ABSTRACT
BY THE EARLY 1950s, television had begun to make deep inroads into all facets of U.S. life, changing political discourse, leisure patterns, and social behavior in ways that could not have been fully predicted. Although most people in the United States came quickly and uncritically to accept this new communications device as simply one of among many new technological innovations available for their enjoyment, other more thoughtful citizens realized that television represented nothing less than “the most important instrument for cultural change developed in the last half-century,”2 capable of exerting tremendous influence on the very formation of human consciousness. As early as 1951, The New York Times reported that “one thought receiving wide expression” about the effects of television “was that the politician of tomorrow must become an ‘actor’ and that a premium might be placed on personality rather than competence.”3 That same year, The New York Times attributed a sharp decline in attendance at local community meetings around the country to the growth of television.4 Parents and educators were worried about the effects of television on learning and literacy, as well as the role violent television shows played in creating youngsters who were emotionally disturbed and aggressive. Many people were alarmed to discover in the early 1950s that, in some parts of the country where sufficient programming existed, “children in households owning TV spend as much time looking at video as they do in school”5 (emphasis in the original). Still other people were worried about the passivity, conformity, and consumerism that the medium seemed to engender. Despite the rapid growth of television during the 1950s, there existed significant concern about the larger social, cultural, educational, and political effects of television.
