Overview of Media Specialty - Essay Example

Overview of Media Specialty Running Head: OVERVIEW OF MEDIA SPECIALTY Overview of Media Specialty Broadcast and Cable Television School’s Name Overview of Media Specialty 2 INTRODUCTION The definition of television as the art of seeing at a distance has come to have the more restricted meaning of the practically instantaneous reproduction, for visual observation, distant scenes by electrical methods. Thus it covers neither the viewing of distant objects by means of a telescope nor the relatively slow electrical reproduction of still objects, such as newsprint, photographs, and such other materials. Very far from how people view television today, television in its earlier years is used not for entertainment. Transmission by cable has found television as an adjunct of long distance telephony, enabling the user to see the person with whom he converses; pubic booths giving such service were erected in a number of German cities in 1938 by the Post Office Department (Eddy, 1950). A more important application of cable television promises to be its employment for the surveillance of industrial processes in locations not readily accessible to human beings. Early developments of television began on its first attempts at television date from the discovery that the magnitude of electric currents passing through crystalline selenium could be controlled by the amount of light falling on it. Television was invented by the American inventor G.R. Carey in 1875 when he devised a system in which the image of the scene to be transmitted was projected on a rectangular array of selenium cells, each of which was connected to a light bulb in a corresponding array by a pair of wires (Fink, 1975). Essentially, the same idea is employed beginning 1960s in the operation of animated cartoon advertisements. Overview of Media Specialty 3 In 1880, the French electrical engineer, Maurice Leblanc, added the second common feature, namely the transmission of the signals from successive picture elements in sequence through a single electrical channel (Zworykin, 1978). A practical method of realizing Leblanc’s suggestion was devised by the German television pioneer, Paul Gottlieb Nipkow in 1884. Nipkow, employing a single photosensitive cell, placed a rotating disk with a series of holes equal in area to a picture element, arranged along a spiral in front of the cell and projected the scene on it (Fink, 1975). Nipkow’s invention was followed by numerous other ingenious mechanical scanning devices, primarily designed to increase the optical efficiency of the television system. However, it was only Lee De Forest who succeeded in obtaining usable television pictures in 1907, with De Forest’s invention of the amplifying tube. After this, the development of mechanical methods of television was rapid. By 1930, the Scotsman, John L. Blaird, had transmitted pictures in England across the Atlantic; in the United States, Herbert E. Ives, of the Bell Telephone Laboratories, had demonstrated television in natural colors, and Ernst F. W. Alexanderson, of the general Electric Company had shown television pictures projected on a 6 by 7 foot theater screen (Eddy, 1950). Regular television broadcasts in America were provided at the beginning of 1956 by 456 stations, putting television within reach of the great majority of the population. The majority of the stations are joined into networks by co-axial cables and microwave links, greatly extending the audience of a single program. The television network connects the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and extends from Montreal to Seattle in the North to Miami, New Orleans, and San Diego in the south. By 1956 television services had been initiated in some 36 countries. Overview of Media Specialty 4 Today, television is more aptly associated with entertainment shown in a box with colored pictures and glamorous people. But as years passed, the use of television has been extensive as it already covers almost all of the issues affecting, not only the society, but also the world. Television has brought a lot of changes in the way people perceive things and live their lives resulting to both positive and negative effects of television. Yet, despite its negative effects, people seem not to mind it at all because television’s positive effects outweigh the negative results. Following the pattern of radio broadcasting, television broadcasting is financed in the United States by advertisers sponsoring programs. Community receiving systems, supported by installation charges and services fees, provided television reception for several communities isolated from broadcasting stations by geographical factors. A paid television service has been instituted by the International Telemeter Corporation in Palm Springs, California. Finally, 10% of the channel allocations have been tentatively reserved by the Federal Communications Commission for the non-commercial use of educational institutions (Zworykin, 1978). Television programs cover theater presentations, sports events, spot pickup of historic occasions and news events, educational features, and motion feature films; anything whose visual observation is of interest to large numbers of people. During the war years, 1940-1945, commercial television activities were drastically curtailed. However, research in the field of television continued because of its potential military value. As a result of this work, television emerged from World War II with many important improvements which have been applied on television broadcasting to make possible greater range of subject material, and better reproduced images. In October 1950, the Federal Communications Commission, after a series of public Overview of Media Specialty 5 hearings, adopted as standard for the United States the incompatible field-sequential system of color television. In December 1953, the Federal Communications Commission rescinded its earlier ruling and issued a new set of standard signal specifications, submitted by RCA and the National Television System Committee of the television industry (Fadiman, 1997). The ‘idiot box’ as it was called, has indeed gained so much popularity that it was in fact used to televise, not only news, but political propaganda. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s victory in the 1952 presidential election was attributed to television as television air national debates and Eisenhower is a great debater. People avidly watch national debates, unconsciously influencing their decisions. Today, come election time, television programs are filled with advertisements and programs that promote the image of a particular candidate. It is used, not to entertain, but as a medium to reach millions of voters. Today, television has become a money-making industry as it is profits come from advertisers, political figures, business entities and other influential entities. "Its a notorious spectacle -- a loud, raucous whirlwind of dealmaking marked by partying, posturing, fevered press coverage and battling over whether rates should increase, decrease or stay the (Feuler, 2007). Clearly, television is a thriving business industry, way better than radios, magazines, and newspapers. Television was supposed to bring people information at the comfort of their own homes with the hope that the information will be efficiently and effectively used by making people productive individuals. However, in a study of a culture in Canada, the Inuit communities, television resulted to the breaking down of interactive community activities; the worse part is, the Inuit communities with televisions in their living rooms do not understand English. As the Overview of Media Specialty 6 medium of communication used in television is English, the Inuit viewers have no idea understanding what they are watching; they could not even distinguish the difference between war and violence on the news or actors just acting in a drama (Woods, 1998). In the U.S. today, obesity was even attributed to television. As the number of television programs increased, people’s physical activities were greatly reduced because they would rather slump in a coach and watch their favorite T.V. program. Television has greatly influenced men’s sedentary lifestyle. Television programs were supposed to bring people together, like the internet, but as more and more programs are introduced on T.V., like the reality shows for instance, people view television to be better than being out with friends. Yet, with all the other effects of television in men’s life, perhaps the most alarming of them all is how television influences the perception and understanding of man. Instead of sticking to the basic needs – food, shelter, clothing, and education, people felt that these are not enough. As television programs are filled with advertisements, people’s wants are not classified as needs. Even the concept of beauty has been altered by television, which resulted to eating disorders, insecure teen-agers, and gave rise to the popularity of cosmetic surgery. No man, woman, and child is satisfied with what they already have. One that should also be given utmost attention is the accessibility of inappropriate content, such s sex and violence, to children. With the so-called digital media, almost all types of media had to adjust in order to compete with television. In the early years, radio broadcasting mostly covers news. It was defined as a source of information, but then, radio today is defined mainly as source for music. Radio turned in to music to be able to compete with television, as it felt it needs to create Overview of Media Specialty 7 something to draw peoples attention. Radio programs even included programs similar to television, such as Gunsmoke; however, television proved to be more popular and interesting for people. Aside from radios, newspapers were seen as important source of information, thus, it has always been a must-have; until television was invented. Beginning 1950s, newspapers have been struggling as it competes with televisions popularity. So, newspapers were forced to become visual presenters as it included pictures to give color and to entertain readers. Newspaper writers even have to experiment and change their writing styles to make it more appealing and interesting. Instead of just writing down plain boring facts of what is happening, newspaper articles are longer, include narratives, has color, and even includes the weather and other trivial information thought to add novelty. Another form of media was the film. In the 1940s people enjoyed going out with friends and family to watch their favorite film. However, with the development of television, people preferred to stay at home than go out, resulting to the decline in profits for the film industry. The next step was to create drive-in movie theaters, a concept which hoped to create excitement and interest among film viewers. To make it more appealing, the film industry made use of sexual content as part of entertainment, for the reason that such type of content is not included and is prohibited in television. Magazines also suffered as a result of television, which is why most magazines today have a theme that is somehow in relation to a television program; like the Sports Illustrated magazine for example. Another is the Playboy magazine which used sexual explicit materials using sexy female models to pose. In 1955 the Reader’s Digest magazine accepted advertising which proved to be a great commercial success. Overview of Media Specialty 8 Indeed, television ranks first when it comes to popularity and choice of media as it is able to evolve in an amazing manner that is difficult to apply in other types of media. It should be noted however, that even if types of media seem to be competing, they also work together as each reinforces the call of the other. Like the Earth day for instance. The call of saving the Earth was not only through television but also in other forms of media; at least one could see that there is unity somehow. Another is the competition that exists in different types of media makes people more aware of their choices as it makes them reassess their choice of source of information. Amongst all type of media, television proved to be the most successful in disseminating socially relevant issues and campaigns as it is able to provide visuals to the people it seeks to inform. As man is basically a visual learner and to an extent an emotional being, television can easily affect these targets to gain the interest and positive feedback of its viewers. As television reaches millions of people in one switch, its responsibility towards providing informative and morally inclined content is great. It is for this reason that television shows are regulated, checked, and sometime’s put off the air to send a message that program producers should be conscientious in providing only appropriate materials for public viewing. Evidently, with the way television portrays life and influences people, television has been enjoying so much of the democracy afforded to the people behind it. With the so called digital-television, it would seem that television is indeed here to stay even with the presence of the interne. But at this point, it is not the internet that will compete with television; it is going to be the other way around as the internet is evidently more popular Overview of Media Specialty 9 than T.V. Also with the invention of the LCD T.V., television has become classier and sophisticated – a work of art. As for television programs, with the application of digital technology, television programs still promises to be entertaining and interesting to viewers. Thus, television, though a piece of equipment for entertaining people, it will make people more detached to other beings, evolving to becoming man’s best friend. Overview of Media Specialty 10 Bibliography Eddy, W.C. (1950). Television – The Eyes of Tomorrow. New York. Fink, D.G. (1975). Television Engineering. New York. Zworykin, V. (1978). “Television.” Encyclopedia Americana. USA: Americana Corporation. Fadiman, C. (1997). “The Early Days of Television.” The Treasury of Encyclopedia Britannica. U.S.A.: Penguin Books U.S.A. Inc. Woods, Catherine (1998). "TV & Media Imperialism. MTheory, Volume 2 Fall Issue. Retireved: April 22, 2009, from, http://records.viu.ca/~soules/mtheory/vol2/woods3.htm Feuler, J. (2007). "Cooperation, Competition at Upfront." Retrieved: 24 April 2009, from, http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117964343.html?categoryid=1614&cs=1 Read More