The Untouchables television series was produced at the high point of the US film series drama in the early 1960s. The series featured the crusade of Federal agent Eliot Ness (played by Robert Stack) against the Prohibition era underworld of "Scarface" Al Capone. The long-running series featured early roles from a variety of screen personalities (such as Leslie Nielson, Peter Falk, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Redford, and Robert Duvall) as well as established Hollywood players (Lee van Cleef, Lee Marvin, Patricia Neal, Barbara Stanwyck, and Dorothy Malone). The show set new standards for TV action and pioneered a more adventurous approach to the representation of violence on TV, which in turn provoked considerable controversy as well as acclaim. Tise Vahimagi details in this text the development of the "Gangster" genre and "The Untouchables'" relations to American cinema and television of the 1950s and 1960s, offering a sidelight onto the social and political event of the period. This book also includes illustrations and detailed credits providing a full production history for followers of of the series.

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.

Professor Junhao Hong provides the first systematic study of China's television, the largest and one of the most complicated television systems in the world. China's television represents a highly complicated communication system, a powerful ideological machine, and a unique social manifestation. As Professor Hong illustrates, during the past 20 years, since the country's reform, television has experienced tremendous changes. While many studies of media globalization attribute the phenomenon mainly to external factors--new technologies, global capital flows, and quality production of Western programming--Hong argues that in many countries internal factors, such as government policy and the evolution of society, play decisive roles for change. Based on firsthand data and interviews with China's high-ranking officials and policymakers this study will be of considerable value to scholars and researchers dealing with mass media/television issues in the developing world and with contemporary China.

With the advent of new technologies and governmental regulation, notably the Telecommunications Act of 1996, not only has the broadcast industry changed dramatically, but also the laws covering the management and its human resources. Executives must know and understand these changes to operate within the law and to make best use of their people. With careful attention to scholarly accuracy and the latest thinking, Scott's book approaches the crucial human resource problems in broadcasting with a hands-on awareness of what really goes on among broadcasting industry people and the organizations that depend on them. Scott writes for practitioners and provides the information they can use daily, supplying academic professionals and students of broadcasting management with an important resource.

Chapter 1 briefly describes the broadcast industry, with special attention to significant technological changes and regulations. Chapter 2 examines the standard regulatory challenges faced by broadcasters. Chapters 3 and 4 review the major management and motivational theories over the past 150 years. These theories are then critiqued and applied to current personnel problems. The section on broadcast ethics discusses moral and ethical frameworks to help managers make the right decisions. In Chapter 5, the duties of the human resource director are noted along with pertinent EEOC laws banning discrimination. Chapter 6 reviews the employment process, including interviewing, training, performance reviews, progressive discipline, and the proper, legal method to terminate an employee. Chapter 7 enumerates the duties and responsibilities of the programming area including the operations manager, chief engineer, program director, and other department heads. Types of radio and television programming are discussed along with effective scheduling strategies. The book concludes with Chapter 8, Sales, which includes discussions of the Arbitron and Nielsen ratings organizations, sales proposals, and duties of the sales personnel.

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.

Public broadcasting is the single most important social, cultural, and journalistic institution of the 20th century. In the past 15 years it has been assaulted politically, ideologically, technologically, and is everywhere in retreat. This book considers the idea of public service broadcasting and examines in detail the assault made upon it with specific emphasis on global developments and events in the United Kingdom, Japan, Europe, and the United States. Michael Tracey argues that public service broadcasting has been a vital and democratically significant institution now experiencing a terminal decline brought about by changes in political, economic, and technological circumstances. Based on years of research and extensive contact with leading public broadcasters around the world, the author examines how public service broadcasting has vainly (and often ineffectually) struggled to survive in recent years. The author concludes that public broadcasting is, as was once said of Weimar, a corpse on leave. Its likely disappearance constitutes an indication of a real and deep-seated crisis within liberal democracy.

Research Paradigms, Television, Social Behavior is a unique book that is designed to provide an understanding of television research from both the quantitative and qualitative perspectives. The volume provides a systematic analysis of the various research paradigms used in the study of television, and focuses on the integration of quantitative and qualitative methodologies as a means for understanding the complexities associated with this medium. The book is useful for both undergraduate and graduate students because it presents information in a straightforward and engaging style, as well as provides concrete step-by-step examples of how to conduct major research and evaluation projects involving this medium. The book is also important for seasoned scholars and researchers, as well as professionals in the media industry.

Research Paradigms, Television, Social Behavior is a unique book that is designed to provide an understanding of television research from both the quantitative and qualitative perspectives. The volume provides a systematic analysis of the various research paradigms used in the study of television, and focuses on the integration of quantitative and qualitative methodologies as a means for understanding the complexities associated with this medium. The book is useful for both undergraduate and graduate students because it presents information in a straightforward and engaging style, as well as provides concrete step-by-step examples of how to conduct major research and evaluation projects involving this medium. The book is also important for seasoned scholars and researchers, as well as professionals in the media industry.

This unique and timely guide offers teachers an introduction to using cable television in the classroom. Randi Stone, a 1996 Continental Cablevision National Cable Educator Award Winner, shares her experience in teaching with cable TV. The book caters for novices and teachers already using cable who are looking for new ideas.

Examining the role of transnational radio broadcasting in the 20th century, this study compares and contrasts the goals and objectives of six broadcast networks: the BBC, Radio Free Europe, Voice of America, Radio Marti, Radio Free Asia, and Vatican Radio. The work traces the evolution--technical and programmatic--at each institution through world events such as World War II, the Cold War, the Solidarity Movement, the democratization of the Eastern bloc, and Tiananmen Square. Utilizing a series of case studies provided by selected authorities, the study demonstrates the effect of radio upon differing societies. Also, it explores options for alternative programming for each network, emphasizing their relationships to the evolving international political and media community in the late 20th century. The work will be of interest to scholars and students of mass media and international relations.

The years following World War I in Germany saw the simultaneous emergence of radio as a public medium entering the private sphere of the home and the large-scale emergence of women entering the public sphere of politics and production. In Feminine Frequencies, Kate Lacey examines the mutual implications of these important developments and provides a distinctive analysis of radio in the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich which not only restores women to the history of radio, but identifies and investigates the impact of gender politics on the development of German broadcasting. At the heart of the book is an exploration of radio programming for women from the mid-1920s to the end of World War II. Largely through the Frauenfunk, radio transformed women's domestic life, mediated women's experience of modernity and war, and worked to integrate women into the modern consumer culture, the national economy, and eventually the national community of the Volksgemeinschaft. At the same time, decisions about how that programming was to operate influenced the way radio was conceived as a broadcast rather than an interactive technology. Ultimately, the cultural practice and propaganda of the Third Reich were anticipated in and enabled by the legacy of broadcasting in the Weimar Republic. Feminine Frequencies confronts the consequences of a missed opportunity to harness the democratic potential of a new medium of communication. Based on original archival research, and interdisciplinary in approach, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars in German studies, women's studies, and media studies. Kate Lacey is Lecturer in Media Studies, School of European Studies, University of Sussex.

At 7:20 pm on October 3, 1993, a nervous and shaky anchor broke into coverage of a soccer match to tell Russian viewers that their state television was shutting down. In the opening salvos of the parliamentary revolt against Boris Yeltsin's government, a mob had besieged the station's headquarters. A man had just been killed in front of the news director. Moments later, screens all across Russia went blank, leaving audiences in the dark. But in less than an hour, Russia's second state channel went on the air. Millions watched as Sergei Torchinsky anchored thirteen straight hours of coverage, often with the sound of shooting clearly audible in the background. Streams of politicians, trade union leaders, writers, television personalities, and other well-known figures braved gunfire to reach Channel Two's makeshift studios and speak directly to the nation. In one stunning moment, a famous actress extemporaneously pleaded with viewers not to return to the horrors of Stalinism. Boris Yeltsin, who had been glued to his television set like everyone else, later recalled, "For the rest of my life I will remember the anxious but resolute and courageous expression of Liya Akhedzhakova. . . her hoarse, cracking voice remains in my memory."
In that time of crisis, television bound the nation together, a continuing emblem of legitimate authority which lent an image of stability and credibility to Yeltsin's besieged government. "Television saved Russia," the Russian president said. Changing Channels vividly recreates this exciting time, as television both helped and hindered the Russian nation's struggle to create a new democracy. From the moribund, state-controlled television broadcasts at the end of the Soviet Union, through Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost, up to Yeltsin's victory in the most recent Russian presidential elections of 1996, Mickiewicz charts the omnipresent role of television, drawing on interviews, public opinion surveys, research, and the television programming itself. Analyzing the rise of political advertising (sometimes with controversial US participation), the birth of journalists as opinionated television personalities, and the changing news coverage of coups, elections, and wars, she shows both how the gradual development of private, independent stations has begun to make real pluralism possible and how the authoritarian legacy of the Soviet state structure continues to affect Russian television even today. With television in 97% of all Russian households, and the nightly news watched by a viewership matching that for the Super Bowl in the US, the struggle for control over television became the struggle for control over the nation. Mickiewicz illuminates the efforts of those both in and out of power to control the media.
Behind the momentous political changes are the stories of the men and women who chose to resist, test, or submit to the system. Mickiewicz offers brilliant sketches of these individuals: Yegor Ligachev, Gorbachev's second in command, a man of strongly held opinions who, in retirement, still orated loudly, even over tea; Boris Yeltsin, having not even put on his shirt yet, watching the early morning coverage of the attempted coup against Gorbachev; or the new breed of Russian journalists covering the war in Chechnya with footage of bombed out streets and charred corpses for privately owned NTV, despite continuing government intimidation. In vivid interviews, all the key players, including Gorbachev himself, offered Mickiewicz their unique insights and frank personal commentary. Drawing on these interviews and on her extensive research on the interactions of politics, economics, and society, Mickiewicz presents a rich and authoritative analysis of television in Russia. In many ways, Mickiewicz writes, no other country in the world offers television a greater opportunity and a greater role. Changing Channels tells the fascinating story of a truly modern phenomenon: the struggle to create genuine political pluralism, helped and hindered by the barrage of information, advertisements, and media-created personalities that make up modern television.

For more than fifty years Red Barber was the voice of baseball. The game was broadcast sporadically until the late 1930s, when Barber burst into prominence by bringing it home to radio listeners, play by play. More than half a century later, he could still be heard, broadcasting over National Public Radio from his retirement home in Tallahassee. Announcing for the Brooklyn Dodgers and later for the New York Yankees, he became a legend long before his death in 1992. Red's story reveals the growth and changes in baseball over the years, the demands of sportscasting, and the difference between radio and television reporting. Here is Red giving major play-by-plays of his own life and career with characteristic wit and integrity.

As mass communication is a major topic of interest in American colleges, there is also a growing interest in comparative mass media in other countries. This book is designed to put current practices in the United States in comparative perspective and thus shed new light on American media practices. It is designed as a resource for the growing number of courses dealing with international media, and a recommended supplement for basic mass communications courses that provide a global perspective.

As mass communication is a major topic of interest in American colleges, there is also a growing interest in comparative mass media in other countries. This book is designed to put current practices in the United States in comparative perspective and thus shed new light on American media practices. It is designed as a resource for the growing number of courses dealing with international media, and a recommended supplement for basic mass communications courses that provide a global perspective.

The first indepth history of the controversies surrounding the establishment of Radio Telefis Eireann.

"Ralph Engelman's history of the growth of public radio and television in America is timely, compelling, and instructive. Very useful for citizens who take seriously the need for public use of the public airwaves, which we need to remember, the people own but do not control." --Ralph Nader, Director, The Center for the Study of Responsive Law "There is no cynicism or stridency in Ralph Engelman's definitive history of public broadcasting's failure to fulfill its promise, only documentation of the immense problems endemic to government and corporate sponsored mass media. For models of hope, this volume acknowledges the civic discourse that has thrived in the margins of public broadcasting--in the independent community and in the homespun programming of the public access movement." --Dee Dee Halleck, Cofounder, Paper Tiger Television & Deep Dish TV "Public Radio and Television in America by Ralph Engelman effectively navigates the complex, controversial, and often maddening history of public broadcasting as a political and cultural force. Always more important than its audience size in America, public broadcasting's promise and problems, as well as its heroes and villains, are treated effectively and well in this solid and critical analysis. The book is compact, yet sufficiently substantive and blessedly well written and well documented." --Everette E. Dennis, Executive Director, Freedom Forum Media Studies Center, editor, Media Studies Journal "Ralph Engelman's Public Radio and Television in America is a chilling description of how noncommercial broadcasting is the tragic victim of conservative corporate politics that have spent most of this century trying to cripple and kill it." --Ben H. Bagdikian, former Dean, Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California,

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.

Every day millions of Americans tune in to a newscast on one of their local television stations to learn what is new in their community. In fact, more people watch local news than network news, but surprisingly little is known about the early days of television when stations across the country searched for ways to do news in the new medium. In Broadcasting the Local News, Lynn Boyd Hinds, a former Pittsburgh broadcaster, introduces us to one station--KDKA-TV--which literally invented television news in Pittsburgh.

Television came to Pittsburgh in 1949 when WDTV (the forerunner of KDKA-TV) went on the air. Whereas many television stations in the United States began reading news on the air only to comply with FCC requirements, WDTV treated news seriously from day one with its first regular program, a local news show called "Pitt Parade." Today KDKA is still highly regarded among journalists for its news programming.

Although television news may seem familiar to us, it was anything but familiar to the men and women of early television. Hinds shows how they borrowed liberally from newspapers, radio, motion picture newsreels, theater, and even magazines to create, by trial and error, suitable ways to present the news. Rather than instantly replacing radio, television news moved slowly from the "rip and read" radio-style format, which simply duplicated what came over the wire services and was in the newspapers, to the conventions of local newscasts we take for granted today--live remotes, lead and feature stories, sports and weather, all brought together by an in-studio anchor.

Pittsburghers will recognize many familiar names in Hinds's account--Bill Burns, Paul Long, Florence Sando, Eleanor Schano, and others--veterans of Pittsburgh broadcasting whom Hinds has interviewed for this book. The story they tell is the story of dozens of other stations across the country. In the process, they tell us much about the early history of television in America.

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.

Television can be imagined in a number of ways: as a profuse flow of images, as a machine that produces new social relationships, as the last lingering gasp of Western metaphysical thinking, as a stuttering relay system of almost anonymous messages, as a fantastic construction of time. Richard Dienst engages each of these possibilities as he explores the challenge television has posed for contemporary theories of culture, technology, and media. Five theoretical projects provide Still Life in Real Time with its framework: the cultural studies tradition of Raymond Williams; Marxist political economy; Heideggerian existentialism; Derridean deconstruction; and a Deleuzian anatomy of images. Drawing lessons from television programs like Twin Peaks and Crime Story, television events like the Gulf War, and television personalities like Madonna, Dienst produces a remarkable range of insights on the character of the medium and on the theories that have been affected by it. From the earliest theorists who viewed television as a new metaphor for a global whole, a liberal technology empty of ideological or any other content, through those who saw it as a tool for consumption, making time a commodity, to those who sense television's threat to being and its intimate relation to power, Dienst exposes the rich pattern of television's influence on philosophy, and hence on the deepest levels of contemporary experience. A book of theory, Still Life in Real Time will compel the attention of all those with an interest in the nature of the ever present, ever shifting medium and its role in the thinking that marks our time.

At last, a collection in one volume informing the citizenry about a phenomenon that has existed for nearly a quarter century: community television represents our single source for media access in the United States. With more than 2,000 community groups providing some 15,000 hours of original programming each week--more than the annual output of ABC, CBS, and NBC combined--Community Television compares and contrasts broadcasting and grassroots cablecasting in the form of public, educational, and government (PEG) access. Fuller describes community television in terms of its history, its technical characteristics, and its legal, economic, political, and social concerns, highlighting the work of more than 150 related organizations and local television efforts from 100 cities and towns. She analyzes how competing exigencies and emerging communication technologies might threaten access in the future. Students, scholars, and professionals in television, communications, and public policy will find this reference a definitive one.

An emerging technology, high-definition television (HDTV) is expected to have dramatic effects on the communication and entertainment industries as well as on education and training methods, advertising, medicine, and other fields. With over 1,400 entries, this annotated bibliography allows the researcher to trace the development of the technology and to identify the economic, sociopolitical, and psychosocial issues raised by the advent of HDTV. Entries are arranged chronologically within topical chapters, providing both an organized method for tracking key issues and a point of departure for historical analysis. The book opens with a description of the general development of high-definition television. It then turns to the work of the Japanese and the Europeans, followed by a chapter on the work of the Americans. Chapter 4 covers the socioeconomic implications of HDTV, and chapter 5 is devoted to the development of standards. Articles on HDTV, film, and related program production appear in chapter 6, while chapter 7 covers HDTV and alternative delivery systems, including DBS, cable, and fiber optics. Notes on the journals cited, as well as an index, are also included.