Argumentative essay on how tv shaped people’s view in America in the 50s and 60s
Overview
Television has reflected and promoted cultural mores and values ever since it became a mainstay of American society in the 1950s. Television has always served as a mirror to society, from the escapist dramas of the 1960s that purposefully avoided contentious topics and glossed over life’s harsher realities in favor of an idealized portrayal to the countless reality TV programs of recent years where participants discuss even the most private and taboo topics.
However, there is a mutual relationship between social attitudes and television; broadcasters have frequently shown their ability to sway audiences, either overtly through slanted political commentary or covertly by normalizing contentious relationships (like single parenthood, same-sex marriages, or interracial relationships). The relationship between culture and television is exemplified in every broadcast, from family sitcoms to serious news reports.
Cultural Influences on Television
The majority of 1950s television entertainment shows shunned news and politics. Instead, ABC, NBC, and CBS created prime-time programming that would appeal to a broad family audience. The most popular of these programs was the domestic comedy, a general family comedy distinguished by its character-based humor and typically taking place at home. Popular 1950s television programs like Leave It to Beaver, The Donna Reed Show, and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet served as important models.
Domestic comedies highlighted the conservative ideas of an idealized American existence by portraying a standardized portrayal of the White middle-class suburban family.
Although many families in the 1950s were typical nuclear families, these shows portrayed an idealized vision of American family life. Many Americans wanted to get married, have families, and take advantage of the serenity and stability that family life seemed to provide after the widespread poverty, political unpredictability, and physical isolation of the war years. The typical nuclear family thrived throughout the prosperous postwar era, which was a time of hope and wealth. The families and lives shown in domestic comedies, however, by no means represented the whole American experience.