Portrayals of Driving Behavior on TV:
What We See on Television and the Effects this May Have
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Did you know when watching T.V., movies, commericials, and cartoons it could be hazardous to you without even knowing it. This is due to picking things up subconciously when you least expect it. You probably didn't realize that when you watch these meduim you are passively participating and absorbing these negative projections that these producers and director are creating.
This report is about the protrayal of driving on television, movies, cartoons, and commericals. You will see many cases in these medium where driving is shown reckless and careless manner. These impressions of driving influence people of all ages and their ideas of driving as a "defensive driver"(safe and always aware of the things that is going around them).
There are ten examples which I observed and analyzed. All ten examples portray incidents of bad driving and also gave a full description of the content that I was watching. I also gave my personal feelings of the examples and an overall rating. My rating system is based on "P", "R", "D".
"P" Stands for prominence of the program, how much importance does the scene have on the viewer.
"R" Stands for how realistic does the driving scene portray to the viewer(is it something that could happen easily in real life).
"D" Stands for how dangerous is the scene, does it involve other people getting hurt.
My rating scale is based on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the worst example of Prominence, Reality, Danger.
Below are three reports that were created by students in Generation 6.
Kristy Kato, Kristin Subia, and Jenifer Kaneshiro Each report emphasis the exact topic that I will be introducing to you and also has a little of their own additional insight in how driving is portrayed on television.
In the report written by In Kristy Kato's report,, she performs the same procedures that I did to complete her report for instance , she watched television commercials, cartoons, and movies to get a view of bad driving and analyzyed it. In addition to television, she also watched music video something I never did. I thought that this was creative of her because this report would open the eyes of the most accident prone age (teenagers). When reading this report they would realize the importance of driving safe.
In the report written by Kristin Subia, she was very informative. Her material was well prepared and easy to follow. Ms. Subia got her information from movies, commercials, cartoons, and sporting events. I never thought sporting events would influence people very much, but after reading this I can understand that people watch car races just to see if an accident will occur and not care if the person that was driving was okay or the other person that got into the accident was okay. Kristin also talks about people being more concious about their driving and recommend more self-witnessing on the road.
And in the last report that was written by
Want to read an easy to follow report - look at Jennifer Kaneshiro's report. Ms. Kaneshiro got her information from television commercials, serials, cartoons and movies. She discussed each incident clearly and throughly. She also pointed out that she thought that watching bad driving behaviors can influence others and also herself.
Observations/Analysis and Evaluation:What I Learned
Description of Events
Grease a 50's movie about highschool students falling in love and hanging
out in gangs. The gangleaders Danny and Kaniki and also the other gang
the "Scorpions" displays bad driving throughout the film. It
first starts off with the rival gang "Scorpions" invading the
"T-birds" territory. The "T-birds" get mad and start
to act in an aggressive behavior toward the "Scorpions". As the
movie goes on the "T-birds and the "Scorpions" confront
each other with aggressive behavior a couple of times until they challenge
each other to a race between their two cars. Specific Behaviors
Analysis and Evaluation
a) This film was very popular when it was first released. I could remember
this film by heart when I was younger because it had music and dancing
. Therefore, the bad driving scenes could have been absorbed in my brain
without even knowing it. The bad driving could have been accomplished in
real life, but due to it being a musical it wasn't taken to seriously by
the adults. However, as for kids they could think that it was very fun
and possible to do.
b) The gangs had a very I don't care about other people attitude while
driving their cars. They drove their cars like they owned the whole road
and whoever was on it will pay.
Rating
Description of Events
This movie is about race car drivers and the life they lead while racing.
This movie has an impact on all audiences because the races look exciting
and scary. The main character Cole(Tom Cruise) is an amature race car
driver that is a natural at driving even though he knows nothing about
race cars. This movie has bad driving behavior throughout it. It is pretty
realistic due to them racing on the road while other cars are driving,
but because they are professional race car drivers people might look at
the bad driving behavior as something that they can't do. This is due to
the different maneuvers that the drivers make when racing in their rental
cars. Specific Behaviors
Analysis and Evaluation
a) This film was very popular due to the excitement that the movie encouraged.
This gave the audience something to admire(being able to drive fast without
getting caught by the cops). The driving in this film were very dangerous
and caused a lot to injuries to the car and the drivers.
b)The attitude that Cole and the other race car driver had was that they
could do anything with a car and their goal in the race scene was to be
first in whatever destination they were going to. It didn't matter who
or what they were going to injury just as long as they got to the destination
first.
Rating
Description of Events
This film is about the life of well to do teenagers living in Beverly Hills. This movie promotes fashions and styles of the 90's. In this movie the main character name Cher is a very spoiled young lady that has a dad that would do anything for her. In fact he bought her a car to practice her driving on. Cher only has a learners permits and drives to school without a license driver in the car. She shows very poor driving behaviors and is not able to get her license due to it.
Specific Behaviors
a)This film's driving wasn't as harmful as
the other that I analyzed. It was not very realistic due to the attitude
of the teenagers. Their performance was really exaggerated, but if people
were spoiled then they would have the same attitude.
Rating
b)Cher's attitude was of a spoiled brat. All she cared about was herself
and the way that she looked. It didn't seem like she took driving seriously
due to things always being done for her. In her mind she figures that people
will do things for her so she doesn't have to learn the proper way of doing
things.
Description of Events
This cartoon is about a race car driver that promotes good driving behaviors. This is not true because as you can see the name of this cartoon is "Speed Racer"; therefore, promoting that speeding is okay. The race car driver speeds all over without a seat belt on.
Specific Behaviors
Analysis and Evaluation
a) This cartoon tries to make Speed Racer look like
he's a good driver, but looks can be deceiving. For instance, just the
name of the cartoon Speed Racer implies that it's okay to
speed when driving a car.
b) Speed Racer and the other characters' attitude about driving are very
unresponsible and dangerous. They don't care about other people (pedestrians
and drivers) on the road.
Rating
This video is about someone that tries to frame Roger Rabbit. The bad driving scene takes place when the weasels (bad guys acting as police officers) are trying to chase Roger Rabbit and the detective in a car that is physically alive. This is because Roger Rabbit is supposedly the murder of the ACME owner. This scene is about 5 minutes long.
Specific Behaviors
a)The car that can talk and drive by it's self show a very unrealistic
nature. Also, the car driving backwards and being being able to see in
the back of them is also not very convincing.
b)This scene shows that the drivers have very little concern for the people around them and displays that driving is just a game.
Rating
1. Moesha
This is a television program that's about a colored teenager that is struggling with her highschool life. During this episode Moesha was driving her jeep with no seat belt on and was dancing in the car with the music blasting loud. This scene was 2 minutes long.
Specific Behaviors
a)Moesha wasn't aware of what was happening on the road and was dancing and looking at her friends. This show hits the attention of a large teenage audience which is influencing them to ride in a car with no seat belts and listening to loud music is okay.
Rating
Specific Behaviors
Analysis and Evaluation
a)The dream guy speeding and not wearing a seat belt is realistic, but her witch craft made the scene seem very unrealistic. His speeding with people in his car shows how very inconsiderate he was to his friends an the people around him.
Rating
This commercial is about toy cars, trucks, and jeeps for girls and boys. These vehicles can move and operate like a regular automobile except they has a special feature that a regular automobile doesn't have for instance, a walkie talkie. In this segment I feel that the Power Wheels' manufacturers are giving flase images of driving to little kids.
Specific Behaviors
a)The kids were laughing and eating and wasn't aware of the other kids around them. They also made like driving was a game and not taken seriously.
Rating
This eye shocking commercial was about a young lady and her mother(who was hiding under the seat) driving down a hill speeding and swerving. She was pretending as though she was not able to control the car. This is because she wanted the guy in the BMW to pick her up and help her. This commercial was 1 minute long.
Specific Behaviors
a) This Commercial seemed unrealistic due to the scene where
she jumps out of a speeding vehicle into his moving vehicle.
b)Also it was not realistic due to having no other cars on the hill.
Rating
This funny commercial was about a Nissan Car that just got washed and was on it's way home. When a bunch of birds were trying to attack the car (to poop on it). The car was speeding home so the birds couldn't poop on the car. This commercial was 5 minutes long.
Specific Behaviors
a) The car didn't seem to care if their was any other car or pedestrians on the road. It seemed as though the driver was preoccupied about the birds. It doesn't seem too realistic due to the bird being in flying gear.
Rating
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