Lule Chapter 9: Television Flashcards
Scanning Disk
a large, flat metal disk with perforations in a spiral pattern used as a rotating camera in early TV models
Cathode ray tubes (CRT)- 1987
an electronic display device in which a beam of electrons is focused on a glass viewing screen to create an image
Mechanical Television- 1926
- used moving parts to capture and display images
Electronic Television- 1927
- scanned images using a camera and received images via CRT
- better picture quality than mechanical TV; replaced all mechanical TVs by 1939
Analog Signals
- In 1941, the FCC recommended that all U.S, TV sets operate using analog signals, which is a broadcast signal made of varying radio waves
Digital Signals
- Analog replaced by digital signals, or signals transmitted as binary code, in 2009
Golden Age of Television
- Explosive growth of television in 1950-1970
- TV replaced radio as the most popular mass medium in the 1950s
Community Antenna Television (CATV)
- Where cable TV began
- CATV originally meant community antenna television and was put into urban or wirelessly hard to reach communities, where cable antennas were put on mountains or other high points and homes were connected to broadcast signal towers
Pay TV
- a subscription based TV service in which consumers pay a fee to the program provider to access premium shows or advertising-free steaming
- HBO began in 1972
High-definition television (HDTV)
- wide-screen TV system with a much higher resolution that standard Tv, which attempts to create a more cinematic experience for the viewer
- half of U.S. had adopted high definition by 2010
TV: 1950s
- Domestic comedy like Leave it to Beaver
- TV News begins to tackle serious issues
TV: 1960s
- fantasy sitcoms (escapist comedies) and hard news reporting
TV: 1970s
- greater diversity
- shows depicting a change of views such as single parenthood and divorce
- politics
Explosion of cable TV in the 1980s
- Cable television= a system of providing TV and other media to consumers via coaxial cable, originally developed in the 1940s in remote areas
- Subscribers are connected through a central community antenna (CTV), which picks up satellite signals for distribution
- MTV, CNN, ESPN
- Niche programing, such as BET
TV: 1990s
- Specialization/ continued fragmentation
- Caters to smaller, more targeted consumer bases
2000s
- Another Golden Era; “changed TV forever”
- binge-watching
- Sopranos, The West Wing, Six Feet Under
2010s
- Binge watching due to steaming
- More content (Peak TV)
- More critically lauded shows created by women: Orange is the New Black
Television’s Early Reliance on Sponsors
- Early TV programs often had single sponsor
- Rising production costs led to multiple corporate sponsorships in the 1960s
Public broadcasting service, PBS (1969)
- educational
- public television network established in 1969, which was created to enable universal access to TV for viewers in rural areas or who couldn’t afford to pay for private TV
Network Era (1950-1990)
the period between 1950 and 1990, during which network TV dominate airwaves
Fox
Fox became one of the Big Four networks in 1994 by creating edgy, youth-oriented programing
Pseudo-networks, or “Netlets
- Mid 1990s
- Netlets= a term coined by Variety magazine for minor-league networks that lacked a full week’s worth of programming
- UPN, WB, CW
Midwest video case (1979)
- sustained the Commission’s authority to regulate cable television
- decision in 1979 deregulated cable by ruling cable companies were a form of electronic publishing—able to carry the content they wanted
1984 Cable Communications Policy Act
- deregulation allowed cable to try innovative programming
- removes restrictions on cable rates
