After World War II, when thousands of African Americans left farms, plantations, and a southern way of life to migrate north, African American disc jockeys helped them make the transition to the urban life by playing familiar music and giving them hints on how to function in northern cities. These disc jockeys became cultural heroes and had a major role in the development of American broadcasting. This collection of interviews documents the personalities of the pioneers of Black radio, as well as their personal struggles and successes. The interviewees also define their roles in the civil rights movement and relate how their efforts have had an impact on how African Americans are portrayed over the air.

Studying the increasingly powerful role television plays in the political process, Fredric T. Smoller offers a persuasive argument that the big three network coverage of the presidency is gradually eroding public support for and confidence in that office. This book argues that network coverage of the presidency is determined by the political, technical, and commercial nature of the medium itself, producing a bias toward extensive and negative coverage. Smoller studies the thematic nature of television's presidential coverage, demonstrating how producers and correspondents integrate their daily coverage into ongoing themes which provide dramatic unity over a prolonged period of time. Thus, television's portrayal of the White House generally starts out favorable but soon becomes unfavorable. Attempts by the White House to combat these negative portrayals by managing news coverage and isolating the president will subvert democratic values.

"The Six O'Clock Presidency" argues against generally accepted views that network coverage of the presidency is too favorable and reveals the power of the networks to unravel the career of individual presidents and the public's support for that office. Noting that television news is getting tougher on the presidency as each full-term administration president since Richard Nixon has received a bigger measure of poor coverage than its predecessor, the author spent several weeks with the White House press corps to determine how this could be explained. He interviewed television news executives, correspondents and technicians for ABC, CBS, and NBC, as well as White House officials. The result is a comprehensive study of the economics, technology, and personnel of network news and its coverage of the presidency.

Thirty years after his death, Edward R. Murrow is still a cult figure in American broadcast journalism, and his company has achieved the distinction of standard bearer in the field of broadcast news. This examination of key CBS broadcasts and the people behind them that helped to establish the network as the prototype for excellence provides a unique perspective on the early era of broadcasting. Included are interviews with major contributors such as former CBS News presidents Fred W. Friendly and Bill Leonard. Going beyond personalities, the specific focus is on major broadcasts, from the early era up to the present-day 60 Minutes, some of which have been overlooked in spite of their formative role in helping CBS to gain its reputation in the field.

This book is about how TV makers--notably writers, producers, and network programmers--are deeply influenced by public pressures outside their craft. Many scholars assume that the relationship between society and television is one-way, that the traffic of influence moves from the content of a program to the behavior of those who view it, and that if a show is too exploitative or violent or stereotypical, it transforms the minds of those who watch it in some manner. Authors Selnow and Gilbert maintain that the one-way influence is only half-true. Even as television makes its impact on viewers, viewers, society, and society's institutions make their impact on television, often with more noticeable effect.

Some of television's most influential and best known producers and programmers (including Grant Tinker, Norman Lear, Steven Bochco, and Gary David Goldberg) discuss the forces that affect their selection of themes and treatments, why they include or reject material, and how they view their opinion leader roles and their roles as members of the society that is so influenced by their products. Selnow and Gilbert examine many of the obvious as well as less apparent forces that affect content decisions: government regulations, interest groups, and advertisers. They argue that the rapid advancement in telecommunication technologies has as much to do with what we watch as any of the social forces. The authors look not only at the current control of content, but point toward the consortium of influences that will affect the medium as it evolves rapidly throughout the next decade.

The developments in digital television technology provide the unprecedented opportunity to drastically extend the role of television as a content delivery channel. E-health, e-commerce, e-government, and e-learning are only a few examples of value-added services provided over digital televisions infrastructures. These changes in the television industry challenge companies to adjust their strategies in order to meet the opportunities and threats in this new environment.Interactive Digital Television: Techniques and Applications presents the developments in the domain of interactive digital television covering both technical and business aspects. This book focuses on analyzing concepts, research issues, and methodological approaches, presenting existing solutions such as systems and prototypes for researchers, academicians, scholars, professionals and practitioners.

British youth television is the first book to concentrate on the high profile genre of 'yoof television'. Concentrating on such controversial programmes as The Word, Snub TV and Don't Forget Your Toothbrush, the author demonstrates how the the contemporary youth audience - the so-called Generation X - were addressed by these shows' blend of 'cynicism and enchantment'. Providing both an overview and a series of detailed programme analyses the book concentrates on a well known but little written about genre from a fresh and accessible perspective.

Until recently, profit in the television industry went to the owners of the conduit, the distributors of content. As the industry enters the digital age, the distribution bottleneck will disappear and be replaced by the content creators themselves. This book explains patterns of profitability from the golden age of television to the emerging digital age. Television today is not just 500 channels: it is countless millions of hours of programming stored on video servers around the world. For media companies wanting to create value in this new era, including the major networks, digital branding is key. Just as consumers manage to make their way in 30 seconds through a 100-foot aisle jammed with hundreds of boxes of cereal by reaching for a box of whatever name brand product they know and love, viewers will also navigate through the vast wasteland of content by returning to their favorite digital brand.

This book provides detailed historical data, financial models, and informed discussion of profitability trends in the industry. It offers a framework for understanding and predicting profitability and describes the nature of branding as it applies to the television industry. It shows how a handful of dominant brands will emerge as sought-after organizers of content. Investors, industry consultants and executives, policy makers, students and academics will all find this book fascinating and informative.

Since 1948 when television began its rapid--almost exponential--growth, America has literally focused on TV, but the average viewer has been unaware of the key behind-the-scenes role of the TV director. In Take One, Jack Kuney shows what the director does in his equipment-filled twilight zone--the TV control room. The author identifies the crucial aesthetic contribution of the director who in selecting shots determines not only what millions of viewers will see but also how closely they will see them and in what sequence. More important, Kuney's interviews affirm that generally the director's talent, aesthetic judgements, and instincts set the tone of the program and determine a show's impact on its audience. The volume consists of a series of ten interviews, collected over a period of four years, with directors of television programs, each a specialist in a different field, who show a diversity that ranges from New York to Hollywood, the Metropolitan Opera to the Super Bowl. Their insights explain that various types of programs dictate the degree of the director's involvement: the director's role changes with the nature of the program, be it concert, game show, news, discussion, documentary, special event, drama, panel show, or the Miss America Pageant. In each interview the author's commentary acts as a guide and summation to the observations of the director. Dealing with the unique aesthetics of contemporary television, Take One is the most up-to-date work in the field and will be important and useful reading for students of production, and aspiring directors in the field.

This comprehensive study examines the case of AM stereo and subsequent technologies to demonstrate the FCC's evolution from stern to reluctant regulator. It also examines emerging technologies, such as multichannel television sound, digital audio broadcasting, and high definition television, and discusses their impact on the evolution of broadcast regulation. In the 1980s the tension between governmental control and the marketplace resulted in the FCC's deregulation of TV and radio, electing to set only technical operating parameters and allowing legal operation of any system that meets those minimal standards. Huff argues that this approach is likely to influence regulatory approaches to other new developments in broadcast technologies. The extensive overview of the industry and the study of the interrelationships between the technologies will appeal to communication scholars in the fields of radio and television as well as interest industry professionals.

Signals in the Air: Native Broadcasting in America is the first book-length study of one of the most unique communications enterprises in U.S. history. It is the remarkable account of how the nation's most exploited minority group overcame adversity by embracing the airwaves. Through their own radio and television stations, American Indians have found a way to keep their cultures and languages from perishing. This book examines the impetus behind the development of Native-run stations and how these stations operate today. It assesses the influence and impact of Native broadcasts in the indigenous community and seeks to chronicle the formidable challenges confronting Indian broadcasters as they provide vital programming services to the often impoverished inhabitants of the nation's remote reservations.

Students and others interested in radio history will be intrigued by this fast-paced biography of Gordon McLendon's career in the radio industry, touching also on his work in motion pictures and involvement in Texas politics. Following a glimpse into his childhood, education, and military career, Ronald Garay describes McLendon's station ownership and management in Palestine, Texas; the development of a major network, the Liberty Broadcasting System; his live and recreated baseball and football programs; and his skirmishes with the major league baseball establishment. Much attention is given to how McLendon "re-invented" radio and competed with television and print media through his Top 40 music hits, disc jockey programming, and the use of local news. Important concerns regarding station "trafficking," editorializing, and public interests are considered as well in this extraordinary book.

The radio in Africa has shaped culture by allowing listeners to negotiate modern identities and sometimes fast-changing lifestyles. Through the medium of voice and mediated sound, listeners on the station – known as Radio Bantu, then Radio Zulu, and finally Ukhozi FM – shaped new understandings of the self, family and social roles.

Through particular genres such as radio drama, fuelled by the skills of radio actors and listeners, an array of debates, choices and mistakes were unpacked daily for decades. This was the unseen literature of the auditory, the drama of the airwaves, which at its height shaped the lives of millions of listeners in urban and rural places in South Africa. Radio became a conduit for many talents squeezed aside by apartheid repression. Besides Winnie Mahlangu and K.E. Masinga and a host of other talents opened by radio, the exiles Lewis Nkosi and Bloke Modisane made a niche and a network of identities and conversations which stretched from the heart of Harlem to the American South. Nkosi and Modisane were working respectively in BBC Radio drama and a short-lived radio transcription centre based in London which drew together the threads of activism and creativity from both Black America and the African continent at a critical moment of the late empire.

Radio Soundings is a fascinating study that shows how, throughout its history, Zulu radio has made a major impact on community, everyday life and South African popular culture, voicing a range of subjectivities which gave its listeners a place in the modern world.

A major scholarly and readable history of women in broadcast news, covering the broadcast journalistic roles of women from the 1920s through the mid-1980s. Authors Hosley and Yamada, both with extensive professional experience in broadcasting and broadcast news as well as serving on the faculty of Stanford University's Mass Media Institute, have produced a heavily researched and well-written book, which gives attention not only to the more familiar names but also to the many women whose pioneer work in broadcast journalism had led to gradual acceptance of women in what had been considerd a male field. Choice There are a lot of names in this book. Some are immediately recognizable . . . other names are virtually unknown, making this book a valuable reference text for students interested in researching the careers of women broadcasters who have been all but forgotten. The authors, both of whom have extensive backgrounds in broadcasting, have done a commendable job of identifying women who have pioneered in electronic journalism. . . Indeed, this book is so engrossing one only wishes that it were longer. The authors touch on complex issues--such as the impact of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the FCC's decision to mandate affirmative action programs to remedy past discrimination--that call for more complete treatment in future works. Yet this book is an excellent starting point for serious study of women and broadcast news. It is highly recommended for courses in communications history and broadcasting and women's studies. Journalism Quarterly This is the first book to tell the story of women in broadcast news. It presents a historical overview of how the evolution of women in news has contributed to, and reflected, changes in our society. It identifies the newswomen who were pioneers in radio and television's developing years and focuses on those whose careers have had the greatest influence on American society through their impact on radio and television. Included are profiles of the major trail-blazers in the industry, such as Sigrid Schultz, the first female radio foreign correspondent; Helen Sioussat, the first woman network news executive; Dorothy Fuldheim, the first woman to anchor a news program; and network correspondent Pauline Frederick, the dean of women electronic journalists.

This volume brings together original analyses about how the Middle East is depicted on U.S. television news. It analyzes some of the most intensely reported news stories of the past decade. Its revealing studies also show how broadcasting on Middle Ease issues has changed in recent years. These studies offer important and provocative findings regarding crucual issues in Middle East coverage.

A collection of essays from scholars around the globe examining the ethical issues and problems associated with some of the major areas within contemporary international communication: journalism, PR, marketing communication, and political rhetoric.

This book presents an analysis of Lieutenant Columbo's investigative method of rhetorical inquiry as seen in the television police procedural Columbo (1968-2003). With a barrage of questions about minute details and feigned ignorance, the iconic detective enacts a persona of 'antipotency' (counter authoritativeness) to affect the villains' underestimation of his attention to inconsistencies, abductive reasoning, and rhetorical efficacy. In a predominantly dialogue-based investigation, Columbo exhausts his suspects by asking a battery of questions concerning all minor details of the case, which evolves into an aggravating tedious provocation for the killer trying to maintain innocence. Based on the Ancient Greek ideal of Sophrosyne (temperance, restraint) and the Socratic method of questioning to discover truths, the Lieutenant models effective rhetorical inquiry with resistant responders: shy, secretive, anxious, emotionally-disconnected, angry, arrogant, jealous, and, in this case, murderous conversants. While designed to be critical and theoretical, this text strives to be accessible to interdisciplinary readers, practical in application, and amusing for Columbo buffs.

Public broadcasting has changed dramatically since its founding in 1967. The growing equation of marketplace efficiency with the public interest has, in Tom McCourt's analysis, undermined the value of public goods and services. In addition, political and cultural discourse is increasingly beset by fragmentation. Public radio provides an exemplary site to examine the prospects and problems of contemporary public life.

Beginning with a description of the events that led to the creation of National Public Radio, McCourt discusses the relationship between NPR and its affiliate stations and the ways in which struggles over funding and programming have affected public radio's agenda. He also examines how public radio incorporates the roles of public representatives into its operations and how its methods to determine the needs and interests of the public have changed across the systeM's history. The social, political, and economic pressures that have impacted the mission and practices of National Public Radio, McCourt asserts, are manifest in all areas of American life. Through extensive historical research, he examines whether American public broadcasters, as represented by NPR, have succeeded or failed to engender an enlightened, participatory democracy.

This history of public television over the last twenty years shows how powerful political actors and the budget process in the United States have severely restricted the strategic behavior and programming of public TV. This hard-hitting story fills a real void in the literature on the subject and should be required reading for station managers, broadcasters, students and professionals in communications, and public policymakers. The ancillary text with its analysis of organizations theory and models is intended also for undergraduate and graduate students in mass media and communications, public policy, and organizational behavior. This practical analysis of public television funding, organization, and programming opens with an overview of organizations theory and a discussion of two models of organizational behavior. A brief history of public TV policy follows with a description of critical developments under the last four American presidents. The legislative history of the Corporation of Public Broadcasting demonstrates the effects of the budgetary process in TV programming, employment diversity, and services to different audiences. The case study closes with an evaluation of public television in terms of organizational strengths and weaknesses and offers practical suggestions for reform.

Over the past decade, there has been a huge increase in ordinary people's access to video production technology. These essays explore the theoretical significance of this trend and its impact on society, as well as examining a wide range of case studies, from camcorders and camera phones to YouTube and citizen journalism --Provided by publisher.

Fought when radio was first introduced, the Press-Radio war was an attempt on the part of print journalists to block the emergence of radio news. For nearly a decade, the newspapers of America fought to keep broadcast journalism off the air, exerting various forms of economic, regulatory, and legal pressure against new competitors. This study traces the stages and forms of institutional self-defense utilized by the press. Far more than mere battles to protect profits, media wars are fights to preserve the institutional power that derives from controlling the channels of communication.

How many times have you listened to play-by-play on television and thought, I could do that job? With this book, perhaps you can. At the very least, you will learn what it takes to be a play-by-play announcer. Your teacher? A consummate professional. For more than 25 years, Gary Bender has described the action on the playing field of 29 different sports, 27 at network level. Bender details the ins and outs of play-by-play. Here's an inside look at the preparation required before entering the broadcast booth, the interaction of the production crew during a broadcast, and the play-by-play announcer's role in a sportscast.

In Britain, America, and many other countries, television audiences and advertising revenues are declining. At the same time digital television and new models are emerging. This book looks at the reinvention of television, and answers many essential questions about the future of this fickle industry.

Christian Potschkaprovides a comprehensive comparative analysis of the evolution of British and German broadcasting policies with a specific focus on processes of marketization and liberalization as they have affected national policy-making processes, regulatory frameworks and media structures. The study frames the development of communications policy in two ways. First, the book explores tensions in both countries between the public and private sectors; second, it evaluates the differential impact of federalization and centralization.By discussing the various political, economic and cultural factors relevant to the emergence of contemporary broadcasting structures and institutions, Potschka contextualizes the development and impact of policies on media systems. Drawing attention to the dynamics and changing paradigms of communications policy-making and regulatory trends, this bookhighlights many of the ideas and values that have been brought to bear on processes of policy-making in the UK and German