A History of the Origins of Television
For the first half of the twentieth century, the dominant media in western society had been newspapers, radio and cinema. Then, in the early 1920s, a man named John Logie Baird created the first television, which has since become the dominant media of the second half of the twentieth century. Television has had an immense impact on human society in many forms including sociality, knowledge, experience and leisure.
After the first experimental broadcasts in America in the 1920s, the British Broadcasting Corporation was set up in 1922, however television broadcasting did not begin until 1936 when an estimated 23,000 people saw the first broadcasts. In 1939 television had ceased and was described as something that would amount to nothing. During the war the radio was extremely popular and this was the case for several years after as television sets were expensive and had limited broadcasting hours with poor receptions.
The BBC was dominated by their director general, John Reith, who had negotiated a position where the BBC was independent from both the government and free from the pressures of market forces. For the BBC had an assured income from all those who owned radio receivers. Reith had established a corporation with aims to inform, educate and entertain the public as a whole, making available cultural experiences that they would otherwise not have seen [HOLLAND, 1997: Page 8].
Up until the 1950s the BBC had a monopoly on broadcasting and it wasn’t until 1951 that various criticisms began to emerge. The 1951 Beveridge report was critical of the stance and arrogance of the BBC and there were even reports suggesting that it should be discontinued. In 1953 the coronation of the...
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...roducing a television output which is so often obsessed with class, dominated by anti-commercial attitudes and with a tendency to hark on about the past [Murdoch, 1989 cited in HOLLAND: p.23].
Murdoch’s savage criticism of the BBC strongly supported the commercialization of television with the belief that people should be allowed to choose from as many channels as possible. In 1990, the Broadcasting act enforced an auction system upon ITV companies. This meant companies had to bid to get their franchises renewed leading to a grossly commercialized market obsessed with profit making. The last of the terrestrial channels, channel 5 was set up in 1997, which signaled the decline in standards of television. A decline which has been due largely to the huge companies involved in television, the rise of satellite and cable television and a move into digital broadcasting.
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Over the centuries, the media has played a significant role in the shaping of societies across the globe. This is especially true of developed nations where media access is readily available to the average citizen. The media has contributed to the creation of ideologies and ideals within a society. The media has such an effect on social life, that a simple as a news story has the power to shake a nation. Because of this, governments around the world have made it their duty to be active in the regulation and control of media access in their countries. The media however, has quickly become dominated by major mega companies who own numerous television, radio and movie companies both nationally and internationally. The aim of these companies is to generate revenue and in order to do this they create and air shows that cater to popular demand. In doing so, they sometimes compromise on the quality of their content. This is where public broadcasters come into perspective.
Each form of mass media distribution endures a peak prior to being replaced by a new source. The popularity of print media as a source of news and entertainment was eclipsed by radio, and eventually Americans turned away from radio broadcasts in favor of television. Prior to the global access afforded by home computers, television provided Americans a wider encompassing vision of the world than print and radio. In 1946 it is estimated that only 5000 U.S. households owned a television; by the 1960’s, 9 out of every 10 homes contained at least a single television set (Steiner 17). While the 1950’s experienced this sudden growth in television ownership, during this period the medium served more as a form of entertainment than as a trusted news source. NBC provided news th...
The radio industry thrived during this time period, resulting in a growth from a few hundred thousand radio sets in 1921 to nearly 10 million in 1928 (King). Families relied on radios to provide entertainment through music and stories as well as information that was important in terms of politics and war. This reliance on the radio did not only affect the radio industry in the 1920s, but also changed the radio industry for future generations. Without the Radio Renaissance, radios very well could have been a lost technology and a lost industry. While the radio industry boomed, the television was just in its infancy during the 1920s. The television was invented in 1927, but it did not see a rise in popularity until years later (Cooley). At that time, the idea that television would take over the entertainment industry did not cross the minds of many people, but it would later overshadow the influence of radio and become one of America’s main transportations of media and information. These new ways to spread information created a new, smaller world because people around the country and the earth could now participate in the same television and radio shows, giving them a sense of interconnectedness. As new technology flooded into American homes, it continued to evolve and progress, making the lives of housewives much easier and their housework less time
“Nowadays in the modern world, society if affected by more things we can think of. Society is affected by movies, TV shows, TV reality shows, magazines, and books. A report was recorded over a six-month period about Television shows and daily news broadcasts. From September 1, 1999 through February 29, 2000; The Grand Rapid Institute recorded and viewed a few programs and at the end of the month the Institute tallied up the number of letters sent after a recorded program and it showed how unfair the programs were and how people became a democracy to let them know” (TV News 1).
Ever since television was first introduced to America, it has changed the culture. It’s affected American families in positive and negative ways. Whether the television is big and bulky or thin and flat, everyone’s eyes seem to be glued to it. Television competes with other human interactions, such as talking to family and friends, school, church, etcetera. It’s shaped many things -- people’s opinions on different topics, people’s choices in an election, and people’s views on things like race and class. It’s changed the who the people in the American population are, and how other countries view us.
One of the most influential decades that changed American society is the 1960’s. An important aspect of American society even before the 1960’s was the television; however, the 1960’s changed television and the people watching television drastically. The 1960’s shaped the American public by introducing several new concepts to television, such as the use of television as a political device, the dramatic rise of broadcasting stations such as CBS, NBC, and ABC, the creation of relatable shows that the average person could understand, the introduction of variety shows such as the Ed Sullivan Show, and the use of television to help address issues such as racism.
Before analyzing the history of Rock n’ Roll television, the history of how watching television came to become a popular must come into question. To summarize briefly, the invention of television was in development since the 1870s, however the first demonstration of live transmitted images in motion was in 1925 lead by Scottish inventor John Logie Baird (Radio Shows Far Away Objects in Motion). The image was of Baird’s business partner Oliver Hutchinson (Television), showing a mere five frames per second, it was an impressive sight for the time. With perfection of the invention, electronic televisions had been developed by Vladimir Kosma Zworykin with the help of the RCA radio...
In “Wires and Lights in a Box,” the author, Edward R. Murrow, is delivering a speech on October 15, 1958, to attendees of the Radio-Television News Directors Association. In his speech, Murrow addresses how it is his desire and duty to tell his audience what is happening to radio and television. Murrow talks about how television insulates people from the realities in the world, how the television industry is focused on profits rather than delivering the news to the public, and how television and radio can teach, illuminate, and inspire.
Paul S. Boyer. "Television." The Oxford Companion to United States History. 2001. Retrieved November 24, 2011 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O119-Television.html
Thompson, Robert. "As the TV World Turns." Interview. The Mark News. The Mark (21 June