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28 Apr 2018, 04:07
READING
Professors are normally found in university classrooms, offices, and libraries doing research
and lecturing to their students. More and more, however, they also appear as guests on
television news programs, giving expert commentary on the latest events in the world. These
television appearances are of great benefit to the professors themselves as well as to their
universities and the general public.
Professors benefit from appearing on television because by doing so acquire reputations as
authorities in their academic fields among a much wider audience than they have on
campus. If a professor publishes views in an academic journal, only other scholars will learn
about and appreciate those views. But when a professor appears on TV, thousands of
people outside the narrow academic community become aware of the professor's ideas. So
when professors share their ideas with a television audience, the professors' importance as
scholars is enhanced.
Universities also benefit from such appearances. The universities receive positive publicity
when their professors appear on TV. When people see a knowledgeable faculty member of a
university on television, they think more highly of that university. That then leads to an
improved reputation for the university. And that improved reputation in turn leads to more
donations for the university and more applications from potential students.
Finally, the public gains from professors' appearing on television. Most television viewers
normally have no contact with university professors. When professors appear on television,
viewers have a chance to learn from experts and to be exposed to views they might
otherwise never hear about. Television is generally a medium for commentary that tends to
be superficial, not deep or thoughtful. From professors on television, by contrast, viewers get
a taste of real expertise and insight.
LISTENING SCRIPT
Lately, we’ve been seeing some professors on television. Though it’s sometimes claimed to be a good thing, we should question whether anybody really benefits from it. First of all, it’s not good for the professors themselves—not from a professional standpoint. Rightly or wrongly, a professor who appears on TV tends to get the reputation among fellow professors of being someone who is not a serious scholar— someone who chooses to entertain rather than to educate. And for that reason, TV professors may not be invited to important conferences—important meetings to discuss their academic work. They may even have difficulty getting money to do research. So for professors, being a TV celebrity has important disadvantages. A second point is that being on TV can take a lot of a professor’s time—not just the time on TV but also time figuring out what to present and time spent rehearsing, travel time, even time getting made up to look good for the cameras. And all this time comes out of the time the professor can spend doing research, meeting with students, and attending to university business. So you can certainly see there are problems for the university and its students when professors are in the TV studio and not on campus. So who does benefit? The public? That’s not so clear either. Look, professors do have a lot of knowledge to offer, but TV networks don’t want really serious in-depth academic lectures for after-dinner viewing. What the networks want is the academic title, not the intellectual substance. The material that professors usually present on TV—such as background on current events, or some brief historical introduction to a new movie version of a great literary work—this material is not much different from what viewers would get from a TV reporter who had done a little homework.
MY ESSAY:
The reading and the lecture both talk about professors as a public figure or a TV personality. Professors usually spend most of their time in classes or doing some research. They do not come on TV as often. But when they do come on TV to talk about something or state an opinion, according to the author of the passage, it may benefit their reputation and the university’s reputation through various factors. The lecturer here casts a doubt on whether the professors actually benefit from coming on TV. She states that, instead of having a positive effect on the professor’s image, appearances on TV might have negative consequences.
The author states that making an appearance on TV might benefit the professor as having an image of a learned scholar. He supports this by saying that when a professor comes on TV to give his opinion or give a lecture, the audience tend to believe that the professor is an expert on the subject and that increases his reputation and might also have a positive effect on the university’s reputation . This means that the university will get more funding and more potential candidates will apply to the university. The lecturer here states that appearance on TV might have a negative impact of his personality on fellow professors or collegues. They might not consider him serious as a professional rather, he might be considered more of an entertainer and will not be taken seriously. The professor might not get invited to important meeting and conferences and he might also face difficulties in getting financial support for his research. Also, most of his time will be consumed preparing for his appearance on the TV, which could be used on his research or on preparing for his lectures.
The author claims that the public also benefits from these appearances as they will learn more from an expert and will give them a more in depth knowledge about a topic. The lecturer here differs saying that the media does not like to go into serious details pertaining a subject. They just want a professor’s opinion for their title and don’t really care about the substance that the professor will be giving.
In conclusion, both the author and the lecturer talks about the effect a professor can have on becoming a public figure by coming on TV. The lecturer effectively challenges the claims made in the passage.