used and the content presented Many of the program genres popular today from soap operas to detective stories to family comedies started with radio Movies also influenced how stories are told and the visual tools used to tell them Even politics have played a part with government funding and regulations controlling how the television industry grew In the early days of television it was viewed as a savior of culture It would make society better by teaching people about the world and bringing quality entertainment directly into family homes A few years later the true nature of television became clear It was primarily a way to provide mainstream How Much Television Although children and teenagers are often accused of watching too much television viewing rates are actually dropping among young adults In addition statistics show older adults watch more television than teenagers Nielsen a company that measures television audiences reported in 2014 that Americans aged 18 to 24 were watching slightly less than 22 hours of traditional television each week This continued a downward trend dropping approximately 4 5 hours compared to three years before It is possible teenagers and young adults who are watching less television are watching DVDs or playing video games instead In contrast television watching increased among people age 50 and older Those above age 65 spend an average of almost 48 hours watching television each week 2 8
their name because they were often sponsored by the manufacturers of household cleaning Soap operas got products entertainment and sell products for the advertisers who paid for the shows Still television developed as a cultural art form experimenting with new genres new storytelling techniques and new ways to entertain Television also educates the public exploring issues through fiction and nonfiction programs and bringing news from around the world This helps reveal the full diversity of our world Combining Cultures Television is an example of the way technology and society intertwine For example television news does not always cover the most important nationwide events Instead it may focus on the most visual In 1949 three-year-old Kathy Fiscus fell into a well in Los Angeles California A local television station joined the print and radio reporters covering the story Rescue efforts lasted more than 50 hours and more than half of those were shown live on television People gathered around television sets in store windows and at neighbors 9
Thanks to apps such as Netflix viewers can now experience television and movies on the go homes to watch the story unfold At the same time another girl drowned in a fishpond at home Yet few people followed her story It had little effect because it didn’t play out on television Today decades later our understanding of the world is filtered through what plays well on television In the beginning television brought people together through shared entertainment Because people had few choices of what to watch they could expect their neighbors classmates and coworkers had seen the same 10
shows Over the years new systems of distribution developed from cable to satellite to the Internet This allows access to many more stations and a much greater variety of programming This diversity has helped people find small communities of shared interests In response to the changing technology television programming changed both reflecting and influencing culture New methods of watching television also arose with viewers moving away from the traditional television set and watching shows on computers and phones This is changing the very definition of what it means to watch television THE FACE OF TELEVISION TODAY Fifty years ago watching television meant sitting in front of a television set and watching programs provided by the three networks National Broadcasting Company NBC American Broadcasting Company ABC and Columbia Broadcasting System CBS Then cable and later satellite offered more choices from new networks and cable stations Today televisions are also used for watching DVDs and playing video games Streaming on-demand companies such as Netflix and Hulu can be watched on a television set a computer or a phone The history of television has had a wide impact both positive and negative particularly on the United States and US culture throughout the last century 11
