Response #2 - Ch. 23

Ellyn Gary                                                                             Reading Response 2 – Ch. 23

            Chapter 23 was titled “The Media in Transition” 1945-1974.  It covered the changes that occurred during this time in newspaper, magazines, and especially television.  Television had a tremendous effect on the U.S. from the way Americans obtained their news, to politics, wars, civil rights, and other newsworthy events.

            This chapter was very informative, but it did have a few weaknesses.  I feel that it could have been broken up into two separate chapters.  The first could have been about television’s effects on the other mediums, like newspapers, magazines and radio.  The other chapter could have focused on television’s tremendous effect on events during this time period.  By doing this, it would have been able to give a few more details on some of the topics that it just touched on.

            The chapter briefly discussed how presidents and presidential hopefuls tried and sometimes succeeded in using television to their advantage during their campaigns and time in office.  The Kennedy-Nixon debates are some of the most memorable and most talked about in history.  The biggest reason for this is probably because they were the first to be televised.  Past debates were only broadcast on radio.  The televised debates showed how important the visual element was to the American public.  It has been said many times how put together and calm Kennedy looked throughout the debate, which obviously worked to his advantage.  The book also mentioned how he had the ability to speak to the audience in a non-condescending was.  It has been said on many occasions how Nixon was the complete opposite in the televised debates.  He looked very nervous and uncollected, especially compared to Kennedy.  Nixon was also sweating, which compared to Kennedy’s good looks, did not help him.  The book pointed out that the people who watched the debates clearly thought that Kennedy had won, while on the other hand the people who had listened to it on the radio thought that Nixon had won.  This came as a surprise to me.  Given the fact that the book had just mentioned how Kennedy’s speaking style of not being condescending, but being informative and getting his point across was one of his strengths, I was surprised to hear this.  Since this came as a shock to me, I wish that Sloan (the author) had spent some time explaining why the people who had heard it on the radio thought that Nixon had won, given the background and what has generally been said about the 1960 presidential debate.

            Another area that I wish Sloan had expanded on was a part of the Vietnam War that he talked about.  He mentioned the monk that had set himself on fire and the naked six-year-old Vietnamese girl who was photographed as she ran from American bombs.  He touched on how significant these photos were in the conflict on supporting the Vietnam War among the American people.  Personally, I wouldn’t have understood this as much, if we hadn’t already discussed these photos in my visual communication class, last semester.  I feel that Sloan could have been a little more clear on the effects of these photos, and not just left it to one sentence.