HIST390

Professor O’Malley talked about radio broadcast being scarce and how TV followed a similar pattern to the radio. Television began to appear in homes in the late 40s and in most cities, there were probably only 6-10 TV channels available. TV was scarce in the sense that there were only four national stations: ABC, MBC, CBS. There were regulations for example, we compared how to be able to fly, a license must be obtained by the FAC and radios also had to obtain a license to broadcast through the FCC and these forced TV stations to also get licenses. Such regulations in tv included: unable to show obscene images/scenes. For example, not showing a woman and man sleeping in the same bed as tv was abstain and it had to speak to everybody. To avoid censorship, The National Association Radio and Television Broadcaster set up its own codes.
We learned about the regulation such as the presentation of cruelty, criminality shall be presented as undesirable and unsympathetic, the presentation of techniques of a crime in such details as to imitation shall be avoided, law enforcement shall be upheld, etc… These regulations have changed over time as now a day we see tv shows and movies showing scenes doing the opposite of these regulations. There is showing of crimes, robbery, terrorism, violence, sex and other not so desirable scenes. I think it’s even safe to say that shows like this have a higher rating and it’s what the audience like and expect to see. Also, since the broadcast was scarce it makes sense to avoid obscene content. Such scenes could have an influence on the audience/society. As we saw on YouTube, The Jade Helm 15 conspiracy, the audience actually believed the false information. False accusations can lead to unfortunate situations like the one in Comet Ping Pong Pizza where Edgar Maddison Welch of Salisbury NC drove up to DC with a semi-automatic rifle, walked into the store and fired three shots into the ceiling because he believed there was a child sex ring in the basement, which was not true, and he did not find any evidence of it.