‘Liveness’ is a unique quality that has almost always been exclusive to the medium of television, only ever really being shared with radio, and more recently the internet. When it comes to televisions ‘liveness’ its clear to see that it has been its distinguishing feature amongst other visual mediums. However, Marriot stated that By the end of the twentieth century most television transmission on most channels were no longer live.” (Marriot, 2007) thus suggesting that televisions once key feature of ‘liveness’ is perhaps no longer an important or defining feature. Despite the apparent lack of live television today “liveness’ was one of the features that cause television to overtake the likes of radio, cinema, and theatre across the globe. …show more content…
Television appears to have moved from a medium that centred around the broadcasting of events “as they take place and transfix a nation or the world.” (Dayan/Katz, 1992) to one that is constantly accessible, at all time of day and at almost every location, no longer relying on being live. Despite this, television broadcasts of the past have proved that live programming can attract millions of viewers at a time, all over the world. A key example of this being the Apollo 11 Moon Landing (1969) which shared its live broadcast across various networks and stations. Not only did live broadcasting take place over eight whole days, the broadcast of the actual landing on July 20th 1969 received a massive global audience of over 600million viewers and also marked the first ever twenty four hour live broadcast in the United Kingdom, with both the BBC and ITV covering the …show more content…
Unfortunately there is another side of the story when it comes to unplanned circumstances on live television. ‘Liveness’ had been a factor from day one, thus when it comes to a news story or disaster broadcasting needs to happen as soon as possible. An example of this is the CNN broadcast of the 9/11 attacks. As soon as the breaking news hit the network would have had to work quickly to make sure live footage was ready to broadcast as soon as possible, this meant using an array of stills, archive footage, and talking heads until in-between live footage.
Ultimately the live element of television was and possibly still is the most important factor. News, drama, sport, and every other television genre was once broadcasted completely live, and the implications of that ‘liveness’ are still present and relevant through todays television. The sense of community associated with ‘liveness’, while less common, is still an element of broadcasting
5 Feb 2014. Fiske, John. The. Television Culture. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1987: Ch. 78.
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.
Even with these weaknesses, Postman makes a significant contribution to enlarging our understanding of television and the epistemology it establishes. He may be too fond of typographic America, but he has some very important things to say about how television works, and we should be paying attention.
...d that television holds on us, Postman give two ideas. The first idea that he gives, he describes it as ridiculous to create programming that demonstrates how “television should be viewed by the people” (161).
Presently 98% of the households in the United States have one or more televisions in them. What once was regarded as a luxury item has become a staple appliance of the American household. Gone are the days of the three channel black and white programming of the early years; that has been replaced by digital flat screen televisions connected to satellite programming capable of receiving thousands of channels from around the world. Although televisions and television programming today differ from those of the telescreens in Orwell’s 1984, we are beginning to realize that the effects of television viewing may be the same as those of the telescreens.
Before 1968 the nightly news would simply broadcast headlines comparable to reading a newspaper. But 60 Minutes became a television newsmagazine offering the reader revealing, on camera stories about happenings around the world. Viewers of the show became better informed as to actual business, political, and science practices. Howard Stringer, president of CBS Broadcast Group, says that "60 Minutes invented a new genre of television programming-the newsmagazine-and in the process had a dramatic impact on the television industry and the viewing habits of the American people." Stringer's comment is very true because if one were to scan through a TV index today, they would see that nearly all channels are infested with talk shows, tabloid programs, interview shows of famous personalities, and other "caught on tape" types of programs, all of which Given that 60 Minutes set a new standard for presenting the public with ground-breaking stories, creator and producer of the show, Don Hewitt, says "It"s what you hear more often than what you see that holds your interest. The words you hear and not the pictures you see are essentially what 60 Minutes is all about." The shows that were influenced by 60 Minutes, such as the many tabloid programs being shown today, built off the 60 Minutes principle and created gossip, and shocking video segments.
The Effect of Television In The Age of Missing Information Bill McKibben, in his book The Age of Missing Information, explores the impact of television on modern cultures both in America and around the world. In the book McKibben carries out an experiment; he watches the entire television broadcast of 93 separate cable channels for one entire day. In all McKibben viewed 24 hours of programming from 93 separate cable stations, that is more than 2,200 hours of television. His purpose in this formidable undertaking was to determine how much actual information that was relevant to real life he could glean from a day of television broadcasting. McKibben also spent a day camping alone on a mountain near his home.
The ‘Golden Age of Television’ is what many refer to as the period between the 1950s and 60s when the television began to establish itself as a prevalent medium in the United States. In 1947, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), and the Du Mont Network were the four main television networks that ran stations with regular programming taking place. (Television, 2003) While regular television programming was a new innovation, the television itself had been commercially available for over twenty years prior to the 50s. It was conceived by many worldly innovators and went through several testing stages before it was finally completed in the late twenties. The three main innovators were Niplow - who first developed a rotating disk with small holes arranged in a spiral pattern in 1884, Zworykin - who developed the Iconoscope which could scan pictures and break them into electronic signals (a primitive form of the Cathode Ray Tube) in 1923, and lastly Fansworth - who demonstrated for the first time that it was possible to transmit an electrical image in 1927. (Rollo, 2011) However, one of the many reasons why this medium was successful in the 50s was due to the fact that it became more accessible to the public. Television sets were more affordable to middle class citizens which created further interest in the new technology. Through an historical account of the medium, the spread of television across America throughout this particular decade will be examined.
Television is an invention that has revolutionized the way people think, comprehend and receive information. Although television in today’s world is not the leading media source, however it still remains to be a prime example of media influenced outlet of information. Television over the course of the past few decades has intertwined its way into society’s day to day operation and will remain to influence people’s decisions.
Vande Berg, L.R., Wenner, L.A., & Gronbeck, B. E. (1998). Critical Approaches to Television. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Gauntlett, D. Hill, A. BFI (1999) TV Living: Television, Culture, and Everyday Life, p. 263 London: Routledge.
27 Jan. 2012. Greenblatt, Alan. “Television's Future.” CQ Researcher, Vol. 17 (2007, February 16): 145-168.
Audience reception is a critical area of focus and research when approaching media audiences. It is dependent on the context of viewing, making media use and media consumption within the home environment and other contexts an interesting area of study. During the 1980s the emergence and increasing use of television increased media research into consumption in an everyday context, addressing the domestic, the family and its contribution to daily life. The importance can be displayed through the centrality of the position of the television and how the arrangement of a living room is commonly based around this. According to David Morely (1986) patterns of television consumption can only be understood through the context of ‘family leisure activity’ (Schroder, Drotner, Kline, Murray, 2003: 8). Therefore in order to discuss whether the aspects within the home environment and other contexts differ in terms of consumption, it is fundamental in exploring family viewing and the patterns of everyday life. With the rise of new media and constant technological developments, media within the home have succumbed to fragmentation. Televisions can be used as an illustration, traditionally located in communal areas to the shift of location in every bedroom, along with the vast amount of channels available, the different platforms we can watch it on and developments that allow catch-up. ‘Furthermore the set has acquired a range of accessories and attachments such as videocassette recorders (VCRs), personal computers and remote controls, which have significantly modified the way it is used (Lee, Becker and Schonbach, 1989: 71). The diverse amount of media platforms available both in and outside our homes has somewhat merged, making it difficult to d...
Sewel, Philip W. “From Discourse to Discord: Quality and Dramedy at the End of the Classic Network System” Television and New Media 11.4 (2010): 235-59. Web. 18 January. 2014.
Not only is there a sense of globalisation in the things we watch but also in the way we watch them. For example, digital television has become such a part of everyday life for the majority of UK viewers that many don’t even know they have it. The total number of households in the UK with digital television now stands at 15,715,178. We are now able to watch the same channels as people at the other side of the world, thanks to digital television. We have so much choice that we, at times, don’t know what to do with all of it. It has the availability to hold around 999 channels ranging from BBC channels to children’s cartoon channels, from DIY shows to adult content channels; it is all available to us.