The following is the interview I did with my grandparents and my own response to their answers as well as my answers to the questionnaire.
1. Interview your grandparents by asking them the following questions. Ask them to think back to when they were your age or younger for their answers.
A. Family
1. What was the most important medium in the household?
Radio mostly.
2. How many televisions were in the house and who controlled them?
One TV in our late teen years. Parental control.
3. Were their viewing rules? Restrictions on kids?
Limited viewing allowed. Restrictions were less important because programming was family oriented.
4. Did family members ever read books or magazines to one another?
Yes.
5. Did family members listen to radio or music together?
Yes, very often. This offered better family togetherness than television did later.
B. Politics
1. Where did people get most of their information about political campaigns?
Newspapers, radio and movie news.
2. Did they go to political events, such as rallies, speeches, or meetings?
No.
3. Can they remember any political ads? If so, what sticks out in their minds about those ads? Images? Negativity?
"I like Ike" buttons and JFK posters.
4. Do they have any strong memories about news coverage of nominating conventions,
Primarily of the Kennedy / Nixon conventions.
the campaign,
No strong recollections.
or election returns?
Newspapers mistakenly announced Dewey was the winner over Truman in 1948. Also the surprise JFK win in 1960.
C. Religion
1. Did they used to listen to religious programs on the radio or watch them on television?
Occasionally. Billy Graham
2. What was their opinion of religious leaders at the time?
Major religious leaders were respected generally. Radio evangelists not so much.
3. Do they feel that religion has changed in the past several decades? If so, do they think the media had any influence?
The perception of religion has definitely changed over the last several decades. Media has been very influential in that it has exposed the fraudulent behavior of the charlatans, leading people to question all religious leaders. The media also has fostered unwholesome behavior as a normal reference for those who are inclined to accept it's precepts. Having said that......"True Religion", being a personal thing, has not really changed much.
~
I thought it was interesting to read the answers that my grandparents gave me about the time when they were my age and the certain sorts of media that they encountered. I was particularly intrigued by the political ads answer. I don’t even remember learning much about Eisenhower in school, but one of the political ads was the “I Like Ike” button. I wasn’t surprised about the JFK poster, but I think that’s because growing up, especially growing up in Massachusetts where JFK was from, I was used to seeing and hearing about his life and his presidency on the news. “Camelot” was what the White House was called when JKK was in residence at the White House. I think growing up in Massachusetts there was a lot of pride in the fact that JFK was from our state. And that might’ve contributed to me hearing a lot about him in my youth.
I find that I’m also not surprised to read that my grandparents heard religion in the house more. It was expected more back then. I was not surprised that my grandparents found that TV was more family oriented, that is one thing that I find unfortunate about modern programming. It’s a lot of the same reality show crap that really isn’t reality, or it’s cliché drama. There are probably one or two programs that I do watch on primetime television, like Smallville and the occasional CSI Miami. I enjoy PBS specials much more. I like the history stuff and documentaries on how things started. What someone’s life was like. To me, that’s reality television.
The most important medium in my household growing up was television: black and white and then color. There were two televisions at one point: a little black and white one and a color when they could finally afford it. When my parents and I moved away from my grandparents house, we only had one television and it was a color one. Mom and Dad controlled them. We were only supposed to have two or three hours at most of television a day, but that changed when we got older. My parents definitely read books to us. We had reading time almost every night until I was about seven or eight. We would listen to music and radio a lot when I was younger. My mom had country music on the most and then I was allowed to listen to Disney CDs mostly. There was a PBS show called A Prairie Home Companion hosted by Garrison Keillior. My mom and my brother and I listened mostly together because my Dad was usually at work.
We usually would get our news from the TV and newspaper. They did not attend or take us to any political events. I only did at college. I don’t remember many political ads, just the recent ones, like the Bush and Kerry cartoon during the election, “This Land is Your Land.” I remember the Bush/Kerry elections, mostly, but that was so recent, I don’t know if it’s even worthwhile discussing. All I remember about the Gore election was being so upset that I thought our country was going to hell because I didn’t see anything that Bush could offer us at the time. I still am not too fond of him, but I’m a little more optimistic. I remember the CHAD thing with the votes. Man that was annoying!
All I can say about religion is that I was not exposed to it much, my parents weren’t avid churchgoers. But I do remember the extensive trials of the Catholic Church, and I just remember that because it happened in Massachusetts, that that was all they talked about. I couldn’t get away from it. I loved living in Mass., at the time but I wanted to move I was so embarrassed—part of me was just like, “How could this have even happened?” Religion is supposed to be a sanctuary, not an open door to sexual predators. It just really angered me, and the fact that the media covered it so much was driving me nuts. They just have to OVER-cover stuff and it’s annoying because I want to get back to watching other programs. I don’t have time to hear the same thing over and over, and I don’t have the money for cable, so they should just have one channel for news, not five billion. It’s too much and we don’t need it.
1. Interview your grandparents by asking them the following questions. Ask them to think back to when they were your age or younger for their answers.
A. Family
1. What was the most important medium in the household?
Radio mostly.
2. How many televisions were in the house and who controlled them?
One TV in our late teen years. Parental control.
3. Were their viewing rules? Restrictions on kids?
Limited viewing allowed. Restrictions were less important because programming was family oriented.
4. Did family members ever read books or magazines to one another?
Yes.
5. Did family members listen to radio or music together?
Yes, very often. This offered better family togetherness than television did later.
B. Politics
1. Where did people get most of their information about political campaigns?
Newspapers, radio and movie news.
2. Did they go to political events, such as rallies, speeches, or meetings?
No.
3. Can they remember any political ads? If so, what sticks out in their minds about those ads? Images? Negativity?
"I like Ike" buttons and JFK posters.
4. Do they have any strong memories about news coverage of nominating conventions,
Primarily of the Kennedy / Nixon conventions.
the campaign,
No strong recollections.
or election returns?
Newspapers mistakenly announced Dewey was the winner over Truman in 1948. Also the surprise JFK win in 1960.
C. Religion
1. Did they used to listen to religious programs on the radio or watch them on television?
Occasionally. Billy Graham
2. What was their opinion of religious leaders at the time?
Major religious leaders were respected generally. Radio evangelists not so much.
3. Do they feel that religion has changed in the past several decades? If so, do they think the media had any influence?
The perception of religion has definitely changed over the last several decades. Media has been very influential in that it has exposed the fraudulent behavior of the charlatans, leading people to question all religious leaders. The media also has fostered unwholesome behavior as a normal reference for those who are inclined to accept it's precepts. Having said that......"True Religion", being a personal thing, has not really changed much.
~
I thought it was interesting to read the answers that my grandparents gave me about the time when they were my age and the certain sorts of media that they encountered. I was particularly intrigued by the political ads answer. I don’t even remember learning much about Eisenhower in school, but one of the political ads was the “I Like Ike” button. I wasn’t surprised about the JFK poster, but I think that’s because growing up, especially growing up in Massachusetts where JFK was from, I was used to seeing and hearing about his life and his presidency on the news. “Camelot” was what the White House was called when JKK was in residence at the White House. I think growing up in Massachusetts there was a lot of pride in the fact that JFK was from our state. And that might’ve contributed to me hearing a lot about him in my youth.
I find that I’m also not surprised to read that my grandparents heard religion in the house more. It was expected more back then. I was not surprised that my grandparents found that TV was more family oriented, that is one thing that I find unfortunate about modern programming. It’s a lot of the same reality show crap that really isn’t reality, or it’s cliché drama. There are probably one or two programs that I do watch on primetime television, like Smallville and the occasional CSI Miami. I enjoy PBS specials much more. I like the history stuff and documentaries on how things started. What someone’s life was like. To me, that’s reality television.
The most important medium in my household growing up was television: black and white and then color. There were two televisions at one point: a little black and white one and a color when they could finally afford it. When my parents and I moved away from my grandparents house, we only had one television and it was a color one. Mom and Dad controlled them. We were only supposed to have two or three hours at most of television a day, but that changed when we got older. My parents definitely read books to us. We had reading time almost every night until I was about seven or eight. We would listen to music and radio a lot when I was younger. My mom had country music on the most and then I was allowed to listen to Disney CDs mostly. There was a PBS show called A Prairie Home Companion hosted by Garrison Keillior. My mom and my brother and I listened mostly together because my Dad was usually at work.
We usually would get our news from the TV and newspaper. They did not attend or take us to any political events. I only did at college. I don’t remember many political ads, just the recent ones, like the Bush and Kerry cartoon during the election, “This Land is Your Land.” I remember the Bush/Kerry elections, mostly, but that was so recent, I don’t know if it’s even worthwhile discussing. All I remember about the Gore election was being so upset that I thought our country was going to hell because I didn’t see anything that Bush could offer us at the time. I still am not too fond of him, but I’m a little more optimistic. I remember the CHAD thing with the votes. Man that was annoying!
All I can say about religion is that I was not exposed to it much, my parents weren’t avid churchgoers. But I do remember the extensive trials of the Catholic Church, and I just remember that because it happened in Massachusetts, that that was all they talked about. I couldn’t get away from it. I loved living in Mass., at the time but I wanted to move I was so embarrassed—part of me was just like, “How could this have even happened?” Religion is supposed to be a sanctuary, not an open door to sexual predators. It just really angered me, and the fact that the media covered it so much was driving me nuts. They just have to OVER-cover stuff and it’s annoying because I want to get back to watching other programs. I don’t have time to hear the same thing over and over, and I don’t have the money for cable, so they should just have one channel for news, not five billion. It’s too much and we don’t need it.
posted by cscenglishbabe at 2:12 PM
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