The emergence of television as a mass medium of communication was the key turning point in improving leisure opportunities for the ordinary people of Britain - How far do you agree with this judgement?

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"The emergence of television as a mass medium of communication was the key turning point in improving leisure opportunities for the ordinary people of Britain" How far do you agree with this judgement?

I believe the emergence of television as a mass communication medium was the key turning point in improving the leisure opportunities for the ordinary people of Britain. I believe this turning point was not its first broadcast in 1936 but the introduction of ITV in 1956. I think television is only just the most important factor, there are other factors that also had a large effect on improving leisure opportunities for the ordinary people. Other reasons why leisure opportunities have improved are: increasing income, a reduction in working hours, the development of the cinema, improvements in education and the invention of youth culture. I interpret the 'ordinary people of Britain' as the working and lower-middle classes because this definition encompasses the majority of the British population.

British television broadcasting began in 1936. Initially there was only the one channel run by the BBC (British Broadcasting Company) so there was no choice of what to watch and the reception was not very good at all. The Director-General of the BBC John Reith fully intended television to follow in the footsteps of radio, in the sense that he wished it to be used to educate the masses. The emphasis was not at all with providing the ordinary people with their programming preferences, but with attempting to educate them in the areas of politics, history and high culture. To begin with very few ordinary people could afford a television and the necessary license. The 30s and 40s were not a time of economic prosperity for Britain, the whole world was suffering the after-effects of the great depression. As a result ordinary people had little money to spare to spend on luxury items like a television set. By 1950 there were still only 1 in 50 households with a television set. A television set could reach not only its owners, but also their neighbours who might well visit to admire and share in this piece of new technology. However, through the first 15 years of television's existence it's expensive price and little choice of programmes meant most ordinary people's leisure opportunities weren't affected.

Television broadcasting was halted for the duration of the Second World War. During this period radio was forced to branch away from Reith's initial intentions. No longer could it be a medium aimed at satisfying the comfortable middle classes. It was important that it became a source of morale for the ordinary people of Britain. The radio began to broadcast the 'Forces Programme' specifically aimed at providing this new working class audience with material that they enjoyed listening too. This was a very important turning point in terms of providing ordinary people with better leisure opportunities. For the first time the preferences of the ordinary people were being considered. However, the amount of material being made available to the working classes still remained fairly limited. This change in approach continued after the war and by the early 50s began to cross over into television. This caused television ownership to increase dramatically. The 50s were a time of high employment and economic prosperity. Ordinary people had a greater disposable income. In 1950, 42,400 television sets were being sold each month and by 1955 the number had increased to 140,500. The introduction of I.T.V. in 1956 had a dramatic effect on sending television down the route of providing viewers with what they wanted to watch. This was when the changes that had begun to occur in radio in the war finally fully came into fruition in the medium of television. The introduction of a second channel ended twenty years of BBC monopoly and created competition for viewers. This meant providing greater range and quality of entertainment for the ordinary people of Britain.
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Throughout the 60s and 70s television went through what has been labelled a 'golden age'. A range of new programmes began to burst onto the scene. There were satirical programmes such as 'That Was the Week That Was', soap operas like 'Coronation Street' depicting everyday working class life and situation comedies like 'Steptoe and Son'. Television had begun to reflect the daily lives of ordinary people and therefore supply a service that could be enjoyed by the common public. There was also the introduction of a third channel, BBC 2, in 1964, an alternative to the mainstream entertainment ...

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