Revolution from the Tube?

The TV picture tube is accused of many things, but rarely of being a revolutionary force. But that is precisely what it is, holds San Francisco State College's Samuel I. Hayakawa (Language in Action), a leading general semanticist. The most dramatic way in which TV has worked for social change, Hayakawa last week told the Westinghouse Broadcasting Co.'s conference on public service programing, is shown by the problem of integration.

Segregationists usually blame "Northern interference or the N.A.A.C.P.," but the radio-television industry carries far more responsibility. "Television spreads more rapidly among the poor than among the rich. And the classes with TV sets are getting TV's message: you should have a new car; you should be a good American and watch the Republican Convention; you should use a certain hair tonic. So the Negro in the deep South says, 'O.K., I've bought the hair tonic. Now where do I go to vote?' "

Equating obedience to TV commercials with good citizenship may not be the sponsor's conscious goal, but the effect, insisted Hayakawa, is the same. "Hair tonic manufacturers aren't actually trying to agitate the Negroes. Henry Ford was not trying to change the courting habits of the U.S., either. But he did."

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