Television History

Running Head : Television History

Television History

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Over the course of the 20th century , the media environment has become an increasingly omnipresent force in our lives . Columbia University professor Todd Gitlin notes that the sheer plenitude of it has swelled to become a torrent of such magnitude to evolve from being a mere accompaniment to life ' to become a central experience of life

The most ubiquitous representative of the media experience is the television set . As of 1999 , close to a hundred percent of American

br children now live in homes with one or more TVs and a VCR , and about 74 percent of homes with TVs subscribe to cable or satellite services . As such , television and other related services and devices are central to the media saturated lifestyle (Gitlin , 2002

It wasn 't always this way . Prior to the 1950s , when television truly achieved widespread adoption in the homes of the average American , the premiere mass medium of choice was the radio , which according to Levinson (78-79 , essentially amplified democracy (insofar as the ancient Greeks defined it as the extent to which an audience can hear a speaker 's voice ) into the range of a nigh infinite number of living rooms

However , radio 's tenured role as the medium that distributed and popularized ideas and culture to a large population was challenged by television , due to the fact that the latter carried visuals in addition to sound . Levinson (97 ) notes that just as commercial talkies pictures like The Jazz Singer put the sight-only ' silent film to rest the sound-only radio was challenged for its spot in the living room by the sight and sound verisimilitude of television

Levinson (99 ) observes that radio survived in spite of television , by adopting a distinctively different role in the media-verse : capitalizing on fundamental human needs that are consonant with its limitations and identifying a new space where it can be received , namely automobiles kitchens and bathrooms . It found what Levinson describes to be its own human ecological niche ' Similarly , television 's ability to maintain cultural hegemony would not be without its own challenges

When the FCC announced a suspension on processing applications for television licenses , their intent was to develop a `master blueprint for the rapidly growing television industry in the United States However this temporary `freeze ' only stifled the industry 's ability to provide content for increasing demand . As such , enterprising individuals began to employ cable technology to provide content to areas where television ownership was not being met with network coverage

Cable companies had essentially pirated broadcaster content , and the resulting controversy led directly to FCC involvement in 1966 . Rosel Hyde , then chairman of the FCC affirmed the concerns of copyright holding broadcasters by noting that cable companies were engaging in a destructive form of competition , despite the public gain to be had from an alternative form of content distribution . As such , there was a crucial need to ensure that copyright holders were compensated fairly while maximizing...