ABSTRACT
When commercial television was inaugurated in the late 1940s it immediately captured the attention of the nation. Unlike radio, which had to earn nationwide recognition, television’s role in the American public sphere was anticipated from the beginning and was eagerly heralded until, by the 1960s, almost every citizen had access to a screen. Thus, with astonishing speed and virtually no resistance, the televised picture became the main carrier of cultural and political exchange in twentieth-century society. New uses of the photograph in scientifi c exploration, lithography, and the motion picture had laid the groundwork. But the broadcast picture exceeded all previous photographic media in its potential to bring all forms of social and cultural interaction into immediate proximity. Almost inevitably and without further refl ection, the novel frame assumed the role of a national clearinghouse for virtually every previously used form of visual communication.
