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Emergence of Television as a Mass Media

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Emergence of Television as a Mass Media
“The emergence of television as a mass medium of communication was much more important in improving leisure opportunities for ordinary people. Than were any other 20th century developments in the media how far do you agree with this judgement as applied to the growth of leisure opportunities in Britain during the course of the 20th century as a whole?”

Since the beginning of the twentieth century and before the media has been a principle tenant of British culture, the leisure time and expendable income of the British public has grown in unison with the media empire which facilitates it. I will analyse newspaper, radio, cinema, technology and television, which will be analysed last as to compare it to the other mediums of media in an easier fashion. The culture of media and its effect on leisure arose from higher wages for fewer hours, even for the semi and no skilled manual labourers. This is supported by the fact that the average weekly wage went up from 69 pounds in 1913 to 370 pounds in 1991. As the wages increased so did the media options, the radio because very accessible, the television entered the stage and gained a dominant stance when it became easily acquired. The newspapers increased and tabloids appealed to the working classes, the cinema enjoyed huge popularity during the interwar and post war periods and even though dipping, still enjoys moderate success through the new found analysis of film with critics etc and finally the computer and internet entered as the last in the twentieth century to revolutionise, modernise and dominate the nineties.

This increase in leisure and media affected the average person as now they had more options and work was not totally dominate as it was during the early twentieth century that work was the principle activity. Now with the new leisure cinema, radio, television and newspaper replaced family time because of their new status and the honeymoon type feeling of new options and maybe families became less close and

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