中文摘要
战后时代大众商业电视的引入如何改变了美国消费者行为？媒介学者和美国历史学家声称，电视凭借其前所未有的广告吸引力，将美国人带入了一种追求升级消费和为社会地位而购买产品的文化。我利用《商业普查》系列中新近数字化的全国县级零售销售数据检验了这一主流理论。我比较了在联邦通信委员会（FCC）冻结令这一未预期事件期间，拥有和没有本地电视服务的地区之间的零售销售增长；该冻结令于1948至1952年间暂停了新电视台的许可发放。我发现三项结果印证了电视长期以来被赋予的美国消费主义角色。第一，在冻结令期间，有电视接入县的零售总额平均比无电视接入县多增长了3–4%。第二，电视的效应集中于汽车部门，仅该部门就贡献了总差异的三分之一。第三，电视广告带来了更高的销售增长，但仅限于耐用品，这与定性报告和炫耀性消费理论均高度吻合。历史学家还提出，电视情景喜剧中普及的郊区家庭生活成为20世纪50年代美国梦的主流表征。与这些论述一致，我发现电视接入的开始与本地公路建设活动和出生率的上升相吻合。
Abstract
How did the introduction of mass commercial television in the postwar era change American consumer behavior? Media scholars and U.S. historians claim that TV with its unprecedented advertising appeal drew Americans into a culture of upscaling and purchasing products for social status. I test this prevailing theory using newly digitized nationwide county-level retail sales data from the Census of Business series. I compare growth in retail sales between areas with and without local TV service over the unanticipated Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Freeze, which halted the licensing of new TV stations from 1948–52. I find three results that corroborate TV’s long-attributed role in American consumerism. First, during the Freeze, total retail sales in counties with TV access increased by 3–4% more on average than in counties without access. Second, the effect of TV was concentrated in the automobile sector, which alone accounted for a third of the total difference. Third, TV advertising led to higher growth in sales, but only for durable goods, which neatly aligns with both qualitative reports and theories of conspicuous consumption. Historians also propose that the suburban family life popularized in TV sitcoms became the mainstream representation of the American Dream in the 1950s. Consistent with these accounts, I find that the start of TV access coincides with greater activity in local highway construction and birthrates.