Television and Politics

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses the impact that television has on American society, and especially in the field of politics. This includes how television is used as a means to celebrate America's positive qualities, such as in the aftermath of World War II. The paper explains how television has influenced politics in America, with examples such as the famous debate between Richard M. Nixon and John Fitzgerald Kennedy in the 1950s. It also mentions how television has a direct effect on women's perceptions of themselves and of what they desire in a politician. The paper further discusses the rise in acceptance of Freudian psychoanalysis and the "dumbing" down of knowledge received through the television. It concludes that television has led to the start of the erosion of political intelligence in the American public.

Introduction
Truth in Broadcasting
Coming to You 'Live' from the Universe
Freud and the American Political Animal
Lifting Up or Dumbing Down?
Women and Broadcasting
Changing a Way of Life
Works Cited

From the Paper:

" Until the advent of commercial television in the United States in the early 1950s, political campaigns in this country depended on newspapers, magazines and radio shows to reach the American people, and town hall meetings were still used as well, arguably for more than the 'photo ops' they provide to TV news crews these days. Anyone who was treated to the 'dueling banjos' of the last presidential campaign, in which the 'fight songs' of Bush and Kerry were played in endless counterpoint on every TV station in the nation, must wonder how much TV had changed politics, making the entire event into a media circus rather than what it once is rumored to have been, an exchange of ideas about how best to continue the great experiment that is American democracy."

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