Marcin Pieńkowski: Television hysteria - "A Face In the Crown" by Elia Kazan as a study in manipulation

Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd is one of the well-known films about The Golden Era of Television in the United States in the 1950s. Article analyses the historical context, which is very important to understand this phenomenon, and shows methods of incredibly popular medium, which manipulated millions of viewers in that period. Kazan exposed the techniques of early TV commercials and anticipated television's potential of creating political and entertainment icons. This article is not only an analysis of the film, but it contains also a sociological look on the American society of the 1950s - its growing conformism, connected with an addiction to new medium. Elia Kazan's film used to be called a satire, but from my point of view it seems to be a serious warning, which is topical nowadays.