Description
Take a typical day in the average American household and you'll find a television set that's been turned on for six or seven hours. Watching television has become a national pastime that the Harris poll ranks in influence ahead of organized religion, the Supreme Court, and the military.
Barry Cole has chosen and written introductions to some sixty-five articles from TV Guide that address the important questions people are asking about contemporary television. Covering subjects that are as diverse as television itself, the articles range from discussions by Arnold Toynbee and Daniel Boorstin on television and society to David Brinkley's criteria for television newsworthiness and Isaac Asimov's and Alvin Toffler's predictions for the effect of television on the future.
Television Today reveals who watches television; what the ratings are- and if they are valid; the truth about TV news coverage the main source of news for two-thirds of the population; who decides what programs appear: to what extent TV sex and violence affect society; and if the new television technology is really taking us into a "video revolution" with a future of unlimited choice. ISBN:9780195027990
