Television Role in Preserving American Values During the Cold War

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, television quickly emerged into a popular and greatly desired entertainment system in America. Although expensive, the television was still found in over fifty million American homes. Socially, the television not only embellished what the time period believed to be the “ideal” family, but the new technology also helped pull women closer to a world vacant of sexism and stereotypes, while also drawing African Americans closer to a society without racism, segregation, and prejudice. As well as social benefits, the television substantially impacted the world of politics by airing the platforms of political candidates and broadcasting important news concerning America. Additionally, the fields of advertising and

The introduction of television casted a wave of change in the lives of the American public. In Gary Edgerton’s The Columbia History of American Television, he described the uprising of television, “involved the most extensive and ballyhooed series of public relations events ever staged around any mass medium in American history. “ (Edgerton, p.1) The first presentation of television played a pivotal role on how the American public adopted the new medium of technology and communication. I will explore the grand manner of how television was presented to the American public during the early years by the direction of David Sarnoff, and televised special of the 1939 World’s fair. In addition, how this presentation of television generated the acceptation

Before we television existed people had to depend on Radio stations to receive there little bit of entertainment and news. But in 1878, the invention of TV began. The first TV made didn’t look anything like the way TV’s look today, it was a mechanical camera with a large spinning disc attached to it (Kids Work). But as over the years, of course inventions of different TV’s progressed and by the 20th century about 90 percent of our population had a TV in their household(). Television today is mainly used for people take a break from their life by relaxing and enjoying some entertainment.

The television gave much of the country something to do. It reflected the homogenization of the United States. People began to envision a futuristic nuclear world after the start of the Space Race between the United States and Russia to land on the moon. The United States launched Alan Shepard into space after the Soviets launched “Sputnik” in 1957 as we launched our first man in 1961. Meanwhile, computers were developed into large room size machines to do simple computations and made things portable. One of the characteristics of the mass media during the 1950’s, as the T.V., was that the sitcoms was directed to make viewers think about the idea of the perfect family living the American dream. The only problem with those T.V sitcoms was that not every American family fitted into that mold. For example, Jews, Hispanics, African-Americans, Asians, and other minorities were not portrayed as part of that image that most people wanted to imitate because these T.V. families were white-collar, middle class, and Caucasian.

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

The spread of television has affected American households universally, which started in the 1940s but has continued to make a dramatic surge. There is a trend at that is being captured across televisions in households everywhere. Politics, reality television, social media and public information is being broadcast from household to household. Television has in a way become a mode of how we think and interact with each other. Television is starting to leave that bubble where it was strictly entertainment, now television is becoming a source of what we must believe. The consumer demand for television as spiked dramatically, in the way we view ourselves and perceive others in the world around us is through a television screen. Although we are

The advent of television also caused a great impact in the American society that brought huge changes in the economy. American families during the 1950s started to replace radios, newspapers, and magazines as the leading media entertainment with televisions. They became common for families to unite and watch TV shows at noon. “Television as a product itself influenced the economy, creating what quickly became an essential household item. By 1957, over 40 million TVs were in American households”. Fundamentally, television altered how Americans utilize their free time, but economically there was even a major impact. Businesses around the country started to use the TV for advertising and marketing to sell their products easier. TV commercials

     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

Television. Such a simple nine letter word but this word alone is most likely to be one of the most well known words in the universe. According to the latest Nielson report, on the consumption of television, the average American watches a minimum of five hours of television per day. If we were to estimate that the average American does get at least the recommended 9 hours of sleep then we can conclude that it is about 1/3 of their day being spent glued to the tube. Also if we continue to estimate that the average American lives to be 78. Then that is about 142,350 hours of television or tallied up to

The television was becoming a window to the world, sitcom dramas and the nightly news were stark contrasts, seeing your favorite characters live their lives was nice but when the news told of warfare and hidden communist threats.

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

Television sets were commercially available since the late 1920s but in very small quantities. Since then television had become a bit more common in houses or business institutions because of it’s purposes. Which are entertainment, and news. In the 1950s, television shaped public opinion among citizens. After the

Before Television, Americans followed simple laws, believed heavily in God, were honest, and never locked their doors because they felt safe and were happy to help someone in need. TV gradually turned us into

The television is also a very important aspect of popular culture that affects the American Identity. Watching television is such a common part of contemporary society, that most Americans adopted it as a part of their daily routine and watch television for at least an hour a day. Stanley Crouch, a poet, music and cultural critic, writes that whenever people pretentiously and proudly announce, “I don’t watch television,” they should follow it up with “I don’t look at America either” (Masciotra 79). Television has become a part of many people’s lives. When the mass population watches the same TV shows, movies, etc. they can all relate to each other, and thus unite them as an American. We look to TV shows to see how other people like us act