ABSTRACT
Television wields an undeniable impact on the lives of literally billions of people around the globe. Clearly, it influences how we view and shape our culture, an influence that can be very positive or deeply distressing. Until the internet reached a saturation point, media historians would have been hard-pressed to name another medium of equal importance-the printing press, perhaps, though printed matter was limited to those few elite who could read and write. Morse code, the telephone, the radio, the cinema-each medium incorporates and improves upon what preceded it.
