Television's Influence on Religion

      Often overlooked is television's affect on religion through the demonstration of evangelical speakers, influence of celebrities' and their new-found lifestyles, politicians' usage of rhetoric to mobilize voters, and the misconstrued and often stereotyped views of several religions. People have an excuse to not go to church because they can simply watch the sermons/message on T.V., thus taking away from the sacredness of devoting Sundays wholly to God. The term Televangelism was coined by Time magazine as an effort to demonstrate the idea that evangelists on television use Christian biblical messages in order to aggrandize themselves, which is self-seeking and entirely hypocritical. Celebrities expose newer religions such as scientology (Tom Cruise, among others), to viewers who aren't familiar with it, but may appeal to it because they are fans.

gossip girl - school lies - pool party

Lee Harvey Oswald Assassination

Televisions Impact on Political Campagning

     Television provided audiences the opportunity to experience major political events live from the comfort of their own homes.  One great example of this is the 1954 McArthur Day Parade in Chicago where television communicated more excitement in the crowd to T.V. viewers than there actually was.  Another historic event and probably one of the most mesmerizing was President Kennedy's assassination, which was caught live on national T.V, followed by Jack Ruby's assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald which was also caught on live television. Basically from the 70's up to today our society has been an eye witness to state funerals, foreign wars, political scandals from Watergate to BP's Oil Spill. 
     Political campaigns and elections are the aspects in the American political process that have been affected the most by television. President Eisenhower successfully used short spot commercials to campaign himself. This use of product advertising has since become the major form of communication between candidates and voters. 50-75% of campaign budgets go exclusively to these commercials.
     News coverage is also very important in political campaigns. Television stations are bias when it comes to elections, favoring a candidate by enhancing his/her image to the public.  When news station decided to broadcast national party conventions it became clear to the candidates that a "scripted" speech would work in their favor. Basically candidates get to carefully choose their responses to a certain topic and if the news station that is covering let's say a particular debate, is in their favor then any negative statements made by that candidate will be dismissed.
     Television has such a great impact on the American political process but is this a positive impact? Is our society content with candidates having such an impersonal  relationship with us? Are we buying what we see on T.V. when it comes to campaigns?

Television's Influence on American Materialism

       Following WWII, consumerism greatly increased and people began using credit more casually in order to attain the household necessities that were so heavily advertised by the media through television. This again relates back to Americans' dependency on this medium to virtually "tell them" what was commonly accepted and what was needed to attain this "American dream" of a picturesque, modern lifestyle. This dependency infiltrates through different targeted audiences today, in order to alter their views of the norm. For example, the new hit drama Gossip Girl provides teens with an artificial idea of how to attain dignity and respect through standards held by affluent households/communities in upper east-side Manhattan. The clip provided is an example of a pool party which supposedly demonstrates a typical Friday night experienced by this elite group. We often can wonder...is it this form of media that has altered the youth's actions today, or vice versa? Which came first? Which is reality? And which is the reflection?

History of Television

        Experiments in the field of electricity and radio by various scientists and strategic thinkers led to the development of ideologies that set the ground work for television inventions. John Logie Baird was the first to transmit moving pictures through the mechanical disc system (started by Paul Gottlieb Nipkov in the late 19th century), and created the first TV studio as well. By 1931, all new television systems had converted to the electronic system (used today). The adoption of electronic television didn't really pick up in American households until about 1945, with a drastic increase from the 1950 to 1955. The end of WWII brought thousands of young fighters home, resulting in the expansion of American industry to meet peacetime needs - leading to consumers purchasing goods not available during the war. Americans began depending on television as a means of generating information on the various wars taking place, forming opinions on political elections, mobilizing civil rights movements, noting fashion changes, exploring music, and so on.