Was this propaganda? Certainly, it wasn’t experienced that way, and that difference does matter. After all, watching television was voluntary (even if everyone made the same choice); the medium was run not by the State, but private companies, whose goals were commercial, not political. Some of course have contended that shows like I Love Lucy did have an underlying social agenda or at least ideology. What must be remembered, however, is that Lucy and the other attractions were merely the bait; the effort to persuade came in a different form: a form new to the world, known as the “television commercial.”

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, loc. 458