The Impact of Television on Society

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 has had large impacts on American society once it became widely available, which occurred during the 1950s. Most American households owned a television. The creation of news outlets on television led to the American public to be exposed much that they wouldn’t ever have been exposed to without. There were no restrictions on the device yet for what they could or couldn’t show. Television would go on to create the largest impacts on American society, impacts that even continue today. Commercials became commonplace for the public, Civil rights would gain tons of support, and television would be one of the leading causes that attributed to the United States loss of the Vietnam War.

In the 1930s programming was sparse and mostly consisted of specials such as the Olympics, the presidential election, and news reports. In the 1940s the TV was used as a propaganda machine for the war. Then in the 1950s TV came booming in again with popular shows such as “I Love Lucy.” “ We’d been going home with television every night for years, but suddenly we had reason to respect it in the morning.” (book) In the 60s, after Kennedy's assassination, TV became about the changes in the social climate and space travel. The 1970s is when “Sesame Street” first debuted and Pong became popular. Then in the 80s came the Nintendo and cable TV began to boom. The 90s TV programming became risque. Finally in the 2000s DVD players took over along with advances in plasma technologies and the introduction of high speed

Deviance is a behavior, trait, belief, or other characteristic that violates a norm and causes a negative reaction (Ferris & Stein 154). The television Jane The Virgin embodies this sociological theory and is intended for an audience of young and older adults. Types of deviance that is featured is that Jane Villanueva who has hopes of being a teacher and author goes to the doctors for a routine physical examination. However, while there she accidentally gets artificially inseminated. The intended specimen was intended for a patient in the next room, the situation becomes even more shocking. In fact, the donor is Jane’s boss Rafael Solano whom she had a crush on a few years prior.

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

The television is one of those inventions that changed American society forever when it was first introduced in 1927, although it was not anything like we think of modern televisions. Over the past three-quarters of a century there have been shocking advancements in the technology utilized to make televisions, so much that it is virtually impossible to not find one home in America today without at least one LCD, LED, 3D, or plasma television – okay, maybe your grandparents still have one of those 1950s televisions with the bunny ears – but you get the point. The first televisions that resemble modern day televisions were introduced in the early 1950s and introduced several televisions shows that are iconic today – notably “I Love Lucy”, “The Andy Griffith Show”, and “Leave it to Beaver” as well as variety shows such as “The Ed Sullivan Show” that made great music icons that are legendary today. Before this time, televisions inside American homes were few and far between due to its cost and impracticle use.

Manifestations of Mass Culture in the 1950’s such as Consumerism, Suburbia, Materialism, were seen as a new prosperity combined with a “buy now pay later” attitude began in America. These manifestations were realized primarily as new forms of entertainment were disseminated to the American public through TV. 76 million Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1964 provided the largest generational market in American history. Marked by the end of World War 2 and bolstered by the emerging prosperity of this period a number of mass media fueled phenomenon began to grow into existence. Television, Suburbia, and Materialism lead the way for aspired to lifestyles of the American Masses. Arguably most important of these three was TV in that it provided the medium by which practically all of the manifestations of Mass Culture were disseminated among the populace. Affordable by most, by 1960 ninety percent of American households owned a TV. Supplying the medium by which both the markets and the supply side of the American economy were watching and capitalizing on, recreated and revolutionized much of the American economy. Most TV programing in the late fifties and early sixties was generally conservative and projected mainstream traditional American values. By pleasantly creeping into homes with this mainstream methodology TV became an institutional mainstay and a necessity of the American way of life.

Television’s rise of popularity had a strict impact on the 1950’s and the America we know today, both positively and negatively. According to James L. Baughman, ” … an unpublished NBC study indicated that only 9 percent of all homes in South Dakota had TV sets…”. “Until 1955, most homes in America did not own a television. The rate of TV’s in homes, though, increased by 82.8% from 1948-1958. A possible explanation for the sudden rise of popularity in television could be explained by looking at the past. In the past eras, Americans had been threatened, and were still being threatened with the burdens of the Depression and the Cold War (Wright and Press 729). Perhaps the citizens of the US wanted to push their troubles beside and enjoy relaxing with their family, likely by watching their television set. However, “It sent

The invention of television has impacted American society positively, because it helps spread information faster and influences the way people think about important social issues. It is estimated that about 15 million Americans watch the Cable News Network, CNN, at least once a day and millions more tune in abroad (Stark). In the news culture, information has become presented to the public quicker throughout the years. This causes news to be digested faster as well. In fact, events, such as election results or political choices, have become frequently analyzed before they even take place. For example, the effects of Clinton’s bombing of Iraq, in the summer of 1996, were being explored before a weapon had even been fired (Stark). The spread

The negative effects of television are huge. To minimize the potential negative effects of television, it's important to understand what the impact of television can be on children.

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

With the major advancements and globalization of technology, televisions have made their way into the homes of many citizens; nearing 1.4 billion households. In the United States alone, 96.7 percent of the American population’s homeowners own a television set (Selter, 2011). In one way or another, T.V. will affect the majority of people. This is an important piece of information to recognize, as the T.V. show producers have a tremendous way to reach people. Their influence could be beneficial or harmful. However, one should bear in mind that, while television can have negative effects when not consumed in reasonable amounts, like anything, it can in fact make one smarter, as opposed to the common belief that television has dumbed down society.

Over the last forty to fifty years, television has been a major topic of discussion. Specifically, many debate societal benefits to television watching. One widely accepted opinion is that watching TV makes people dumber. People have referred to it with terms like the “idiot box” and do not feel that watching TV has any benefit at all. They feel that it is a waste of time and people need to spend their hours more wisely. Others are of the opinion that TV is actually has societal benefits. From this perspective, they claim that the development of the structure of the programs now requires one to intellectually participate in watching television. Essentially, the argument is whether TV is a beneficial societal force or is it simply a

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