Broadcast television absorbed the political energies of the 1960s into passive viewing

Evidence

The public was, the activist-adman Jerry Mander wrote, “as they had been for years, sitting home in their living rooms, staring at blue light, their minds filled with TV images. One movement became the same as the next one; one media action merged with the fictional program that followed; one revolutionary line was erased by the next commercial, leading to a new level of withdrawal, unconcern, and stasis. In the end, the sixties were revealed as the flash of light before the bulb goes out.” — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 568

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Debord’s spectacle theory and media-as-sedation critiques in post-1968 continental thought. — connects to: Mid-1950s television achieved the largest simultaneous shared attention in history — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 453; Television’s attention capture drove 1950s conformity without state enforcement — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 457; Mass television delivered shared experience without the collective exaltation of a rally — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 456 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• The counterculture was co-opted when networks traded relevant programming for viewer attention #expands (0.90) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 584