Broadcasting Study Guide
BCA 210 Study Guide – Exam 2 Terms: Audion tube: Created by Lee de Forest, this improved the clarity of radio signal reception in 1907. This detected radio waves and pin points sounds. Lee de Forest perfected this glass bulb. Payola: 1960s, the practice of accepting payment to play specific recordings on the air. Disc jockeys were charged for bribery for accepting money to play music, the most famous, Alan Freed who worked in Cleveland who was credited with coining the term for rock ‘n’ roll. Cross ownership: The practice of one company owning radio and TV stations in the same broadcast market.
This was a result of the telecommunication Act. Narrowcasting: Identifying a specific audience segment and programming for it. General manager (in radio): Runs the radio station. Program manager (in radio): They oversee what goes on the air, including the news programs, the station’s format and any on-air people. Kinetoscope: 1888, Thomas Edison’s idea, William K. L. Dickinson created. Perforated film and sprockets to minimize jumps. Peepshow viewer. The first parlor was in April of 1894 in New York City. Talkies: Sound added to movies. The vitaphone preludes, 1926, seven shorts w/ sounds.
Al Jolson, first feature-length motion picture with sound. It contained two sections with synchronized sound made by the Warner Bros. Digital Projectors: Satellite distribution: internet distribution: Ancillary rights: Marketing opportunities related to a movie, in addition to direct income from the movie itself. The “Big Five”: 1930s, Warner Bros. , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount, RKO and Twentieth Century Fox all dominated the movie business. They were all vertically integrated; they produced movies, distributed them worldwide and owned theater chains, which guaranteed their pictures being shown.
The “Hollywood Ten”: J. Parnell Thomas summoned 10 “unfriendly” witnesses from Hollywood to testify about their Communist connections. Consisted of 8 hollywood screenwriters and two directors. Their strategy was to appear before the committee as a group and to avoid answering the direct question. They tried to make statements that questioned the committee’s authority to challenge their political beliefs. The witnesses were found in contempt, some were sentenced to jail and others were fined. By the end, they all lost their jobs.
Cable television/CATV: Community antenna television or cable tv. Cathode Ray Tube: Created by Philo T. Farnsworth in California, he called it the dissector tube. It used an electronic scanner to reproduce the electronic image much more clearly than Nipkow’s earlier mechanical scanning device. He patented his electronic scanner. Advertiser Produced TV: Programs: Quiz shows, variety shows, situation comedies, drama, westerns, detective stories, detective stories, movies, soap operas and talk shows. HDTV: The US switched to national high-definition tv transmission standard in 2009.
It scans 1,125 lines across the screen. It requires more spectrum space than conventional tv signals. Digital tv makes it easier for manufacturers to combine the functions of TV and the functions of a computer in the same piece of equipment. A. C. Nielsen: The company dominated the tv ratings business. Ratings describe the audience to advertisers; based on the Nielsens, advertisers pay for the commercial time to reach the audiences they want. Rating: The percentage of the total number of households with TV sets tuned to a particular program.
Give sponsors information about the audience they’re reaching with their advertising, what advertisers are getting for their money. Share: The percentage of the audiences turn on that is watching a particular program. Demographics: Date about consumers’ characteristics, such as age, occupation and income level. Network affiliates: Stations that use network programming but are owned by companies other than the networks, not networked owned. Syndication: Services that sell programming to broadcast stations and cable. Independently produced programming. Oprah, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune.
Analog: In mass communications, a type of technology used in broadcasting, whereby video or audio information is sent as continuous signals through the air on specific airwave frequencies. Digital transmission: Telenovelas: are pish language shows. These give a new audience, unison draws more viewers than all english language networks. the Internet: delivers all types of media, print, broadcast, movies and recordings using a single delivery system without barriers. Combines millions of computer networks sending and receiving data from all over the world. There is no common owner.
Browser: Created by Tim Berners-Lee. Software that allows people to display and interact with information on Web pages. They can search electronically HTML/HTPP: Created by Tim Berners-Lee. Hypertext markup language/Hypertext transfer protocol. These allow people to create and send text, graphics and video information electronically and also set up electronic connections from one source of information to another. Sales (in television): people in the sales department sell the commercial slots for the programs. Advertising is divided into national and local sales.
Advertising agencies, buy nationsl ads for the products they handle. (An ad agency may buy time on a network for the ford company, for a tv ad that will run all over the country simultaneously) Traffic (in television): traffic department integrates the advertising with the programming, making sure that all the ads that are sold are aired when they’re spposed to be. Traffic also handles billing for the ads. Traditional media: Digital/Multimedia: describes all forms of communications media that combine text, pictures, sound and video using computer technology.
Bits: Intellectual property rights: The legal right of ownership of ideas and content published in any medium. There are various copyright holders that have used court challenges to establish their legal ownership. Internet service provider (ISP): Also called an internet access provider. This can be a telephone, satellite or cable company, to organize and deliver internet information and entertainment. Web income is made by the money people pay their ISP to connect to the Web. Digital subscriber line (DSL):
Signal or data compression: the process of squeezing digital content into a smaller electronic space. Online/Web advertising: advertising is the second potential source of income on the web. They have banners or borders on pages. The seller can know exactly who the buyer is since it is a targeted medium. There is internet tracking that helps advertisers gain information about the audiences for their ads. Digital Divide: The lack of access to digital technology among low-income, rural and minority groups. People -Heinrich Hertz: Responsible for first describing radio waves in 1887 in germany. Guglielmo Marconi: Promotion of wireless radio wave transmission beginning in 1899 with the America’s Cup race. Made morse code. Marketed his device. Thought of a way that messages should be able to travel across space without a wire. -Lee de Forest: “Father of radio” Made the audion in 1907, made radio practical to today’s radio, pin pointed the sound. -David Sarnoff: made radio broadcasting a viable business in the United States. “radio for the people” Made red and blue networks, worked for NBC. He wanted to make radio for households. -Edwin H.
Armstrong: Responsible for licensing frequency modulation (FM). -William S. Paley: Made radio broadcasting a viable business for the United States. Worked for CBS created 25 stations. -Thomas Edison: idea for the kinetoscope in 1888, made William K. L. Dickson create it. -Rupert Murdoch: Owner of fox broadcasting joined US media business from Australia and was able to accumulate so many media companies in a short amount of time. -Charlie Chaplin: founded united artists in 1919. They rebelled against the strict studio system of distribution and formed their own studio. “Fatty “ Arbuckle: Comedian, hosted a marathon party in San Fran. A model was rushed to the hospital for stomach pains, she died at the hospital and fatty was charged with murder but then reduced to manslaughter. After three trials, he was acquitted. -Florence Lawrence: first movie star. Uncredited “Biograph girl”. She received screen credit from Carl Laemmle. This began the start of salaried stars and production staff to be under exclusive contracts. -Mary Pickford: Left biograph to join Laemmle by doubling her salary. She became one of the most influential women in early hollywood.
She helped to finance the independent studio United Artists. -Edward R. Murrow: Early news figure at CBS, created the earl standards for broadcast news. -Philo T. Farnsworth: added the electronic scanner. Developed the cathode ray tube. He patented the scanner -Vladimir Zworykin: developed an all-electronic system to transform a visual image into an electronic signal that traveled through the air. When the signal reached the tv receiver the signal was transformed again into a visual image for the viewer. -David Brinkley: broadcast news pioneer who began at NBC.
News broadcaster -Tim Berners-Lee: developed programming languages that allow people to share all types of information online, and the first browser which allowed people to view information online in 1989. -Newton Minow: Public conscience. Hired at the FCC by JFK. Asked broadcast station owners and managers to watch their own programs. He said they would find a vast wasteland. He outlined tvs responsibilities to its audiences. -Nicholas Negroponte: at the massachusetts institute of technology first uses the term convergence to describe the intersection of industries.
Said that the combination of the traditional media industries with the computer industry would create a new type of communication. He created two models to show the position of the media industries in 78 and his projected vision for those industries in 2000. he listed three segments of the media business; print and publishing, broadcast and motion pictures, and the computer industry. The theory of convergence helped to shape todays thinking about the internet. Stations/Studios/Companies/Associations/etc: -KDKA: was the first commercial radio station in Pittsburgh.
KDKA began daily one-hour evening schedules broadcasting from 8:30 to 9:30. they proved that regular programing could attract a loyal audience. -WEAF: New York. Weaf started selling advertising time to sponsors. This settled the issue of who would pay the cost of airing the programs.. Sold blocks of time. -RCA: government approved private monopoly. david sarnoff was general manager. He became tv’s biggest promoter. RCA faced criticism about its broad control over the airwaves because it continued to be the world’s largest distributor of radios. NBC (red and blue): created by David Sarnoff at NBC in 1926. The red network was fed from WEAF in New York. The blue network originated from station WJZ in Newark. Station engineers drew the planned hookups of the two networks with red and blue colored pencils which is how the networks got their names. One of the first tv networks. -ABC: American broadcasting company, the selling of this company to Edward Noble gave the country a three-network radio system. -ASCAP: American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. Created blanket licensing of music broadcasting over the radio. FCC: Federal Communications Commission. Granted frequency licenses. FCC ordered NBC to divest one of its networks. FCC recognizes FM -National Public Radio: 1970, goes on air. Government began funding the NPR in 1967. By design, public radio was created as an alternative to commercial radio. Depends primarily on private donations to survive. Started the program All things considered for the evening drive-time and launched the morning edition. -Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association: In 1930, they adopted a production code to control movie content. Will Hays was the president.
The code had three principles: No picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards, correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment shall be presented, law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed. The code is then divided into 12 categories of wrongdoing. Murder. Sex. Obscenity. Costume. -United Artists: Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and DW Griffith, independent studio run by the stars themselves in 1919. -Disney: Walt Disney, only 1930’s newcomer to the movie business. Created snow white & 7 dwarfs which was the first full-length animated feature.
Grey to media company we know today. -CBS: First tv networks. Created by William Paley. Had 25 stations. Later, in 1947, CBS began broadcasting television news. -CNN: Started in 1979 by Ted Turner, CNN’s global reach gives the US audience instant access to new about international events. Modern satellites made this possible. -TNT: 1976. Part of the cable industry. Happenings -“War of the Worlds”: Orson Welles, Mercury Theater. Night before Halloween. Aired dramatized version of “war of the worlds” as a live news broadcast. Some people thought that it was really happening.
This challenged radio’s authority/credibility. -American motion picture premier: Edison organized the first American motion picture premiere with an improved camera developed by independent inventor Thomas Armat. Edison dubbed the new machine the Vitascope, and the first public showing of the picture was on April 23rth 1896 at Koster and Bial’s Theater in New York. This spawned nickelodeons. -US v. Paramount Pictures case: Limit block booking to five, stop blind booking, stop requiring short film rentals, stop buying theaters. -quiz show scandals: Brought about an ethics scandal in 1958. aused the netwoks to reexamine the relationship between advertisers and programs. The networks turned to other sources such as independent producers, for their programming. Charles Van Doren played on twenty one, he won 129,000 admitted he was fed the answers. -Radio Act of 1912:Licensing, limited freedom. Public Convenience, interest or necessity. Used for the basis of broadcasting. -Radio Act of 1927: formed the Federal Radio commission under the jurisdiction of the department of commerce. The president appointed the commission’s five members, with the Senate’s approval. Stations operate as a public convenience, interest or necessity requires. ” Also became the license holder. Stations could operate only with the government’s approval and stations needed commission approval to be sold or transferred. This became the foundation for all broadcast regulation in the United states. -Digital Millennium Copyright Act: in 1998, made it illegal to share copyrighted material on the internet. -Public Broadcasting Act of 1967: created the corporation for Public Broadcasting and included funding for public radio and tv stations. Telecommunications Act of 1996: first major overhaul of broadcast regulation since the federal communications commission was established. The legacy of the act is that commercial radio is regulated much less than the 70s. This is called the policy of deregulation. It removed ownership limits. Allowed cross ownership, prompted consolidation. Concepts -Radio vs. TV programming: -Race movies: pioneered the art of breaking stereotypes. These films showcased all black casts in a variety of genres including westerns, mysteries, romances and melodramas. -Hays Office production code: May not lower moral standard of viewers.
Proper standards of life. Respect for law. No sympathy for violators. Murder should not inspire imitation. No lustful kissing or lustful embraces. No obscenity. Costumes must not be indecent, dancing movements that are exposing or indecent are forbidden. -syndicated TV programming: are independently produced programming. Oprah, jeopardy, wheel of fortune. Services that sell programming to broadcast stations and cable. -1950s television boom: -TV’s impact on sports: CBS paid 28 million for NFL rights, in 1990 it cost 3. 6 billion (now even higher). TV funds much of professional sports.
Expansion to cable (ESPN) -Spanish language TV: New audience. Unison draws more viewers than all english language networks. Telenovelas. -Web advertising: banners and ads. They can target their audiences by tracking. -Convergence: Melding of communications, computer and electronics industries. Movies -The Great Train Robbery: is a 1903 American western film written, produced, and directed by Edwin S. Porter. 12 minutes long, it is considered a milestone in film making. The film used a number of innovative techniques including composite editing, camera movement and on location shooting. The Birth of a Nation: 1915. First budget, feature-length film spectacular. D. W. Griffith. Now recalled for racist themes. Drawing specialized audiences. Oscar Micheaux’s work countered birth of a nation. -The Jazz Singer: is a 1927 American musical film. The first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue sequences, its release heralded the commercial ascendance of the “talkies” and the decline of the silent film era. Directed by Alan Crosland and produced by Warner Bros. with its Vitaphone sound-on-disc system, the movie stars Al Jolson, who performs six songs.
The film is based on The Day of Atonement, a play by Samson Raphaelson. -Steamboat Willie: Disney in 1928. is a 1928 American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. It was produced in black-and-white by the Walt Disney Studios and released by Celebrity Productions. The cartoon is considered the debut of Mickey Mouse, -Snow White and the Seven Dwarves: Disney, 1937. first full-length animated feature. Cost 2. 25 million, as much as an MGM, musical. -Empire of the Air: Proved that radio is an ideal medium for reaching masses of the US, your geographic location is not affected by it.
Government issued patents that caused friction. All about money—Sarnoff controlled everything and created a network. The film reflects capitalism and the “american dream” he was an immigrant and created this entertainment to become rich. Drive ourselves and need new technology to become elite. -Sunset Boulevard: Film noir. Used a mirror in the water to give the illusion of being underwater. -Quiz Show: Quiz Show is a 1994 American historical drama film produced and directed by Robert Redford. Charles Van Doren won 129,000 but was fed the answers. –The Social Network
