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16 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Kinds of Evidence TV history draws upon: |
• Audience data (ratings, demographics, letters to networks, oralaccounts of memories) • Programs themselves • Industry documents • Government policy documents • Technical manuals |
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TV broadcasting in the West has historically been organized around two types of system: |
1. Broadcasting as primarily acommercial enterprise(historically exemplified by theUS) 2.Broadcasting as primarily apublic service (historicallyexemplified by the UK) |
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The BBC and the Public Service Model under Lord Reith |
Derives from the notion that a functional democracy with self-governing citizens requires TV and radio that are not run on a for-profit basis or controlled by the political powers that be. It also derives from the view that broadcasting could lead in the education and “moral improvement” of the public. |
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Liveness and immediacy: |
TV’s capacity to enable national audiences tocollectively witness live events was used to establish the distinctiveness of themedium ( |
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TV and national culture: |
The medium’s capacity to collect large audiences andconnect them to live events and to national culture was exemplified in TV’s earlydays by the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, |
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In most countries, TV broadcas=ng involves a mixed model that involves both public service and commercial elements. |
In NZ, the emphasis has shifted historically between these two poles. - Globally, the trend since the 1980s (under global neoliberalism) has beentoward less public service broadcasting and far more commercialism. |
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In the 2nd and 3rd worlds, broadcasting has often been subject to directpolitical control by the government. |
E.g., broadcasting in China: |
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Commercial TV in 1950s US |
In 1958-60, the quiz show scandals bring US TV into disrepute ( rigged tv shows) |
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Commercial media and the representation of class difference |
Images of working class life became harder and harder to find on TV. Instead, images of middle class lifestyles and gleaming new consumer goods took center stage in the medium’s collective fantasies. |
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Concentration of Media Ownership: |
Today, just six major multimedia conglomerates own and control the vast bulk of TV content & distribution in the US: • Comcast • Disney • Time Warner • Viacom • News Corp. • CBS |
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The public service broadcasting model |
addresses a national audience ofcitizens. |
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The commercial broadcasting model |
addresses an audience of(potential) consumers for products/commodities. |
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Political economists of TV point out |
it is audiences that are the ultimateproduct: Audiences are sold by broadcasters to advertisers. |
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Political economy also draws attention to: |
the impact that the concentration and conglomeration of media ownership can have on the quality of TV journalism and democracy. I.e : multinational corporation General Electric----- owned: Tomahawk cruise missile • Patriot II missile • B-2 stealth bomber • B-52 bomber • E3 AWACS military aircraft • Owned major US TV network NBC from 1986-2013 - : how might these interests shape NBC’s coverage of foreign affairs ingeneral and the Gulf War |
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Critiques of Commercial TV |
1. It undermines quality because of its heavy reliance on formulae in order to reduce production costs. 2.minority-oriented tastes are not adequately served. 3. It leads to an under-supply of expensive but important forms of programming (such as investigative journalism and “quality drama”) and an over-supply of cheaper and more profitable programming formats such as reality-TV or celebrity and entertainment news. 4.It serves the interests of the status quo, because it is a tool of powerful corporations, who merely want to sell products to consumers rather than produce well-informed citizens who think critically about important social and political issues. |
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Lynn Spigel, “From Domes=c Space to Outer Space” |
Spigel is a cultural historian of TV interested in a group of 1960s sitcoms that are often considered to be silly, escapist, insignificant and low-brow - i.e bewitched |
