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MASS CULTURE & DISCONTENTS

MASS CULTURE & DISCONTENTS. “ Television can instruct, inform and inspire, as well as distract, distort and demean” – Bill Moyers. Objective…. Identify the elements of mass culture. – TV Describe the criticisms of mass culture. The “Golden Age” of TV…. 1946 -Introduction of TV

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MASS CULTURE & DISCONTENTS

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  1. MASS CULTURE & DISCONTENTS “Television can instruct, inform and inspire, as well as distract, distort and demean” – Bill Moyers

  2. Objective… Identify the elements of mass culture. – TV Describe the criticisms of mass culture.

  3. The “Golden Age” of TV… • 1946 -Introduction of TV • 1948 -200,000 TVs… 9% of America • 1949 -Selling100K a wk. • 1955 -32M in US • 1956 –FCC licenses 500 stations • 1960 -90% of Americans have a TV

  4. Early television sets…

  5. The Economics of Television… • TV Net Revenue: 1947 $2M…1957 $1B • Advertising $: 1949 $58M…1960 $60B

  6. American family watching TV in the 1950s… Major Networks… Associated Broadcasting Company Columbia Broadcast Stations National Broadcast Company

  7. RadioTelevision 1940: 28M (80%)……….. 0 1950: 41M (94%)……….. 4M (9%) 1960: 50M (95%)……….. 46M (87%) 1940-1960: Radio vs. TV Ownership

  8. Television: Tube of Plenty The early television shows… How did they change through the 1950s…

  9. - Ideal suburban families- Mischievous children- Kindly “all knowing” dads- No politics or social issues …Critics called them: "Aryan melodramas“– Why? 1950 Sit coms…

  10. 1957 : Leave it to Beaver 1954: Father Knows Best - A TV show promoting the ideal (conservative, rosy and paternalistic) American family of the 1950s. 1952-1966: Ozzie and Harriet -“The ideal American family life” - The longest-running "live”(non-animated) sitcom in TV history. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sam9wP_uMEA

  11. The Honeymooners: Urban working class people struggling with the issues of a consumer society. Assorted clips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAKSLJySqWI Ralph learns to play golf: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNauilZRzHk I Love Lucy was the most watched show in the US in four of its six seasons. Lucy and the Chocolate factory http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NPzLBSBzPI&feature=related

  12. 1952: Adventures of Superman Abbott and Costello worked on stage, radio, film and television in the 1940s and 1950s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfmvkO5x6Ng&feature=fvw

  13. Television & Politics 28) The effect of the Cold War on television… 31) The criticism of American mass culture & mass media...

  14. The positives and the negativesof the Golden Age of Television… Positive… • “On the scene” news • Entertainment & information • Advertising helps business • Negative effects… • Children… violence in programming • Stereotypes of women & minorities • Male dominated • Mostly reflects white America • TV ignores poverty, politics & civil rights… • NO CONTROVERSY… Supports CONFORMITY

  15. The Beats 32) Who were the “Beats” & what ideas did they express?

  16. The Beats… NON-CONFORMITY • Express disgust with… - mass culture, conformity, consumerism & militarism • The “Beats” believed in… -spontaneity, friendship, jazz, open sexuality, drug use, black culture & music • The “Beat” look… -black clothes, sunglasses, berets • Spontaneous prose… “first thought … best thought” • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzCF6hgEfto&feature=PlayList&p=756566302C1887A9&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWjRgzFeE_8

  17. The Quiz Show Scandal • Charles Van Doren was involved in a television quiz show scandal in the 1950s. In 1959 he confessed before the U.S. Congress that he had been given the correct answers by the producers of the show Twenty One. In Jan.1957, Van Doren entered a winning streak earning him more than $129K ($1M + today) Why was all of this so shocking to the public?

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