Robert Macneil The Trouble With Tv Analysis

In Robert MacNeil pervasive essay “The Trouble with TV.” He thinks that we watch too much TV. He thinks that since we watch too much TV we will have a shorter attention span and have a hard time reading and writing. To get his point across he uses; statistical support, referencing/quoting respected people, strong, precise words and phrases and includes his call to action.

One technique MacNeil uses is providing statistical support for his argument about TV. An example of this technique is ‘by the time age 20, you will have been exposed to at least 20,000 hours of TV’. MacNeil uses this statistic because to show that Americans watch too much TV. Another example of statistical support is ‘in 10,000 hours, we could have learned how to become an astronomer or engineer’. This example helps MacNeil’s argument because this show us that we could have gotten something that we could use later in life instead of watching Tv and losing our attention span. Still another statistic MacNeil offers is ‘30 million adult Americans are ‘functionally illiterate’ and cannot read or write well enough to answer a want ad or understand the instructions on a medicine bottle.’ This example bolsters MacNeil’s stance because to show that there are a lot of people who cannot read or write because we watch too much TV.

One example is stating that the Founding Fathers would likely have seen achieving literacy as an important goal. He chose this because the Founding Fathers are generally much important people, and connecting them with MacNeil’s argument against television adds weight to what he says. Another example that MacNeil uses is Yale University law professor Charles L. Black, Jr. wrote: "...forced feeding on trivial fare is not itself a trivial matter.” He used the Yale professor because Yale is a very well respect university and the Yale professor is supporting why watching TV is detrimental to society around