October 5, 1947

A huge breakthrough for both politics and technology happened on this day. Harry Truman presented the first ever televised presidential speech. Going on at this time was the aftermath of World War II, and the reason for the address was to cut back the use of grain to help those in Europe suffering from a famine due to the war. It’s both good and bad, it’s great to get the message out and plea to America to help those who are suffering, but it’s bad that people were suffering. According to www.history.com , Truman was afraid his plan for the aid would fall apart due to the connection with the Marshall Plan for the European economic policy. Television was still pretty new to the nation, and the number of televisions owned didn’t increase a great amount until the 1950s, but it still had a big impact on the country and how presidents, or presidential hopefuls, would communicate to the nation. I do appreciate this event due to the fact that President Truman was taking a risk with the technology he was using to get a message out. It helped shape how today’s presidents communicate, even though the span of technology has grown an incredible amount since the late 1940s.

Source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-presidential-speech-on-tv