ShmoopTube

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information and communication television is done way more than wrought

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a few brains here and there it's also taught us all to fear White Walkers it [white walker raising a spear]

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was scary oh and it also totally remodeled our

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entire culture and society so kind of a big deal yeah one major area where TV

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has had a huge impact is in politics believe it or not there was a time when [camera man taking a photo outside the white house]

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politicians faces weren't clogging up the TV all day long before 1960

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Americans only saw their political leaders in occasional newspaper photos

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those were the good old days for ugly politicians in the TV era however looks [a politician receiving a makeover]

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really matters and beyond analyzing a politician's look we also micro analyze

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every single gesture and facial expression and we need to find a better

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hobby knitting perhaps in the TV era we can see our politicians all the time one

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[group of people watching tv] of the best examples of the power of TV in politics is the first televised

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presidential debate in history the contenders John F Kennedy and Richard

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and Nixon almost agreed that JFK totally killed it but not necessarily because he

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was great debater nope many say that a major factor was that Kennedy was [Kennedy brushing his hair]

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good-looking he was young handsome and smooth as a baby's bottom Nixon on the

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other hand looks like a hot mess he was sweaty nervous and had a 5 o'clock

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shadow about four or five o'clock shadows were considered rugged and a

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[map of the United States] country was like no way are we gonna vote for some weird troll man well from

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that point on politicians took TV and their image on it seriously

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of course politics isn't the only area where TV is made a huge impact how about [TV showing adverts]

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advertising yep remember how magazines and newspapers made visual advertising a

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thing well they were nothing compared to TV ads which became a ginormous part of

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television today the average person living in the city might see 5000 ads [a man relaxing in a chair watching TV]

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per day 5000 per day well TV also gives us a good vision of

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what our lives should be like it shows us a fictional reality that can

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seriously influence our actual reality by defining the way we think things

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should be well this hasn't always positive thing especially in the early [buff guy stood in a hall]

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television history when the only reality they showed on screen was the straight

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white male dominated American reality even today women only have about 30% of

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the speaking roles on screen and the racial makeup of TV world yeah that [bald man standing behind a buff guy]

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doesn't match up with real diversity either on TVs like a giant mirror except

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[lots of people stood by a giant mirror] a weird one where not everyone is reflected though somewhat ironically this

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giant mirrors does show a lot of vampires so there's that [woman dressed as a vampire in front of a giant mirror]

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