Eisenhower and the mass media

by Craig Allen

Dwight D. Eisenhower presided over an unusual era of peace and prosperity during the 1950s, a period also known as television's "Golden Age." In this first comprehensive study of Eisenhower's mass communication practices, Craig Allen maintains that Ike's tremendous popularity was partly a result of his skillful use of the new medium of television to define and broadcast his achievements to the American public. Although John F. Kennedy has often been called the first TV president, Allen argues that Eisenhower rightfully deserves that title. Ike was an avid TV watcher, and he saw the medium as a breakthrough. He was aware of the changes television was creating in American society; thus he wasted little time in establishing TV as his dominant communication priority. Eisenhower presided over sweeping changes in the techniques and traditions of presidential communication. He was the first president to deliver televised "fireside chats," hold TV news conferences, conduct televised cabinet me