10. ELECTRONIC HEARTH

LISTEN TO GUIDED AUDIO TOUR

The marketing of television was immensely successful in the 1950s. It was aimed primarily at middle-class households – in its design as household furniture, in its promotion as a family-oriented enhancer of domestic life and in the kinds of programming that the networks provided.

As television established a presence in the home, it began to alter patterns of family life and routine more powerfully than had radio. It was becoming, in a sense, a new member of the household.

It was in this period that television began to position itself as a significant creator of mass culture in North America, especially for children.

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