THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF TELEVISION AND RADIO

Nowadays, television and radio have become important media of communication in many countries. Having a television and a radio at home is felt to be necessary in this globalization era for they provide us with information, education and various kinds of entertainment. One of the greatest advantages of television is that it provides information visually and enables one to remember things vividly whereas radio can spread the information more widely and thus enables one to know the news more quickly.

As the sources of education, television and radio are very beneficial to adults as well as children who cannot read yet. They can learn by looking at the pictures on the television and listening to the words spoken on TV and radio. Students can also learn their school subjects such as Mathematics, Science, English and others from these media.

As the sources of entertainment, television and radio have become very popular among us. Many kinds of films, both local and foreign ones and other interesting programs are shown and broadcast everyday. Not only that, we can also choose the programs we like best from many channels or stations available.

Although television and radio have the advantages as mentioned above, it cannot be denied that they also have some disadvantages, which I’m going to describe below.

Many people, especially students, become lazy to do their assignments or homework if there is a good film on TV or there is an interesting program on the radio. They usually postpone their work or their studies and say to themselves that they will do it after watching or listening, but later they ignore it at all.

TV and radio can have bad effects on the children and those who cannot read, too because not all of the programs shown or broadcast are suitable for them. They can take example of something they should not do easily by watching or listening to such programs.

TV and radio commercials can also sometimes persuade one to be consumptive instead of being thrifty.

Realizing these facts, we therefore, must be careful and selective in choosing only the right and useful programs to watch or listen. So let’s all accompany our younger brothers or sisters in front of TV or radio. Give them the right explanation about what is good and what is bad, what should be followed and what should be avoided from the programs so that they can get the most advantages out of these widely used media.