Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The emergence of television news programs in the late 1940s and early 1950s in the USA marked a major historical development in the history of → journalism (→ Journalism, History of ; News ; Television News ). Combining the broadcast auditory flow of radio (→ Radio Technology ) with the moving images (→ Film Theory ) of the motion picture → newsreels shown in the → cinema , television news was able to provide the public with a new experience in journalism. In the context of American commercial broadcasting, television journalism – more than any previous form of news – was shaped by the economic demands of entertainment and advertising (→ Advertising, Economics of ), not least because of its compelling visual dimension (→ Commercialization: Impact on Media Content ). The American model of television news was quickly exported, becoming the global norm for TV news formats and production practices. The visual components of news programs have become part of taken-for-granted professional routines, yet continue to evolve as the genre develops and media platforms for news expand (→ News Routines ). As an element driving news priorities as well as presentational formats the visual emphases of television journalism remain of important analytic concern. It is the visual dimension that gives television news its unique attributes. In traditional broadcasting, television, like radio, ... log in or subscribe to read full text