Suburbanization and the Social Use of Television :: Television Media TV Essays

Suburbanization and the Social Use of TelevisionThe 1950s can be seen as a sentence of unprecedented family values, in which young, white, middle-income nuclear families arrived en masse in the pre-planned community living areas of suburbia. In the term Joyride, Kunstler identifies the reasons for, and attraction of, a grand normal relocation to previously uninhabited areas remote main city centres. Kunstler argues that it was, in part, the replacement of the streetcar (or trolley), and later the automobile, from the horse-powered transit of earlier 20th century life, that combust weekend traffic to expand outside urban centres. Joyriding on weekends, as Kunstler explains, made suburban areas more accessible and attractive. Suburban areas often hosted various family attractions (such as amusement parks) in which families could experience safe, clean entertainment while being removed from the chaos of the city. Two factors encouraged this weekending family behaviour (1) with the introduction of the electric trolley, passengers could trip up any distance at a flat rate cheaper than old horse-drawn methods and (2) automobiles were greatly subsidized after their initial introduction, thus promoting the number of middle-class car owners. Both these factors brought large-scale transit outside of the city, making the suburbs more accessible and demanding the development of suburban communities. This major development, as described in Lynn Spiegels article The Suburban Home Companion, was largely driven by the concept of suburbia as a safe, clean environment (free from undesirables such as blacks and lower-income families) in which families could experience both an increased private and community life. This separation, Spiegel says, is what opened the opportunity for TV success. As nuclear suburban families desired to experience the outside world (including travel, unusual voyages etc.), they were also trapped in a homogenous communities where life was mundane, and immense pressure was put on each family in these middling tale towns to keep up with, and out-do, next door neighbours, and produce a consistently stable and satisfied appearance. As this suburban sprawl of the fifties took the States by storm, Spiegel discusses how television provided a necessary means of escapism for frustrated families. The first television show, broadcast in 1949, was a very simple program in which a man and woman sit watching and discussing the TV. Although by todays standards this would be seen as unsurpassingly boring to audiences, this simple show provided a dialect relief and easy entertainment it seemed as though audiences enjoyed watching programs which, similar to their own situation, seemed more rewarding.