Television: A Cultural Evolution Powered by a Technical Evolution - Research Paper Example

Television: A Cultural Evolution Powered by a Technical Evolution First History of Media and Technology Television: A Cultural Evolution Powered by a Technical Evolution Janus in the Roman Pantheon was revered as the patron of all the transitions and new beginnings. Being double-faced, Janus was able to see both forward and backward. It just suggests that the drivers of revolutions and transitions are heroes who can see present, past and future. A significant new beginning in public life is structured by the ongoing digital revolution that influences individuals, social groups and societies on the perspective of maintaining an energetic public sphere (Newman, 2008). This process, however, is not an overnight phenomenon, but there have been numerous milestones between Philo Farnsworth and today’s large LEDs at the sports arenas. While this evolution has brought in many ways or ideologies of perceiving the world and humanity, the civilization has both gained and lost in the spheres of family values and social commitment. If these technological advancements provided us with opportunities to establish stronger familial and social bonds, how would you make use of them? When such an evolution pushes you towards the boundaries of ethical deliberations, how do you intelligently direct yourself on the path of conscience and prudence? How does the media evolution contribute or contradict the evolution of civilization? A.A Campbell Swinton, being a prominent British electrical engineer, was on of the many visionaries to predict a ‘Distant Electric Vision’ by discussing a fully electronic video system in 1908 (Webb, 2005). The possibility of executing Swinton’s narrations was not realized until the second half of nineteenth century. Nonetheless, the first device for scanning and transmitting images through wires was constituted by Paul Nipkow, a twenty three year old German engineering student, in 1884. This concept established to inspect a scene sequentially point by point from top to bottom and left to right. It will further be transmitted through telegraph lines using the pulsating electric current generated from the time-varying brightness after every successive point (Webb, 2005). It was the fundamental system on which today’s televisions are based on. Television started to gain a place in the general household by 1960s. As the device developed technically, it brought tremendous changes in the attitudes of masses to absorb the advent of a mass media. “The introduction of the machine into the home meant that family members needed to come to terms with the presence of communication medium that might transform older modes of family interaction” (Spigel, 1992, p.238). Social critics and sociologists studied the impact of televisions on family life. The print media promoted television as a means to bring family together. Togetherness was a caption used by McCall’s magazine in 1954 to show the significance of family unity with the installation of televisions. Capturing the Household Considering the family atmosphere before the televisions existed, it was an important concern, at that juncture, to choose the right place to install the TV. The interior of the model rooms in those days did not have televisions. The suggestions were included living rooms, game rooms or some strategic places from where the TV could be watched from living room and kitchen (Better Homes and Gardens 1949). The notion had improved as years passed, TV sets moved freely within the household. Images of interior started depicting TV sets by 1960s. Household articles for family entertainment had to give way for TV, as it gained popularity within the household. For instance, the fireplace was a domestic recreation point where the whole family came together and the familial values were radiated among Dad, Mom, Brothers and Sisters. The TV gradually gained entry to thee fireplace where it was made to share the same meanings ascribed to the fireplace (House Beautiful 1954). These projections, in fact, showed how the television was turning out to be the center of the family life expecting to revive love and togetherness. Pianos were increasingly disappearing from living rooms in American household as television sets took its place. Earlier, pianos had been placed prominently in the living rooms, where as, it was moved to another insignificant areas like basement and so on (Spigel, 1992). Now the entertainment station in a household was mainly comprised of television, phonograph and radio. Radio, however, had its own limitations as family entertainment unit. Firstly, listening to radio did not really required the family to come together as it could be heard from anywhere in the house. Secondly, radio could only be perceived by ear and the audiences are left with imagination to visualize the scenario (Sterling and Kittross 2001). Such a thrill might have been an excitement, for people used to movies, until the advent of TV, where as, once they started to feel themselves as viewers of the incident, imagining visuals with the help of words and instruments did not excite them. Over all the success of radio drama broadly depended on audience imagination. Magazines had made TV to be a natural part of domestic space, so television was rapidly becoming an every day common place object in the heads of the Americans when television signals were not available in most part of the country (Spigel, 1992). When the print media was promoting TV as a household article, most of the American families had not even thought of getting a TV for themselves as the device was extremely expensive. Nonetheless, within a few years television has turned out to be the cultural symbol of American family life. The mass media kept on repeating the message of family solidarity promoted by televisions. “In its capacity as a unifying agent, television fit well with the more general post war hopes for a return to family values. It was seen as a kind of house hold cement that promised to reassemble the splintered lives of families who had been separated during the war” (Spigel, 1992). Impacting the Viewer Screens as portals contact the audience in different ways. Greg Siegel suggests that the movie screen helps the viewer to escape from the harsh realities of life for a couple of hours at least (2002). The audiences are immobile and engrossed, sitting in darkened cinema, perceiving misrepresented reality (Baudry 1999). On the other hand, television brings home the visuals of an authentic event. It makes one to experience the event as though one is witnessing it (Williams 1990). These concepts have not been derived from the technological construct of printing or electromagnetic transmission of the media, but print media or televisions are at the heart of the society due to its socially constructed image. This social construction takes place through many repeating patterns of events. These events can be analyzed by a model called Social Construction of Technology (SCOT), introduced by Bijker, Hughes and Pinch (1987). Limited war time telecast of NBC and CBS started as the beginning of commercial telecast in 1941. Though the mountain near Philadelphia was the birth place of cable TV in 1948, it took another 30 years for cable operations to be an independent program bringing multiple channels (Newman, 2008). Cable TV began as a small development in the television technology, benefiting rural or suburban community. Television industry has largely ignored this small portion of the industry, leaving it to be considered as an insignificant market which is not worth to be counted as a component of system development. Systems analysts call it as a systemic blind spot or a reverse salient. Cable operators later realized their potential to exploit the excess capacity to carry more channels. Introduction of the satellite dishes allowed them to transmit multi channels on cable. In a short span cable became the most reliable and popular medium for accessing television (Newman, 2008). A conscious Recalling of Promised Tranquility The popularization of television technology into the heart of human society was focusing on the solidarity with in the family. However, the unity and together ness in the family seemed to be short lived for many reasons. Howard, in Sidney Lumet’s Network, exhorts people to turn off the TVs as it is full of lies and corruption “Right now there is a whole generation that didn’t know anything that didn’t come out of this tube! This tube is the gospel! The ultimate revelation! This tube can make or break Presidents, Popes and Prime ministers. This tube is the most ……… force in the whole godless world. And woe is us if it ever falls in the hands of the wrong people. And that’s why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died. Because this company is now in the hands of CCA, the Communications Corporation of America. There is a new chairman of the board a man called Frank Hackett, sitting in Mr. Ruddy’s office on the twentieth floor. And when the twelfth largest company in the world controls the most awesome ………. propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what…….will be peddled for truth on this network!” (Chayefsky, 1976) Such lack of truthfulness is often evident from the turned and twisted realities broadcasted over the contemporary media. For instance, examine a thirty second commercial with a reduced price, how it interacts with the consuming public. The new media syndicate encourages the company to allure the consumer not only to consume the product but also to join the brand community. It is in a way exploiting an active consumer’s emotional engagement and social network. The media actively involves in blurring the line between entertainment and product message only to make the consumer a brand protector (Jenkins, 2006). That is how the industrial or corporate tycoons exercise dominant power over entertainment experience. At the same time, while the technology developed, the culture and civilization have evolved. Hence, society has learned to adopt and move along with the contemporary practices of the mass media. Television has turned out to be a part of culture, thus it can not lead a generation to disaster because the civilization goes through a maturing process of recognizing and detaching from disaster. Moreover, amusement provided by television can never be considered as a negative content. The development of TV based culture complement the word based education. For instance, when ideal and rigorous education makes student to toil around logical and hierarchical systems, the TV culture helps the mind to move freely around the outside of that system. Hence, human beings are provided with that much needed mental flexibility (Galbraith 1991). Thus the media provide us enough mettle to remain ethical even if falls short of inducing any of the moral aspect of social life. To sum up, the history of media is a story of development through a hard and slow process of innovations. The public appreciated such developments and adopted it due to the promotions related to the inventions. That adoption has brought an evolution of culture and civilization. In the process of evolution, though the promised benefits were realized, certain ethical lapses occurred. Eventually the media culture proves to capable maintaining the equilibrium and tranquility within the society. References Better Homes and Gardens, (September 1949) p. 38 Bijker, W. E., Hughes, T. P. & Pinch, T. (1987) The Social Construction of Technological Systems Cambridge MIT Press Budry, J. L. (1999) The Apparatus: Metapsychological Approaches to the Reality in Impression of Cinema. New York Oxford University Press. Chayefsky, P. (1976) Network Screenplay Retrieved on April 4, 2013 from http://screenplayhowto.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Network-Screenplay-Analysis.pdf Galbraith, J.K. (1991) She Wants Her TV! He Wants His Book! A Conversation About Our Image Culture. House Beautiful, (1954) September 1954 p. 153 Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence Culture Where Old and New Media Collide New York University Press. Newman, R. (2008) Media, Technology and Society: Theories of Media Evolution. Draft Manuscript for University of Michigan Press Siegel, G. (2002) Double Vision Large-Screen Video Display and Live Sports Spectacle. Television and New media Vol 3 1:49-73 Spigel, L. (1992) Making Room For TV. TV Times Part VII Sterling, C. & Kittross, J. M. (2001) The Golden Age of Programming. Psychology Press Webb, R. C. (2005) The People Behind The Innovation of Television. Tele Visionaries The Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Williams, R. (1990) Television: Technology and Cultural Form. London: Routledge Read More