Of course, with these benefits of mass media come the drawbacks. One, specifically, involves a certain, ostensibly inevitable ramification of the advent of new mass media: with each new technology, there has been a decrease in the popularity or use of the previous technology. For example, when radio and television were invented, their use became more widespread as more people had access to them, and fewer people made use of print media, such as books, newspapers, and magazines. Many people thus argue that the increased employment of newer electronic media like television, radio, and movies has led to a profound negative effect on people�s reading habits.

It is the aforementioned topic that I plan to explore in this paper: do people today read less as a result of television? If this is true, why did it occur, and why does it matter? In order to attempt to answer these questions, it was necessary to visit the libraries on campus -- primarily Mann Library -- to find materials containing information about reading habits and television's effects thereon. The Internet was also used to supplement the library trips and locate similar information. A wide variety of sources was found with data that, for the most part, agreed with each other, though different opinions of reading today versus reading in the past were, of course, found.

First, it will be helpful to take a look at people's reading habits before television came along. In the mid- to late-1800s, when the mass production of print media was relatively new, people who were able to read -- i.e., mostly property-owning males, and women and non-whites to a far lesser extent -- primarily read newspapers, though magazines and books were read on a smaller scale. The number of newspaper subscriptions per household in the United States steadily increased during the second half of the nineteenth century, peaking around the time of World War I, and then decreased after radio, magazines, and television were made widely available. The number of magazine titles published, as well as the number of magazines in circulation, in the United States during the nineteenth century increased also. During the first and second World Wars, American newspaper readership was high, presumably because people were interested to know what, exactly, was happening in the war, especially when their country was involved (DeFleur and Dennis). Furthermore, there were not many other sources of amusement available like there are today, so if a person wanted a way to pass the time, reading was one of a fewer number of options than we have.

When television equipment "began to reach the market in 1945 after World War II" ("Television," Columbia Encyclopedia), it was very expensive and, consequently, not many families owned a TV set. In fact, according to DeFleur and Dennis, a TV set was a "new kind of status symbol," but television was not the medium we know it to be today. The sale of TV sets increased, however, and TV ownership has now reached a "saturation level in American households" (DeFleur and Dennis). With this increase in the number of TV sets owned by Americans has naturally come the increase in television viewership, which has been on the rise since 1950 (DeFleur and Dennis).

According to research done by Koolstra and van der Voort, in the 1960s and 70s, the opinion was that book reading was unaffected by television, but in the 1980s, studies were done that indicated reduced TV viewing time may cause increased time spent reading. This brings us to more recent years, in which the generally accepted view is that "the small amount of time children devote to recreational reading has been directly attributed to the growth of television's popularity." Their examination of others' studies indicates that experimental reduction of the amount of time spent watching television was linked to an increase in the amount of time spent reading, which has also been found in incidences where a family's TV set was broken or stolen and there was a national broadcast strike. However, no evidence is provided that restricted viewing time causes a continued time of increased reading time for any longer than about six weeks (Koolstra and van der Voort).

Additionally, the Newspaper Association of America published data regarding the number of morning, evening, and Sunday newspapers circulated. Since 1960, the total number of morning and evening newspapers circulated has dropped from 58,881,746 to 55,979,332, experiencing a peak of 62,826,273 in 1987 ("Newspaper Circulation").

We hear nowadays that publishers of classic and contemporary literature and academic works are enduring financial troubles that can, in part, be attributed to "the allure of other media, such as television, radio, film, and, most recently, the Internet" (Kenji). What, then, IS the allure of a medium like television? The main appeal is likely the speed and ease with which information on television can be transmitted and obtained, whereas with print media, they are often years in the making. In a society where time can be measured in hundredths and thousandths of a second, the instantaneous sending of information is important, and people have less patience for newspapers, magazines, and books.

Aside from the presence of other media, there is also a bigger urge from various groups to go paperless to conserve trees. People may also prefer to pay for television and its available programming because they get more bang for their buck; that is, there is a wider variety of opinions and entertainment options available through television than in a single book. Books frequently cost more money, too, especially those published as hardback editions.

My mother, who has worked in a middle school library for fourteen years now, sees this preference of television over books firsthand; for example, if a child is told that the information (s)he seeks can be found by watching CNN rather than looking it up in a news magazine, then that child will turn on CNN. This corroborates her claim to have seen a marked decrease in the reading habits of the students who go through the school.

In general, there is also a larger number of media that people are expected to know how to use. This leads to a predictable decrease in the amount of time allocated to the print media, considering the increasing emphasis placed on newer, faster electronic media. If a person is to succeed in today�s technological society, (s)he needs to become a "multiply literate" individual (Fisherkeller).

Koolstra and van der Voort attempt to explain the reduced amount of time spent reading using three hypotheses, two of which were supported by their study. The first hypothesis, called the passivity hypothesis, assumes that children "tend to invest little mental effort in watching television, because they perceive television as an 'easy' medium," and because book reading requires more effort, children are prone to avoid it. The second hypothesis -- the reading-depreciation hypothesis -- supposes that TV viewing is a pleasant experience for children, so they expect that school will be as well. This is rarely true, so children are dismayed and become less interested in school and its related activities, such as reading, which, in turn, causes a reduced willingness to read recreationally. The final hypothesis is the concentration-deterioration hypothesis, which essentially states that children's ability to concentrate for extended period of time is worsened by TV viewing, so reading for a prolonged period is difficult. A significant negative correlation between TV viewing and book reading was found, and the second and third hypotheses were supported by their study (Koolstra and van der Voort).

And, of course, there is the remaining question of why this perceived decrease in reading habits matters. The print media are valuable, for the information they convey and entertainment they provide to people worldwide, and to most people, the seemingly lessened interest in reading -- be it newspapers, magazines, or books -- is a matter that is important, or at least people think it should be. But if you ask one of these people why, that person will probably be hard-pressed to give an answer other than "sad" consequences like a decreased literacy or reading comprehension or shorter attention span. Studies have certainly shown that those who do more recreational reading score higher on comprehension tests, have higher grade point averages (GPAs), develop more sophisticated writing styles, and develop more extensive vocabularies than those who do not read as much (Block and Mangieri).

While there are studies that suggest information conveyed by television is more easily understood and remembered than information provided by print (qtd. in Koolstra and van der Voort), it is generally agreed that print media have "positive effects on children's oral and written expression, reading ability, and creative imagination" (Koolstra and van der Voort).

People like to point fingers and complain about things like decreased reading habits, but rarely do they suggest what might be done to make the situation better. Resolutions that some have proposed to schools in order to foster recreational reading habits in children include "sustained silent reading periods; ... reading to children daily; incorporating children's books into content area lessons; sharing and discussing books read; ... increasing parents' knowledge of the importance of recreational reading; teachers' modeling of the pleasure that they receive from reading pursuits; cross-age tutoring; continuously making newly published books available to students; exposing students to a wide variety of genres in classroom-based and school-wide libraries." Of course, there are simply some who innately love to read (Block and Mangieri). Other ideas, suggested by Koolstra and van der Voort, are to aim stimulatory efforts at younger children; promote reading as a recreational, rather than exclusively information-getting, activity; restrict the amount of time children spend watching television; and help children selectively use television (because in their study, "book reading was found to be least hindered by watching drama programs") (Koolstra and van der Voort).

An example of the aforesaid innate love to read is my mother, who not only reads a large number of books encompassing many genres, but also watches a lot of television. She explained her reading habits as resulting from a pure, inherent love of books and the relative unavailability of television to her. But even after she started watching more television, she did not read any less, and this she attributes to the reading habits she developed early in her childhood.

But where would we be without a dissenting opinion? According to research done by Vaccaro, "most statistics and studies about changes in U.S. reading habits are inconclusive" and, in general, "things haven't changed that much in the last several decades." Additionally, the U.S. government's National Center for Education Statistics reported in its 2000 reading assessment of fourth-graders that "there was no overall change from 1992 to 2000; the percentage of students at or above proficient increased from 29 percent in 1992 to 32 percent in 2000; the percentage of students at or above advanced increased from 6 percent in 1992 to 8 percent in 2000" (United States). Moreover, an article published in 1999 stated that while television viewing has indeed gone up and recreational reading time has gone down, it is generally concluded that the amount of time spent watching TV has little effect on academic success, unless the time spent viewing is excessive (qtd. in Vaccaro).

In addition, Koolstra and van der Voort attest that "most researchers have only investigated whether television viewing affects reading, without exploring mechanisms that might be responsible for television's effects." Their research further states that in studies in which a distinction was made between books and comic books, television was associated with reduced book reading in merely two studies. Koolstra and van der Voort caution that early findings that suggest children's book reading typically was unaffected by television can be applied to children of the present, because those studies that were conducted in television's introductory stage "involved children whose reading habits had already been established at the time of television's arrival." They speculate that television does indeed reduced book reading among children who have grown up watching television, but today, television is introduced to children earlier than books, so "early experiences with this easy and attractive source of entertainment might spoil children's appetite for books later on." Later, it is mentioned that other leisure activities, like sports or club activities, may also affect a child's reading habits, and what is ultimately important is a child's earlier reading behavior. It is even said that television can encourage book reading by showing movies or series based on books or book review programs, so children have the opportunity to learn about new publications (Koolstra and van der Voort).

While the projected dismal effects of reduced recreational reading do comprise a sad commentary on our society, if it is indeed true that the reading habits of people have not really changed that much over time, then what are people really lamenting? It is my opinion that what really breaks the hearts of all these proponents of the "dying art" of reading is the quality of what is being read, not the quantity. Or, in the words of the editor of the Sewanee Review: "People are reading more and more trash and less and less serious literature" (qtd. in Vaccaro).

Bibliography:

Block, Cathy Collins, and John N. Mangieri. "Recreational reading: 20 years later." The Reading Teacher Mar 2002: 572-580.

DeFleur, Melvin L., and Everette E. Dennis. Understanding Mass Communication: A Liberal Arts Perspective. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2002.

Fisherkeller, JoEllen. "'The writers are getting kind of desperate': Young adolescents, television, and literacy." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy Apr 2000: 596-605.

Gomyo, Erin. Personal interview. 16 Sept 2002.

Kenji, Muro. "What Has Happened to Reading: Introduction." The Book & The Computer 12 May 2000 http://www.honco.net/100day/02/2000-0512-intro.html.

Koolstra, Cees M., and Tom H. A. van der Voort. "Longitudinal Effects of Television on Children's Leisure-Time Reading: A Test of Three Explanatory Models." Human Communication Research Sept 1996: 4-35.

"U.S. Daily Newspaper Circulation." Newspaper Association of America http://www.naa.org/info/facts00/12.html.

"Television." The Columbia Encyclopedia. Seventh edition. 2002.

United States. National Center for Education Statistics. "Reading 2000 Major Results" http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/reading/results/index.asp.