The technology for television was developed in the 1920s. Nonetheless, it was not until after the Second World War that television became popular in America. Since then, television has been attacked as a detriment to its watchers’ lives and hailed as an educational tool that opens up people to the world beyond their everyday experiences.

Both charges are true.

Despite differences in the media, American television was modeled after its counterpart in radio. It took on a similar industrial set-up—around a few major networks and local franchises—and early programming relied on staples like soap operas and talk shows. Similar governmental regulations—under the jurisdiction of the FCC—were also adopted. That means that, like most mass media in America, commercial television dominates, with public broadcasting playing a minor role.

Television’s expansion came at a time when Americans were emerging as a superpower. With the soldiers coming home, the rise of suburbia and the new abundance of material goods, TV became a new symbol for American wealth. The number of television receivers rose from 10 million in 1951 to 50 million in 1959. Local stations became points of metropolitan identity (while radio could be very localized, entire states like New Jersey could be left without a commercial station).

Television was initially viewed by Hollywood as serious competition; cinema attendance fell in the 1950s. Yet, the two media differ in their relationships with space and audiences. The box in the house keeps its audience in, while the screen in the movie theater takes people out of their homes. The success of TV in the 1950s was partly embodied by the strong nuclear family suburban living arrangement. However, over decades, closer relationships grew between television and film industries; they benefit from each other by sharing their resources from production to distribution. The arrival of color TV in the 1960s underscored this symbiosis. American TV is also global— syndicated shows are sold worldwide, creating a dominance not unlike Hollywood’s.

American television relies on advertising revenue even as it presents itself as providing services to the public (publicly funded television, PBS, was a late innovation in the 1960s, targeting high culture and underserved populations). Commercial television must sell its programs to the audience, then sell its audience to the advertisers. Hence, broadcasters developed the Nielsen rating system to measure viewership at home.

Though inaccurate, these ratings can determine the life and death of TV programs. These ratings have also promoted a culture where the group who has the highest spending power becomes the group that TV pleases. Broadcasters can also claim that they are making shows that the public demands, while avoiding those with small audiences.

American television is about show business and news. Following closely the successes of radio, major TV genres include game shows, talk shows, sitcoms, various dramas, soap operas, variety shows and sports events. News can exemplify how this evolved over time. Television news not only provides information, local and national, but also sells a prestige product. Television changed the delivery of news. As in radio, it is instantaneous, but it is also visual. Edward R. Murrow became the father and hero of broadcast journalism, with his famous 1954 exposé of Senator Joseph McCarthy on See It Now. While people debate television’s role in the explosive events of the 1960s, from the civil-rights movement to the Vietnam War, TV news was well respected for its independence and authority. However, the television news department, like other TV production departments, also relies on audience ratings. In the 1990s, with TV stations increasingly owned by even larger media conglomerates, TV news needed to be more sensational. It is generally believed that this new news is exploitative, spending hours on crime, celebrities’ deaths and fluff features, rather than any investigative journalism.

Political and critical debates about TV arise because it is seen to be a great force of socialization. Television enters people’s bedrooms, and it connects people from children to old age to worlds beyond their immediate environment. Despite its independence from government control, TV content, because it needs to appeal to the widest possible audience, tends to be middle-ofthe-road American fare, whether in dramas or in news.

Radicals point out a lack of diversity, while the ultra-conservatives find TV to have a liberal bias with its slight engagement with issues of homosexuality or its attacks on isolated corporate misdeeds. Yet television, especially with cable diversification, is about audiences rather than ideas or even difference.

In the 1980s, the introduction of cable TV challenged the dominance of the three national networks. New broadcast networks—FOX, Warner Brothers, UPN and Pax— added further competition to the traditional three. Increasingly, the mass audience became more of a targeted, niche audience where the industry seeks the most disposable income. CBS’ Murder She Wrote (CBS, 1984–97) for example, had impressive ratings, but since its demographics were mainly older, the show was cancelled. In the 1990s, shows geared towards a young audience dominated. At the same time, one of the top shows, Seinfeld, never attracted a minority audience. Both NAACP and La Raza have challenged major networks to include minority characters in their sitcom line-ups at the end of the century while worrying that other networks have become new ghettos.

Television has also been agglomerated into ever larger corporations. Of the three surviving early networks, NBC is owned by GE, CBS by Viacom and ABC by Disney New technological developments like Web/ interactive TV and HDTV will probably not so much change television as offer more sophisticated delivery systems. Television will still be contained in the home. The multiple-TV home, VCRs and the ability for the new technologies to allow more self-selection may encourage more individualized home entertainment. Yet, the development of HDTV would not only mean sharper pictures for the consumers, it would also effectively eliminate the development of small networks because of the prohibitive investment involved.