Hy2254 Pop Culture in Singapore Term Paper What Does the History of Television Demonstrate About the Wider Context of Singapore’s History in the Post-1965 Period?

Australian TV shows have changed rapidly over the years. The decades that will be discussed in this presentation include the 1960’s, 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s and the 2000’s. Australian TV has influenced many changes in our society; some of these included fashion trends, hobbies, job courses, the food we eat, our opinions on things and, the way that we view ourselves and others. Some social issues have arisen over the years include the negative effects on our youth due to television watching.

Television has had many changes in pop culture since 1945 and has been an important part of Australia 's national identity. Television was first introduced in Australia in September 1956, which was introduced just before the 1956 Olympics hosted in Melbourne, television was first screened in grainy black and white. For the first few years after television had been released in Australia, television was mainly dominated by American programs, however in a few years it had become the most popular form of entertainment. Television decreased the audience of the radio programs and in 1965 it was around 9 out of 10 Australian families that owned a Television set. By 1959, it was estimated that over 50 percent of families in Sydney owned a television set. Early Australian television broadcast news, quiz programmes, movies, music programmes and sport. There was only a few television studios to produce programs in Australia at the time which meant most local content had to be broadcasted live. In 1966 Australia

television became the new standard for life. By the 1950s, it was the only thing people could think

     What role does television play in society? For decades we have seen many parts of our world rapidly going through changes in technology. Today’s society has been transformed by means of communication and the available information through mass media. Most Americans rely on television for news, sports, and entertainment. Television is just one of the many examples of how technology has changed our lives. Since the invention of the television in the early 1900’s, it has played a very important role in our lives. Having a television set in the home has become very essential in today’s society. We depend on it to entertain us with its sitcoms and to inform us about current world issues. The

The introduction of television was greeted with great excitement by most Australians in the 1950s, but some of society was opposed against the idea of televisions. This was because some people believed that television would allow “Australia to become over-run by American culture, thus threatening the development of the Australian identity.” (Wiliam, S, 2016). The amount of American shows that were broadcast in Australia at the time would have given people these views about Australian culture. “Eventually, many of our British cultural legacies would give way to new American ideals.” (Wiliam, S. 2016). Some of the people thought that the American influence would impact “Australia's ability to carve out its own national identity.” (Wiliam, S. 2016). Other people of the time that were opposed to the idea of televisions believed that the content on televisions was superficial and unsophisticated and contained no educational or cultural benefits.(Wiliam, S, 2016) This left people concerned that television would encourage people to become less active in the

Are television series becoming more popular? The very reason for choosing this topic is indicative of how important T.V. shows have become. Today, the people working on the small screen are no less famous and rich than the stars working in movies. Yes, that same old idiot box, vast wasteland, cheap babysitter has creatively matured and pinned down movies to the mat of popular culture. In spite of being similar, they are different as T.V. series go in much depth, have a lower production cost than movies and also have thought-provoking work which is intrinsically difficult to find in movies. They also provide a more satisfying emotional experience.

Television has, without doubt, received more attention from Americanisation critics on media globalization more than any of the other domains e.g. fashion, language. According to Tony Bennett (1999, p.207) the early 1960s represented the peak in the Americanisation of popular culture measured by the proportion of American material transmitted. Most analysists now agree that about half of Australian television scheduled is taken up with imports, with US material dominating the commercial channels and British programs comprising the bulk of overseas material broadcast by the ABC (Bennett 1999, p.212). In what is probably the most systematic comparison of international flows, Tapio Varis reported that Australia has seen a decline from 57 per cent of imported programming to 40 per cent in 1983, although the proportion of imported programs at prime time was slightly higher at 46 per cent. Although Australia’s proportion of imported television is high compared to the Western European countries (yet significantly lower than New Zealand), commentators have generally claimed that such imported programs do not attract

While much of the power of television in the 1960’s can be attributed to the mainstream availability and shear increase in ownership, the delivery format also contributed to its influence. One of the biggest

Television has entertained us since the 1940’s. Drama, comedy, cartoons are as much a part of our lives now as they were in the 1940’s. Television in the past stopped at midnight with the singing of The National Anthem and a test pattern that showed until the next morning. Television now is available twenty four hours a day. In the beginning, there were only three channels and now we have access to over 1,200 channels.

It is important to note the following when evaluating China’s media industry: Public service television is an essential service to the community and cohesion of democratic societies aimed at the production, publication and distribution of a set of radio and television channels airing the diverse and balanced for all audiences, covering all genres and designed to meet information needs, culture, education and entertainment of Chinese society, spread their identify and cultural diversity, promote the information society, promoting pluralism, participation and other constitutional values, ensuring access for significant social and political groups.

The ‘Golden Age of Television’ is what many refer to as the period between the 1950s and 60s when the television began to establish itself as a prevalent medium in the United States. In 1947, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), and the Du Mont Network were the four main television networks that ran stations with regular programming taking place. (Television, 2003) While regular television programming was a new innovation, the television itself had been commercially available for over twenty years prior to the 50s. It was conceived by many worldly innovators and went through several testing stages before it was finally completed in the late twenties. The

Can T.V. shows be the reflection of our society or influence the behavior of the members of our community? Since 1936 when television broadcasting begin, it priority was to inform and to entertain our society; subsequently, a massive amount of rules and regulations were created to control the material presented in TV, which principal goal was to safeguard the moral and ethical standards of it time. Nevertheless, from its beginning to the present home entertainment television standards contents have change; likewise, the moral an ethics values of our society have change and continuing changing from generation to generation. TV shows from the 50’s, 80’s, and the present exposed many changes in the way human role are exposed, the language

Therefore, it can be seen that media in Singapore are essential tools to promote national identity while supporting the ruling party political regime. Singapore then Prime Minister proposed that the press should support national goals and he states that: “we want mass media to reinforce, not undermine, the cultural values and social attitudes being inculcated in out school and universities” (Lee, 1971). For that reason, most of Singapore media today is under control of the government or government-linked corporations and are the principal instrument in creating social and political stability as well as advocating government policies and instilling nationalism (Leong, 2001).

Israel was finally introduced to television in 1968 due to the governments negative connotations on the effect of television. The Israeli government thought by the invasion of television would cause the populous to experience a brain drain and spend less time educating themselves. For the next 25 years, Israel had only one channel which was firmly based for educational reasons as well as news. This ensured that the population would not abuse the privilege of television. Conflicting, the Israel government was attacked by the people for airing TV on the sabbath when there shouldn't have been any work including broadcasting. Although the great opposition, things remained the same. By 1995, 60% of the population had access to television with around

How might the Singapore society differ were it not for these technologies – would the society be more or less heavily regulated? Lee recommends analysing politics and society by addressing how power struggles and relations were played out in the pre-Internet era, namely the maintenance of political control via public support (2005: 74). Foucault defines ‘governmentality’ as the point of contact where the technologies of power interact with the governed. This spurs Lee to postulate that, in order to retain power in the Internet era, 'governments need to be actively involved in shaping the design as well as the societal, cultural and regulatory environment in which the Internet and other new media technologies operate' (2005: 75).