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.

• 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

The “Golden Age” of TV…

Early television sets…

The Economics of Television…

• TV Net Revenue: 1947 $2M…1957 $1B

• Advertising $: 1949 $58M…1960 $60B

American family watching TV in the 1950s…

Columbia Broadcast Stations

National

Broadcast

Company

Associated Broadcasting Company

Major Networks…

1940-1960: Radio vs. TV Ownership

Radio Television

• 1940: 28M (80%)……….. 0

• 1950: 41M (94%)……….. 4M (9%)

• 1960: 50M (95%)……….. 46M (87%)

Television: Tube of PlentyThe early television shows…

How did they change through the 1950s…

1950 Sit coms…

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

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.

1957 : Leave it to Beaver

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sam9wP_uMEA

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

Lucy and the Chocolate factory http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NPzLBSBzPI&feature=related

I Love Lucy was the most watched show in the US in four of its six seasons.

1952: Adventures of Superman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfmvkO5x6Ng&feature=fvw

Abbott and Costello worked on stage, radio, film and television in the 1940s and 1950s

Television & Politics

28) The effect of the Cold War on television…

31) The criticism of American mass culture & mass media...

Positive…• “On the scene” news• Entertainment & information• Advertising helps business

The positives and the negatives of the Golden Age of Television…

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

The Beats

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

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

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzCF6hgEfto&feature=PlayList&p=756566302C1887A9&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=2

• Spontaneous prose… “first thought … best thought”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWjRgzFeE_8

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?