Search Results

Program Networks

Eli M. Noam

in Media Ownership and Concentration in America

Given the relative cheapness of electronic and physical distribution, it is usually more cost effective to produce a program centrally and distribute it widely rather than for each retail outlet to ... More

Given the relative cheapness of electronic and physical distribution, it is usually more cost effective to produce a program centrally and distribute it widely rather than for each retail outlet to produce its own content. Thus, networks and syndicators emerged from which retail outlets acquired programming, or they produced the program themselves. These networks and syndicators package the content and distribute it to retail outlets such as broadcast stations, cable network operators, and satellite distribution systems. This chapter analyzes the concentration of trends in radio program networks and television broadcast networks. Because radio is often used as an example for media concentration trends, it needs to be discussed at greater length. In about one decade, from 1992 to 2001, the market share of the top four firms increased from 9% to 38%. The national level of radio concentration was less dramatic than its rapid rate of change suggests, coupled with local concentration. In the case of television stations, the concentration trend in ownership has received high visibility. Cable television has become the major delivery platform for additional video channels.Less

Selling Chineseness and Marketing Chinese New Year: Corporate Sponsorship, Television Broadcasts, and Counter Memory

Chiou-Ling Yeh

in Making an American Festival: Chinese New Year in San Francisco's Chinatown

With the rise of the Pacific Rim economy, the restructuring of global economies, the image of wealthy immigrants, and the prevailing model minority narrative, Chinese Americans became “dream ... More

With the rise of the Pacific Rim economy, the restructuring of global economies, the image of wealthy immigrants, and the prevailing model minority narrative, Chinese Americans became “dream customers” for multinational corporations. They were also perceived as cultural brokers to expedite trade across the Pacific. Major corporations began to sponsor the festival in 1987, while television stations started annual broadcasts of the parade in 1988. This chapter explores how commercialism and the mass media entered the terrain of ethnic-identity formation. By evoking exoticism and the model minority image in the English-language parade broadcasts, parade organizers successfully attracted corporate sponsorship and incorporated the Chinese New Year Festival into contemporary multicultural America. However, the counter-memory presented in the Chinese-language television broadcasts of the parade rebuffed the idea of a unified Chinese American ethnicity, instead revealing a heterogeneous community divided by geographic and linguistic barriers.Less

Radio, race, and the Television Service

Darrell M. Newton

in Paving the Empire Road: BBC Television and West Indian Immigration

This chapter examines how BBC radio and its practices created possibilities for the recognition of African-Caribbean voices, as they discussed life in England years before the arrival of Windrush, ... More

This chapter examines how BBC radio and its practices created possibilities for the recognition of African-Caribbean voices, as they discussed life in England years before the arrival of Windrush, and just before television re-emerged as a cultural force. It also examines how programmes created for West Indian audiences changed foci, and began to offer varied, personal perspectives on life for African-Caribbean immigrants. It outlines the influence of radio upon the BBC Television Service, management directives and pre-war programming. Beginning in 1939, the programme Calling the West Indies featured West Indians troops on active service reading letters on air to their families back home in the Islands. The programme later became Caribbean Voices (1943–58) and highlighted West Indian writers who read and discussed literary works on the World Service. These programmes offered rare opportunities for West Indians to discuss their perspectives on life among white Britons and subsequent social issues.Less

Carnivalesque Pleasure:: The Audio-visual Market and the Consumption of Television Drama

Rong Cai

in TV Drama in China

This chapter discusses China's home-video market for TV drama. It examines what happens when TV dramas are consumed on DVD, focusing on the ideological and commercial significance of the DVD market ... More

This chapter discusses China's home-video market for TV drama. It examines what happens when TV dramas are consumed on DVD, focusing on the ideological and commercial significance of the DVD market of TV drama for contemporary society. The chapter begins with an examination of a number of issues in the development of China's audio-visual market since the 1980s, and provides statistics to support the claim that there is a marked polarization in audio-visual publications. It also discusses recent trends in illegal recording, and examines anti-piracy offensives by the state and the video industry. The chapter concludes with a close look at consumers of TV drama on video and the socio-ideological implications of using video as an alternative medium to broadcast television.Less

Broadcasting rights to sport

Richard Haynes

in Media Rights and Intellectual Property

Sport is one of the most cherished forms of media content, and broadcasting rights to access sporting events have become a central feature of the media economy. A willingness to pay for the pleasure ... More

Sport is one of the most cherished forms of media content, and broadcasting rights to access sporting events have become a central feature of the media economy. A willingness to pay for the pleasure of watching sport has been long established. Understanding why sport is so important demands a knowledge of how the relationship between sport and broadcasting has developed and how the power relations between sports authorities and broadcasters have dynamically changed over time. This chapter first provides a brief history of televised sport in the United Kingdom, focusing on BBC and ITV. It then explores the rise of subscription sport and the consequences of the BSkyB deal in the UK, as well as the broadcasting of sport on terrestrial television, the fallout of ITV Digital, regulation of TV sports rights and competition issues, cultural citizenship and listed events, and new media sport. It also examines television broadcasting of horse racing, citing the case of Attheraces.Less

Illusions of Actuality

in Science on the Air: Popularizers and Personalities on Radio and Early Television

In the television era, science programming survived at the network level only if it conformed to a fast-paced, irreverent, time-conscious context. Communication of scientific information via ... More

In the television era, science programming survived at the network level only if it conformed to a fast-paced, irreverent, time-conscious context. Communication of scientific information via television became fragmented and dominated by entertainment values. Popular science was shuttled to the sidelines by network executives unconcerned about altruistic goals of public education. During the 1950s and 1960s, the proportion of television's daily schedule allocated to explaining science declined at the same time that science's accomplishments were gaining ever greater relevance to society. American television viewers never demanded otherwise, and the scientific community turned back to the laboratory with only sporadic, token, and generally ineffective complaint. Two types of programs from that early decade of television demonstrate broadcasting's rapid shift toward entertainment. The first, exemplified by The Johns Hopkins Science Review, adapted radio's educational approaches to a visual context. These presentations retained radio's tone of control and dignity. The second, introduced by a group of one-hour specials underwritten by the Bell Telephone System, altered the landscape of broadcast science. The Bell-funded programs demonstrated to the television industry that science need not be dull. They introduced exciting visual techniques for presenting science, and, perhaps most important, they raised audience expectations for popular science.Less

Keeping the Flame in the Broadcast Era

Travis Vogan

in Keepers of the Flame: NFL Films and the Rise of Sports Media

This chapter examines how broadcast television helped NFL Films transform pro football from a sport that appeared primarily on Sunday telecasts and evening news recaps into a spectacle that could be ... More

This chapter examines how broadcast television helped NFL Films transform pro football from a sport that appeared primarily on Sunday telecasts and evening news recaps into a spectacle that could be consumed throughout the entire week and year. It discusses NFL Films productions designed to augment and publicize exceptional National Football League (NFL) broadcast events, specifically the annual Super Bowl and ABC's Monday Night Football. It shows how NFL Films strengthened the NFL's relationship to television to attract television viewers (and sell advertising time) around the clock. The company's productions demonstrated that nonlive sports television programming could have appeal throughout the week and throughout the year. Furthermore, NFL Films anticipated and precipitated the continuous sports television that developed along with cable television.Less

Experimenting with Illusion

Marcel Chotkowski Lafollette

in Science on American Television: A History

This chapter examines the U.S. television industry's experimentation with the incorporation of science into television programming and discusses some of the most notable science-related shows during ... More

This chapter examines the U.S. television industry's experimentation with the incorporation of science into television programming and discusses some of the most notable science-related shows during the 1940s. These include Serving through Science created by Miller McClintock, The Nature of Things hosted by astronomer Roy K. Marshall, and The Johns Hopkins Science Review. The chapter also explains the impact of the passage of the Communications Act of 1934 on television broadcasting.Less

Defining What’s New(s) about Science

Marcel Chotkowski Lafollette

in Science on American Television: A History

This chapter, which examines the history of the conflict between news and science television broadcasting in the United States, discusses the role of television news in reframing science's public ... More

This chapter, which examines the history of the conflict between news and science television broadcasting in the United States, discusses the role of television news in reframing science's public image and cites a survey result which reveals an increase in mass media coverage of science, technology, and personal health stories. It explains that communication about risks identified by or related to scientific research posed special challenges for television, particularly with the passage of the Fairness Doctrine. The chapter also considers the link between declining enrollments in science courses and the state of science on television.Less

Monsters and Diamonds: The Price of Exclusive Access

Marcel Chotkowski Lafollette

in Science on American Television: A History

This chapter examines the history of the emergence of sensationalistic approaches to television broadcasting in the United States as a result of television companies' drive to be competitive. It ... More

This chapter examines the history of the emergence of sensationalistic approaches to television broadcasting in the United States as a result of television companies' drive to be competitive. It discusses the conflict between the protection of intellectual property and the desire for publicity in the production of programs related to the archives of organizations such as The Smithsonian Institution. The chapter also describes The Smithsonian Institution's first television venture titled Search for the Goddess of Love, and the role of television producer David L. Wolper in the Institution's projects.Less

Entrepreneurial Popularization

Marcel Chotkowski Lafollette

in Science on American Television: A History

This chapter examines the business aspects of television broadcasting of science in the United States. It explains that increased public interest did not provoke development of more science programs ... More

This chapter examines the business aspects of television broadcasting of science in the United States. It explains that increased public interest did not provoke development of more science programs on either commercial or public television. The chapter also mentions that public television did not provide a secure haven for science's documentary makers despite positive responses from both viewers and critics, and highlights the priority given by advertisers and underwriters and managers of public television to program ratings.Less

Inventing Public Service Media

Amanda D. Lotz

in A Future for Public Service Television

This chapter considers the need for traditional broadcasters to essentially invent public service media. Although broadcasting will continue to play a role in the public service media project, ... More

This chapter considers the need for traditional broadcasters to essentially invent public service media. Although broadcasting will continue to play a role in the public service media project, continuing to think only in terms of public service broadcasting is to ignore a situation of great opportunity. There have never been public service media — in the UK or elsewhere — despite a century of public service broadcasting experience. The arrival of Internet distribution technology with different affordances and limitations has left those in both public service and commercial television feeling unmoored and uncertain of the present and future. It is argued that instead of a regular reappraisal of public service broadcasting, the context of the development of a new mechanism of video distribution requires the more exhaustive task of identifying the ways in which the affordances of Internet-distributed video require the abandonment of the broadcast paradigm and creation of a public service paradigm that embraces the opportunities and characteristics of Internet distribution.Less

Television and Public Service: A Brief History¹

Des Freedman and Vana Goblot (eds)

in A Future for Public Service Television

This chapter traces the history of public service television. The history of British public service broadcasting policy in the 20th century is characterized by a series of very deliberate public ... More

This chapter traces the history of public service television. The history of British public service broadcasting policy in the 20th century is characterized by a series of very deliberate public interventions into what might otherwise have developed as a straightforward commercial marketplace. The creation of the BBC, the launch of an ITV network required to produce public service programming, and the addition of the highly idiosyncratic Channel 4 gave the UK a television ecology animated by quality, breadth of programming and an orientation towards serving the public interest. At each of these three moments, the possibilities of public service television were expanded and British culture enriched as a result. The 1990 Broadcasting Act and the fair wind given to multichannel services may have ended the supremacy of the public service television ideal. However, public service television has survived, through the design of the institutions responsible for it, because of legislative protection, and as a result of its continuing popularity amongst the public.Less

Does Television Represent Us?

Ken Loach

in A Future for Public Service Television

This chapter argues that television has failed to represent the nuances, subtleties, intricacies of people's lives, and their concerns and their worries. In fact, it never has. The BBC has never been ... More

This chapter argues that television has failed to represent the nuances, subtleties, intricacies of people's lives, and their concerns and their worries. In fact, it never has. The BBC has never been independent since the day that Lord Reith, who was the man in charge at the time, moved into a government office. He wrote the news the government wanted the people to hear. He even considered banning the Archbishop of Canterbury from speaking because it was thought he might be too sympathetic to the strikers. He put out government propaganda, but the people believed it because they believed the BBC was independent. But the BBC has never been independent, and that is why it does not represent us, because the people have interests that the BBC will not represent.Less

“A Strong Reek of the Not-Quite-Crackpot”: H. L. Hunt, Right-Wing Radio’s “Constructive” Conservative

Heather Hendershot

in What's Fair on the Air?: Cold War Right-Wing Broadcasting and the Public Interest

This chapter centers on H.L. Hunt, an oil businessman, and his efforts in both radio and television broadcasting to spread his right-wing ideologies, which claims to expose the evils of communism and ... More

This chapter centers on H.L. Hunt, an oil businessman, and his efforts in both radio and television broadcasting to spread his right-wing ideologies, which claims to expose the evils of communism and the goodness of the free market. From 1951 to 1975, his broadcast on anticommunist and pro-free-market aired in almost every state, and even had subscription newsletters. His eccentric behavior, coupled with vulgarity and his appallingly bad manners became a symbol of the so-called right-wing lunatic fringe.Less

In Splendid Isolation: The Public’s Television

Marcel Chotkowski Lafollette

in Science on American Television: A History

This chapter examines the influence of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on the television broadcasting of science in the United States, highlighting the role of the BBC as a training ground ... More

This chapter examines the influence of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on the television broadcasting of science in the United States, highlighting the role of the BBC as a training ground for documentarians and discussing The Smithsonian Institution's screening of The Ascent of Man, produced by BBC and Time-Life Inc. It also discusses the significant influence of The Ascent of Man on public television in the United States and considers the success of NOVA, produced by WGBH.Less

All Science, All the Time

Marcel Chotkowski Lafollette

in Science on American Television: A History

This chapter discusses the history of science in television broadcasting in the United States, explaining that American television never presented science in its entirety but only presented topics ... More

This chapter discusses the history of science in television broadcasting in the United States, explaining that American television never presented science in its entirety but only presented topics which viewers found interesting. It highlights the fact that the need to attract the largest possible audiences pushed television's version of science away from attention to the thought and reasoning behind scientific conclusions and recommendations. The chapter also suggests that science popularization from the 1940s to the 1990s suffered the same fate as print and lecture popularization.Less

Taking the Audience’s Pulse

Marcel Chotkowski Lafollette

in Science on American Television: A History

This chapter examines the television broadcasting of medicine in the United States. It discusses the role of the American Medical Association in the sponsorship and financing of medical dramas, and ... More

This chapter examines the television broadcasting of medicine in the United States. It discusses the role of the American Medical Association in the sponsorship and financing of medical dramas, and describes the first remote television broadcasting of surgery at Johns Hopkins University in 1947. The chapter also highlights the effectiveness of television dramas about hospitals, operations, diseases, and charismatic physicians in bringing medical information more effectively than most of other educational programs. It also describes some of the notable medical dramas of the 1940s and 1950s, including City 〉Hospital, The Doctor, and Medic.Less

Networking Palestine: The Development and Limitations of Television and Telecommunications since 1993

Helga Tawil-Souri

in The Oslo Accords: A Critical Assessment

This chapter discusses the development of media and technology in Palestine in the wake of the Oslo Accords. For the first time in their modern history, the Palestinians were afforded, by the ... More

This chapter discusses the development of media and technology in Palestine in the wake of the Oslo Accords. For the first time in their modern history, the Palestinians were afforded, by the accords, the freedom for collective self-expression through mediated forms, such as radio and television. Palestinians were also permitted to build their own telecommunications infrastructure for land and mobile telephony, establish digital services, and engender an industry that would eventually make up a significant amount of the Palestinian GDP and play an important role in Palestinian society. However, the accords also inhibited the formation of these very industries. None of these media fields would be representatively or geographically national, many have operated quasi-illegally, and all of them continue to be hindered by Israeli policies and by the conditions of Palestinian Authority-international funding agreements that Oslo made possible.Less

Public Service Algorithms

James Bennett

in A Future for Public Service Television

A prevailing metaphor for television throughout its history has been as a ‘window on the world’, which enables viewers to explore a variety of different content, viewpoints, debates, and landscapes. ... More

A prevailing metaphor for television throughout its history has been as a ‘window on the world’, which enables viewers to explore a variety of different content, viewpoints, debates, and landscapes. This was a function largely fulfilled in the broadcast era by scheduling: providing viewers with a mixed diet of programming, albeit at the scheduler's behest. Crucially, within a public service broadcasting (PSB) remit, this window on the world offered viewers the chance to broaden their horizons — taking them from comedy, to news, to drama, to a music documentary, to current affairs programmes. This chapter argues that this variety of offering is a crucial part of what public service algorithms should aspire to offer. This means thinking differently about the data collected and measured for PSB, and using it to set different objectives that escape some of the bounded thinking of a commercially driven, on-demand digital television market.Less