Both in America and Britain there is an eagerness on the part of TV executives to play down the importance of the small screen, except, of course, in the field of selling goods.
This desire to minimize the social impact of TV is perfectly natural. If it could be conclusively proved that the electronic box was a major factor in determining the attitudes and the values of a nation then two awkward questions would have to be answered.
Is it right that a medium that has such influence should be primarily concerned with the provision of entertainment and the advertising of goods?
And an even more embarrassing question people might ask is whether the men now running TV have the authority, the understanding or the intelce to be in control of such a vital part of the state apparatus.
Because it is disrupting and disturbing life on almost every level in America and Britain, and because it is largely indulged in by what might be described as the first 'telly generation', violence is the activity that has been most frequently linked with the consequences of TV.
There are other even more important trends that might be stimulated or provoked by the program content of TV.
The demoralization of institutions like the army, the law, the church; the contempt for authority, a healthy skepticism and a welcome permissiveness; an over-simplification of complex issues which makes an electorate (选民) impatient with a political process that cannot solve them. How much is TV responsible? And that these trends are helping to change society at a unprecedented rate can hardly be denied.
Because the impact of these changes is relatively long-term and not easily pinpointed, there is a vast depth of unconcern about these developments.
On violence, however, there is an intuitive suspicion that TV might have something to do with it. Yet the men running TV have gone to considerable lengths to assure us that we are unduly alarmed about nothing.
In order to avoid the repetitions of the word 'television', what other nouns does the author use? Please list at least four.