How Did Television Influence Australian Society

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“Good evening and welcome to television.”(Source 3) These were the first words to be spoken on Australian television on the 16th of September 1956. Television has played a role in influencing who Australians are today. This can be seen in three ways. Firstly, how it has affected Australia, secondly, how it has changed overtime and lastly, how it has advantaged and disadvantaged Australians.
What has been shown on television has influenced Australian life. The introduction of television let Australians keep up to date with events occurring such as the 1956 Melbourne Olympics or the moon landing. There was also an increase of people staying at home and watching television instead of playing outside. Television also helped the Americanisation of Australian by influencing what is shown as America was producing a lot of films but by the mid 1960’s Australians demanded more Australian content. Censorship in the past has been used to give a biased view towards specific topics such as the Vietnam War where most pictures showed the look of defeat on the enemy.
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The first television shows were just broadcasts of established radio shows such as Bob Dyer’s Pick-a-box as television was only new to Australia. Television was not cheap at first either as it costed six to ten weeks pay for the average worker. It was estimated that only one percent of Sydney residents and five percent of Melbourne residents owned a television by the end of 1956. In 1975, colour television was introduced into Australia but it took some time before most television shows where in colour and by 1992, satellite and Pay TV were introduced. As the quality of television colour changed so did quality of family social interaction. Families become more socially isolated because of