Question #1:
What are the major characteristics of the American broadcast system and how was it created? What events and decisions led to the establishment of this system? How did the radio networks (NBC, CBS, and ABC) maintain control of the system following the rise of television? Refer to lectures, handouts, and the essay by Michelle Hilmes.
The American broadcast system also known as ABC was created and launched in 1943 as a radio network, it branched out and became joined the television market in the 1960s. The American broadcast system had three main branches affiliated with each other, NBC, CBS and ABC. NBC had two separate networks; each called the Red and Blue Networks. In 1943 the NBC Blue network becomes ABC, people were now more interested in the television than the radio.
In the 1970s CBS was the most successful out of the three networks, ABC gradually became one of the most successful broadcasting networks. In the mid-1940s television became its most popular. The decisions that led to the successes of all three of these broadcasting networks were to maintain control of the system and broadcast worldwide and make the television accessible to the modern family.
Question #3:
Lynn
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In the 1950s gender roles and surbanization were publicized on the television screens constantly. Lynn Spigel argues that television brings the ideal family together but also can divide them as well. Television might be the divider between families because the entire family might watch their own separate television shows. Spigel is concerned in the way that woman are being portrayed on television. Haralovich speaks about the gender differences that is portrayed discreetly in the 1950s television shows and how woman are these “ideal” housewives and they are only meant to do attain the housewife status and nothing
May begins by exploring the origins of this "domestic containment" in the 30's and 40's. During the Depression, she argues, two different views of the family competed -- one with two breadwinners who shared tasks and the other with spouses whose roles were sharply differentiated. Yet, despite the many single women glamorized in popular culture of the 1930's, families ultimately came to choose the latter option. Why? For one, according to May, for all its affirmation of the emancipation of women, Hollywood fell short of pointing the way toward a restructured family that would incorporate independent women. (May p.42) Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday and Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, for example, are both forced to choose between independence and a happy domestic life - the two cannot be squared. For another, New Deal programs aimed to raise the male employment level, which often meant doing nothing for female employment. And, finally, as historian Ruth Milkman has also noted, the g...
It is often said that the media and the arts are an accurate reflection of any given community. This is especially true in American pop-culture, where television shows depict the various stereotypes attributed to men and women and the roles they play in society. House, a highly popular medical drama that revolves around Dr. Gregory House and his diagnostic team, is a particularly good example as it represents the true state of the traditional gender roles in American culture today by, both, redefining and reinforcing them over the course of the show.
“Women in the early 1950s family were weak, secondary characters, and as such were usually dominated by their husbands and their own conceptions of marriage” (Hastings, 1974). Certain episodes of these shows always tried to prove that women should stay at home. When I Love Lucy came out with a woman as the main star, they still had her stay at home, cooking and cleaning, but still made her seem useless. “Women characters frequently were shown as less mature and less capable human-beings and their husbands often took a quasi-parental role by scolding them” (Hastings, 1974).
The media, through its many outlets, has a lasting effect on the values and social structure evident in modern day society. Television, in particular, has the ability to influence the social structure of society with its subjective content. As Dwight E. Brooks and Lisa P. Hébert write in their article, “GENDER, RACE, AND MEDIA REPRESENTATION”, the basis of our accepted social identities is heavily controlled by the media we consume. One of the social identities that is heavily influenced is gender: Brooks and Hébert conclude, “While sex differences are rooted in biology, how we come to understand and perform gender is based on culture” (Brooks, Hébert 297). With gender being shaped so profusely by our culture, it is important to be aware of how social identities, such as gender, are being constructed in the media.
On September 20, 1984 a show aired that changed the way we view gender roles on television. Television still perpetuates traditional gender stereotypes and in reflecting them TV reinforces them by presenting them as the norm (Chandler, 1). The Cosby Show, challenged the typical gender stereotyping of television, daring to go against the dominant social values of its time period. In its challenge of the dominant social view, the show redefined the portrayal of male and female roles in television. It redefined the gender role in the work place, in social expectations, and in household responsibilities. The Cosby Show supported Freidan in her view of “castigating the phony happy housewife heroine of the women’s magazines” (Douglas 136).
It was expected of women to get married, have children, buy a suburban home and do housework. The video, “A Word to the Wives” displays what Betty Friedan calls, “the feminine mystique”. The video presents the dilemma of a woman who is not happy because she does not have the newest house. Her friend has all the new “necessities” in order to successfully complete housework. Women were defined by what they had, not by who they were. Friedan’s research found that despite fulfilling the “feminine mystique”, when women were questioned they realized they were not truly satisfied with their life. The woman in the video would not of been fulfilled by buying a new house, or object. Women were deprived of the need to put their skills and talents to a purpose. The video, “Are You Popular” also shows the expectations of women.. It promotes that appearance, serving others, and rewarding men with “women” gifts such as baking is how to be popular. It condones girls for “parking in cars” but accepts men who do the same thing. Women must earn the approval of men, and men must earn women by doing thing women are “incapable” of. The repression of women in the 50’s is what eventually causes the “outbreak” of feminism in the 60’s. The idolism of the “female mystique” covered the sexism against women in the
In American culture today, women continue the struggle of identifying what their roles in society are supposed to be. Our culture has been sending mixed messages to the modern day female, creating a sense of uneasiness to an already confusing and stressful world. Although women today are encouraged more than ever to be independent, educated, and successful, they are often times shamed for having done just that. Career driven females are frequently at risk of being labeled as bossy, unfeminine, or selfish for competing in many career paths that were once dominated by men. A popular medium in our culture such as television continues to have significant influences as to how people should aspire to live their lives. Viewers develop connections with relatable characters and to relationship dynamics displayed within their favorite shows. Fictional characters and relationships can ultimately influence a viewer’s fashion sense, social and political opinion, and attitude towards gender norms. Since the days of Bewitched and I Dream of Jeanie, where women were commonly portrayed as being the endearing mischievous housewife, television shows have evolved in order to reflect real life women who were becoming increasingly more independent, educated, and career oriented throughout the subsequent decades. New genres of television are introduced, such as the workplace comedy, where women are not only career oriented, but eventually transition into positions of power.
The social perception of women has drastically changed since the 1950’s. The social role of women during the 1950’s was restrictive and repressed in many ways. Society during that time placed high importance on expectations of behavior in the way women conducted themselves in home life as well as in public. At home the wife was tasked with the role of being an obedient wife, caring mother, and homemaker. Women publicly were expected to form groups and bond over tea with a slice of cake. All the while government was pushing this idealize roll for women in a society “dominated” by men. However, during this time a percentage of women were finding their way into the work force of men. “Women were searching their places in a society led by men;
Today two of the top broadcasting companies are Clear Channel Communications, Inc. and Infinity Broadcasting Company. Clear Channel’s history begins in 1972 with the birth of the San Antonio Broadcasting Company. Three years later, the first “Clear Channel” radio station, WOAI-AM, was acquired – it had its own nationwide frequency. In the late 1980s, the Company entered the television business and acquired half a dozen television stations. In 1994 it became listed as Clear Channel Communications, Inc Common Stock and owned 43 radio stations and 16 television stations in 32 markets.
First, the impact of the television in the 1950’s strongly affected the social aspects of American lives. To begin
Back then, gender stereotypes were very much prominent in how people thought about men and women, so evidently, this notion was transferred into our media, specifically, television. As a result of this, female TV characters were depicted as loving and caring but ultimately, were always portrayed as the housewife who was always confused, weak and fragile. In the 1950s, television created a female character: Lucy who was the “model” of a woman who wanted to explore the public sphere of work life to be a singer, actor and dancer. So she would create these plans to achieve these jobs but always ended up failing and eventually going back home.
Due to the idealization of domesticity in media, there was a significantly stagnant period of time for women’s rights between 1945 and 1959. Women took over the roles for men in the workplace who were fighting abroad during the early 1940s, and a strong, feminist movement rose in the 1960s. However, in between these time periods, there was a time in which women returned to the home, focusing their attention to taking care of the children and waiting on their husband’s every need. This was perpetuated due to the increasing popularity of media’s involvement in the lives of housewives, such as the increasing sales of televisions and the increase in the number of sexist toys.
As television became more popular, the studios planned to expand their market. The Paramount decision, however, complicated those plans as studios struggled to compete with television. Ultimately, the studios developed synergies in order to obtain some of the television market share. Disney was one of the first studios to arrange for a cross media agreement, specifically by making a deal with ABC that would air a Disney television show once a week on the network station. However, even as television and film studios were learning how to work cooperatively together, the studios still needed to find a way to draw film audiences back into theaters.
Remote controllers weren’t available till 1980’s. Plus almost every single major event was broadcasted or seen on television. Television is used all around the world. When it was first made only a selected few were able to buy and use the television.
Another major factor that influences millions of impressionable females and males is television. Not only does the television teach each sex how to act, it also shows how one sex should expect the other sex to act. In the current television broadcasting, stereotypical behavior goes from programming for the very small to adult audiences. In this broadcasting range, females are portrayed as motherly, passive and innocent, sex objects, or they are overlooked completely or seen as unimportant entities. Stereotyping women is not only rampant in the adult world; it also flourishes in the kiddie universe as well.