In this weeks lecture we focused on 'Television and Public Service Broadcasting: Industry, Institution'. The key readings for this week were Long and Wall (2012) and Creeber, Glen (2003)
Long and Wall explored media history and the definition of the term historiography which simply means writing the past. Creeber’s reading however, purely focused on exploring the origin of Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) with a main focus of using the BBC to explain this. He further explores the origins of Commercial Broadcasting (CB) in the U.S and maps out how these differ.
In the reading Creeber explains how ‘television was built on the roots put down in radio’ (Creeber, 2003) and further explains the impact post WWII had on it’s consumption as previously people only believed it was just radio with pictures. He also explains that because of this, television gained a new audience to provide for. He describes the differences of the two broadcasting services, explaining that the PSB was created with an aim to give the public what they wanted and funded from the public it self. Whereas CB runs with the influence of political views and power, often having an agenda through everything they release and advertise.
In my found reading Goodwin and Whannel explore television history within the U.K. and map out how the BBC influenced other channels. They state ‘From the 1920’s through today, the BBC has continued this work of promoting national unity through such programmes’ (Goodwin and Whannel, 1990). This supports Reith’s words of the BBC ‘making the nation as one man’, which we learnt in our lecture.
Long and Wall throughout the section of this chapter emphasise the importance of media history and through doing so it enabled me to understand it deeper. ‘Media history is a way of thinking about the past with media at the centre of attention’ (Long and Wall, 2012). This suggests that it is important for us to be aware how media it self has progressed and how it will do so further because just like we see it as history now, future generations will see something which is contemporary to us as history. ‘Television has had to adapt first to the coming of video and then DVD’s, and more recently streamed Internet content’ (Long and Wall, 2012); this supports their statement of how media is constantly advancing.
To further my knowledge on this topic, it would be interesting to research and see if the same framework within TV is in line abroad.
References:
1.Long, P. and Wall, T. (2012) Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context (2nd Edition), London: Pearson. Pp.: 448-481
2.Goodwin, A and Whannel, G. (1990) Understanding Television, London and New York: Routledge
3.Creeber, Glen (2003) The Origins Of Public Service Broadcasting (British Television Before The War) in Michel Hilmes (ed.)(2003) The Television History Book. London: BFI. Pp.: 22-26
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