Chapter 2 - Televison Histories

Question 0

When was TV introduced in Britain?

Answer 0

1936 in PAL format

Question 1

Who is often credited as the first inventor of television?

Answer 1

John Logie Baird demonstrated television in London in 1926 using an electro-mechanical system

Question 2

When was TV introduced in America?

Answer 2

1939 in NTSC

Question 3

When was TV introduced in Australia?

Answer 3

1956, delayed because we couldn’t decide which format was better, then finally with the Olympics scheduled for Melbourne the decision was made to introduce TV in the PAL system

Question 4

Who launched and owned the first TV station?

Answer 4

Sir Frank Packer, Channel 9

Question 5

Who was the first TV star?

Answer 5

‘The King of Television’ Graham Kennedy

Or Baird’s test subject, a mannequin head named ‘Eustace’

Question 6

Who are some other inventors credited for development towards television?

Answer 6

Alexander Graham Bell 1876
Paul Nipkow 1884
Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton 1908
Boris Rosing 1907
Vladimir Kosma Zworykin (1889-1982) developed a device called an Iconoscope, followed by the Kinescope

Question 7

What system eventually won out over Logie-Baird’s mechanical strobe

Answer 7

An electronic system dividing the screen into lines and dots. The raster refresh rate gives the illusion of motion

Question 8

How was television regulated?

Answer 8

A ‘Broadcast Listener’s License’ issued by the PMG

Question 9

What Jeremy Sandford play is the most frequently repeated television drama ever?

Answer 9

Cathy Come Home, directed by Ken Loach and produced by Tony Garnett

Question 10

What is cable television?

Answer 10

Originally called Community Antenna Television (CATV). Transmission of television signals along cables in the ground

Question 11

What is satellite TV?

Answer 11

Television signals beamed from a ground transmitter to a stationary satellite that broadcasts the signal to a specific area (called the ‘footprint’) below it

Question 12

What is regulation in regards to television?

Answer 12

The control of television institutions by laws, codes of practice or guidelines

Question 13

What was the principle idea of creating television images?

Answer 13

The same way that newspaper photographs were transmitted by telephone wires from the beginning of the 1900s, by decomposing an image into clusters of larger or smaller black dots, producing shades and outlines of an image

Question 14

What was the chemical element brought us one step closer to television?

Answer 14

Selenium

Question 15

Which company worked on a competing television system, at the same time as John Logie Baird who received government and BBC support?

Answer 15

The Marconi EMI Company

Question 16

What is ‘public service’ in television?

Answer 16

The provision of a mix of programmes that inform, educate and entertain in ways that encourage the betterment of audiences and society in general

Question 17

What is a television network?

Answer 17

A television institution that transmits programmes through local or regional broadcasting stations that are owned by or affiliated to that institution

Question 18

What is sponsorship?

Answer 18

The funding of programmes or channels by businesses, whose names are usually prominently displayed in the programmes or channels as a means of advertising

Question 19

What is the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)?

Answer 19

The government body in the USA which regulates the operations and output of television companies and other broadcasters

Question 20

What did Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong argue were the purposes of broadcasting?

Answer 20

• To publicise the decisions made by the ruling Communist Party
• To educate the population
• To establish a channel of communication between the party and the people

Question 21

What was the Annan Committee?

Answer 21

A committee reporting in 1977 to the British government on the future of broadcasting. It supported public service broadcasting, the funding of the BBC by licence fee, and the planned introduction of a fourth television channel

Question 22

What is terrestrial in relation to television?

Answer 22

Broadcasting from a ground-based transmission system, as opposed to broadcasting via satellite

Question 23

What is Marxism?

Answer 23

The political and economical theories associated with the German nineteenth-century theorist Karl Marx, who described and critiqued capitalist societies and proposed communism as a revolutionary alternative

Question 24

What is satire?

Answer 24

A mode of critical commentary about society or an aspect of it, using humour to attack people or ideas

Question 25

What is the structure of broadcasting as we know it associated with?

Answer 25

Attempts to raise the cultural, educational and social standards of societies

Question 26

What key features characterise the pattern of television broadcasting that dominated the 20th century and continues into the 21st century?

Answer 26

• Promotion of democracy and citizenship
• Participation in a modern consumer society
• The centrality of the home as the location of private leisure and family life
• Access by government and industry to private space and private life

Question 27

What is an Outside Broadcast (OB)?

Answer 27

The television transmission of outdoor events such as sport or ceremonial occasions, using equipment set up in advance for the purpose

Question 28

What is the difference between a series and a serial?

Answer 28

Each programme in a series has a different story or topic, though settings and main characters stay the same, whereas a serial has a continuous developing narrative unfolding across a sequence of separate episodes

Question 29

What is a docusoap?

Answer 29

A television form combining documentary’s depiction of nonactors in ordinary situations with soap opera’s continuing narratives about selected characters

Question 30

Where is the evidence for writing television history sourced from?

Answer 30

Audio-visual records of programmes, and also printed sources and archival documents