The Effect That Television Has on Culture

The 'system of producing onscreen images of distant objects and events by electromagnetic radiation' (Oxford, 1992:111) or as it's more commonly referred to as 'television', is the most widely used mass media form in Australia and in the world. Television is one of our most important means of communication. It brings moving pictures and sounds from around the world into millions of people's homes. In Britain in 1950, '10% of homes had T.V sets'. (Thompson, 1997: 28,41) Today, about '99% of Australians own at least one television set and, on average, they spend over 20 hours a week...watching television programs' (Cunningham & Turner, 2002:173) The sheer amount of time that TV occupies in people's lives points to it's importance, so it's bound to have it's affects on culture as well as be affected by it.
Many scientists contributed to the development of television, so no one person can be called its inventor. …