Millions of people all over the world are avid members of the television audience. Yet, despite the central place television occupies in contemporary culture, our understanding of its complex and dynamic role in everyday life remains surprisingly limited. Focusing on the television audience, Ien Ang asks why we understand so little about its nature, and argues that our ignorance arises directly out of the biases inherent in prevailing official knowledge about it. She sets out to deconstruct the assumptions of this official knowledge by exploring the territory where it is mainly produced - the television institutions.
Ang draws on Foucault's theory of power/knowledge to scrutinize television's desperate search for the audience, and to identify differences and similarities in the approaches of American commercial television and European public service television to their audiences. She looks carefully at recent developments in the field of ratings research, in particular the controversial introduction of the `people meter' as an instrument for measuring the television audience. By defining the limits and limitations of these institutional procedures of knowledge production, Ien Ang opens up new avenues for understanding television audiences. Her ethnographic perspective on the television audience gives new insights into our television culture, with the audience seen not as an object to be controlled, but as an active social subject, engaging with television in a variety of cultural and creative ways.

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The story of British radio begins long before the birth of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) in 1922. This book aims to tell this story through its component parts: the makers, the programs, and the policies that together shaped the development of a system of broadcasting, grounded initially in a public service ethic, and subsequently struggling toward an, at times, uneasy balance of public and commercial radio. The last ten years of UK radio history have contained more drama, change and development than in all its previous history. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of British Radio covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 800 cross-referenced entries on issues, characters, movements and policies that have shaped radio in the United Kingdom. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about British Radio.

Radio and television news are expanding everywhere, often at the expense of print media. Developments in global communications, in theory at least, have made the world smaller. An event anywhere can theoretically be reported anywhere else on radio within minutes; on television within hours. But theory and practice are often far apart. Broadcast news has become a global business, almost like the music industry, with its own Top 10 and an inevitable streamlining of taste. A few major organizations control the newsflow.

Winner of the McKitterick Prize 2018. "Never cover an assignment without collecting a brown envelope," Boniface had said. "It is a real life saver for all journalists in this country." Ifiok, a young journalist working for the government radio station in Lagos, Nigeria, always aspires to do the right thing, but the odds seem to be stacked against him. Government pressures cause the funding to his radio drama to get cut off, his girlfriend leaves him when she discovers he is having an affair with an intern, and kidnappings and militancy are on the rise in the country. When Ifiok travels to his hometown to do a documentary on some ex-militants' apparent redemption, a tragi-comic series of events will make him realise he is unable to swim against the tide of corruption. Building on the legacy of the great African satirist tradition of Ngugi Wa Thiongo and Ayi Kwei Armah, Radio Sunrise paints a sharp-tongued portrait of (post) post-colonial Nigeria.

Television has a powerful impact on our beliefs and can be used as a propaganda tool. Philo examines these issues by inviting groups of viewers to write their own news programmes, based on pictures from the 1984-5 miner's strike.
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This is the first collection of scholarly articles to be published specifically on Australian television. Although media studies are part of the curriculum in Australia, there are still few books which deal specifically with Australian television. It applies the benefits of contemporary developments in media and cultural studies to the analysis of Australian television, covering a wide range of programming and theoretical issues.;The contributors to ***Australian Television*** include some of the leading researchers in Australian television and cultural studies and their articles employ a wide range of methods -- from semiotic analyses to cultural histories. Despite their dealings with often quite sophisticated problems, the chapters are written in an accessible and lively manner. This is an important collection which opens out space for more informed and challenging discussions of Australia's television culture -- its programmes, its meanings, its pleasures and its politics. It will be an invaluable text for courses in communication studies, cultural studies and Australian studies.;John Tulloch is Associate Professor in Mass Communications at Macquarie University; Graeme Turner is a senior lecturer in the School of Communication at Queensland Institute of Technology. The contributors include some of the leading researchers in Australian television and cultural studies. Contributors: Alber Moran, Tom O'Regan, Graeme Turner, Stuart Cunningham, Ann Curthoys, John Docker, John Fiske, Dugald Williamson, Philip Bell, Kathe Boehinger, John Tulloch, John Hartley, Bob Hodge, Theo van Leeuwen.;This book is intended for students and researchers in communication and cultural studies.

What is it like to make television comedy? How do writers get their ideas made, and how do commissioners and producers decide what to make? How do members of the comedy industry work with large broadcasters and production companies, and what does it mean to be creative - and stay creative? Drawing on interviews with many key writers such as Sam Bain, Paul Doolan, Graham Linehan, David Mitchell, Simon Nye and Sue Teddern, producers including Ash Atalla, Lisa Clark, Michelle Farr, Ali McPhail, Jon Plowman and Adam Tandy, and commissioners, the BBC's Shane Allen, Channel 4's Nerys Evans and Sky's Lucy Lumsden, Creativity in the British Television Comedy Industry explores the creative processes that lead to successful programme-making. With detailed discussion of the processes by which series such as People Just Do Nothing and After Hours came to our screens, this book examines how members of the comedy industry maintain careers, manage failure, develop their craft, and stay creative. Creativity in the British Television Comedy Industry is essential reading for students and researchers with an interest in comedy studies, television production, and the creative/media industries.

This book, first published in 1974, is the story of BBC Audience Research, a behind-the-scenes activity that has always been the subject of some curiosity. It describes the early, tentative experiments, designed both to develop ways of applying the techniques of social research to broadcasting and to win the confidence of BBC staff. The way World War II, which deprived programme planners of many of their familiar landmarks, acted as a fillip to audience research, which emerged at the end of the war as an established and accepted adjunct to broadcasting, is described in detail.

This book, first published in 1990, offers an in-depth analysis of the 'fundamental beliefs' of radio. This refers to the common understanding of what the radio enterprise is - and should be - about: entertainment and information. A major thrust of this book is to arrive at a set of fundamental beliefs about the values and the realities of the radio business in regard to entertainment programming - a set of beliefs that may or may not be right, or forever, but that might at least provide a basis for developing programming strategies. Most other books on radio programming describe the formats and programming that already exist. This one starts with a clean sheet of paper and the question 'What do listeners really want from radio?'

MTV is the third major breakthrough in music broadcasting, and the first since the late 1960s. "Top Forty" radio was initiated in the 1950s, and along with "free form" or "progressive" rock molded rock music exposure for nearly twenty years. Many observers credit MTV with resurrecting the music industry from the throes of the Great Depression of 1979. Few would dispute its impact on contemporary film, fashion, and radio.

"Inside MTV "examines the world of cablecasting, the evolution of WASEC, MTV, VH-1, and some of their competitors. The strategies, personalities, promotions, and the contents that placed MTV on the road to its dominant position are described. The many controversies surrounding the channel are thoroughly detailed, and a good deal of the misinformation on the subject is corrected.

It is a mere five years since MTV began as the third of four Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment Company (WASEC) channels, created by two of America's largest conglomerates. Since then, it has become a major force. Before MTV was conceived the relationship between television and rock music was weak, at best. As the new partnership .developed, a story of genius, luck, and discrimination began to unfold, and a corporate innovation of major proportions and psychodemographic success emerged.

MTV is now the most profitable 24-hour cable outlet beamed from a satellite. It reaches 30.8 million households. How all this happened is chronicled in this major new book from a leading authority on the American music business.

At the time when this book was originally published, broadcasting in Britain had become a huge industry undergoing major changes. There were questions over the release of a new television channel, and commercial radio. This Report was commissioned to aid the citizen at the receiving end of the new technologies who could feel very remote from the plans and decisions. It represents a wide range of views and interests, to examine the important questions which were arising from broadcasting, from the point of view of the public benefit. It sets out clearly and fully the background and the arguments in broadcasting debate. The report made many interesting and far-reaching recommendations, and looking back this reveals a lot about the inner processes of the broadcasting organisations of the time. This is a fascinating glimpse of past questions and solutions in which parellels can be drawn with the present time.

Digital Signage Broadcasting is a perfect introduction to this new world of opportunities for media professionals in all areas. Whether you are in engineering, IT, advertising, or management, you will gain knowledge on the operations of digital signage systems, content gathering, customer billing, and much more on this new exciting media. This book includes coverage of basic elements, examples of advanced digital signage applications, as well as traffic capacity calculations that may be guidance when choosing means of distribution as physical media, broadband or satellite. Digital Signage Broadcasting helps you discover the fascinating possibilities of this new convergence medium with hundreds of author-created color 3D illustrated graphics and real-life photographs showing the capability and future of digital signage.

"Broadcasting Diversity" explores modes of migrant representation and participation in Irish radio, focusing on the national public broadcaster Raidio Teilifis eireann and Dublin community stations and examining the opportunities provided for voicing migrant experience in transcultural program production. Investigating the intersection between an established Irish culture on the one hand and the nascent emergence of a transnational culture on the other, this book focuses on the ways in which migrant representation and self-representation have been variously effected in the Irish public sphere via the medium of radio.

This book is for anyone starting out or hoping to work in the ever-expanding world of television and video. Everyone involved in a TV or video production is contributing to the program making process. They all need to know and understand how it happens. Whatever you want to end up doing, whether you are part way through a course or starting from scratch, this book gives you all the essential information you will need. It takes a practical, step-by-step approach, based on the author's own 25-year experience of producing, writing and directing for broadcast television and the corporate sector on both video and film. It describes the roles people perform, the equipment they use and what it does. In simple, easy-to-read language it explains the grammar of shooting and editing and offers first-hand advice on treatments, scripts and budgets. As well as covering the technical aspects of both single and multi-camera production, it also looks at the editorial elements that create a successful program. With practical examples it demonstrates how best to turn ideas into reality, how to obtain successful interviews and how to put together programs that work. Colin Hart has his own production company making programs for corporate clients. He trained as a single and multi-camera director in local televison news and for ten years worked in BBC Current Affairs producing and directing for Nationwide and The Money Programme.

These two volumes, Zenith Radio, The Glory Years, 1936-1945, tell the story and highlight the products of the Zenith Radio Corporation between the early years (1919-1935) and the end of World War II. History and Product begins with an exploration of the history of the corporation from 1936-1945 in a profusely researched and illustrated way. It continues with color photographic portraits of outstanding examples of many of the products manufactured by Zenith in this period, providing a visual survey of the wide range of Zenith radios produced during the Glory Years. The Illustrated Catalog and Database includes a catalog that gathers the most complete collection of Zenith images ever published, followed by a Database which is the most complete listing of Zenith products. In addition, appendices to this volume include Commander Eugene MacDonald's Presidential speeches, information on telepathy experiments at Zenith, Zenith in the movies, and Zenith Annual Reports from 1936-1945. All told these two volumes represent a treasure trove for radiophiles in general and Zenith fans and historians in particular.

Producing and Directing the Short Film and Video, Fifth Edition is the definitive book on the subject for the serious film student or beginning filmmaker. Its unique two-fold approach looks at filmmaking from the perspectives of both the producer and director, and clearly explains how their separate roles must work together to create a successful short film or video. Through extensive examples from award-winning shorts and insightful interviews, you will learn about common challenges the filmmakers encountered during each step of filmmaking process-from preproduction to production, postproduction, and distribution-and the techniques they used to overcome them. In celebrating this book's twentieth anniversary, this edition has been updated to include: Two all-new, in-depth cases studies of esteemed short films-Memory Lane and the Academy Award-winning God of Love A revised chapter progression that reinforces the significance of the actor - director relationship Interviews with the filmmakers integrated alongside the text, as well as new images and behind-the-scenes coverage of production processes Revamped sections on current financing strategies, postproduction workflows, and the wide variety of distribution platforms now available to filmmakers A "Where are They Now" appendix featuring updates on the original filmmakers covered in the first edition An expanded companion website (www.focalpress.com/cw/rea) containing useful forms and information on distributors, grants and financing sources, film and video festivals, film schools, internet sources for short works, and professional associations

As radio developed in the early 1920s, the focus for most people was the AM band and stations such as KDKA, the first broadcast station. There was, however, another broadcast method that was popular among many early enthusiasts - shortwave radio. As is true today, the transmission of news and entertainment programs over shortwave frequencies permitted reception over great distances. For many in America and beyond, shortwave was an exciting aspect of the new medium. Some still tune the shortwave bands to enjoy the programming. Others pursue broadcasts for the thrill of the hunt. This book fully covers shortwave broadcasting from its beginning through World War II. A technical history examining the medium's development and use tells the story of a listener community that spanned the globe. Included are overviews of the primary shortwave stations operating worldwide in the 1930s, along with clubs and competitions, publications and prizes. A rich collection of illustrations includes many QSLs, the cards that stations sent to acknowledge receipt of their transmissions and that are much prized by long-distance collectors.

Television is arguably the most widely watched and most influential medium in today's China. Roughly one billion Chinese have access to television. Although television networks are still state-owned and Party-controlled in China, the ideological landscape of television programs has become increasingly diverse and even paradoxical, simultaneously subservient and defiant, nationalistic and cosmopolitan, moralistic and fun-loving, extravagant and mundane. Studying Chinese television as a key node in the network of power relationships, therefore, provides us with a unique opportunity to understand the tension-fraught, paradox-permeated, and highly unpredictable conditions of Chinese post-socialism. This book argues for a rethinking of Chinese television and a re-conceptualization of entertainment as a fluid landscape. Specifically, the book addresses the following questions. How is entertainment television politically and culturally significant in the Chinese context? How have political, industrial and technological changes in the 2000s affected the way Chinese television relates to the state and society?How can we think of media regulation and censorship without perpetuating the myth of a self-serving authoritarian regime vs. a subdued cultural workforce? What do popular televisual texts tell us about the unsettled and reconfigured relations between commercial television, audiences and the state? Last but not least, how does the fluidity of entertainment-scape impact our thinking of several key concepts in critical media and cultural studies - power, hegemony and ideology? As an inter-discplinary study of the television industry this book covers a number of important issues in China today, such as censorship, nationalism, consumerism, social justice and the central and local authorities. As such, it will appeal to a broad audience in cluding students and scholars of media studies, television studies, Chinese society and cultural studies.

Japan has developed what is arguably the most sophisticated and the most democratic broadcasting system in the world. The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1st September 1923, with its devastation and confusion drove home in its appalling way the importance of being able to broadcast immediate information to the public. The same year, the Ministry of Communications promptly established an administrative system to regulate broadcasting. In less than a decade over one million people were registered listeners. Under the post war Constitution of 1946 freedom of "speech and all other forms of expression" was guaranteed, and the subsequent Broadcast Law instituted a dual system of broadcasting with the public service Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) on the one hand, and commercial and private broadcasting organizations on the other. In 1978 there were ninety-one television broadcasting organizations and fifty-one radio broadcasting organizations. In this informative study, Professor Ito and his team comprehensively describe the staggering growth of broadcasting in Japan from the dawn or radio and television to satellite communication and through to the multiplex broadcasting of the future.

Although the academic study of development is well established, as is also its policy implementation, less considered are the broader, more popular understandings of development that often shape agendas and priorities, particularly in representative democracies. Through its accessible and provocative chapters, Popular Representations of Development introduces the idea that while the issue of 'development' - defined broadly as problems of poverty and social deprivation, and the various agencies and processes seeking to address these - is normally one that is discussed by social scientists and policy makers, it also has a wider 'popular' dimension. Development is something that can be understood through studying literature, films, and other non-conventional forms of representation. It is also a public issue, one that has historically been associated with musical movements such as Live Aid and increasingly features in newer media such as blogs and social networking. The book connects the effort to build a more holistic understanding of development issues with an exploration of the diverse public sphere in which popular engagement with development takes place. This book gives students of development studies, media studies and geography as well as students in the humanities engaging with global development issues a variety of perspectives from different disciplines to open up this new field for discussion.

Originally published in 1985, this book surveys developments in cable television in the major industrialised countries with chapters specifically authored on each area. It looks at the technology, its potential, and how far it had been implemented, considering the reaction of governments, existing broadcasting corporations and licensing authorities. Going on to assess future trends, a discussion of the likely effects of cable on communications, society and economy is an enlightening read now.

Originally published in 1988, this book provides a thorough examination of the possibilities and key issues in satellite technology which at the time already seemed likely to change the face of broadcasting both within nations and internationally. It begins with a guide to the technical development of different systems of satellites and signal reception and an outline of the international, political and regulatory issues involved. It then examines the situation in various industrialised countries by analysing launching plans, funding, the interaction between satellite, cable and VCRs and the effect on existing broadcasting systems. Concerned throughout with a wide range of cultural considerations and the potential impacts of the new media, this is a useful reflection on the time.

A critical review of the harms and benefits of television that also examines systems for maximizing television's benefits. The author breaks away from the conventional jargon of audience measurement and other traditional research methods, proposing instead new and alternative European and Australian methods of evaluating programming. Typical characterizations of the television screen - broadly defined to include television, home video, movies, games, programs and computers - as either the root of all social ills or the potential savior of society are reexamined. Wober's ultimately optimistic viewpoint seeks to trigger change in the way we think about and assess television and in turn ensure that screens will serve, rather than take advantage of, their users. Originally published in 1988, this thinking-piece concerns timeless issues still of import.

At the time when this book was originally published, broadcasting in Britain had become a huge industry undergoing major changes. There were questions over the release of a new television channel, and commercial radio. This Report was commissioned to aid the citizen at the receiving end of the new technologies who could feel very remote from the plans and decisions. It represents a wide range of views and interests, to examine the important questions which were arising from broadcasting, from the point of view of the public benefit. It sets out clearly and fully the background and the arguments in broadcasting debate. The report made many interesting and far-reaching recommendations, and looking back this reveals a lot about the inner processes of the broadcasting organisations of the time. This is a fascinating glimpse of past questions and solutions in which parellels can be drawn with the present time.

Channel 4 had been a matter of controversy for years even before it came on the air in November 1982. There were lengthy debates about what its role would be and the part to be played by the ITV companies and the growing number of independent television producers. There was also political controversy over the profile of the new channel, some wishing to see it as "their" channel in response to the apparent political hegemony of Margaret Thatcher. The result was sharp conflicts, not only over programming but, as the channel became established, over its relationships with the ITV companies and its regulatory body, the IBA. These controversies in the making of Channel 4 are revisited in this volume. The opening article by Edmund Dell, the channel's first chairman, describes and explains his sometimes stormy relationship with Jeremy Isaacs, the chief executive, while the witness seminar and the other articles offer the views of Channel 4 commissioning editors and representatives from the IBA, the ITV companies, the independent producers, the Home Office and the BBC.