One of the new freedom present in the 1950s is the the new freedom of media thanks to the availability of televisions to an American family (nearly 9 out of 10 families owned a TV set by the end of 1950s). Televisions were new and thanks to the television, lifestyle and media were changed and adjusted towards this new household necessity.

Television overtook newspaper as the most common source of information and because of this, advertisements of all sorts were tailored to those with the buying power in the 1950s who were the middle-class suburban viewers. Lifestyle were also adjusted for this new phenomenon that were hitting American families, such example would be the “Frozen TV Dinner” as mentioned by Eric Foner. The television also in a way nationalized public events and politics. Public events and political activities were no longer as foreign to many American citizens as everything became nationally televised. Great example would be Richard Nixon’s “Checkers speech” which helped Nixon won the vice-president nomination for the Republican Party.