Overview

Television, long regarded as mere ""entertainment"", is now being seriously considered for its significance and effect on human lives. This illustrated study charts the history and development of this influential cultural phenomenon. The book describes the history of television from its technical conception in the 19th century through to the multimedia developments of the present. Alongside this historical account, chapters provide important discussion of the central debates affecting television worldwide, from America and Britain to Europe, Japan, Australia and the Third World. All genres of programme-making - news, sport, drama, comedy - are examined in the light of key questions: how viewing practices affect particular societies; how standards of taste and decency are arrived at; the influence on television of government power; the role of public service broadcasting; and the relationship of television to terrorism and violence.

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9780198119999

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Reviews

Hitler and Lord Reith were the first arbiters of television's usage; today we have to accept what international moguls like Rupert Murdoch think is good for us. And we still don't know quite how it affects us. As Anthony Smith points out in the introduction to this wide-ranging examination of television's worldwide impact, 'many have tried but no one has yet succeeded in distilling the essence of the nature of its influence'. This book does much to redress the balance, with especially interesting chapters on television and family life, terrorism and the Third World. Read it, and you'll never watch EastEnders - or News at Ten - in quite the same way again. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

About the Editor: Anthony Smith worked as a producer at the BBC from 1960-1971 and was Director of the British Film Institute from 1979-1988. He has been President of Magdalen College, Oxford since 1988. Richard Paterson is Head of Media, Education, and Research at the British Film Institute, Londo

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