The Citizen Machine: Governing by Television in 1950s America

Original title: The Citizen Machine: Governing by Television in 1950s America
Language: English
Year of publication: 2010
Publisher: The New Press
Number of pages: 352
ISBN: 9781595584984
CDF cataloguing: E821 Publications in other languages than Czech or Slovak
Call number: E821/1201/MCC
Subject headings: Média; Televize; USA; Společnost; politika

In the fascinating and revealing political history of television´s formative years, media historian Anna McCarthy goes behind the scenes of early television, bringing back into view an entire era of civic-minded programming. Much of it seems clumsy or hackneyed in retrospect, but this world of civic TV helped new ideas of American citizenship take shape.
Based on pathbreaking archival work, the book poses entirely new questions about the political significance of television. At a time when TV broadcasting is in a state of crisis, and when a new political movement for media reform has ascended the political stage, here is an original and thought-provoking history of the ideas and assumptions that have profoundly shaped not only television, but our understanding of American citizenship itself.