TELEVISION
Progress and Problems
Television: Progress and Problems
§To understand the development of TV.
§To understand the development of TV entertainment and news programming.
§To access good and bad TV.
§To understand the impact of Murrow and McCarthy on the development of broadcast news.
Television: Progress and Problems
§ TV in the Age of Transition
§ Progress: TV’s Development
§ TV Arrives
§ Entertainment TV
§ News TV
§ Good and Bad TV
The Shameful 1950s
§McCarthyism
§Cold War
§Television
McCarthyism
§“A time of national paranoia…in which millions of average Americans looked fearfully over their shoulders wondering whether they would be tapped next to explain themselves.”
Journalist Fred Cook
McCarthyism
§Unsubstantiated charges about Communist subversion in the U.S. government and other institutions, including the military and the media.
Cold War
§Soviet Union
§Newly Communist China
§Slowly expanding third world of newly independent nations attempting to maneuver between and manipulate both sides
Cold War Incidents
§Reach flashpoint in 1948-49 with the Berlin Airlift by which the Western allies provided all of West Berlin’s needs when the Russians cut off ground access
§War in Korea
Television
§The decade saw the marriage between the emerging television system and partisan politics.
Early Inventors in Mechanical Scansion
§Paul Nipkow
§John L. Baird
§Charles Francis Jenkins
Paul Nipkow
§Patent for a spinning disk that would become the basis for the first working television system.
John L. Baird
§Conducted first public demonstration of live TV
Charles Francis Jenkins
§First public demonstration of mechanical scansion in the U.S.
Early Inventors in Electronic Scansion
§Vladimir Zworykin
§Philo Farnsworth
Vladimir Zworykin
§Patented the first electronic TV camera tube--the iconoscope
§Invented the cathode ray tube that would be the core of a receiving unit
Philo Farnsworth
§Patented an all electronic TV system as a high school student in 1922
§Filed a patent in 1927 for an all electronic system which allowed a picture with 100- to 150-line definition
TV Arrives
§Screens ranged from 3 to 12 inches
§TVs cost $135 to $600
§FCC set 525 lines as standard
§FCC approved 18 stations for commercial operation
Early TV Entertainment
§Feature films of ‘30s and 40s
§Short musical films
§Film travelogues
§Soap operas
§Cooking programs
§Interview shows
§Children’s programs
Network Programming
§ CBS (William Paley)
§Get the biggest stars on radio
§Offer stars contracts they could not refuse
Network Programming
NBC (David Sarnoff)
§Invented magazine concept (Sylvester Weaver)
§Network would produce and control program
§Network would sell time within program to advertisers
Network Programming
§ABC (Leonard Goldenson)
§Entered into negotiations for merger with United Paramount Theaters
§Committed to sports programming
Bad Entertainment Television
§Decade of Shame
§Representation of Minorities
Bad TV in a Decade of Shame
Impact of Quiz Show Scandal
§Producers forced out of TV and blacklisted
§Networks took control of programs away from sponsors
§Big-prize quiz programs were scrapped
§Canned laughter and applause identified
§Amendment to Communications Act
§Rigged or deceptive programming punishable by law instead of merely being admissible as possible evidence of unfitness or licenses at renewal time
Early Broadcast News
§NBC Camel News Caravan with John Cameron Swayze (NBC)
§Douglas Edwards with the News (CBS)
§Chet Huntley and David Brinkley (NBC)
§ABC News with John Daly
Edward R. Murrow
§I Can Hear It Now
§Hear It Now
§See It Now
§Person to Person
§CBS Reports
Edward R. Murrow
§Regarded TV with suspicion
§TV news closer yo show biz
§Not a good conduit for transmission of ideas
The Case Against Milo Radulovich
§Added the final ingredient to news: controversy
§Established broadcastjournalism in America
Joseph McCarthy
§Created by the Wisconsin press
§Understood how to manipulate the press through its own endorsement of objectivity as a journalistic convention
Joseph McCarthy and the Press
§Press gave substance to someone who was insignificant
§As his power grew, politicians had to take him seriously
Joseph McCarthy and the Press
§He used the press because newspapers adhered to closely to the principle of objectivity
§Newspapers didn’t check the truth or falsity of his charges
Murrow v. McCarthy
§Friends urged Murrow to challenge McCarthy head-on
§Murrow feared destruction of due process of law
§McCarthy threatened Murrow
Murrow v. McCarthy
§Concluded that McCarthy would have to be caught through his words and deeds
§Tapped all McCarthy’s appearances
§Decided to strike March 9
Murrow v. McCarthy
§William Paley said CBS would not pay for advertisement to promote the program
§Paley wanted Murrow to provide equal time to McCarthy
Outcome of the Shameful 1950s
§No broadcaster would ever again have that much freedom or autonomy
§The networks would control the journalists, the shows, the hours, and the subjects
Outcome of the Shameful 1950s
§Newspapers realized that it was not enough to simply to tell what had happened or what was said, but that they had to tell what it meant and whether or not it was true.
§By 1954 interpretive reporting and news analysis had become standard practice
§TV managers realized that they could stand up to demands for free time from even the boldest demagogues
Outcome of the Shameful 1950s
§Reporting is less discipline
§Private lives of public officials are fair journalistic game
§Gossip becomes news
§Issues are less important than personality and character
The 60s with 60 Minutes
The Media and Civil Rights
Conclusion