Sweeping narrative of the technological advances, events, and personalities that have made radio and television a dominant force in contemporary society.

Sweeping narrative of the technological advances, events, and personalities that have made radio and television a dominant force in contemporary society.

During the iQSo's, in a frontier atmosphere of enterprise and sharp struggle, an American television system took shape. But even as it did so, itspioneers pushed beyond American borders and became programmers to scores of other nations. In its first decade United States television was already a world phenomenon. Since American radio had for some time had international ramifications, American images and sounds were radiatingfrom transmitter towers throughout the globe. They were called entertainment or news or education but were always more. They were a reflection of a growing United States...

Based on the classic History of Broadcasting in the United States, Tube of Plenty represents the fruit of several decades' labor. When Erik Barnouw--premier chronicler of American broadcasting and a participant in the industry for fifty years--first undertook the project of recording its history, many viewed it as a light-weight literary task concerned mainly with "entertainment" trivia. Indeed, trivia such as that found in quiz programs do appear in the book, but Barnouw views them as part of a complex social tapestry that increasingly defines our era.
To understand our...

The immediacy and perceived truth of the visual image, as well as film and television's ability to propel viewers back into the past, place the genre of the historical film in a special category. War films--including antiwar films--have established the prevailing public image of war in the twentieth century. For American audiences, the dominant image of trench warfare in World War I has been provided by feature films such as All Quiet on the Western Front and Paths of Glory. The image of combat in the Second World War has been shaped by films like Sands of Iwo Jima...

The television sponsor has become semi-mythical. He is remote and unseen, but omnipresent. Dramas, football games, and press conferences pause for a "word" from him. He "makes possible" concerts and public affairs broadcasts. His "underwriting grants" brings the viewer music festivals and classic films. Interviews with visiting statesmen are interrupted for him, to continue "in a moment." Sponsorship is basic to American television. Even noncommercial television looks to it for survival. A vast industry has grown up around the needs and wishes of sponsors. Television's program formulas,...

One of the most respected and honored historians of the media, Erik Barnouw has been called a major national resource by "The Nation." Norman Corwin dubbed him America's Gibbon. He is the writer, says critic John Leonard, "from whom the rest of us steal instead of doing our research." Media history is his subject, and, as this memoir makes so delightfully clear, it has also been Erik Barnouw's life. Barnouw's story, told with wit and charm in "Media Marathon," is the story of American culture adjusting to the twentieth century, of new media repeatedly displacing the old in a century-long...

How is history produced? How do individuals write--or rewrite--their parts while engaged in the production of history? Michael Lynch and David Bogen take the example of the Iran-contra hearings to explore these questions. These hearings, held in 1987 by the Joint House-Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaragua Opposition, provided the nation with a media spectacle and a rare chance to see a struggle over the writing of history. There was Oliver North, prime suspect and designated scapegoat, turning into a hero of the American Right before the very eyes of...

How is history produced? How do individuals write--or rewrite--their parts while engaged in the production of history? Michael Lynch and David Bogen take the example of the Iran-contra hearings to explore these questions. These hearings, held in 1987 by the Joint House-Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaragua Opposition, provided the nation with a media spectacle and a rare chance to see a struggle over the writing of history. There was Oliver North, prime suspect and designated scapegoat, turning into a hero of the American Right before the very eyes of...

This selection of essays, articles, lectures, and other writings by Erik Barnouw, dean of American media scholars, chronicles "the phenomenon of old media giving way to new, and then being replaced by them, as the ghosts of old media rise in new forms." In Media Lost and Found, the sixteenth century will introduce us to early stirrings of photography, as well as the rise of "black lists," which have a too-familiar ring within our own lifetime. The collection begins with an article on documentary film pioneer Robert Flaherty. Barnouw then moves to a discussion of his Dutch heritage and its...