Tricia through another co-worker.  Tricia baby-sits the co-worker's children.  The interview occurred during one of the baby-sitting jobs, at my co-worker's house.  Tricia was not too articulate about her views on society and television.  She does enjoy using the computer to chat with her friends and to download her favorite music.  While we sat at the kitchen table to do the interview, the 2 children that she watches were occupied in the living room watching cartoons on the TV.  A radio was playing in the kitchen while we talked.  We each had a soda while we talked (which I had brought with me in addition to some cookies that I had made at home specifically for this occasion).
-    Ed is a 45-year-old married man who I have known for approximately 6 years.  He and his wife took some classes with me in the past and we had kept in touch.  He was happy to be part of the study and seemed to enjoy having his thoughts taken down.  Ed has worked at the same place of employment for over 20 years and is happy with his work.  He has 3 children, all teenagers, two boys and a girl.  Ed and I met at a local diner for the interview.  Over coffee and omelets we discussed a full range of topics relating to my study.  Ed seemed to have thought about the issues that I was addressing with great care.  His concerns for the welfare of his children in the society in which we live were of primary importance to him.  He has 1 TV and 2 computers in his home. The interview lasted a good two hours and proved to be very productive.
-    Marie is a retired secretary.  Sixty-seven years old, with several young grandchildren, she was very willing to discuss her views about television and society.  Marie, and her husband have 5 televisions in their home, in the kitchen, living room, family room, guest room and their bedroom.  They also have a computer.  The interview with Marie took place in her kitchen.  The TV was on the entire time that we talked.  She would occasionally look at the screen and forget what she was talking about.  After several times of this happening she laughed and turned off the volume yet still kept the TV visual portion turned on.  Marie occasional seemed on the defensive when I questioned her about her viewing habits and had her compare them to those that she had in years past.  It was an interesting and insightful interview.
Data Analysis Strategy
As described in Marshall & Rossman, data analysis "is the process of bringing order, structure, and interpretation to the mass of collected data" (Marshall & Rossman, 1999, p. 150). The data that is collected in the various methods that I plan to incorporate in this study (surveys, interviews and observations) will be analyzed using the analysis strategy described by Creswell (1998) for ethnographic research.  Creswell recommends the three aspects of data transformation advanced by Wolcott (1994b), description, analysis and interpretation of the culture-sharing group.  The description may be where the writer, through progressively focusing the "description of a day in the life" of an individual.  In this study, it was obtained through interviews and observations (Creswell, 1999).  Different perspectives are made evident through the views of those interviewed.  Analysis involved highlighting specific material that was introduced in the descriptive phase and the display of the findings in tables, diagrams and charts (Wolcott, 1994b). Wolcott suggests searching for patterned regularities in the data, "comparing the cultural group to others, evaluating the group in terms of standards, and drawing connections between the culture-sharing group and larger theoretical frameworks" (Creswell, 1999, p. 153).  Creswell continues with his list of what to include in the analysis strategy by suggesting that making an "ethnographic interpretation of the culture-sharing group is a data transformation step as well" (Creswell, 1999, p. 153). This interpretation of analysis strategy sounds intriguing in that the researcher actually goes beyond the database and questions what is to be made of the information (Wolcott, 1994).  In this part of the analysis the researcher may speculate outrageous, comparative interpretations "that raise doubts of questions for the reader.  The reader draws inferences from the data or turns to theory to provide structure for his or her own interpretation" (Creswell, 1999, p. 153).
In designing my own data collection and analysis strategies, I came across some major challenges.  In creating an online survey, much time is spent in the actual html coding of the web page.  One or two questions on a survey is a simple matter, but when it nears 50 in number the complexities involved in managing the data and having it relayed to the researcher within an easy to comprehend format is a time consuming task.  My first challenge was to create the survey using phrases that were understandable yet not too wordy.  A web page is limited by a variety of parameters.  The rule of thumb in good web page design is to create a page that loads quickly (for the client) and does not require much, if any downward scrolling.  Horizontal scrolling is a total 'taboo' option, so the questions in the survey all needed to fit on the smallest screen size, usually 600 pixels in width (Ladd, O'Donnell, 1998). Other considerations include color contrast for words and backgrounds, visual interest and easy to understand directions. The online survey was presented on http://www.MrsSinger.com, which is an art education site that I have developed and personally maintained for approximately two years. There is a repeat clientele that visits this site regularly so I am able to control the data collection to a greater degree than if the site were new and attracted a wide variety of visitors.  This site of mine attracts many students, families and educators worldwide. I have a solid database of those who have visited the site in the past, along with their email addresses, so I was able to do a broadcast email to past visitors requesting their participation in a survey at "Mrs. Singer's" site.  In the email I also asked everyone to see if they could ask their friends and family to fill out the surveys too.  This proved to be very successful in gathering a large mass of participants in a short period of time.  Since I have many visitors from around the globe, I was able to obtain a wide array of participants from culturally diverse populations.  In creating the form fields for the surveys I needed to insert coding that would enable me to know which question was being answered and what choice the respondent had chosen for each question.  I set up the form field to automatically submit the responses to an email alias that I created specifically for this research.  I created two email addresses, one for each survey, thus enabling an easy manner for me to keep the data gathered from each survey separate from each other.  Within the code, but not visible to the site visitor, I was able to place notes to myself so I would know which question was being answered and how without having to refer to a master.  These data management considerations evolved out of necessity since a large amount of data quickly developed.  I received more responses than I had initially predicted.  I needed to re-code the surveys twice to accommodate the incoming data and make it easier to handle.
Trustworthiness Features
    There are a variety of perspectives presented by Creswell (1999) that could be used to support the establishment of verification in a qualitative research project.  Using Creswell's approach I did the following:
-    Spent extensive time will in the field, interviewing and observing the individuals in my study.
-    A detailed thick description was transcribed of all encounters and observations and analyzed.
-    Using Lincoln & Guba's (1985) terms of trustworthiness, I had a prolonged engagement in the field along with triangulation of data of sources and methods and investigators for the establishment of credibility.
-    As a naturalistic researcher (Lincoln & Guba, 1985), I worked towards having confirmable research as a means to establishing the value of the data.
-    Clarification of researcher bias within the proposal of the study is evident so that the reader will understand the researcher's position and any impact that any biases and assumptions may have on the study (Merriam, 1998).
Management Plan and Timeline
    The management plan that I used incorporated the nine months that our course encompassed.  During the months of September and October I worked on the formulation of the problem statement. Channeling my energies toward the Review of Literature in my topic area proved to be the primary focus during this time.  I developed a database using the software program FileMaker Pro Version 4.0, to enable me to organize and code the many articles that I was collecting to use in my literature review.  This, in itself, was a major task, since I had limited experience with this particular software.  I was successful in developing a fairly complex database with many fields available for the large variety of information that I needed to compile.  Within the parameters that I set in the database, I incorporated fields for coding.  As Creswell (1998), argues, a researcher needs to understand as much as possible about a phenomenon under investigation to successfully build a theory.  Creswell's description of the conditional/consequential matrix, used as a coding device, seemed to fit into the manner that I generally collect and mentally digest data (Creswell, 1998).  Creswell makes four analytic points:
1.    "Macro conditions/consequences should be part of the analysis when these emerge from the data as being significant.
2.    Macro conditions often intersect and interact with the micro ones.
3.    In direct or indirect ways they become part of the situational context.
4.    The paths taken by conditions, as well as the subsequent actions/interacts and consequences that follow, can be traced in the data (the paths of connectivity"  (Creswell, 1998, p. 182).
When I started coding the literature that I have been reading I used the following categories of References:
-    Historical  (with sub-codes on repeated historical events)
-    World view/global references
-    Economic
-    Marketing/Advertising
-    Use of the keywords: brainwashing, manipulate, Orwellian, Totalitarianism, Brave New World, Pavlovian, Big Brother, subliminal, behavior modification, hypnosis.
 Exploring the various research paradigms and practicing the interview process also were included in these two months.  The transcription of a 60-minute interview and the completion of the first draft of the Literature Review were completed by mid-October. November and December included the continued re-writing of Chapters 1 and 2 and my total re-thinking of my problem statement.  I actually began the final and more complete version of the Literature Review during the last weekend of November.  The re-writing of Chapter 1 (Introduction to the Study) was in its final draft version as December began.  The signed permission form by the "Gatekeeper" was completed by December 4, 2000. The permission form included several formats allowing me options to use dependent on how the study continued.  The Project Proposal was complete by mid-December.  Further data collection continued through January along with the drafts of the questionnaires (see Appendix TT) and interview questions that I planned to use once the Project Proposal was accepted.  The process of finalizing the questionnaire/survey questions (see Appendix UU) and the technical considerations and work required a fair amount of time at this point of the study. Data collected from the surveys were analyzed and from this analysis the interview questions were developed. Due to the large amount of online responses and the fact that I had 48 separate questions to analyze, many with 5 or more possible answers, I had to develop a method that could organize the data is an easy to maintain and access format.  After several failed attempts utilizing various organizational methods, I decided to use Microsoft's Excel, a spreadsheet application.  In Excel, data can easily be put into tables and graphs.  The tabbed worksheets (see Appendix VV) provided the perfect management system for keeping each question a separate entity for analysis while still being able to cross-examine related and or conflicting data. Further analysis of the survey data, in conjunction to the data collected through interviews and observations, began in mid-February and continued through April.  I needed to re-visit all of the research subjects for clarification of data collected. Field notes that I took were maintained on an almost daily basis.  Final analysis and conclusions of the research project was completed, and a PowerPoint presentation of my findings was given at the end of April (see Appendix WW for Timeline).
Summary
My research focuses on a very complex subject.  Although studied in-depth and critically analyzed the time factor proved to be the most difficult to overcome.  The necessity to do a thorough study precludes deadlines, yet reality does control what is done.  With all that is being written about the effects of television viewing on various aspects of our society as it pertains to perceived increases in violent behavior in our children (Gore, 1994; Greto, 1999; Murray, 1999) and its effects on students' abilities to learn how to read, write and comprehend the data (Kaufman, 1998; Winn, 1985; Johnson, 1999) the need for further research exists.  With all of the data that is available concerning television viewing habits, content and society in general one would think that there would be a wealth of information that combines this information with the capabilities of the computer and the potential for a massive data-mining initiative that would make the cataloging of everyone's personal information, interests and habits available to the highest bidder.  Unfortunately, there is a significant dearth of information on this subject.  As this research paper continues to explore the literature and investigate fresh sources of information and perspectives, the potential for and implications of a behavioral modification campaign utilizing technology and its recreational usage takes on a whole new meaning.

   























Chapter 4
    This research paper deals with how media and information technology is molding our culture (Mander & Goldsmith, 1996; Iyengar, 1991) through the increase merging of communication media in society (Cringely, 1999; Sanders, 2000; Schwartz, 2001). This chapter presents the information that I have gathered utilizing three different formats as described in detail in Chapter 3: Surveys, Interviews and Observations.  References to supporting literature will be provided throughout the chapter along with graphs depicting the data collected from the various survey questions.  Careful attention to the implications of both conflicting and supporting data will be analyzed.
There are four guiding questions to the overall research study:
1.    In our society, what habits have evolved into becoming part of a daily routine that includes television and computers?
2.     In what ways have television and computers affected communication between people in our society?
3.    Are there certain conditions that may increase or decrease the potential for behavior modification in an individual when using a computer or television?
4.     What technological advances increase the potential for subverting individual thought?
1.  In our society, what habits have evolved into becoming part of a daily routine that includes television and computers?
Meals are being eaten in front of the television in 94% of the households of those surveyed (see Figure 1).  Eighty-two percent of these households eat their meals while ingesting the corporate message on a regular basis (see Appendix F).
 

 Where mealtimes had once been a time for a family to converse about what had occurred during their day's activities and offer each other advice, guidance and encouragement (Jana, 2000; Mander, 1978) the typical family now receives the advice and encouragement from corporate sponsors who first portray a fictitious character's days activities followed by advice, guidance and encouragement that inevitably meets the corporate goals of molding viewers desires and needs into that which would increase sales profits (Kocher, 2001; Rushkoff, 2001). Joe told me that he "eats just about every meal in front of the TV."…"Mom works at night so I eat supper with my sister, we keep the TV on in the kitchen…I don't want to talk to my sister anyways…she has nothing to say that I wanna hear….I like to eat and watch TV…"   When I asked Joe if, when his Mom is home, do they turn off the TV when they eat together and he said, "No, Mom eats in the kitchen, she watches her show…sometimes my sister sits there with her and I go out into the living room and eat out there…I like my shows."  Frank told me about a pizza restaurant that he takes his family to, "There is a small TV on every table so we can watch TV when we eat our pizza… I like it because it keeps the kids from fighting!" 
Television has become a member of our family (Dickenson, 2000; Mander, 1978; Postman), an important and influential member.  Through TV programming and commercials, advice is being given out on a daily basis on how to behave; how to handle relationships; how to dress; what to eat - practically a surrogate parent figure filling voids that are in many people's lives (Mander, 1978, McChesney, 2000).  Marie tells me, "I enjoy watching the talk shows, I can learn so much from them…".   Advice, once given by the loving parent with an emotional attachment and a vested interest in the welfare of the child (Greto, 1999; Jana, 2000) is now in the hands of network sponsors.  Even spouses, returning home after a long day at work find solace and diversion not from their mate but from the ever patient, always available television program.  Frank told me that he often watches TV after coming home from work; he does it because he doesn't want to think.  He does it, "because I'm tired of thinking."  Ann relates the same feeling, "I get home and all I want to do is to 'veg-out', I've had it by then….I've been thinking all day long, I need a break!"  Of all the households in the United States, only two percent do not have a television (Neilsen, 2000).  None of those surveyed belonged to that small percentage group, 100% stated that not only did they have a TV at home, that their homes had three or more TV sets (see Appendix FF).  Eighty-two percent actually have at least four televisions, practically one in every room in the house (see Appendix GG).  When asked about how many TV sets she had, Ann replied, "Well, I only have three, one in the living room, one in my bedroom and one in my kitchen…I like having one in the kitchen 'cause I can watch a show when I'm cooking, then, when my dinner is set I can bring my plate to the living room and watch the show in there without missing anything!" (see Appendix G).
    Corporate goals include the development of brand loyalty (Rushkoff, 2001) throughout a particular targeted group of society.  By the development of specialized themes in programming, a certain segment of society can be drawn into viewing the program on a regular basis, it becomes part of their daily/weekly routine (Rushkoff, 2001).  Eighty-five percent of those surveyed had a favorite television show that they will regularly view (see Appendix H). All seven of those interviewed called certain programs, "my show", a sense of ownership and possession concerning a particular program.  Seventy-nine percent admit to planning their daily schedules around the broadcast time of a particular show (see Appendix X).  Where once a family gauged time around work, school, and social commitments (Postman, 1986), we now have allowed the media broadcasters to mold our personal time to fit into a carefully planned curriculum of life management.  Tina told me that, "Sometimes I call a friend to do something and my friend says 'no, because my show is coming on soon, I don't want to miss it."  I asked Tina how she felt when her friend said that and she replied, "Well, I guess I don't mind… I have favorite shows, too, that I don't like to miss…"  Marie, when asked about watching favorite shows tells me that she never answers the telephone between 7-o-clock and 8-o-clock every evening because her two favorite shows are on then.  I asked her if they were re-runs, "oh yes…but I still don't want to miss them, they are so funny!".  "How about taping them to watch later?" I asked.  "That isn't the same", she replied.
When questioned about the most often done activity upon returning home after a day at work or school, 85% included TV viewing as the number one pastime (see Appendix I).   In this critical transition time, (Hunter, 1958; Kocher, 2001) where an individual is re-adjusting him or herself to the different demands, personal roles and atmosphere of home versus work or school, the TV program has become the tool, the bridge, between people's various life-role realities.  As Joe put it, "I just like to sit down and stop thinking…. I'm tired when I get home from school…. I don't want to think of anything so I turn on the TV".  Ed has similar feelings, he shared these thoughts, " I like to sit down in front of the ol' tube and just zone out… you know, forget about everything…".  Offering a prescribed amount of information under the guise of entertainment or news, the transnational corporate sponsors have successfully intertwined their message, their carefully orchestrated mantra, onto an unsuspecting public (Rushkoff, 2001).  According to Ben H. Bagdikian, cited in Rushkoff's PBS Frontline Report, "In the frenetic race for attention, media companies adopt any means to freeze viewers' eyes in order to prevent viewers from changing channels".   Laura had this to add, " I'm tired of thinking…. that's all I do all day at work, when I come home I want to relax, I want to unwind, I don't want to think, I turn on the TV…. I keep it on all night long.  When I am making supper I watch TV, it's better than just thinking about cooking…sometimes I just sit there for hours, just staring…its great relaxation!".
Another part of our routine, going to sleep at night, now includes technology.  Of those surveyed 80% said that they kept music playing in their bedroom when they went to bed (see Appendix S) and 72% keep the TV on (see Appendix R).  Sixty-two percent are not only watching over six hours of TV during the day, but they are also listening to over six hours of either TV audio messaging or radio/music messaging as well (see Figure 2).  Many people are spending well over half their day listening and viewing the corporate message.

 

    Having determined that many students spend a fair amount of time viewing television as a pastime while at home, I felt it important to see if television is being used in the schools themselves.  Ninety-two percent of the students who answered the survey said that their teachers have used the TV in the classroom to show some type of regular programming (see Figure 3).  In my observations I have seen programs that had been taped by the teacher at home and then shown to their class.   There were a large variety of programs taped, many science-based programs and many historical docudramas.  In about half the instances, the commercials where not edited out of the video, so were shown along with the
 

programming.  I observed a literature class where the video, Bicentennial Man, was shown to the class as an example of science fiction.  The students, slumped in their seats, seemed to be both watching and daydreaming all at the same time.  Those farthest from the TV set, where it was more difficult to have a clear view of the screen, were more interested in passing notes and whispering to their friends.  At the front of the class, the students stared at the screen in what seemed to be bored surrender.  When the bell rang and the students where filing out of the room I asked a couple what they thought of the movie…"Okay…I've seen it 4 times already so its no big deal…" said one boy.  "Great, 'cause I didn't read the book, so now I don't have to!", remarked another student.
Tina remembers being in school and watching Channel One, a specialized programming station with claims of providing educational content.  Tina explains the system, " The TV sets are paid for by Channel One but the school has to agree to having the TV set on for a certain amount of time every day.  Every homeroom period, when I was in high school, we had the TV blaring…you couldn't ignore it no matter how hard you tried…and if you wanted to talk with your friend next to you the teacher would yell, saying that we had to listen to the TV…. there were a lot of commercials that were on it...I don't remember anything educational…maybe some news items were discussed…I just remember not liking it."  At the high school that I was observing, the issue of whether to allow Channel One to be integrated into the school was being debated.  Those who felt negatively towards it were in the minority.  One teacher spoke to me and said, "It is a done deal, the decision is already made…all for the almighty buck."  I asked him to tell me more about his views and he said, "I'm afraid to… the last person that I was up front with called me a Communist right to my face, I couldn't believe my ears!".  I asked another teacher, one who was pro-Channel One. I asked him if he was concerned about the students not having the opportunity to communicate with each other during homeroom periods.  He said, "We don't have homeroom with the current scheduling…. they aren't supposed to talk in homeroom anyways!…  He told me that the school would have to change the scheduling to allow homeroom periods in the mornings since Channel One needs to play for a set amount of time.  I over-heard two teachers arguing about the topic, one told the other that they'd be selling their souls if the school got Channel One and the other replied, "Hey, I already sold my soul, I'm working at this school, aren't I!"
 Frank admits to using a taped TV program to show his history class on days when he has to catch up on his grading papers, " I keep a collection of shows taped, so do other teachers…. The kids love watching them, I think that they get a good perspective from seeing these re-creations…. they loved watching "Titanic", the clothes, the way people talked, it was great educationally! I'll tape things from Discovery Channel, that's always a good place to find a show that fits into the curriculum."  Tina felt it important for me to include this particular memory of hers into my analysis, "When I was in 5th grade, it was the last day of school and my class was having a "farewell party" because we all would be going to another school in the Fall… instead of playing games or talking we all had to sit quietly and watch a video, "Where the Red Fern Grows"…. Sure, it was a film about change and goodbyes, but it wasn't about us saying goodbye to each other….  I remember feeling mad and sad all at once because we had to watch someone else say 'goodbye'….".  When I questioned Ann about any use of TV in the school day, she remembered a bus trip to Washington, D.C. for those in the National Honor Society.  "There were 3 TV screens in the bus, we got to watch movies the whole trip!", recounted Ann.  I asked her if she had ever thought about how the trip would have been if there weren't any TVs on the bus.  She answered, "How boring it would be!  No one likes to talk, we would have stared out of the windows, or someone would have started up a stupid song…. Who needs that?"
Summary
    From the interviews, surveys and observations, it seems that TV viewing has become a commonplace activity in most people's lives.  From morning to night, while eating, sleeping, or just passing the time, the TV has become an almost constant fixture.  It is being used as a means to escape the mundane, the boredom of the daily grind or just a habit that has crept into our everyday lives. In the schools it is being used to supplement and/or be added to other teaching tools and methods.  The TV set is showing up just about everywhere, in fashion departments of stores, at the deli counter at supermarkets, in restaurants and doctor's waiting rooms.  It seems that our society has totally accepted, without question, the presence of this technology as a natural part of our every day lives.

2. In what ways have television and computers affected communication between people in our society?

For decades the living room and kitchen were the communal gathering places in the family home (Mander, 1978; Mander, 1996; Postman, 1986) where family members and friends could gather and communicate.  With 100% of those surveyed stating that their living rooms house a television set and 64% of the kitchens (see Appendix G), communication among people now is in competition with a mechanical guest that never listens and constantly talks, stifling true communication and placing strict restraints on content, length and depth due to the need of the viewer to maintain focus and quiet while glued to the program (Mander, 1978). Even as I interviewed Marie, I felt the competition of the television.  Marie would lose track of what she was talking about and start to stare at the set and its every present drone of weather related news. When she realized that this had occurred numerous times she jumped up and turned off the volume, but the video portion remained on and her gaze still became fixated on the screen now and then.  She commented about how she doesn’t watch much TV, mainly the Weather Channel and CNN.  Ed reminisced about when he was growing up, "When I was a kid we weren't allowed to have the TV on when company came over… it would have been an insult to our guests… it would have seemed like the TV was more important to us than those who were over the house".  "There was a time, back when I used to teach younger students, " remarked Frank, " when I once was talking with a little boy, I can't remember his name now, but… he was telling me how he hated it when he wanted to talk with his mom sometimes, but she kept telling him to be quiet because she was busy watching her show… I can remember that same empty feeling… how can a kid compete with a TV?"
Content of the conversations many times include the TV show and characters, with 79% percent of those surveyed saying that the commercials themselves are often the topic of a conversation with friends and family (see Appendix E).  "Sure, we often talk about what we watched last night…in the staff room…everyone watches something and its fun to laugh about what we all saw….", says Ann.  People enjoy shared experiences, they enjoy talking about programs that they have watched, as Tina describes talking about TV, "It is like a 'pseudo-communal' experience…I feel like I'm doing something with others when I am really by myself".  I asked Joe about how it would be if he didn't have a TV, his first remark was, "What would I talk about with my friends!  Everyone would think I was weird!".  "I wouldn't know what to talk about!" exclaimed Ann, when I asked her the same question.
    Mealtime is not the only time where television has created a gulf, dividing members of a family.  The survey results showed that in every home there was a TV in at least one of the bedrooms, while 97% percent of those interviewed had a television in their own bedroom (see Figure 4).  With 100% of the living rooms with a TV and 40% answering that they also had a family room with a TV in it, the family unit has been effectively divided into single, separate entities, each person isolated within separate rooms, alone, except for the one-way communicator…TV.
 
TV commercials are drawing interest among viewers with 85% of those whom I surveyed admitting that they've enjoyed the commercials more than the program that they had initially decided to watch and well over half of these viewers saying that most of the time the commercials are more enjoyable than any of the programming (see Appendix A). Tina thought that commercials were more interesting than most of the regular programming, "There are some commercials that I actually look forward to seeing!" exclaimed Tina.  I asked Frank to tell me a bit about some commercials that he can remember…" The commercials for the Super Bowl were great; did you know how much they are charged for just thirty seconds of airtime? I love the Bud Frogs, even my kids get a kick out of them…" Commercials, with a very precise message to convey (Rushkoff, 2001) are quickly becoming the main focus of the television viewer with a feedback loop built right into the message so that no matter where anyone goes the message is repeated over and over gain.
 What was extremely interesting to me, though, was the type of descriptions that those surveyed wrote in themselves when asked to describe their favorite television commercial.  Of those who gave descriptions of their favorite commercial, 89% failed to mention the actual name of the product being focused on (see Figure 5).
 
 

The only product that was named was "Bud Frogs", even by Frank during his interview.   Knowing how deeply researched the market is by corporate-paid advertising agencies (Rushkoff, 2001), I started to think that the product name may not be the most crucial piece of information being taught in the commercial, but something entirely different.  Marie told me about one commercial that "disturbs" her, she explained that it seems to be a commercial about skateboarding and the kids are all going in different directions, very quickly, on their skateboards.  There is a lot of music played in the background.  At the end, after a lot of flashing images, someone falls off of their skateboard and them someone else hits the fallen child, purposefully, with their skateboard…. then there is a message about Coke soda.  Marie told me that she gets very upset each time that she views this commercial, "I don't know what all the things about skateboards has to do with Coca Cola!", remarks Marie.
    The television characters have become important and real enough to the viewers that 100% of those surveyed can recall the character's names from most TV shows (see Appendix B).  More importantly, a vast majority, 91%, has actually thought about these fictitious TV characters after they were done viewing the program and while they were engaged in other activities (see Figure 6).  In my interviews these were some of the responses that I received from my question,  "How far back in time can you remember a particular TV show and characters?"  Ed stated that, "Hey, I can remember dancing around the room to the music when I was little and watched the show "Romper Room", I can remember everything about that show!  I can also remember watching "Captain Kangaroo…. I remember his shoebox full of crayons and the ping pong balls and 'Dancing Bear'!".  Marie reminisced about the old "Honeymooners" show that used to air when she was still a young bride. "That show is still my favorite…I can remember thinking how I would decorate their apartment if it were mine…. it helped me to forget how little money we had back then too!".  Three quarters of those who answered the survey questions have gone so far to reflect back on a particular fictitious TV character and used that character's contrived personality traits as a guide, a role-model, for their own behavior when trying to work out a particular situation in their own, real-life world!  Joe admits to making believe he was the main character on the movie "The Matrix".  He told me that he liked to dress like the character and walk like the character…"in a cool floating kinda way…" Joe told me that when he is at his computer he pretends to be someone different, like "the dude on the Matrix".  Tricia told me that she imagines herself like some of the skinny girls on the TV shows.  She wears her hair like some of them, long and dyed white blonde.  She wants to live like they do, "with friends all around and having fun all the time…always dressed in nice clothes…"
Where real people were the guiding force as role models prior to the television era, now, more and more people are using corporate-created virtual role-models, who's only connection to the real world is its marketing and or political message sponsored by a handful of transnational corporations (Bagdikian, 1992; Mander, 1992; Warrebey, 2000). 
 
Ed remembers back when he was a lot younger, when he used to pretend that he was like Clint Eastwood…"walking slow and quiet…not saying much…the tough guy…", Ed laughed when he said this, he said that he sees that he "was foolish to act that way back then." Ann mentions that when she gets down at work, tired from teaching, she makes-believe that she is in a movie, it helps her get through the day.
Over 50% of viewers actually have a favorite TV commercial with 79% discussing the theme, characterization and plot with their friends thus further embedding the commercial message into not only their own consciousness, but also instilling a sense of reality and substance to an unreal occurrence (see Appendix E), (Bushman, 1998; Buzzell, 1998; Iyenge, 1994; Kaufman, 2000).
What is the motivational draw for watching TV? I ask of Ed, "Consistency", he says, "The same thing all the time, no real surprises… even the news shows have the same people talking about what's going on so that after a while it feels like you know them… there's new programs on now and then but everything is still pretty much the same…it's a habit I guess."  The chat rooms on the Net are a big draw, as I surmised through the observations at the high school.  It is lunchtime…. A dozen students are sitting, staring at the library's computer screens, they are typing words quickly…. scroll, type, click, a frantic search through numerous email accounts to see if any new messages have arrived…. disappointment if they haven't.  Very little hesitation, very little pause…click, scroll…. bodies slightly tilted forward, necks stiff, eyes staring… no facial expression, bodies motionless, except for the mouse hand and fingers flitting away at the keyboards…. The bell rings and 12 zombie-out teens file out of the library.  Meanwhile, a small group of kids were sitting at a worktable with their books spread open in front of them.  They face each other, these four students…. They smile, lean over and whisper quick sentences.  There is movement, eye contact.  The contrast between the two groups of students is immense.  I asked Tricia how she normally feels after she'd been chatting on the Net for awhile, "Oh, well, like….I don't know, kinda…. Wired… I like chatting…. my neck gets stiff, you know how it is….".  I ask her if she feels that she had enough opportunity to say what she wanted to.  "Yeah…no…I don't know…. I really don't have anything to say anyway….".  "Would you ever like to meet the people that you are chatting with?", I asked.  "No..Yeah…. not really.  I don't write about the real me so I don't want anyone to meet me as I really am" Tricia says, Tricia describes the feeling of checking her various email accounts…."It's fun, I have about 6 or 7 accounts that I normally use.  Some are for real… you know, those I use with people I really know…others are…well, not really me…. I'm someone else, I have a good time, it is fun being someone else, to pretend…. Everyone does it! I have a bunch of screen names". 
Summary
    My findings point to an increase of use in computer aided communication.  As Joe mentioned, "Hey, I can talk to kids out in Boston, L.A., anywhere, and ask them about what they do at school and stuff."  Even communication among people who live in our own cities and towns seems to increase from the use of the Internet, as Frank told me, "I can email a question to a colleague, and have the answer before the evening is done and before work the next day."  The findings also point out that chat rooms can often lack the capability for in-depth conversations, so quality can suffer.  If it has become quantity over quality is difficult to surmise.  More research is needed for that to be answered.
    The analysis of Internet chat rooms seems to indicate that they have a great potential for changing the communication patterns among teenagers.  Where high school lunch periods were a time when students could talk face to face with their peers about events that they had in common there is now a large group of teens communicating via chat rooms with others that they may never meet face to face and may not even be their own age.  Conversations lack depth and many times are with someone that the teen will never again communicate with… a one-time expenditure of thought that disappears with a click.
3.  Are there certain conditions that may increase or decrease the potential for behavior modification in an individual when using a computer or television?
 Of those who answered the survey, 61% normally viewed TV in a darkened environment.  What I found to be an interesting twist to this, though, was that the majority, 63%, did not feel that a quiet room was an important factor in TV viewing preferences (see Appendix J).  Also, being alone seemed to not have much bearing when you consider that 87% did not think it important one way or another if they were alone or not when watching television.  Yet, when researching the most influential factors related to alpha-state inducement, it was determined that visual stimulus could most readily place an individual into the alpha state (Johnson, 1999; Mander, 1978) and if one considers that the subliminal beat of the background music does not require a conscious knowledge of it occurring (Sutphen, 2000), then the data makes more sense. Those interviewed had interesting ways to describe how they felt when viewing TV, "I feel like I am in the TV, that I am inside the show, nothing else exists… I don't even hear my wife talking to me…she usually has to tap me on the shoulder to snap me out of it!", said Frank.  As Tina put it, "It just grabs you…your eyes just have to pass by a set and that's it, they become glued!". Another question that was asked and that seems to be supportive of thinking of TV as a vehicle for subliminal messaging, was when I asked what physical characteristics best described a person who is watching television, both in facial and whole body characteristics.  The overwhelming majority described a typical TV viewer in the same way one would describe someone under hypnosis (Mander, 1978; Sutphen, 2000).  Seventy-six percent described a non-moving body, sitting in a relaxed, slightly slumped over position (see Figure 8).  This typical TV viewer was further described as having passive, relaxed eyes, 52%, and 82% described a non-moving facial expression (see Figure 7).  Interestingly enough, 30% described the face as being tight, with staring eyes, which is another indicator for a trance-like state (Hunter, 1958; Johnson, 1999; Kocher, 2000). This large percentage of answers relating to a passive, non-moving viewer sitting in a darkened room oblivious to those around him or her seems to support the correlation between the act of watching TV and that of being put into a hypnotic trance-like state (Kocher, 2000; Mander, 1978; Winn, 1985).

 

 


Having touched on the subject of subliminal messages just briefly in the last section I would like to present some findings that further support the possibility of such techniques being used on a widespread level (Hunter, 1956; Singer, 1996, Warrebey, 2000).  The term subliminal means a hidden suggestion that is only perceived by the subconscious.  Subliminal messages can be audio or visual in nature.  Any sound or vibration that is timed to 6 to 7 cycles per second can generate an alpha phase in the recipient.  A person's two-hemisphere brain will naturally shift back and forth from the more analytical and rational left hemisphere to the right-hemispheric alpha-wave state, the more creative, imaginative side.  The alpha state is the targeted state for the hypnotist to reach his or her subjects and the state reached by someone during meditation.   It is also the state that we spend most of our time in while watching TV (Johnson, 1999; Mander, 1978;Sutphen, 2000).  The hypnotic effect of television was readily discernable in the following observation: When I was involved with interviewing Tricia in the kitchen, the two small children that she was babysitting were watching cartoons in the living room.  I could view them through the doorway.  The drapes were drawn, the lights off, the flicker of the TV flashing across the young children's faces.  The three year old, Jessica, stood in front of the TV, eyes staring straight at the screen, her mouth is slightly open, a bit of drool is on her chin….no smile, no frown….nothing.  Tricia calls out her name, no response… again, "Jessie, come here, have a cookie" calls Tricia.  Again, no response.  Tricia goes into the room and waves her hand in front of Jessica's face…she snaps out of the trance-like state, and with a startled look, stares up at Tricia.  At first there is no recognition, then… after hearing the word 'cookie', life seems to return to little Jessica and she skips into the kitchen to eat.  The other little girl, Missy, still sits in front of the TV and ignores the activity… a bag of chips on her lap…she is in a world of her own…. Brainwashing, as defined by Britannica.com, could also be called coercive persuasion, or "any technique designed to manipulate human thought or action against the desire, will, or knowledge of the individual (Britannica.com, 2001)". Researchers, studying methods used during the Korean War to brainwash captured soldiers, have found that a very carefully followed sequence of steps needs to be used for the highest rate of success in the indoctrination of the subject.  Ed mentioned, though, how, after his family had gone camping for a week, so did not have a TV to watch, "We all realized that we felt different… that the TV wasn't calling out to us in the same way as it did at home.  It felt good to get it out of our system for a while…".
I covered the theme of brainwashing in Chapter 2 of this research paper, yet I feel it imperative to repeat some of the more salient points prior to the presentation and analysis of the data gathered from the surveys, interviews and observations.
In the early 1900's, the Russian physiologist, Pavlov, researched methods of implanting suggestions and conditioned responses in animals.  He identified three distinct and progressive states of transmarginal inhibition:
"The first is the EQUIVALENT phase, in which the brain gives the same response to both strong and weak stimuli. The second is the PARADOXICAL phase, in which the brain responds more actively to weak stimuli than to strong. And the third is the ULTRA-PARADOXICAL phase, in which conditioned responses and behavior patterns turn from positive to negative or from negative to positive.
With the progression through each phase, the degree of conversion becomes more effective and complete. The way to achieve conversion are many and varied, but the usual first step in religious or political brainwashing is to work on the emotions of an individual or group until they reach an abnormal level of anger, fear, excitement, or nervous tension.
The progressive result of this mental condition is to impair judgment and increase suggestibility. The more this condition can be maintained or intensified, the more it compounds. Once catharsis, or the first brain phase, is reached, the complete mental takeover becomes easier. Existing mental programming can be replaced with new patterns of thinking and behavior.
Other often-used physiological weapons to modify normal brain functions are fasting, radical or high sugar diets, physical discomforts, regulation of breathing, mantra chanting in meditation, the disclosure of awesome mysteries, special lighting and sound effects, programmed response to incense, or intoxicating drugs.
The same results can be obtained in contemporary psychiatric treatment by electric shock treatments and even by purposely lowering a person's blood sugar level with insulin injections." (Sutphen, 2000, pg 1)
Keeping these research studies in mind, I would like to continue my analysis of TV viewing habits in our society.  The following survey results seem to correlate somewhat with either the idea of brainwashing or of a possible addictive quality to TV viewing (Kocher, 2000; Mander, 1978; Winn, 1985).  I had asked people to describe how they felt after they had viewed TV for a couple of hours.  Keep in mind that television viewing is a voluntary activity.  It was extremely interesting to find that 85% used negative terms in describing how they felt (see Figure 9). 
 

Fifty-five percent felt drained and out of touch with what was around them.  Twelve percent felt antsy (see Appendix Q).  Despite the negative feelings that come from watching television for an extended period of time, 100% of students eighteen and older claim to watch three or more hours of TV each weekday evening during their school year.  This is after sitting in a classroom for over six hours during the day.  Sixty-two percent watch five or more hours… nearly as much time as they had spent in school that day (see Appendix T).
During the school year weekend, 57% spend at least an equal amount of time watching TV, as they would have spent sitting in a classroom during the week.  Seventy-seven percent spend four or more hours (see Figure 10).
 
 The numbers get higher during summer vacation where 62% spend at least the same amount of time that they would have spent learning in school, and 54% spend eight or more hours in front of the TV, instead of doing any other activity (see Appendix V).  An important point to make at this time is that one of the main premises of a good education is the importance of repetition in teaching facts and concepts to students (Joyce, 1996; Sigel, 1977; Tyler, 1949).  The importance of providing information in a variety of ways and the building of one concept that has been learned on top of another, to build a strong framework of understanding and internalization of information.  In a school setting, with teachers following prescribed agendas voted in by the governing populace this is one thing, but when the teacher has never had to pass any test and who is answerable only to those who pay for airtime, then the motive should be questioned (Mander, Goldstein, 1996).
Yet another way that advertisers instill the marketing message into the viewer is through the very carefully orchestrated use of music during a commercial (Kaufman, 2000; Kocher, 2001; Landay, 1995).  Studies done (Johnson, 1999; Sutphen, 2000) show subliminal effects caused by certain speeds and beat of music.  The controlled use of music as a supportive element to help infuse the marketing message into the minds of the viewer can be demonstrated by the survey results showing that 88% of those questioned repeat the tune from a commercial through humming and singing long after it was actually viewed.  The internalization of auditory and visual information along with a systemic kinesthetic support where the body moves along to the beat brings the message of the sponsors to a much higher, and more subliminal level (Johnson, 1999; Hunter, 1956).  When I asked Tina if she could remember any commercial where she taps her hand to the beat she quickly replied, "Oh yes!  There's this really cool commercial about some kind of car…. the drumbeat is awesome!  I stop everything that I'm doing and just watch it!  I find that I look forward to it being on, I caught myself tapping the beat out with my hands on my thighs…I couldn't stop myself…it was great!".  I asked her to describe the commercial in more detail.  Tina continued, "It has a silver car in it and the door opens…. the camera shots keep changing, first one angle, then another, very quickly…. you get a bit dizzy watching it really!".  "What was the make or model of the car?", I asked.  "I can't remember", she answered.
Summary
    The findings from this section point to our acceptance of the trance-like state that we tend to fall into when viewing television.  Not one person seemed alarmed at their use of words that sounded like we were loosing control.  I asked those being interviewed to describe the state that we are in when viewing TV: Frank, "zombied-out, in a trance…"; Tina, "Oh, like we are hypnotized…"; Ann, "Practically asleep, our brains are turned off!"; Joe, "zoned-out, totally gone…", Marie, "day-dreamy", Ed, "Not fully there!", and Tricia, "inside the show, like…not existing".   We are surrounded by television sets and are within their range most of the day.  We have come to accept the feeling of loosing control mentally and even seek that feeling out.
4.  What other conditions may decrease and or increase the receptiveness of an individual to subliminal suggestion?
I asked many questions in my survey that did not pertain to television.  There is a connection, though, to TV, with each of the questions that I asked.  My first concern was if the respondent had a computer at home.  Ninety-four percent answered that they did (see Figure 11), and since all of the surveys were filled out online, I knew that 100% of those surveyed had access to a computer and to the Internet in the course of their day (see Appendix JJ).  Eighty-eight percent of those with computers at home have Internet access.  All of those whom I interviewed have at least one computer at home and all have Internet access (see Appendix II).
 

 When I questioned who in the family used the computer the answers showed that it was pretty much equal among the family members, but for different reasons.  Ed told me, "I use it to look things up on the Net, like car prices or info on a product…. My wife likes to go to the catalog sites, like Eddie Bauer and buy from their Outlet store…my kids play games.".  Tina uses hers for writing resumes and doing homework and Joe uses it to chat and to play games.  He also enjoys finding information about motorcycles and snowmobiles.  "There's a lot of online clubs you can join!", exclaimed Joe, "Sometimes I'm on it half the night, and the time disappears."  Tricia downloads music, checks out her horoscope daily, chats and emails, "I go one a lot but for quick things…sometimes the time does get away from me though and I find that an entire evening is gone!".
Television is evolving into another state of use, another technology in many ways, than it has been for decades (Cringely, 1999; Froomkin, 1996).  Digitized images are now being shown on the newer sets, and re-formatted digital images are being shown on the older, non-digital TVs.  With this evolution of technological imagery enhancement comes the melding of other, once considered disparate, communication and entertainment formats, into one colossal, all-inclusive, interconnected device (Cringely, 1999). Since my research study is primarily concerned with the homogenization of thought, the potential for society to loose the differences among cultures and perspectives that makes each of us so unique, so individual, it was imperative that I explored the technological advances that are making it increasingly difficult for one to know when one technology begins and one ends.  To know when and where reality exists and when fiction is all that there is.
    Digitized information is all computer code, and like everything done with a computer, it can be copied, deleted and modified as long as one has the proper tools and the knowledge in how to manipulate the code (Anonymous, 1997; Heller, Roberts, 1999; Ladd, O'Donnell, 1998).  Skill and patience are the two primary ingredients for working with digitized information.  It can be done by anyone who has the background and the desire (Anonymous, 1997; Lemay, Rogers, 1999). Keeping this in mind, we will now explore the final section of my research, and what I believe is the most critical.
An equal number of those not having a computer at home also did not have an email account, though it was not necessarily the same individual. Ninety-four percent do have an email account so it could be concluded that some of these accounts are made while using a computer that is not at home.  Of the students surveyed, 100% said that they could go onto the Internet at school (see Appendix Y).  As Tricia recounts, "Sure, I go onto the Internet all the time at school.  During class, in the computer lab, the teacher thinks we are doing our spreadsheets but we are really on the Net…. Its so cool!".  With so many having Internet access it was interesting to see what their primary use for it was (see Figure 12).  Only 12% found that researching information was the most favorite use for the Net, while 76% used it for entertainment purposes, chatting, games, and surfing.  Twelve percent stated that their favorite use was accessing their email (see Appendix Z).  Yet, even with these seemingly benign uses of the technology, "When browsing the web your fingerprints are left every place that you stop (Alwang, Mendelson, Rubenking, 2001, pg. 153)
 

    Some businesses and schools provide email accounts for their employees, Frank, Ed, Tina and Ann all told me that they had job related email accounts assigned to them.  I asked them if they used these accounts for other than work related communication.  Frank, "Sure, we all do!  We are encouraged to use email for our work communication and I guess they figure that the more we use it the better we will get at it!"  Tina told me that she keeps her work related email separate from he personal AOL account email, but that, at work, she can use either one.  When I asked about the normal length and complexity of their typical email message the responses were similar.  Marie told me that her emails were usually short and included "simple hellos and such", Ed, Frank, Ann and Tina all admitted that their usual emails were group emails sending along a list of jokes that had been passed on to them; online greeting cards or URLs of interesting web sites.  Tricia and Joe said the same.  I asked about any security issues they might have about email.  None seemed overly concerned about security.  Tina was the most knowledgeable about legal ramifications concerning email, saying how she knew someone who was able to win a legal case by proving something was agreed upon because he had a backed up copy of an old email.  That, though, was the extent of security knowledge.  All seemed to think that their keeping email passwords secret was no big deal.  "Hey, if someone wants to use my account they can go ahead, what can it hurt!" commented Frank.  When I mentioned that someone could then pose as him and do an illegal activity under his name and that the burden of proving himself innocent would be on his shoulders, he just laughed and said that that would never happen.  Tricia and Joe, both with numerous accounts told me that they use the same exact passwords on every account.
The diversity and number of computerized "gadgets" that an individual uses have a direct bearing on my study.  I asked several questions that would provide a clearer picture of how many people utilize what is available to them in either software or hardware options. The level of expertise in using the options available to a computer user could be a good indicator of the degree that these technologies can be used either with or without their understanding the implications involved (Alwang, et al, 2001).  Joe, when asked some technical questions about computers, seemed to be very knowledgeable about how they work and in knowing what things work with what.  He told me, "My mom never would buy something for the computer without me telling her what to get… she doesn’t know anything about them".  Ed admits to knowing only the most simplistic amount of repair knowledge and how the computer really works.  "Hey, I don't care how it works as long as it does work!", he exclaimed.
Similar to watching television, yet having a more interactive involvement on the part of the viewer, are the video games that are played using the TV screen to show the visual elements of the game.  I have included questions pertaining to video games in my research survey because there are many similarities between viewing TV and viewing a video game (Johnson, 1999). Video games are played by 64% of those whom I surveyed (see Appendix AA). Of those, 67% do so at least a couple of times per week (see Appendix BB).  This amount of time spent playing video games is in addition to time spent watching TV.  Games can also be played on a computer, with 64% of the people saying that they play games on the Net (see Appendix N).
Time is being spent in various forms of digitally provided entertainment.  I asked if one had digital cable access for their computer or TV and 34% answered yes, which was not surprising since it is becoming more readily available to areas around the country (see Appendix HH),  (Alwang, et al, 2001).  What I did find of interest, though, was that 15% did not know if they had digital cable or not.  This is a pretty important upgrade to computer and television data access, one that would be difficult not to be aware of.  Those surveyed were pretty knowledgeable about what their default browser was set to, with only three browser options being chosen from dozens of options available to all Internet users (see Appendix DD).  Internet Explorer has 61% using it as their default, and America Online came in with 21%.  Netscape, at 18% was third, though, from experience, I know that America Online has a contract with Netscape that has Netscape intertwined within the AOL format (Rushkoff, 2001), so the choices are actually less than one would first think.  Tina and Joe seemed to be the most advanced in how they utilized their browsers; both incorporating 'skins' to give their browser interface a personalized, unique look.  When I asked about most preferred Internet search engines, the answers were more varied (see Appendix KK).  Yahoo was the top percent gatherer with 40% naming it, while America Online had 22%.  Apple, Excite and MSN all tied with 10% each.  Only two other search engines were even mentioned, Google and C4.  There are hundreds of search engines available, yet only seven where mentioned, and one, AOL, is actually a web portal, ISP and more all rolled into one.  Banner ads, those rectangular, animated mini-billboards that tout some kind of special deal or fabulous offer are seen on many, many pages throughout the Net.  I wanted to know if people actually click onto these ads, finding out that 64% of those surveyed do click onto these ads (see Appendix LL). When I asked Joe if he ever clicked onto a banner ad, he said, "Sure, I do it for fun".  "What do you think they are there for?", I asked.  "Well, to advertise stuff, and to give you a chance to find out more about the stuff they're showing in the ad."  I asked Tricia if she ever clicks onto the banner ads and she remarked, "Yeah, I do, 'cause a lot of them have contests with them."  "Do you leave your name and email address for the contest?", I asked.  "Sometimes I do, sometimes I leave one of my extra email addresses, and the ones I don't check into often…. I loose track sometimes", she remarked.  What is important about this piece of information is that by clicking onto the banner a person immediately becomes known as a piece of marketing data (Alwang, et al, 2001; Medford, Dreier, Rivkin, Dragan, 2001). Databases easily track web surfers as they click away, site after site (cite), with each click their personal preferences, and interests and more are collected and catalogued for use by whomever. 
 

Personalizing a search engine so that specific information will always be available is another way that information can be collected about somebody (Alwang, et al, 2001; Medford, et al, 2001).   Forty-nine percent answered that they have already set up a personalized search engine and 15% did not know if they ever did or not (see Figure 13).  A similar type of personalization is setting ones' search engine to display current news and weather for a certain area.  Forty-six percent have entered the necessary information into their search engines database to allow a current readout of local weather reports, effectively letting the world know where they are sitting, accessing the Internet at that moment.  The same with news, once it is personalized to show certain stocks and activities then that information is readily available to data gathering programs (Alwang, et al, 2001; Medford, et al, 2001). Ed and Frank both have their daily stock activity show up automatically on their computers.  Both use AOL as their Internet access combined with browser window.  They admitted that if they had to configure the personalized information themselves they wouldn't have a clue about how to go about it, but with AOL, everything is done for you.
    The question whether one visits a regularly scheduled chat session on the Net was asked for similar reasons as the previous questions concerning personalization (see Appendix OO).    Forty-three percent do visit regularly scheduled chats, enabling a focused tracking of interests and data gathering, which can provide a wealth of information about someone (Sanders, 2001; Schwartz, 2001). Eighteen percent did not know if they visited one or not. Ann likes to visit fashion oriented chat rooms and learn about beauty and fitness.  She told me that she goes to some that 'meet' on a regular basis.
A television program, in digitized format, is available for viewing on a computer.  Forty-six percent already have that option available on their home computers while 19% did not know if they did or not.  Ed has digitized TV capability on one of his family computers.  "I guess that means we have 2 TVs, not one", he said after we talked about it.  "I like having the mini-screen showing the game while I am surfing the Net, I get bored easy and it gives me more to do at once!", said Ed.  Sixty-four percent have crossed the marketing bridge of after viewing a TV program they then go to that program's web site. Everyone that I interviewed had visited sites related to TV programs.  Ann enjoys going to the sites that feature her favorite daytime soaps to find out what the storyline is.  Joe likes to go to fan club web sites and participate in chats and online bulletin boards. Eighteen percent own a PDA, 82% use a portable CD player with headphones and 79% have their own cell phone (see Figure 14). Marie, who has a cell phone did not seem to be concerned with any one eavesdropping in on her conversations, "God bless anyone who would want to listen in on my boring conversations!", she laughs. 
 

Tricia and Joe both have similar reactions to my questioning their degree of concern for phone privacy.  Joe thought it was cool, though, when he informed me that he read on the Net about the FBI's newest spy surveillance satellites that can easily pick up on all cell phone and regular phone conversations.
Ed told me that his PDA is really helpful; it helps him keep track of phone numbers and addresses.  I asked him if it is Internet capable and he said, "I think it is, I need to read the instructions that came with it, though!"  Joe uses his cell phone to check in with his "buddies".  "Hey, I can contact anyone, any time, anywhere… sometimes I'm on the Net and talking on the phone to someone that I am chatting with at the same time… its awesome!"
Summary
    Newer technologies are certainly making inroads into people's daily lives.  The market offers such a wide range of devices and options for their use that many people seem to get overwhelmed on how much learning is required in setting up the new product and in how one would customize it.  The concern for protecting one's privacy does not seem to be high on everyone's list.  The speed that the options are coming available seems to preclude anything but the most basic understanding to the implications of protecting one's personal information and security from others.  The use of the many options available on the Internet seems to be focused on those offered by just a handful of companies, with very little concern for diversity of use.
    This chapter has provided an interesting mix of information for analysis.  The problems, as stated in the beginning of the chapter, all revolve around the potential for behavior to be manipulated in an unsuspecting population.  The large influx of new technologies and the myriad amount of options available to utilize them is occurring at breakneck speed.  The amount of technical expertise required to understand the full implications of each newly emerged technology is beyond many people.  Television is a part of everyone's lives.  Even the 2% of the population without TVs in their home are affected by the influence it has on society for they are surrounded at work and at school by those who talk about television, refer to television and quote television incessantly.  People are planning their lives around what is on the TV.  The clock is being replace by the television program.  One might say, "It is time for Seinfeld", not, "It is 7:30"…  People have changed how they communicate with family and friends due to the influences of TV and computers.  We refer to make-believe characters as if they are real.  We share memories of these virtual entities with millions and millions of people and feel a sense of bonding with others we've never met just by having watched the same TV show.  Our lives are being channeled into directions that we have no control over and, surprisingly enough, we do not care.














Chapter 5
Those who control the past control the future.
  This research paper deals with a very complex, insidious problem.  Media and information technology have the capability to mold our culture in a manner never before realized in all of history.  The ties to the past that we, as individuals, pass on to our children are at risk of being diluted into oblivion and our thoughts are being molded into a homogenous lifestyle devoid of diversity and history.  All of the cultural traditions that were once passed on generation to generation are being lost through media's incessant barrage of commercialism convincing people to change their lifestyles to that which benefits the corporate bottom line.  Without the vast diversity of traditional life styles we, as a society loose the understanding of the past.  Without an emotional, human based understanding of what the past was like we cannot truly understand why things occurred that have caused events of the present.  Without firm, in-depth understandings of the present, we, as a society, have lost the ability to control our future.
    Those who control the past control the future…. how could someone control the past?  Could someone really control our future? The findings to my research have provided some answers to these two questions.  The potential, according to my analysis, is there for the manipulation of information and, in doing so, the manipulation of how society reacts to that information.  We communicate with information.  Data obtained from seeing someone's facial expression, hearing a sound, the sight of an image, all are forms of communication.  This paper touched on how information that we obtain in such communication can be altered and appears to be different than what it first started out as being.
We must think about how each of us knows about history, about the past.  We read books about events in the past; we re-tell stories that we have heard from others about past events; old copies of newspapers, magazines, letters, manuscripts hold information about the past; and films, photographs, and audio tapes also provide information of the past.  Paintings, drawings, even the simplest sketches can offer important glimpses of that which occurred in the past.  Now, stop and think about how many of these 'portals of time' are going through a metamorphosis within our society.  Within this paper I gave many examples and instances where common avenues of communication are experiencing profound changes.  The letter, for example, a common form of communication used for centuries as a means to convey feelings, thoughts and share experiences.  Written down and usually sent to someone else to be read and many times saved.  The vast knowledge that we have of the past has been greatly enhanced and added to by information obtained from the ordinary, common communication format of letter writing done on paper.  Think of the Civil War soldiers' letters home, saved in tied bundles to be read and re-read throughout the years following, providing those of us, in their future, pieces of knowledge and understanding that would have been impossible to have without those gloriously detailed accounts of everyday life.  What if, instead of paper, those letters home had been sent via email?  Forget, for the moment, the absurdity of this thought and consider it from a purely academic angle.  Knowing what we do about the typical length of an email message…short and to the point, and knowing how seldom the email message is ever saved to disk or actually printed out onto paper, one wonders how much less of an understanding we would all have now, about those who fought and lived during the Civil War?  Most of the correspondences would have been quick little notes, deleted after a few days time, lost forever to those in their future.  I believe that there is a critical change occurring in the quality of historically significant pieces of data and in how it is being saved.  In the past 20 years I can attest to my own involvement with this lessening of quality in my communication.  I used to write long, detailed letters to my few close friends who lived far away. Now I send an email.  Usually there is no more than a brief, "Hi", and a "How are you?" and a quick recount of what's new.  I know that an email is about as secure and private as a postcard (Anonymous, 1997). Sure, my past letter writing was probably never going to be of much value to the future historian, but I know for sure that my email letters definitely will not since they will not even exist, they will have been deleted and forgotten within a few short hours. Of those surveyed and interviewed, the findings show that more and more, communication is being done in a digital manner.  Email and Internet chat rooms are becoming the favored format of communication along with the cell phone, another digitized media.  All are quick, impersonal forms of communication that can be tied into digital databases.
 Another example is the photograph.  A photograph could always have contained a staged, doctored up image, yet now, with the commonly used digital camera and scanner, you hear everyone comment about the validity of what is being seen within a photograph.  Yet we continue to place a high degree of importance and value on a photo.  This, in itself, deserves to be studied in depth.  People are becoming more aware of data manipulation yet are still allowing themselves to believe what they are seeing, or in the very least, allowing the image to become part of their subconscious.  A little bit of knowledge of technology is not going to be enough for society; we need to force ourselves to learn as much as we possibly can.  The key word, here, is "learn", for education is of paramount importance.
As an educator I see, with my own eyes, changes occurring within our society, in our schools, with our children.  The students of today are not like those 20 years ago.  Teacher after teacher say the same things, how kids of today can't seem to sit still, how we, as teachers, need to be entertainers in the classroom to keep their attention, how children are rude, disrespectful, violent.  In today's society we tend to ignore our personal intuition and call upon 'experts' and their opinions.  So we continue our work, all along having a feeling of disquiet within our souls… we know something is not right, but we doubt ourselves and delude ourselves and allow others to make the decisions.  We are forced to test the children on the mundane.  Our standards have been lowered; thinking is not revered any longer.  Individual teaching styles and learning styles mean nothing…. to repeat verbatim, to parrot the words of others, to belong to the group, to all be the same that is our goal.  Ray Bradbury, in the classic, Fahrenheit 451, warned us of becoming too docile, too caught up in our need for diversion from reality, complacent concerning questioning, about asking "why"…
"School is shortened, discipline relaxed, philosophies, histories, languages dropped, English and spelling gradually neglected, finally, almost completely ignored.  Life is immediate, the job counts, pleasure lies all about after work.   Why learn anything save pressing buttons, pulling switches, fitting nuts and bolts?" (Bradbury, 1958, pg. 51)
    Entertainment has become society's focus.  I find it to be disturbing to know that many people believe that thinking can not be part of relaxing.  Those whom I interviewed all had the same belief that it was good to stop thinking, that it was good to allow TV's images to flow unchecked into their unconsciousness.  There are many 'truths', such as this that we, as a society, have accepted as part of our inner core of believes…. The need to escape from reality is another.  Why don't we just change our own reality?  Why must we blindly accept someone else's?  Another 'truth' that I have found to be odd, and manipulative, is when I hear people compare the world of education and learning to the business world, referring to the business world as the "real world".  Why does everyone accept this definition so readily?  Why is the validity of learning and of education being questioned and berated?  Why do we not value learning for learning's sake?  What is "unreal" about education?  What is "unreal" about the school environment? Why do we assign a lesser value of worth to the task of teaching and learning compared to manufacturing and business?  Why don't we question the motive behind such a world-view?  Who would benefit from this belief?  Why is pure education such a threat?  Why is the 'act of thinking' a threat? 
    I based the main focus of my research on the warnings presented in three remarkable books, one written in 1953, Fahrenheit 451, which I mentioned earlier.  Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, written in 1932, and 1984, written by George Orwell in 1949.  Most of us are familiar with these classics.  Why are we not taking their implied implications that a preoccupied populace, more concerned with entertainment than reality, is at a grave risk of becoming a totalitarian state, seriously enough? This is an important question that we need to ask of ourselves.  Television, as an addictive medium that can communicate directly to millions in a split seconds time and which is controlled by a handful of global corporations, is problem enough.  Now we are faced with the digitization of a combined computer, television and Internet interface. It is no longer a one directional form of communication.  Our identities, our preferences, our medical data, our financial records, our personal likes and dislikes, where we live, what we eat, what our fears are, what we want, what we need…. all being compiled into major databases…. available to those who can make a tremendous financial profit out of that knowledge (Alwang, Mendelson, Rubenking, 2001).
    Would it help if we each stopped and questioned each new use of a technology prior to its use?  Is it all right to embrace innovation without question? The following is an example of what at first glance seemed to be no big deal… a simple change, yet, upon closer scrutiny; a lot more was involved …. Two summers ago I attended a concert at Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. I have been attending the outdoor concerts there for 30+ years and have always found them to provide a unique experience for the concertgoer, for nothing can come close to the 'drift-away' feeling one has while sitting under the stars listening to the symphonic melodies of the masters.  Two years ago, though, proved to be a turning point for Tanglewood, for they decided to try out an experiment.  Two large television screens were attached onto the edge of the Shed's outside perimeter so that those who had lawn tickets could then view what they could not see occurring within the Shed, where the musicians and the conductor were.  The idea could be considered simple and thoughtful.  Something, though, seemed very different during that evening's concert.  At first I couldn't quite figure it out, but then, after sitting there upon my blanket, listening to the music, I started picking up on the differences that marked that performance from all that I had attended previously.  Having a television to watch had an effect on how people were sitting and or laying on the lawn.  Where once everyone would be turned in a variety of directions since one can hear the music no matter which direction your head was turned, now the vast majority of people had their bodies and faces turned towards the screen.  People used to lay there, eyes closed, daydreaming as they listened…. their own creative thoughts providing the backdrop to the music.  Now they were sitting with heads upturned, staring at images, the light dancing across their faces.  With the TV screen providing the visual stimulation, the imagination no longer seemed good enough… and, unlike the times one would stand up for a few minutes, binoculars in hand in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the conductor or a certain section in the orchestra, the audience seemed content to allow the camera man/woman make the decisions on whom or what to focus on for us.  Individual decisions were taken from us without anyone even noticing it was happening.  Sure, I could still close my eyes and daydream…. I could still stand up and try my luck with the binoculars, but the continuously flashing images on the screen were always present, competing with the stillness of the stars, the slow, soft movements of the clouds, the sway of leaves from the wind…. Our society takes changes such as this without much, if any, question.  It occurs so frequently and is accompanied with such a positive message of things being "new and improved" that we really never understand what we might be loosing instead of gaining.  This research's findings show that the visual image has a very strong attraction to the viewer.  Research shows that no matter what is going on and how much noise, the image still has the power to grab the attention of the individual.
    MTV, with its music videos, has changed the way many people experience popular music.  The research shows that music is 'viewed' as it is being listened to based on the high percentage of teens that identify themselves with MTV and its videos.   Prior to MTV, if one heard a song on the radio or tape, any images that came to mind, formed by the lyrics of the song, were our own.  Our own imagination easily captured the song and supplied an internally created visual backdrop for our thoughts.  Pieces of personal memories in our past helped to fill in gaps and enabled a weaving of real and imagined images to float in our minds.  These images held special meaning to us, for they were our own.  Now, with music videos, someone else has control of what we 'see' in our thoughts when we listen to a song.  Try as you might to erase it, but the image from a video remains in your head forever.  The findings of my research show that everyone remembers the images that they have viewed.  Years and years may go by and the images are still in their memory.  The same is true for any movie or show.  Read a book and you create how the character looks by yourself, using your own imagination along with the literal descriptions provided by the author, but, if you viewed the story first in a film, then read the book, it will be the actor's features you will envision when the words try to describe how he or she looks.  Even if you read the book first, then saw the movie, try as you may, but it would be nearly impossible to recapture the image that you had first conjured up with your own imagination.  The filmed image wins out.  This may not seem like such a negative thing, that of thinking of a particular actor or actress instead of an image that we created.  Think about it though…. If each of us creates our own image, then we have retained our individuality.  My character may be taller than yours, or have shorter hair.  Your character may have a longer chin and more piercing eyes than mine… what I am getting at is this, each of us have our own individual standards, our own individual likes and dislikes.  If we allow someone else to determine what a character looks like then we all are 'seeing' the same image from that point on.  It is in our thoughts and we have all begun a march to the exact same beat.  Who is playing the drum?  Who benefits from having us perceive certain personalities as one type of person and another personality as another?  Ethnic stereotypes can easily be perpetuated in seemingly benign ways.  Harmful generalizations can become imbedded into millions of individuals within a second's time, without them ever being aware that it is occurring. 
    From the analysis of my research the findings show that teenagers are at particularly high risk for behavior modification by the media.  They use both the television and computer in their leisure time far more frequently than any other segment of the population.  MTV targets this age group with such fervor that it would be very difficult for a teen to avoid the marketing messages surrounding their every move.   Knowing this has caused me to speak more freely with the students that I come in contact with during the day.  There was one group that I spoke with, while I was working in a computer lab, that seemed particularly interested in some of the things I had to say concerning Internet privacy and security.  The kids had some very pointed questions to ask of me and I thoroughly enjoyed their inquisitiveness and honesty.  The following day their English teacher approached me, asking if I would be willing to come to speak to some of her classes.  Evidently the students that I had talked to on the previous day were so interested in the subject material that I brought up that they had asked her if I could come back and speak to them again.  She also asked me if I would be willing to be included in the curriculum plans being made for the following school year.  Some of the teachers thought that I would be able to provide a very compelling introduction to the unit on science fiction literature, including my findings concerning this form of literature as being an important method for predicting trends in society. 
In doing this research I have found that there is a need for the subject of media literacy to be included in the curriculum in addition to being taught at home.  Decisions should be made based upon facts, weighed against other options and be a conscious act. 
Many are concerned about the potential for society to loose its identity and its cultural diversity.  Many songs are written that touch upon such warnings and many films and books are produced with this as a theme.  The analysis of data within this research paper seems to show that our society is still in the beginning of the trans-formative stages that would allow us to loose control of individual destiny and decision-making.  We are at the point in time where, with education and the re-awakening of self, we can regain the power of a questioning, philosophical intellect.  The most important point that the research analysis has made is that communication among those is society is changing.  Evolving formats that are replacing the personal, face-to-face, traditional forms of communication are becoming the norm, especially among the teenagers.  The "we" that makes up our society will remain viable and active only if the "I', the individual, remains intact.  Education concerning the evolving forms of communication is critical.

















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