The Great Television, a Cultural Artifact
Marisol Ruiz
Ruben Casas
English 1
The Great Television
A cultural artifact can be an element that defines a culture. During the twenty and twenty-first century forms of communication were changed and/or created. In America the introduction of television had an impact in Family life, politics, and gender roles in today’s society.
The television was first introduced in America in the late 1940’s. As it was introduced Americans purchased televisions as a record rate, in fact more quickly then they had purchased any other home entertainment machine. In a book written by Lynn Spigle stated “Between 1948 and 1955, television was installed in nearly two-thirds of the nation’s homes and the basic mechanism of the network oligopoly was set n motion” (pg. 1) and “by 1960 almost 90 percent of American household had at least one receiver”(pg. 1) As television became a new sort of gathering place it had positive and negative effect in families. One of the positive effects is that the television in many ways made the poorest of families rich in term of their access to entertainment and news. TV has also made childbearing less burdensome since TV can be a great babysitter and time filler. On the other as wealth of a person increases, so does the number of television found in a house making it hard for a family to interact with each other since each member would just retreat to their own personal space making this a negative effect.
Television plays a big role in politics. In the 1960 presidential debate between republican vice president Richard Nixon and democratic senator John F Kennedy were the firsts to be in television. This way people would not only have to hear the candidate’s answers and speeches but they would also be able to have an image of what was going on during the debate. “ A survey of those who listened to the debate on radio indicate that Nixon had won; however, those who watched on television, and were able to contrast Nixon’s poorly shaven face with
Ruben Casas
English 1
The Great Television
A cultural artifact can be an element that defines a culture. During the twenty and twenty-first century forms of communication were changed and/or created. In America the introduction of television had an impact in Family life, politics, and gender roles in today’s society.
The television was first introduced in America in the late 1940’s. As it was introduced Americans purchased televisions as a record rate, in fact more quickly then they had purchased any other home entertainment machine. In a book written by Lynn Spigle stated “Between 1948 and 1955, television was installed in nearly two-thirds of the nation’s homes and the basic mechanism of the network oligopoly was set n motion” (pg. 1) and “by 1960 almost 90 percent of American household had at least one receiver”(pg. 1) As television became a new sort of gathering place it had positive and negative effect in families. One of the positive effects is that the television in many ways made the poorest of families rich in term of their access to entertainment and news. TV has also made childbearing less burdensome since TV can be a great babysitter and time filler. On the other as wealth of a person increases, so does the number of television found in a house making it hard for a family to interact with each other since each member would just retreat to their own personal space making this a negative effect.
Television plays a big role in politics. In the 1960 presidential debate between republican vice president Richard Nixon and democratic senator John F Kennedy were the firsts to be in television. This way people would not only have to hear the candidate’s answers and speeches but they would also be able to have an image of what was going on during the debate. “ A survey of those who listened to the debate on radio indicate that Nixon had won; however, those who watched on television, and were able to contrast Nixon’s poorly shaven face with
Cited: University of Chicago, Lynn Spigel. Introduction. United States of America: Lynn Spingel, 1992. N. pag. Print. Stephens, Mitchell. "History of Television." http://www.nyu.edu. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Nov. 2013. . "Children, Television and Gender Roles A critical review of the available evidence concerning what influence television may have on the development of children 's understanding of gender roles and of their own gender identitie." www.aber.ac.uk. Helen Ingham, Apr. 1997. Web. 5 Nov. 2013. .