Early Television Museum — See the first mechanical and electonic sets.
Here are some Historical Highlights of television:
 
1923 'Television camera tube developed at Westinghouse by Vladimir Zworykin (left)
1939 'Television demonstrated at New York World's Fair.
1941 FCC authorizes commercial television, but WW II intervenes.
1947 "Howdy Doody" is first major children's television program. "Captain Kangaroo" also was a smash hit.
1934 Communications Act establishes Federal Communications Commission to regulate airwaves.
1948 NBC and CBS networks offer evening news and entertainment programs.
1948 Licensing of TV frozen (until 1952).
1951 First coast-to-coast television from New York to San Francisco.
1952 "The Today Show" ushers in new talk-news-interview format.
1950s The early days of television mimicked radio.
1953 Eisenhower inauguration is first to be carried live on television.
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RATING - A rating is the percent of households tuned to a particular program from the total available TV households in a designated area. In this example there are 500 households tuned to program "A" out of a possible 2,800 (all of the TV households represented in the pie).
By dividing the larger number (2,800) into the smaller (500) we get a percent; in this case 17.86. So the rating of program "A" is 18. (Since ratings are in terms of percentages, you don't need to say "percent," just 18.) Using the same procedure you can see that the rating for program "B" would be 11.
SHARE - A share is the percentage of TV households with sets turned on that are watching your program. In the case of program "A" you divide 1,600 into 500 and get 31 as the audience share for program "A". The share for program "B" would be 18.75 or 19.
The first ratings systems, developed for radio use in the 1930s, involved telephone interviews, face-to-face interviews at the door and postcard reply surveys. All of the systems relied on the cooperation of those who responded, and on their recall ability. Then, in the 1960s, the technology had improved to the point where data were automatically fed to the company over phone lines, making the data available to the producers within a few days. Today, overnights are available.
For a closer look at ratings, click here.
The News Package - a self-contained story
The first step is to develop an angle or a concept, such as "Halloween" with a reporter/photographer team
Click here for a glossary of shooting and editing technical terms.
- The team should do research on the topic: background, history, statistics, oddities, money spent on candy, costumes, etc.,
- Find authorities or experts on the topic
- Set up interviews with the experts - historians, witches, costume shop owners, etc.,
- Conduct interviews to look for soundbites (actualities) of about 8 to 10 seconds - these are the equivalent of a direct quote in print
- Get B-roll - this is video about the topic such as costume shop interiors, pumpkin carving for jack-o-lanterns, etc., - this is to be used with voice over video
- Put package together with an intro for the anchor who will read it to introduce package
- Package might contain reporter intro voice over video, sound on tape, standup, to develop the story - consider a reveal: something that will be a surprise such as "John Jones is a pilot who flies between Los Angeles and New York. John Jones is blind."
- Write to the picture, pick a catchy lead from your interview material and put it up at the top - don't bury the lead, write in a conversational tone
- The ending should tie back to the beginning
- End package with a standard outcue - "This is .... for News4 WOAI"
In this case dealing with networks, programming involves introducing a new program into an already existing framework of programs.
Two problems exist in programming:(1) Programmers tend to underestimate the intelligence of the viewers and aim at the lowest common denominator of intelligence.
(2) Too many hours on too many channels to fill with "quality" programming
Usually a new program is inserted into the schedule in one of the following ways:
- Offensive is moving a strong show against a weak one. If the new show is absolutely untested, the program is difficult to label as "strong" or "weak." However, it is usually touted as "like Cosby or "similar to such-and-so."
- Defensive is moving a strong show against a strong show.
- Lead-out is following a successful show with a new show.
- Lead-in is preceding a successful show with a new show.
- Hammock is wrapping a new show between two solid shows of the same type (genre). For example, a full night of situation comedies or a full night of action-adventure.
- Spin-off is a new show develops out of an older, successful show. These are often easier to sell because of the good track record of the older show.
- Rip-off is a new show imitating an older, successful show.
- Counter programming is when a network runs sports, the other two will run a movie or something directed at family (women, especially).
- Off-hour: while other programs may begin at the hour, your program begins at five minutes after the hour. This is often called bridging, a technique which staggers the start of a long-format program so that viewers would have to abandon it in the middle in order to tune in to the beginning of the competitor's show.
- Stunting refers to a variety of exceptional tactics used to boost viewership during key weeks of the season, or when a network, station or program is in special trouble. Frequent stunts involve programming a highly promoted miniseries or feature film to attract concentrated viewer attention; having one show's star appear on another program; or mounting highly promoted, end-of-season weddings, births, or cliffhangers. More dramatic stunts involve delaying the season debut of a highly popular program a few weeks in order to build suspense - and, hopefully, steal audiences decisively away from competitors' just-rolling season.
Time of exposure to the story
The reporter's personality
Time constraints
Type of data
TV's need for visual images
TV's predisposition to package a story
Television's impact on society has been both positive and negative since the 1950s.
As a medium of immediacy, television allows individuals to learn of natural disasters before they hit, thus allowing escape from harm.
- Television as a technology improves our lives daily by allowing us to look inside our bodies, under the sea and earth and far out into space..
- Another positive aspect of television is its impact as an educational tool. Thousands of children in the United States have learned their numbers and ABCs through the magical eye of television's Big Bird on Sesame Street or through similar public education programs.
- As a medium of emotion, television allows viewers to feel the news event rather than just read about it or hear about it.
- In the 1960s television held the nation together with the coverage of President John F. Kennedy's assassination. For four days, television allowed the nation to mourn and relieve the emotions built up over that period.
- Assassinations and uprisings shown on television have helped shape the way people think about social problems. When Dr. Martin Luther King (above in a news conference) and Senator Robert Kennedy were shot television coverage provided an outlet for the nation to mourn once again. These visual events also caused the nation to release its anger in violent demonstrations and riots.
- The Civil Rights Movement of the late '50s and early '60s owes a great deal to television coverage. The American public did not know of the injustices being suffered in the South as people were not allowed to vote, young people were spat upon and insulted while trying to be served at an all-white lunch counter and police dogs attacked peaceful nonviolent demonstrators who were seeking their right to vote.
- Another controversial time in our history, the Vietnam War, was the first televised war. That is, television attempted to cover the war with a type of reporting known as "bang bang" or "ambulance chasing." Little time or attention was given to the causes or why we were there in the first place. At first, the American public devoured the television coverage, but as the war dragged on and the violence became a nightly happening in our homes, many people began to question why we were there in the first place.
- Thus, the anti-war demonstrators, younger and somewhat wiser to the ways of television, began using the medium for their own causes. Walter Cronkite, at first a staunch supporter of the war effort, returned to Vietnam in 1968 and stepped out of his neutral reporting stance to editorially state that America should honorably get out of this war the nation could not win. Cronkite said we should say we tried to make the area safe for democracy, but we had failed.
- Around the world, people became aware of the power of television “ an emotional medium which forces people to feel rather than an intellectual medium that causes people to think. Television exposed this nation to the starving population in Ethiopia, to the carnage of the Biafran Civil War in which a public relations agency sent out misleading information about the war.
- Thus, television has the capacity to distort reality. One example was when what appeared to be a large mob of people in a demonstration turned out to be a small group when the camera moved back on the scene. Horrifying images of people starving or being killed by rebellious soldiers turned viewers against the perpetrators of these horrors.
- Producers, writers and others involved with television productions may use the medium to promote values and understanding of people's differences in our society through the process of imbedding values in programming.
- Some critics say that televised violence begets other violent acts. Others would say television simply reflects the society in which it exists.
- Although many positive things have resulted from the growth of television, much remains to be done to make the medium what its inventors hoped it would become.
Edward R. Murrow on "See It Now"
Edward R. Murrow was an American broadcast journalist. He first came to prominence with a series of radio news broadcasts during World War II, which were followed by millions of listeners in the United States and Canada.
Senor Wences on "The Ed Sullivan Show"
Edward Vincent "Ed" Sullivan was an American entertainment writer and television host, best known as the presenter of the television variety programs The Toast of the Town and The Ed Sullivan Show.
Milton Berle with Dorothy Kilgallen and Jack O'Brian
Milton Berle was an American comedian and actor. As the host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater, he was the first major American television star and was known to millions of viewers as "Uncle Miltie" and "Mr. Television" during TV's golden age.
Back to Mass Media Stuff -- stuff I have collected over 28 1/2 years of teaching a beginning mass media course in journalism-photography at San Antonio College
Updated May 27, 2017