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© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
Chapter 8 – Television: Switching Channels
Chapter Outline
• Television Transforms Daily Life
• TV Delivers an Audience to Advertisers
• Visual Radio Becomes Television
• Television Outpaces Radio
News With Pictures
Entertainment Programming
• Quiz Shows Bring Ethics Scandals
• Ratings Target the Audience
• Newton Minow Criticizes TV as a “Vast Wasteland”
• Public Television Finds an Audience
• Satellites Make Transatlantic TV and Live Broadcasts Possible
• Television Changes National and Global Politics
• Mergers Affect Station Ownership
• TV Promotes Professional Sports
• Critics Challenge the Accuracy of TV Ratings
• Cable and Satellite Expand Delivery
• Television at Work
• Audiences Drive TV Programming
The Networks’ Shrinking Role
Demand for Diverse Programming
• Digital Technology Broadens TV’s Focus
Digital Video Recorders
High-Definition Television, 3-D and 4K Screens
• Streaming TV Brings a New Vision
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
Suggested Activities, Discussions, and Exercises
1. Show a clip of a classic TV program from the 1950s or 60s and a clip from
a more recent program—both the same genre and also addressing the
same issue. Discuss with students the ways in which television
entertainment has changed technically, aesthetically, artistically, and
regarding what can and cannot be discussed.
2. Visit a local television station or ask the general manager of your local
cable system to visit your class to discuss the business of local TV.
3. Review the “Television at Work” section of Media/Impact, Chapter 8, and
ask each student to decide which job in commercial television would be
most interesting and rewarding, and to do some additional Internet
research on that job classification. Ask students to bring their findings to
class for a class discussion or to present in an online forum.
4. Have students research the phenomenon of “cutting the cord”—
abandoning cable or satellite TV service—and “zero TV.” What are the
pros and cons of this approach to TV viewing, and how viable is it today?
How likely are they to do this? How likely are their parents? Have the
students share their findings in class or in an online forum discussion.
5. Ask students to inventory their own television watching for a two-week
period to determine what proportion of their viewing is devoted to what
type of programming—and also where and how they watch TV. Ask
students to bring the results to class for a class discussion or to present
their findings in an online forum.
Activity Pages
Use the following activity pages as class handouts for exercises and to
accompany some of the classroom Ideas described above.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
Watching the Issues
Watch a news program on public TV and make notes about the program’s format,
hosts, topics and methods of reporting. Bring those notes on this handout to
class for a discussion about what you observed about public TV news as an
alternative to commercial TV news.
• Name of program:
• Date the program aired:
• Who were the main hosts?
• What topics were discussed? (List at least six.)
• How were the methods of reporting/discussion different from network or local TV
news?
• What were your overall impressions of the show? What, specifically, did you like and
dislike? Why?
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
Internet Television Analysis
Listed below are some Internet addresses for TV program providers. Using
the Internet, look at three of the addresses below and see what kind of
information they contain. Print the home page for each of three providers.
Then write an essay (word length specified by your instructor), discussing
which features you like best and least about the three program providers
you’ve chosen, including the kinds of features that make these sites
particularly usable. Attach the copies of the three home pages to your
essay.
American Movie Classics
www.amctv.com
Arts & Entertainment
www.aetv.com
Black Entertainment Television
www.bet.com
The Discovery Channel
www.discovery.com
The Disney Channel
www.disneychannel.com
ESPN
www.espn.go.com
Home Box Office/Cinemax
www.hbo.com
Lifetime Television
www.lifetimetv.com
Logo
www.logoonline.com
MTV, Inc.
www.mtv.com
USA Network
www.usanetwork.com
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
Television Guest Speaker
Visit a local television station and tour the facility. Or invite a local broadcaster to
visit your class. Make sure that you learn the following information about the
station and be prepared to discuss what you’ve learned in class.
What is the proper spelling of your name and job title?
• What are the station’s call letters and number?
• How long has the station been on the air?
• Who owns the station? Is it locally owned or held by a national corporation?
• Does the station have a mission statement? What are its broadcasting goals?
• What kinds of programming does it offer during the day? Evening? Name some of the
most popular programs.
• Does it offer a news program? At what times? Who are the most visible anchors? How
many reporters does it have? Editors? Camera people? How many people does it take
to put the news on the air? How much does it cost? What percentage of the station’s
budget supports the news operation?
• What special promotions does the station do? What kind of events does it sponsor to
be visible in the community?
• What is the station’s target audience? How many people does it reach? What were its
latest Nielsen ratings? (If cable, how does the station determine its audience?)
• Who are the station’s biggest advertisers? How much does a 30-second commercial in
prime time cost? How much does a 30-second spot from 9 a.m. to noon cost?
• What does the station do as part of its public service responsibility?
• What do you think makes this station successful? What do you think it needs to
improve?
• Do you offer any special Internet services or use the Internet for station promotion?
Explain.
* How has the Internet affected your viewership?
• Where do you envision your station heading in the next 10 years?
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
Chapter 8 Quiz
Multiple Choice
1. The two researchers who played the most significant role in the technical
development of television were:
a. David Sarnoff and William Paley.
b. Lee de Forest and Edward R. Murrow.
c. Vladimir Zworykin and Philo Farnsworth.
d. Lee de Forest and David Sarnoff.
2. The two men who developed network TV and held the country’s largest
interest in radio were:
a. Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite.
b. Philo T. Farnsworth and Vladimir Zworykin.
c. Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch
d. David Sarnoff and William Paley
3. The only type of television programming that didn’t come from radio is:
a. soap operas.
b. detective stories.
c. quiz shows.
d. talk shows.
4. The quiz show scandals of the 1950s:
a. caused the networks to eliminate advertiser-produced programming.
b. caused many stations to leave the networks to be independents with more
control of their programming.
c. led to an increase in advertiser-produced programming with greater network
controls.
d. brought more quiz shows to television.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
5. A rating is:
a. a comparison of an audience for one show to the audience for another show.
b. the percentage of the total number of households with TV sets tuned to a
specific program.
c. an indication of a favorable audience response to a program.
d. the percentage of people in a household watching a program on television.
ANS: B
6. In the last 25 years, the commercial broadcast networks’ (ABC, CBS,
NBC and Fox) share of the prime-time audience:
a. has dramatically increased, thanks to innovative hit shows.
b. has dramatically increased as new owners have bought the stations.
c. has dramatically decreased because of cable and satellite TV and syndicated
programming.
d. has remained pretty much the same.
7. The Telecommunications Act of 1996:
a. allows one company to own TV stations that reach up to 35 percent of U.S.
homes.
b. requires owners to keep a station for three years before selling it.
c. caused a decline in the number of television stations.
d. resulted in an increase in the number of companies that own television
stations.
ANS: A
8. Sweeps, the months in which TV ratings services gather their most
important information, occur during which months?
a. September, December, and May
b. May, August, and October
c. June, October, and March
d. February, May, and November
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
9. When American political conventions were broadcast for the first time
nationwide, the development that made that nationwide broadcast possible
was:
a. radio announcers adapting to television.
b. AT&T’s national coaxial cable hookups.
c. Edward R. Murrow’s experience with field broadcasting.
d. CBS’s lineup of sponsors for political programming.
10. Network affiliate television stations:
a. pay the network to be an affiliate.
b. are paid by the network to carry network programming
c. are paid a substantial proportion of national advertising revenues the network
collects.
d. are usually owned by the network.
True/False
1. John F. Kennedy was the first president to appear on U.S. television.
2. More than any other media industry, commercial TV exists primarily as an
advertising medium.
ANS: T
3. A ratings “share” compares the audience size of one show with the audience
size of another show.
ANS: T
4. Television licensing fees fund most of the cost of organized sports.
5. A TV station’s production department makes sure all local commercials are
aired when they are supposed to be.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
Essay Questions
1. Explain the role that Edward R. Murrow played in the development of
television news.
2. Discuss the development of programming on television in the 1940s,
1950s and 1960s, including reference to its relationship to radio
programming in the 1940s and ways television programming changed as it
developed.
3. Explain how video streaming will continue to affect consumers and the
television industry.
4. Discuss the rise in the competitive power of Spanish-language television
and its effect on English-language networks.
5. Discuss the relationship between organized sports, television
programming, and television viewers, and advertisers.
