We are trying to run modern democracies almost exclusively on a diet of TV entertainment at the very time that we confront challenges of marathon proportions. We desperately need a hearty and robust diet of socially relevant television programming that informs us about the critical trends and choices facing communities, nations, and the planetary society. We need far more documentaries and investigative reports that give citizens an in-depth understanding of the challenges we face. We need scenarios of the future that vividly portray what life will be like within a generation if nothing is done to alter current trends. We need positive visions of what life could be like if we begin designing ourselves into a sustainable future.
Commercial television makes money by delivering a mass audience to corporate advertisers.
Understandably, then, this industry is reluctant to devote air time to programs or commercials that question the appropriateness of high-consumption lifestyles. Without an accurate understanding of what other citizens think about key issues, we drift aimlessly in a sea of ambiguity and are powerless to mobilize ourselves into collective action. Power in a democracy is the power to communicate and build a working consensus. Only when the public knows what it thinks as a whole can it confidently communicate a working consensus back to its elected representatives. An informed public can be trusted.