In the 1950s, TV became the fifth mass media and began to shift and change the other media. In some cases, the new media completely cannibalized features of the old. For example, newsreels (short news documentaries) were played in movie theaters until TV news shows took over. Can you imagine going to the movie theater today to find out what is going on in the world? Today, in the time it takes to get in your car and drive to the theater, you can find dozens of news channels on TV for the news. TV also changed how we consumed content: We watched instead of listened.
Because there were only a few channels to watch and only one TV per household, families watched the same shows together at the same time. Advertising on network TV was successful because only a few brands were available for consumers and a large percentage of the population saw the advertising. As a teenager in the 1980s, I witnessed the birth of MTV and heard dire predictions about TV finally killing off radio. While the widespread use of TV changed how we focus on radio (we listen while we’re at work or in the car, and families certainly don’t gather around to hear a radio show), it did not wipe radio off the face of the planet. And video did not kill the radio star as the first song played on MTV suggested. But it did change how someone became a star; music videos became the fastest road to stardom, not radio play.
TV shifted the other media but didn’t really bring anything new to the table. Video images already existed in the cinema; TV changed where these images were viewed. Broadcast already existed with radio; TV just switched the broadcast from audio-only to a multimedia experience of audio and video. Even so, TV dominates the mass media. With the advances in technology, such as high-definition TV and flat-screen TV monitors, it is clear that this media is squeezing cinema even more. We can sit at home on a cozy couch and watch a movie with the family instead of going to the theater and sitting in a cold room with strangers who may talk through the entire movie. (At least you can tell your own family at home to shush.) I can see a future without movie theaters at all. Drive-ins are already gone, but that’s another story.
