American Television & Society

 

*A Brief Historical Overview: Motion Pictures & Television

 

To better understand American television and its impact on society, we must first learn a few fun facts.

 

 The road to motion pictures began when a German inventor created the T.V. Along with the T.V, a few other important inventions were the Zoopraxiscope invented in 1867, the Kinectoscope invented in 1891, and the Vitascope invented in 1895.

 

Early Cinema in America, began with the Lumire brothers. The Lumire brothers were Auguste and Louis. They made the first film to have ever been depicted in a theater. This film is called "Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat". This motion picture was filmed in 1895 but premiered in 1896. The film was just a few seconds long, but highly impacted its audience. This is because the audience watched a train coming towards them; everyone panicked and ran out of the theater believing that they were about to get run over by the train. This visual medium seemed so real to the people that they couldn't distinguish fiction from reality.

 

  In the book "The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects" by Marshall McLuhan, we learn where the saying "seeing is believing" comes from. Marshall McLuhan states that "most people find it difficult to understand purely verbal concepts. They suspect the ear; they don't trust it. In general we feel more secure when things are visible, when we can "see for ourselves." We admonish children, for instance, to "believe only half of what they see, and nothing of what they hear." All kinds of "shorthand" systems of notation have been developed to help us see what we hear."   

 

  A great example of this is the first Kennedy vs. Nixon debate in 1960. The debate was broadcasted on television as well as on the radio for the first time in American history. Those who watched the debate on T.V believed that Kennedy won the debate. However, those who listened to the debate over the radio believed that Nixon had won the debate. Television had a high impact on the American people for many reasons during this debate. The main reason was body language. Kennedy looked confident as he spoke, having direct eye contact with the interviewers and it helped to his advantage that he was tall and handsome. While on the other hand Nixon was an older man who was battling a severe flu at the time, which explained why he seemed so nervous and tremendously sweating the entire time.

 

* * * * * *

 

 Television and American society took reading to a whole other level. Reading was the activity to do back in the day. But the invention of motion pictures and television changed the attitudes and practices of the American people.  By 1971, most families had a T.V. Soon people began to have more than one television in their home, and eventually demanding bigger screens. Instead of reading individually, the new norm became seeing whole families gather around in the living room to watch T.V together. Movie theaters also became the event to go to, but only if you could afford it in the 1920's before The Great Depression.

 

Motion pictures and television in American society impacted people in history and continues to impact us today. We have come far along with television and motion pictures since the 1900's. Can you think of any other example that proves how far along we have come as a Digital Age society in television/motion pictures?