RESOLVED: Television has had more positive effects than negative

As my opponent has forfeited his final round, I will only offer a closing summary of the round. Public Health As my Harvard School of Public Health evidence shows, there are currently over 300,000 people dying in the U.S. every year due to TV related health concerns. Additionally, TV causes over 500,000 cases of diabetes each year and diabetes has an economic impact of $58 billion through indirect costs alone. This evidence has gone unrefuted, making it the most certain claim in round. Engagement I have provided evidence from media research that shows a positive correlation between cynicism and TV news; this correlation does NOT hold for print news media, showing that TV is unique to causing cynicism. Additionally, Harvard political scientist Putnam has conducted research showing that TV is one of the main causes of a decrease in civic involvement. Additionally, the on demand 24/7 nature of TV news makes it a special culprit in compassion fatigue, the wearing down of society's ability to care about problems facing different communities. Additionally, TV amounts to a huge timesuck in U.S. free time, directly trading off with time that could be spent on social and civic activities. All these factors demonstrate how TV hurt civic engagement, which is the key to a healthy democracy. Note that at no point in this diebate has it been disputed that civic engagement is crucial to democracy. If I convince the judge that TV hurt civil engagement, I win that TV hurts the health of U.S. democracy and therefore of the government as a whole. Natural Disasters This is almost a non-issue in this debate. Pro has offered no explanation of how TV helps us respond to Natural Disasters, much less an idea of how this compares to 500,000 TV kills through health related issues or the $58 billion in diabetes related costs. Additionally, TV has hurt our ability to respond to natural disasters by weakening civic engagement- this means the willingness of people to volunteer and to foster healthy political structures like FEMA. Education The only empirical data offered in this round shows that TV hurts the cognitive development of young children. Pro's argument that TV promotes education has been thoroughly refuted by me. At best Pro wins that TV doesnt HURT education, at worst I have shown TV to be detrimental to TV. Again, public education is tied to a healthy democracy, so by hurting engagement, TV hurts public education. ANALYSIS I have won this round on the public health issue alone. MY public health evidence is crystal clear that hundreds of thousands of people are dying or suffering RIGHT NOW due to health problems associated with TV. Coupled with the multi-billion dollar impact to the economy from public health issues, The size of this negative effect dwarfs whatever possible benefits Pro could claim from Natural Disasters or Education. Additionally, the evidence is very clear that these health effects are occurring while Pro has offered zero evidence that TV helps s respond to disasters or promotes education. The magnitude and certainty of this disadvantage alone demonstrate that TV has had more negative effects than positive.