Impact of Television Technology in Global Communication - Research Paper Example

In fact, 89% (1.42 billion) of all households worldwide have 1.6 billion TV sets with 4.2 billion (61% of the world’s total population) TV viewers (Ahonen 1). Particularly in the US, 99% of its households have TV sets and are watching at an average of four hours a day which when computed in a 65-year life would mean a total of nine years of television viewing, the A.C. Nielsen Co. says (Herr 1). “Its all-pervasiveness and instantaneity are finely tuned to our way of thinking… [that] we expect from it effortless pleasure and hot news” (Peters 1).

This captivating power of the television technology is essentially embedded in the very term ‘television’. Etymologically, the term ‘television’ (TV) is a combined term of different origins. The prefix ‘tele’ is from Ancient Greek that means ‘far’; the main word ‘visio’ is from Latin that means ‘sight’ or ‘seeing’. Hence, television means ‘far seeing’ – a perfect term for the great miracle it offers mankind, as it amazingly extends man’s seeing capability beyond the limits of physical distance.

(Stephens 46) Technically defined, “television is the electronic delivery of moving images and sound from a source to a receiver” (Noll, par.1). The receiver manipulates three kinds of different necessary information: the picture, the sound, and the synchronization. Amazingly, the picture is moving though not real but simply an optical illusion made possible by the rapid succession at 30 per second rate of slightly different still frames. (Videoforms 1) It is this experience that keep people hook up to the TV.

Today, it has even become a necessity and has become an indicator of one’s socio-economic status. In fact, the global distribution of television ownership and use is illustrative of the so-called digital divide as can be seen in the following data. The Industrialized World has 630 million TV sets in 470 million households with only 1.05 billion viewers, hence a ratio of 1.3 TV set for every household and a ratio of 1.6 viewers for every TV set. On the other hand, the Emerging World has 970 million TV sets in 950 million households but with 3.

15 billion viewers, exactly three times larger than that of the Industrialized World, hence a ratio of only 1 TV set for every household and a ratio of 3.24 viewers for every TV set. Also, 34% of households in the Industrialized World own 2 or more TV sets; whereas, only 2% of households in the Emerging World own 2 or more TV sets. (Ahonen, par. 4) 1 The Evolution of Television How could a lifeless entertainment device greatly impact global communication? Understanding the evolution of TV from its inception to its current form (see Appendix) will help clarify this unexpected phenomenon.

The television technology had its humble and skeptical beginnings, but except for the Internet is the 20th century’s most influential invention, Monaghan argues (1). Even its own inventors may not have imagined the development it has reached today and the further development it could reach in the future. The invention of the television cannot be attributed to a single person but many individuals (Bellis, “The Invention of Television” 1) whose works and accidental discoveries on optical, mechanical and