Remote control: Who’s in charge of your media life?

The media is making news, again. With Facebook re-branding itself as “Meta,” the Greek word for “beyond,” and deciding to abandon its use of facial recognition tools for a billion users, we seem to be entering a new stage in global media mania. 

According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, we are going to a new place — some immersive, integrated, virtual universe that sounds to me like a reality show on steroids.

But how did we get to the point where the media is the subject of news, not the vehicle for news? And are we controlling the media or is the media controlling us? The answer to that second question is increasingly obvious. 

All this social media talk leaves me nostalgic for television. Some predicted the end of the television era with the rise of new media, but what happened instead is a split in television screens, and entertainment got the better half.  Here’s how:

I was working for ABC News in 1980 when a new media outlet burst on the scene: CNN — the first 24 hour a day news network. Its initial audience was two million people. Many thought it would not last, but it was the first of many news cable networks.

Although cable television had been around since 1948, with local outlets in Oregon, Pennsylvania and Arkansas, CNN was the first large national news-focused media that broadcasted around the clock, and many got hooked on the idea of on-demand news whether it is FOX or MSNBC or CNN. And millions of people watch their local newscasts especially for local sports and weather.

The arrival of Ted Turner’s Cable News Network did spell the end of the network domination of news by three giant broadcasters, and the beginning of a proliferation in cable television that not even the best futurists could predict, with an explosion in channels for sports, cooking, entertainment and so much else. 

But even with the advent of mobile phones, social media, electronic reporting and e-news, television did not go away, although the audience pie splintered.

Decade by decade, television has grown in use. A medium created in the 1920s keeps delivering. In the 1950s, shows such as “I Love Lucy” garnered 40 million weekly viewers, and reruns allowed it to grow further.

Nobody threw away television sets over the years. They simply bought improved models with larger screens — and more of them. According to Nielsen, today there are 121 million homes in America with a television. We still have broadband gaps in rural areas, but television has not been abandoned.

What gave television renewed life, of course, was the arrival of streaming services that revolutionized how we watch television and consume content. Just as we saw the networks make room for cable news in the late 1980s, we witnessed the proliferation of streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, HBO GO, Disney + and others. Netflix has more than 174 million subscribers in the U.S. alone. 

A global pandemic that forced billions inside has given television yet another lifeline. According to one study, the amount of time viewers spent with the TV on between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. – not normally high television watching hours – increased by 77 percent over the course of the pandemic. 

The deeper questions are around how television content is changing our lives and whether it’s for better or worse. On the news side, we worry about disinformation, minimalist reporting of local and international news and a shrinking audience along with a growing sense that people watch only news that reinforces their deeply held opinions.

In a California study, the impact of people watching FOX News led to a shift in voting behavior toward the Republican Party without consideration of options.

On the entertainment side, we worry about misshaped cultural norms and the impact on our brains. 

Europeans are questioning the adverse effects of television on behavior and thought. In a study from Norway and Italy, the impact of watching only entertainment resulted in lower IQ scores.

Television can create a tug of war between reality and perception, leading to a blur between the two. Like other media, television can mix fact and fiction, leaving an information hole filled by our own versions of truth. It can also encourage escapism from reality and serve as a way to disassociate from the human condition. 

Which brings us back to Zuckerberg and his vision for a meta universe of interlocking devices. Will this utopia of shopping, entertainment, e-mailing and commerce give us freedom or a new form of electronic imprisonment? That depends on the users. When it comes to television, we do own the remote.

Producers and content providers often determine what you watch and when you watch it through scheduling or offering packages and discounts. But we are in charge of our choices. Just like there are cord-cutters, the people who have parted ways with cable in favor of their favorite streaming video services, you can choose Facebook, Instagram, a different service or no service at all.  

As consumers of television and the internet, we can also protest content, send angry tweets about what we think is biased, stop buying products and affect advertising revenue.  

Devices of all kinds have on/off switches, and human beings have judgment and control if they choose to exercise them. 

Tara D. Sonenshine is a former U.S. under-secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs.