The use of sensationalism aims to catch the attention of an audience by displaying shocking and outrageous material. As today's outrage soon becomes tomorrow's standard, television companies have made content increasingly controversial. Therefore, these provocative topics are routinely covered by the television media. These topics, while having the ability to shock television audiences, rarely provide educational benefits from programs that appear to be educational. In most cases, this controversial material draws strong emotions from the viewer and thus leads him or her away from objectivity.
Television also practices deception on viewers.
Many programs that have educational value use unfair methods to make material more popular. In the case of investigative reporting, television journalists often ignore data that contradicts their point of view. Television often fails to educate simply because it is not meant to be educational. Yet, this figure hides a much greater disproportion as the average informative program is about thirty minutes in length while the average entertainment show lasts over ninety minutes. Television also fails to be educational because the people that most need an education typically can't afford the cable programming that includes truly educational programs.