Merchandising Commodities and Citizenship on Television

While recognizing that citizenship is not soap, this article argues that efforts to “sell” broad social objectives via radio or television are not likely to succeed unless the essential conditions for effective merchandising exist, or can be made to exist. These conditions are primarily that the audience must be forcefully motivated and clearly directed to an adequate, appropriate, and accessible social mechanism. The author demonstrates the importance of these facets by case studies of four programs built around constructive social goals. An earlier version of this paper was delivered before the American Psychological Association in September, 1951.