The Meaning of Memory - George Lipsitz

Recap: George Lipsitz discusses the history of the television in American culture. He goes into the evolution of the advertisement and how it related to the show it was shown during. Also, what effects this had on the American culture at the time. The unwritten aspects of how the broadcasters and paid advertisers set in motion the way we would evolve with the television in just about every household.

Comment: The way the history of the TV has been played out it almost appears to have been a plot by the manufacturers to use it only for the placement of their products. Knowing that it was just the next direction of technology development as a medium of communications only makes the mystique even greater for the continuation of the next generation of media. Another interesting idea is that while the creators of television didn’t have an idea that it would be used to sell products quite like it has been. In Lipsitz descriptions of some of the historical aspects it comes across to me as a sort of subliminal advertising being created by the manufacturers in how they have been able to integrate their products into the shows and this then sets the plan in motion to effect the society as a whole. Who is to say that women wouldn’t have had a better chance to move into a more equalized society if the TV had not been invented. It is possible that the television media created the environment that we now live in. Advertiser target specific race and genders all the time to focus on what they wish to sell. I suppose this could be looked as carried over from the new paper media or even the old Sears catalog. There have been many references over the years to someone being able to buy something out of the Sears catalog and this reference to being a more affluent person in society. Over all the television has placed the family, no matter what race or ethnicity, into the place they are now. We all generally look to the television and what they show as reflections of how our society is now.