Television is chewing gum for the eyes.
Frank Lloyd Wright, 1867–1959
Architect, Author, Educator
Prepared by Danielle Oser, APR
http://visualoop.com/media/2013/08/The-history-of-Television-750x486.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyNUzXttghk
TV is a reflection of culture or social reality like music, it is a
‘social ritual’ in which we all share
It is produced for a mass audience which makes it part of
‘popular culture’
It transmits cultural values or dominant ideology
It is capable of satisfying the cultural needs of a diverse group
of viewers
TV is an ‘agent’ of socialisation - we construct our identities
based on different representations and role models
 1. Breaking Bad
 2. Game of Thrones
 3. The Wire
 4. Sherlock
 5. Sopranos
 6. Arrested Development
 7. Firefly
 8. Dexter
 9. Avatar: The Last Airbender
 10. The Simpsons
 11. Monty Python’s Flying Circus
 12. Rome
 13. Freaks and Geeks
 14. Twin Peaks
 15. Twilight Zone
 16. Death Note
 17. Oz
 18. Seinfeld
 19. Leyla ile Mecnun
 20. House M.D.
 21. House of Cards
 22. Batman: The Animated Series
 23. Deadwood
 24. Friends
 25. South Park
 26. Fawlty Towers
 27. Cowboy Bebop
 28. Suits
 29. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
 30. Six Feet Under
 31. Archer
 32. Downton Abbey
 33. The Office
 34. Doctor Who
 35. Battlestar Galactica
 36. Boardwalk Empire
 37. The Walking Dead
 38. The X-Files
 39. Curb Your Enthusiasm
 40. Justified
http://www.pajiba.com/seriously_random_lists/the-40-best-tv-series-of-all-
time-according-to-imdb-users.php
1. The Sopranos
2. Seinfeld
3. The Twilight Zone
4. All in the Family
5. M*A*S*H
6. The Mary Tyler Moore Show
7. Mad Men
8. Cheers
9. The Wire
10. The West Wing
11. The Simpsons
12. I Love Lucy
13. Breaking Bad
14. The Dick Van Dyke Show
15. Hill Street Blues
16. Arrested Development
17. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
18. Six Feet Under
19. Taxi
20. The Larry Sanders Show
21. 30 Rock
22. Friday Night Lights
23. Frasier
24. Friends
25. Saturday Night Live
26. The X-Files
27. Lost
28. ER
29. The Cosby Show
30. Curb Your Enthusiasm
http://tvline.com/2013/06/03/100-best-written-tv-shows-ever-the-sopranos/
FCC Chair Newton Minow called television “a vast wasteland”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dGRgLfaGwo
Flipping through programs to find something to watch without
using a television guide
Move from Radio to TV
http://thumbnails.visually.netdna-cdn.com/evolution-of-the-television-1926-to-2010_5073233e3e1b6_w1500.jpg
The high school student who invented a practical form of
television was Philo Farnsworth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7Ua5xC3phM
The cartoon character Felix the Cat was first featured during an
early television experiment.
 TV booms in the 1950s
 Many of the early programs steal radio shows and audiences.
The founder of reality programming on television is considered
to be Allen Funt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e5TXWCzJXw
http://www.otrcat.com/otr6/candid_microphone_470810_wom
an_complains_about_the_program_otrcat.com_.mp3
$100,000 / Roll of Tape = $300
Videotape was demonstrated in 1956 by Charles Ginsburg and
first popularly used for news shows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOSnYt9k4kM
 A Dramatic Leap
 In 1948, only 1 percent
 of American households
 had a TV set.
 By the early 1960s,
 more than 90 percent
 of all homes had a TV.
First televised debates
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyUPe_Atu98
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McdD9Ng4VnY
No physical distribution
Audio/Visual medium for
documentary information (news)
Provides information to a large
audience
 NBC (200)
 ABC (200)
 CBS (200)
 PBS (200) 1968
 Fox (200) 1987
 CW (2006) (UPN and WB merge)
 UPN (United Paramount Network/Viacom) (150) 1995
 WB (Warner Brothers/Time Warner) (150) 1995
 PAX (70) 1999
The largest television monitor in
the world can be found in the
Dallas Cowboys stadium.
The television technology that was as monumental as the
switch from black and white to color is HDTV.
http://www.early-childhood-education-degrees.com/kids-and-
media/
 http://w2.parent
stv.org/Main/
http://www.realitytvworld.com/realitytvworld/allshows.shtml
http://www.realitytvworld.com/
 MTV’s The Real World:
New York was the first
reality-based series to
appeal to a large
audience.
 http://d2tq98mqfjyz2l.cl
oudfront.net/image_cac
he/1344897321135832.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA4ZZImS4Qs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me7VMIrnmqA
 One of the chief creators
of “Survivor” is television
producer Mark Burnett.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melissa-s-kearney/is-mtvs-16-and-pregnant-a-great-form-of-birth-control_b_4588978.html
http://visual.ly/violence-tv
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x63u0w_rodney-king-
beating_news
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDWB63A9hN8&oref=htt
ps%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DMDWB63
A9hN8&has_verified=1
http://www.tmz.com/2006/11/20/kramers-racist-tirade-caught-
on-tape/
 http://vi
sual.ly/h
ow-tv-
changin
g-our-
world
 http://w
ww.glaa
d.org/fil
es/GLA
AD_TV
_Marria
ge_enlar
ge_0.jpg
 Founded in 1997, the Television
Academy Foundation’s Archive of
American Television has
conducted over 750 oral history
interviews with the legends of
television.
 These interviews chronicle the birth
and growth of American TV
History as it evolves, and make the
interviews available worldwide.
 The Archive continues to produce
new interviews every year.
 The collection covers a variety of
professions, genres, and topics in
electronic media history.
 The interviews are done in a life-
history format, starting with the
interviewees' early years and
influences.
 The interview then moves into their
major television work, and
concludes with the interviewee's
thoughts about the craft, as well as
advice to aspiring professionals.
 The interviews are presented uncut
and unscripted.
 http://www.emmytvlegends.org/
Television is the main storytelling
medium of our time.
Big Three networks have lost more
than 50% of audience since 1980s.
How can TV maintain its cultural
relevance?
 Http://adage.com/article/
media/tv-ad-prices-
football-king/244832/
3D TV
We Are All Tv Producers (Ustream & Stickam)
Ustream.Tv And The 2010 Hawaiian Tsunami
 A communications
technology changing
the way persons view
television programs
is web.
 https://www.mediabi
stro.com/alltwitter/s
ocial-
television_b30603
http://www.statista.com/chart/1214/second-screen---tv-
companion-or-distraction/
http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/television/mobile-tv-
when-what-where-30072/attachment/cre-preferred-genres-by-
tv-viewing-device-june2013/
http://tubefilter.fanbridge.com/
downloads/file.php?file_id=253
38&conf_code=0cc0270799f4c2
37fe1e35be35f1e67e&anon=1&do
wnload=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2bLNkCqpuY
In what ways does TV affect
your life?
How often do you watch?
For how long?
Does television serve the same function
in our lives as it did in the past?
Do we watch TV in the same way as we
used to 20 years ago?
Does it satisfy our social needs?
 http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=sSD2DWXKJlg

Visual communication and television