电影不一定就方便观众的认知系，本文主要通过Many因素表单认知学部、Not所有电视剧是有帮助、Not所有电视戏剧很有启发在面对艰难的社会问题这3个方面来阐述自己的观点：电视并不一定提高人们的认识能力。从而提出实现几个改变的措施：首先，观众有很多措施，英语论文，提升电视之外的认知。其次，不是所有的电视剧拥有多个线程或复杂的叙事结构的特点。最后，英语论文范文，有什么显示了程序不引导观众的行为在现实生活中都有效。
In Chapter three of Watching TV Makes You Smarter, Steven Johnson illustrates how TV makes the audience smarter from the aspect of cognitive capability. But not all the viewers can strengthen their cognition by watching TV programs. The will discuss the issue from three parts. The first part will introduce a general idea of cognition and the access to enhance one’s cognition, and then followed by a discussion on the writer’s supporting evidence. The last part will state how the viewers cannot apply what they have learnt from television into daily lives.
I.Many Factors Form Cognitive Faculty
Cognitive faculty is “cognition”, in another word. “In science, cognition is mental processing that includes the attention of working memory, comprehending and producing language, calculating, reasoning, problem solving, and decision making (“cognition”)”.
Cognitive faculty is closely related to many factors. Since the Old Greek time, there have been numerous research on cognition from many aspects, such as psychology, sociology or philosophy. Many studies show that the development of cognition is influenced by many factors such as genes, personal experience, age and etc. Steven believes that “Audiences happily embrace that complexity because they’ve been trained by two decades of multi-threaded dramas (Johnson, 172)”, which adheres to the point that the audience’s capability of decoding complexity comes from the long-time TV show. The author here exaggerates television’s function as the main stimulus to the viewers’ grasp of complexity. It’s a viewpoint of putting a cart before a horse. Another TV drama “Nikita” tells the story how the female warrior conquers the evil one by one with the aid of high-technology and her shrewdness. Assuming that a bunch of people, living in a backward village where only TV sets are available while computers are totally new to the villagers, are now watching the show. Is it possible that they understand what’s really going on in the show? So it’s more accurate to say that only the viewers who are already endowed with necessary cognitive ability can understand the complexity of a TV drama.
Besides television, many other sources foster cognitive faculty. In the fast-moving society, new things sprout every single day. Human beings can enrich their knowledge from various choices, among which television is usually the most direct and least time-consuming. However, still many prefer books or the scripts on which dramas based. Before the boom of television, books take up most of people’s leisure time. Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle got its fame and enhanced the readers’ logical reasoning ability long before the emergence of its television version. The fact that more dramas with more complicated narration or plots appear on screen doesn’t mean that there are fewer complex forms such as fictions off screen. Therefore, better cognitive faculty is not necessarily from television dramas.
II.Not All TV Dramas Are Helpful
Steven points that TV programs requiring of more cognitive demands mainly ascribe to three reasons. “This growing complexity involves three primary elements multiple threading, flashing arrows and social networks (Johnson, 172)”. “Hill Street” is taken as a typical example of “to marry complex narrative structure with complex subject matter (Johnson, 173)”. To Steven, complex narration, multiple plots or multiple subjects offer the viewers good resources to facilitate their cognition. Nevertheless, the listed TV drama in his book as supporting evidence cannot represent all the existing dramas. In “24” or “Hill Street”, complex narrative structure or subject matters may be adopted, but still there are many more other dramas with simple narration or subjects. Mark Cherry’s “Devious Maids”, a television comedy-drama series showed by Lifetime, is one of the latest popular dramas with thrilling plots. It’s favored by the audience because of it’s suspense. Although the drama centers on five characters’ lives, the show always focuses on one leading point. Either in season 1 or season 2, the main plot is to solve one mysterious murder despite of other parallel plots. The main purpose of season 2 is for Marisol to uncover her fiancé, Nick’s murder along with other sub-plots. There are indeed more than one plots in the show, but the other mysteries are not secrets to the viewers. In episode 1 of season 2, it seems that Alejandro’s death lays a veil on the story first, but just after Alejandro was shot, one of the gang, later appeared as Spence’s nephew pulled off his mask and shouted to another member who shot Alejandro, Carter.
Ty: Oh my God. You shot him.
Carter: It was an accident, I didn’t see him.
Here the audience get the idea that Alejandro’s death is an accident rather than a mysterious murder as in other characters’ or the police’ eyes. Due to previous knowledge of the robbery happened in Andrew’s house, the viewers can be certain who the culprits are. With the development of the show, the whole truth comes out in episode 9.
Ethan: We can’t pull another job. I’m sorry.
Ty: Wasn’t the three of you who asked me to help you rob rich people in the first place?
Ethan: I know, but
Ty: We can fight income inequality. We can help the poor. I remember everything you losers said to me.
Ethan: But then someone got killed.
So now the plot is more than obvious to the viewers, just a bunch of kids who want to play Robin Hood, but made a fatal mistake. Despite all the sub-plots, the secret of Nick is yet to be unveiled, which is also the only thread asking for people’s cognitive faculty.
Besides thrillers, TV channels also provide the audience with other sorts of series, such as sitcoms. Popular programs such as “Modern family”, “2 Broke Girls” or “Friends” literally have no linear plots. What the viewers have to do is follow the show and laugh at whatever suggests humor.
Another feature which is deserved some attention is that all dramas are likely to end up with cliché even if they do have complex narrative structures or subject matters. They are often stimulating or enlightening when the first seasons are released but the audience can always figure out the same pattern, thus predict the end. Take “Nikita” as an illustration, every episode begins with a challenge to make, then with throat-cut enduring processes and end with Nikita’s success. In another sense, television dramas are deprived of the function in cultivating people’s cognition when they are already finished with some episodes.
III.Not All Television Dramas Are Instructive in Confronting Difficult Social Issues
Steven believes people can learn how to confront difficult social issues so as to enhance cognitive faculty by watching the characters’ behaviors in “Hill Street”. The show “had richly drawn characters confronting difficult social issues and a narrative structure to match (Johnson, 173)”. Although nearly all the TV dramas originate from reality, they are also forms of art. Many TV programs lack authenticity, which are futile to educate the viewers to tackle difficult social issues.
“Prison Break”, the one-time hit drama shows how the hero successfully breaks a heavily-guarded prison by a series of delicate plans. On July 8th, many Chinese news websites issued a piece of news that 18 addicts broke a rehab center in Guangxi province by digging an underground passage, but only get caught within the following 24 hours by the police. It’s described as a live “prison break” show. It’s self-evident to us that mastermind like Michael Scofield only exists in fiction. The play writer portraits the hero as a master in every aspect, and even the prison he is jailed in is designed by him, which all ensures his success in breaking the prison. But in reality, most people are average-minded. Therefore, it’s very doubtful that the audience can deal with complex social issues by sitting “in the comfort of the sitcom living room (Johnson, 173)”.
To sum up, television doesn’t necessarily improve people’s cognitive faculty. Firstly, the viewers have many methods to enhance their cognition besides television. Secondly, not all television dramas own the features of multiple threads or complex narrative structures. Lastly, what shows on the programs are not all efficient in guiding the viewers’ action in real lives.
Works Cited
Johnson, Steven. Watching TV Make You Smarter. 出版城市: 出版社名称, 年份.
“Cognition”.wikipedia.org. July 2nd, 2017. <
>.
“Devious Maids”. July 12th, 2017. < >.
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