The Spread of Television in 1950s, in America Essay -- Television

The Golden Age of Television is what many refer to as the period between the 1950s and 60s when the television began to tack itself as a prevalent medium in the United States. In 1947, the American beam Company (ABC), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), and the Du Mont Network were the four main television networks that ran stations with regular programming taking place. (Television, 2003) While regular television programming was a young innovation, the television itself had been commercially available for over twenty years prior to the 50s. It was conceived by many worldly innovators and went through several testing stages before it was in conclusion completed in the late twenties. The three main innovators were Niplow - who first developed a rotating disk with small holes arranged in a spiral traffic pattern in 1884, Zworykin - who developed the Iconoscope which could scan pictures and break them into electronic signals (a primitive fo rm of the Cathode Ray Tube) in 1923, and lastly Fansworth - who demonstrated for the first time that it was possible to carry an electrical image in 1927. (Rollo, 2011) However, one of the many reasons why this medium was successful in the 50s was due to the fact that it became more accessible to the public. Television sets were more affordable to middle class citizens which created further interest in the new technology. Through an historical account of the medium, the spread of television across America throughout this particular decade will be examined. Firstly, for the purposes of illustrating the cultural context of this decade, I will refer to Lynn Spigels writing entitled Welcome to the Dreamhouse Popular Media and postwar Suburb. After WWII... ...t has not stopped television from being one of the most successful mediums for the dissemination of information.Works CitedPaul S. Boyer. Television. The Oxford Companion to United States History. 2001. Retrieved November 24, 20 11 from Encyclopedia.com http//www.encyclopedia.com/ physician/1O119-Television.htmlBretz, Rudy , 1957 Video Tape A TV Revolution The Quarterly of Film Radio and Television , Vol. 11, No. 4 pp. 399-415 Published by University of California librate Article Stable URL www.jstor.org/stable/1210000Ganzel, Bill. (2007). Television during the 1950s and 60s. Retrieved from http//www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe50s/life_17.htmlRollo, Mike. 2011 Video History Film/Video I Lecture Notes Spigel, Lynn. 2001 Welcome to the dreamhouse popular media and postwar suburbs / Lynn Spigel Duke University Press, Durham, N.C.