Table of Contents:
Introduction:
Prior Generational Reports
Travis Abe's Report: MyReview:
10 Examples of Driving on TV
Introduction:
Does TV promote bad driving?
Anyone viewing television for any amount of time will no doubt see examples of bad driving exibited in shows, commercials, music videos and even cartoons. The question that I'm raising is; does viewing bad or aggressive driving on tv influence people into driving in the same fashion? In this report I will give my reviews of several past generations reports on the same subject. Next I will give some examples of bad driving I have witnessed on tv. And finally, I will try to come to some kind of conclusion to the question of whether or not TV has influence over the ways people drive.
Travis
Abe's report starts off with an introduction that details why he chose
to write about driving behavior on TV. Next Travis summarizes some
other students reports on the same topic. Finally, Travis analyzes
10 different examples of bad driving portrayed on TV either from home videos,
commercials or cartoons. Mr. Abe's rating scale is composed of three
factors ; realism, action and influence. The ratings scale is from
1 to 5. The rating system that the author uses is alright but I really
don't see how it could be objective due to the fact that it is all based
on one man's opinion. In addition, Travis' definitions of the rating
system are very similiar between realism and action and seem to rate the
same thing; whether or not the action could happen in real life.
What could have been done is a rating system based on a point system for
different actions. For example, a person is run over that would be
a point. A car catches some air off a jump another point and so on.
Other than that, I enjoyed reading Travis' report.
Kristy
Kato's report is similiar to Travis Abe's report in that she uses examples
from an assortment of TV shows to prove how bad driving is portrayed on
TV. Unlike Travis Abe's report however, no type of ratings scale
is used in Kristy's report. I had some problems with this report,
first of all the use of cartoons in illustrating bad driving. Cartoons
for the most part are not meant to be taken seriously. In addition,
cartoons are animated which in my opinion would not influence a child as
much as seeing a real-life scene. The cartoon example Kristy uses
is that not of a car but of a bicycle. This bicycle drives by itself
and has a balloon pop out which allows it to fly. Frankly, I don't
know of any child who is able to ride a bike that would be influenced by
this cartoon. Kids are smarter than they tend to get credit for and
I have a hard time believing any child would believe that his or her bicycle
could fly or drive by itself. My only other complaint would be that
some other examples in the report that would supposedly influence a child's
driving behavior seem a little unrealistic. I grew up watching some
of the craziest car chases on TV in the 70's and never was I tempted to
immitate what I saw on TV.
Kristen
Subia's report like Kristy Kato's report has no type of ratings scale
like Travis Abe's report did. Kristen observed ten bad driving examples
on TV, gave a brief description of each, listed the bad driving behavior,
and wrote how it might influence an adult and children. The influence
on adults is a somewhat different take on the subject as other reports
I had read emphasized an influence on children. I liked this approach
as I feel that children are not old enough to drive and by the time they
are old enough to drive they will have forgotten most of the crap they
saw on TV anyways. Kristen does mention the influence of some cartoon
driving on children which as I stated earlier, I don't agree with as most
cartoons are unrealistic. Kristen also states the influence of some
examples in groups rather than individually which I prefer. For example,
several cartoons are reviewed and rather than tell how each cartoon would
influence a viewer, Kristen states how cartoons in general could influence
someone.
The
Suicide Kings
Characters and Situation: The scene involves 4 people driving through a tunnel at a high rate of speed. The two men in the back are trying to incapacitate the man in the passenger seat who is a mob kingpin. One man holds the kingpin's arms from behind while the other man puts a chloraform soaked handkerchief over the kingpin's mouth. The kingpin starts going crazy and flailing his arms wildly. In doing so, the driver is thrown of course, sideswipes the side of the tunnel and finally spins and goes head on into the tunnel wall. After all that, the car manages to still work and the men drive off.
Bad Driving Behavior: Lets start with the speeding in the tunnel. Next, never, ever try to incapacitate a mobster while on the road, it always leads to disaster. Finally, the driver left the scene of an accident.
Influence: I'm not sure if anyone would be
influenced by the scenes in the "Suicide Kings". What I mean to say
is from a driving standpoint, most if not all people speed whether or not
they observe somebody in a movie doing it. What could possibly influence
a young viewer is the scene of the driver leaving the scene of an accident
with no concern for the damage he had just caused.
Mercury
Rising
Characters and Situation: The main character Art Jefferies must protect a young boy who is in the hospital from hitmen. Art and the boy steal an ambulance and then are involved in a high speed chase with the bad guys. The chase ends up on the freeway with the bad guys shooting at the ambulance. The ambulance loses control simultaneously crashing into several cars and eventually into the lane divider. Art and the boy flee the ambulance on foot and finally escape from the hitmen.
Bad Driving Behavior: The first bad driving behavior was the theft of an ambulance. Second, there was the high speed used in getting away from the hitmen. And third, fleeing the scene after crashing into other vehicles.
Influence: I think children could possibly be influenced
by the theft of the ambulance which seemed very easy to do. Again,
I really don't think that people are influenced by scenes of speeding as
I feel most if not all drivers a guilty at one time or another of speeding.
Finally, there is a possible influence of the drivers leaving the scene
of an accident without regard for the other drivers safety who were involved
in the crash. From a moral standpoint, I think the speeding was justified
as lives were in danger.
King
of the Hill
Characters and Situation: Hank Hill and his son Bobby are throwing toilet paper on a mean neighbor lady's house. The neighbor sees the Hills teepeeing her house, jumps in her car and floors it in pursuit of the two. In doing so, the neighbor inadvertantly runs over her cat, then comes very close to running over Bobby Hill.
Bad Driving Behavior: First, she gunned the vehicle without thinking and killed her cat. This wouldn't have happened had she maintained her cool and looked around before flooring the gas. Second, the neighbor was speeding down a residential street and winds up almost running over Bobby.
Influence: Children could possibly be influenced by this example simply because it is a cartoon which usually means young viewers. However, I think that even if young children are possibly influenced by a cartoon, by the time they are old enough to drive they will have forgotten about what they viewed. Adults watching this show would surely not take this seriously and be influenced by it.
Fuel
(Metallica)
Characters and Situation: Several hot-rods are drag racing down the street and smoking the tires while a rock band plays in the back round.
Bad Driving Behavior: Racing down city streets and wreckless driving.
Influence: I think it might influence teenagers
who tend to listen to this kind of music. I know if I were sixteen
or seventeen with a fast car I would probably be influenced sub-consciously
into driving fast when I heard this song. I forgot to mention that
the song has a fast tempo and has some fairly aggressive guitar playing
in it. I don't however think young kids would be influenced by the
video as they probably aren't old enough to comprehend illegal drag racing.
Nissan
Maxima(commercial)
Characters and Situation: A speeding Nissan Maxima is driving down a runway in pursuit of a cargo plane. The cargo plane lowers its rear doors and the Nissan drives into the back of the plane.
Bad Driving Behavior: Lets start with speeding down a runway, seems to me that this is would be some kind of felony. Next we have the driving of the car into a moving plane. I not sure if this is bad driving or excellent driving as a driver would have to be tremendously skilled to pull off such a feat. For the purpose of this report we'll call it bad driving.
Influence:I don't think this commercial would influence
anybody as most people don't have access to a transport plane in order
to try and emulate this stunt. This commercial might however influence
people into buying a Nissan Maxima which is the whole point. The
way I see it is that for someone to be influenced by a commercial, they
must think they can attempt the same thing themselves. For example,
I ride a mountain bike, now if I see a mountain dew commercial with a mountain
biker jumping off a cliff, I don't think I'm going to attempt it.
Back to the commercial, I myself was quite impressed with the commercial
as it seemed to be a legitimate stunt and not some kind of trick photography.
But I do not think I would ever take a car onto a runway and try and drive
into a moving transport plane.
The
Dukes of Hazzard
Characters and Situation: Bo Duke needs to divert attention from Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane so Luke Duke can sneak into to the hall of records. Bo gets into a high speed game of cat and mouse with the sheriff.
Bad Driving Behavior: Speeding down dirt roads, jumping an automobile over a body of water and a high speed game of chicken.
Influence: If this show were on a major network
and shown on a weekly basis I think the influence would be stronger.
However, the Dukes of Hazzard is in syndication and shown on the Tennesee
Network which doesn't have as many viewers as a major network. Still,
there are probably some rednecks who might want to pretend they are the
Dukes and do some of the stunts viewed on the show.
Rogue
Trip(Commercial)
Characters and Situation: Camera shot of the face of an insane looking person driving a car. Next scenes are from the video game in which cars are shown running into each other and blowing each other up. Next scene is the driver again but this time the driver is driving the car with his feet while in a straight jacket.
Bad driving Behavior: Driving a car while restrained in a straight jacket using your feet to steer is pretty wreckless driving.
Influence: Kids could be influenced especially since the bad driving behavior that is shown is done so while advertising a game made for children and teenagers. What could also influence the kids are the game itself which is based on driving around with a car loaded with artillery and blowing up your opponents.
Carmegeddon:
Characters and Situation: In the last article I gave you my reactions on a commercial for a videogame, for this one I thought I'd review an actual videogame. The name of the game is Carmegeddon and the rules are simple, you drive around in a car running over people, cows or into other cars. Graphically, the game is quite gory but I'll admit the game is kind of fun if you want to relieve some stress.
Bad driving behavior: About everything you do in this game involves bad driving whether it be the speeding, wreckless driving or the vehicular homocide.
Influence: Might influence some warped folks meaning
people with a history of psychotic behavior. I believe that there
is a warning on the game that says it is not recommended for children under
17. Actually, the game is so over the top with its violence that
I don't think anyone would take it seriously.
Epilogue:
In doing this report I found an abundance of bad driving portrayed on TV.
As to whether the driving portrayed on TV has an effect on children and
young viewers I'm still not sure. I think there may be a correlational
effect between the amount of bad driving viewed and the implementation
of bad driving behaviors but thats about it. My advice to future
generations writing this report is to try and get started soon and watch
a lot of TV as I found it hard to watch TV and study.
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| My Turkel Report: Ch. 3 |
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| Mining the Generational Curriculum |
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