Media portrayal of interior design. Positives and negatives of HGTV.

Unfortunately, everything that is shown on TV is portrayed as being true. The media persuades society on how everything should be and how everybody should act as. Personally, I find that the way that the media manipulates different subjects in order to have ratting and fame is making people uneducated about certain things. In the case of the subject of Interior Design, the majority of the people think of this profession as being about decoration which is not. Because of what is shown on TV, people see that an “Interior Designer” decorates and makes everything look pretty, and actually people get the misconception that Interior Design and Decoration is the same thing. The show HGTV for instance, portrays decorators as interior designers by showing how they can renovate a house in days, which in real life it could take up months to do. The shows do not go deeper into what really happens when a client approaches an interior designer to design a space and the phases that need to be completed before starting the construction. It does not explain that a professional interior designer has to go through a four year education program and get experience in order to design; and for commercial spaces, they need a license.

Even though, we cannot stop the media from doing what they have been doing for years, we as Interior Designers have the responsibility of educating people on what interior design is. It is not decorating, it is not a seven day design process, it is not about applying whatever color and selecting fabrics, it is about designing for the health, safety and well-being of the public and making spaces functional for them.