Connecting the Dots

     A life without radios and television would be a very different one. That is something I think we can all agree on. Although majority of people listen to music on the radio and watch TV, very few of them have any idea how this became the reality. I was one of these people prior to our lesson on broadcast journalism. I had no idea that without the radio, the basic teenager would not exist. Mr. Miller went into great detail on this lesson, uncovering more and more information that slowly connected the dots for me. This lesson was presented in a timeline format, which was not quite as impactful, but once we dug deeper into the consequences of TV, I didn't want the class to end.


    The radio was everything during the 1920s. It was how people listened to music, stories or plays, radio shows, the news, and so much more. The radio was the worlds TVs, until the Golden Age, when the incredible television took the world by storm. Why listen to the radio when you can watch and listen to almost anything you wanted? All of the talent decided to switch to the television business where people could actually see their faces. It was then that radio lost advertisers, money, and listeners. It was also then that I began to think about how this changed society.


      As TVs started appearing in every household, the demassification of radios began. The radio business decided to target a niche audience, and only played music and talk shows. They targeted rock and roll music that created rebellious 13-17 year olds who greased their hair and had wild parties. They created the teenager. I can't imagine a world without this generation or the consequences that TV had on it. People were so fascinated by this new life-like technology that they believed the world they saw on the screen. This may be a reason that everyone thinks the world has so much violence and needs to be made "great again." In my opinion, the world is already great, containing students that need the television and possibly the radio to become what they have always dreamt of, whether that is an actor, a reporter, a politician, or someone who works for a business in need of advertising.