Spectrum Fall 1998 Mirroring Society TV unifies us all Americans spend most of their leisure time watching television, according to a study by Economics Prof. Dora Costa. And even though many Americans say they hate TV, they spend most of their free time watching it. One reason, Costa says, is because we work so much, TV is all we have energy for. There are more TV sets in the U.S. than toilets.
TV is the most popular appliance in the history of the world.
David Thorburn, professor of literature and director of the MIT Communications Forum, has taught an MIT course in American television since 1976. TV, he says, mirrors society. It sustains an ongoing dialogue about family, gender, religion, and race, telling the stories that define our values and assumptions. TV is a forum that dramatizes and facilitates cultural change. But if they watch hundreds of hours of situation comedy over a course of years, they may come to accept changed gender roles and new ideas about the structure of families.