Overview
During the early 1960s, the "golden age" of network documentary, commercial television engaged in one of the most ambitious public education efforts in U.S. history as all three networks dramatically expanded their documentary programming. Promoted by government leaders, funded by broadcasters, and hailed by critics, these documentaries sought to mobilize public opinion behind a more activist policy of U.S. leadership around the globe. The programs also were part of an explicit effort to make the "vast wasteland" of prime-time television live up to its vaunted potential to educate, inform, and enlighten. After more than a decade as the nations' ship window, television in the early 1960s promised to become the viewer's window on to the Free World, a world that President John F. Kennedy described as being full of promise and peril.By tracing the multiple and shifting relations between the government, the TV industry, and viewers, Michael Curtin explains how the most commercially unprofitable genre in television history became the most celebrated and controversial form of programming during the New Frontier era. This book is an important contribution to our understanding of how television mediates powerful social forces and will be indispensable to anyone interested in media studies and the history of the Cold War period."Redeeming the Wasteland... sheds new light on the 'golden age' of television documentary. Through original documents, it brings to life the decision-making process that shaped... television news at the height of the Cold War." - Daniel Hallin, Professor of Communication, University of California, San Diego, and author of "The Uncensored War: the Media and Vietnam."
"Through a brilliant orchestration of institutional analysis, social history, textual criticism, and audience reaction, Michael Curtin offers a provocative new look at television's role in reporting the turbulent world events of the 1960s." - Lynn Spigel, author of "Make Room for TV: and the Family Ideal in Postwar America."
Author Bio: Michael Curtin teaches in the Department of Telecommunications and is director of the Cultural Studies Program at Indiana University. He is co-editor of the forthcoming anthology "Sixties Television and Social Transition."