Some Observations on the Social Effects of Television

DURING the summer of 1948, the Columbia Broadcasting System and Rutgers University entered into a joint continuing project to study and document the social consequences of television ownership in a middle-sized Eastern city. This paper reports some of the findings from the first phase of the project. The most recent additions to the TV audience are being contributed by the lower socio-economic level; TV in exerting an apparent over-all effect on other leisure time activities, although this result may be misleading since the impact is not uniform for various segments of the audience; to young children television is not a substitue activity but something over and above the regular activity patterns. Finally, there is evidence that television is responsible for new family interests and widened circles of friends. The authors are members of the Department of Sociology at Rutgers, Chairman and Research Associates, respectively.