How far did developments in the mass media in the 1960’s promote cultural change? In the 1960’s, mass media improved and expanded greatly due to the scientific developments being made at the time and media became a much greater part of people’s lives than it ever had been before.
The power of television, radio, newspapers and magazines had a huge influence on the way people lived in the 60’s and the expansion of mass media was the starting point to creating a modern Britain which would revolve around technology.In the 1960’s, the introduction of the colour TV had a huge impact on people’s lives. Suddenly, families could afford to buy a TV and they no longer needed to go out for their entertainment- it was at home. By 1967, nine in ten homes owed a TV and 97% of adults watched at least 12 hours of TV a week. It was new, exciting and appealed to everyone because now people could watch a huge range of different, colour programmes.
The news became increasingly important because now it was different and fascinating: because the entire family would congregate to watch the TV it was bringing them together and giving them a common subject to discuss. There was now a common subject amongst people of all classes and the social divide between people was now lessened due to the wide availability of the TV. However, it could be argued that the TV also had a negative effect on people’s lives: the attendance to the cinema and live sporting or theatre events decreased rapidly as the TV was an easy release from boredom.Although it did bring families together, the quality of their bonding time was now lessened because they were sat watching the TV without conversing as they had before and TV dinners had a huge effect on families sitting down together to eat a meal. Now that the TV was the main source of news and entertainment, huge advertising campaigns were launched which fuelled consumerism and tempted audiences into buying their goods.
The televisions share of advertising rose from 3. 5% in 1956 to 24. % in 1975; the TV also cast a shadow on other forms of media which exploited the potential and power of the TV. Newspapers and magazines were forced to adapt now that they weren’t the centre of news and entertainment.
They focused on selling stories which would comment on the events shown on the TV and also were compulsory in charging the huge obsession with celebrities and stars that the TV had created. Magazines were created to cover “hot topics” such as fashion, music, teenage interests and celebrities; these glossy magazines fed into the public’s desire to know xactly what was happening the world of celebrity and played a huge part in creating a British public who were obsessed with their appearance and style. The number of serious, quality newspapers such as the Guardian were reduced and made way for these new, psychedelic and visual magazines and newspapers. Another form of media which changed to keep up with the pace of the 60’s was the radio.
The TV had replaced the radio as the news and entertainment centre of the home, but new technology meant that the radio was now portable, cheap and could be installed in the car.Now that young people could own their own radio, new stations were created to appeal to different audiences and still broadcast when TV channels were shut down. Radio was played a central part in encouraging the music movement of the 60’s and Radio Luxemburg was the first station to be entirely devoted to playing pop music and pirate radio stations such as Radio Caroline emerged and offered musical freedom to not just youth, but the entire population. Most of the sample had heard Caroline at some time but roughly one-fifth were identified as Caroline 'addicts' They are predominantly young people, half of them being teenagers and over 70% of them under 30 years of age. Addiction to Caroline is uncommon amongst 3O-50 year-olds and very rare indeed amongst people over 50 but it is just as likely to occur amongst males as amongst females. Music was right at the heart of the youth revolution and it created the opportunity for teenagers to idolize musicians, turn their bedrooms into shrines for them and get completely caught up in movements such as Beatlemania; the importance of music changed forever and indefinitely: “Music emerged during the 1960s as the language of the Boomer generation, establishing its identity and distinguishing it from its elders.
The new music expressed the pent-up frustration and utopian idealism of the young in a language that most adults could not understand. Overall, the expansion and development of mass media in Britain had a large influence on the public. The wide availability of technology such as TV and radio, and the new angle that newspapers and journalism had taken led to a new age which embraced freedom and offered more information into news and opened a door into the world of celebrity and fashion. You could argue however, that this in turn created a British public which were more easily influenced and reliant on the media. The expansion of mass media did change people’s lives, because people changed their lives to revolve around it and onsequently routine and values were altered.
The revolution of the sixties was based around Britain being modernized and fashionable, therefore having the new technology and being up to date with the latest trends and news became the thing to do; this was recognized and the expansion of mass media enhanced, encouraged and even exploited this. Although there were many other factors which promoted cultural change, such as scientific and political developments, all of these were involved with, included in or were reported by mass media.
