Abstract:

This thesis is an attempt to explore the ways in which television, as a communications medium, has functioned as a cultural form in America and how it has operated to produce and maintain an ever-evolving and culturally specific hegemonic discourse. Utilizing a historical and materialist approach, the paper discusses television's role as a socializing force in the context of the Gramscian concept of hegemony and the cultural studies tradition. The paper moves from the postwar American culture of the 1950's to the greatly differing 1970's to highlight how television operates within a hegemonic framework and how this framework was both developed and maintained. What can be gained through reading this thesis is a better understanding of the specific way that the hegemonic discourse of television functions to focus public attention and respond to it at the same time. Furthermore, this thesis offers the reader a thorough history of television in America.