HISTORY CHANNEL, ENTERTAINING AND EDUCATING

It’s surprising that History Channel still has its appeal to college students. The TV station successfully entices an audience, who are unlikely to be interested in taking history classes, to actually watch these shows on a daily basis.

Innovative shows with great narratives and fascinating effects that enhance the outcome of the shows draw in the crowds of younger generation. Adam Rizvi, a sophomore Computer Engineering major, enjoys watching “Ancient Discoveries” on Mondays.

“ I really like ancient history because I’m interested in ancient temples and gods like the Greeks and Egyptians,” said Rizvi. “ The show makes it very interesting.”

After watching the show, people would be startled just by how surprisingly civilized and high-tech the ancient societies turned out to be. It can change our perception of the primitive and barbaric life to the kind of life that might have been more developed and better educated than societies of today.

History Channel does not strictly focus on ancient archeology or ancient war that people would expect when they hear the word “history”.

Besides covering all mentioned above, it also covers a great deal on other historical things such as natural and unnatural disasters, unrevealed mystery, technology, aliens and UFO, etc.

The show “Shockwave” reiterates about videos of tremendously deadly and catastrophic events  captured by cell phone cameras, home videos, surveillance cameras or news cameramen.

           “ It focuses on different types of disasters with greater details computer graphic to explain what happened,” said a Finance junior Adam Optican. “ They interview people who are involved in it, I think it’s really cool,”

Zachary De La Cruz, Junior Communication major, who watches History Channel at least three to four times a week favors History’s Mysteries as the best show on the channel.

“It talks about a lot of topics and major mysterious places in history such as area 151, UFO, Easter Island, etc.” De La Cruz said.

             Not only political figures, warfare, cultural and world history dominate the shows on History channel. It also evolves around science and technology.

“ I think history and engineering are a good combination,” David Bond, an Engineering junior, remarked about the show “Engineering an Empire” that narrates the establishment of temples, fortresses, and palaces in the ancient empires. “I buy the DVD to make sure I don’t miss any episodes,” Bond added.

To others, the channel is also something interesting to watch if there are no good shows on TV.

“If there’s nothing much going on on TV, I’ll watch something on History channel” said Adriana Regalado, a sophomore Kinesiology major. “ I don’t have any particular favorite show, but I find shows from controversy of religion, archeology, history of gangs, to Marilyn Manson serial killers. It surprises me that these things actually happened and the way they present it is really interesting. It makes me feel smart,” Regalado laughed.

History channel encourages audience from variety of backgrounds and fields to pay more attention to the past. If History Channel keeps up their inventive shows and visual  portrayal of the past, students may not need that history class that is just nap time.