Product Description
Essential reading for anyone involved in broadcasting. The Business of Digital Television presents an overview or the digital television industry. Chris Forrester examines the key technologies and developments of the marketplace, with comments on the future from leading industry experts.



Written in an accessible style for the non-engineer, Forrester covers the issues that are most pertinent to strategic direction, providing, broadcasting professionals with essential facts, data and commentary in one single source.

You will:
Discover trends in digital TV technology
Gain knowledge about the international marketplace
See an analysis of the financial models
Understand the importance of partnerships
Find out the key drivers for change
Gain an insight into emerging technologies in the future




Gain from the research of a key industry consultant, a complete factual understanding of the digital television industry worldwide in one readable source
See the facts in context, from the key drivers for change through to future applications
Get up to speed quickly on emerging technologies and complex markets ... Read more

Product Description

Television studies must now address a complex environment where change has been vigorous but uneven, and where local and national conditions vary significantly. Globalizing media industries, deregulatory policy regimes, the multiplication, convergence and trade in media formats, the emergence of new content production industries outside the US/UK umbrella, and the fragmentation of media audiences are all changing the nature of television today: its content, its industrial structure and how it is consumed.

Television Studies after TV leads the way in developing new ways of understanding television in the post-broadcast era. With contributions from leading international scholars, it considers the full range of convergent media now implicated in understanding television, and also focuses on large non-Anglophone markets – such as Asia and Latin America — in order to accurately reflect the wide variety of structures, forms and content which now organise television around the world.

Product Description
This fifth edition of the successful Promotion and Marketing for Broadcasting, Cable, and the Web, 4ed takes an important, timely look at the newest media venue, the Internet.Under its new title, Media Promotion and Marketing for Broadcast, Cable and the Internet, 5ed it takes a fresh look at the industry and the latest strategies for media promotion and marketing.

The book explores the scope and goals of media production from the perspectives of network and local television, cable, Internet and radio, including public broadcasting.Topics include: goals of promotion; research in promotion; on-air, print, and Web message design; radio promotion; television network and station promotion and new campaigns; non-commercial radio and television promotion; cable marketing and promotion; research and budgeting for promotion; syndicated program marketing; global and international promotion and marketing; and online marketing and promotion.

*The Glossary is back!
*Learn how to build a TV/cable/radio/Internet audience
*Understand streaming media as a powerful promotion tool
... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not Bad, Not Great
I agree with the above reviewer. It is very general -- almost too general for beginners. Not nearly enough concrete examples to help a beginner grasp the concepts. I'm looking for another book for my classes to use.

Even more annoying, the book cracked in half the first time I opened it. I've bought dozens of paperbacks in various genres, and I've never had a paperback do that before. Now I have pages falling out. Very disappointed in the quality of the binding.

Basic Book Better for College Students than Professionals
This book is a typical college textbook. A lot of definitions... a lot of fairly rudimentary information.

It's a good book for people who want to learn basic information about media marketing, but it goes into little to no depth about most aspects of the field.

I also don't get the sense that the authors -- college professors-- have much of a sense of the industry as it is today. Other than a mention of sniping and on-air bugs (which debuted several years ago), the book seems a little out of touch.

Therefore, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone currently working in media marketing, because you'll learn very little new knowledge.

But, as it's not presented as an intermediate or advanced book, it's a good resource for beginners. ... Read more

Product Description

Sound for Film and Television, Third Edition provides a thorough introduction to the fascinating field of recording, editing, mixing, and exhibiting film and television sound. It strikes a fine balance between aesthetic and technical content, combining theory and practice to approach sound as both an art and a science. This new edition has been completely updated to reflect the latest advances in HD technology, new hardware and software systems, new distribution methods, wireless sound capture, and more. Also, analog-related content has been reduced and transferred to the chapters covering historical techniques. Sections on troubleshooting and FAQs have been added to help you avoid common pitfalls in sound production.

Customer Reviews (6)

Sound Makes or Breaks your film or TV show
If you're a student of film or if you're a home movie maker, you really owe it to yourself to pick up this book and read it.Very quickly you come to realize that making a movie or tv show or good home movie is about:

- Light
- Sound
- Makeup
- Editing
- Camera
- Script

Mess any one of these things up and you wind up with a suboptimal product.

This book is very comprehensive on the sound aspect.It covers a whole lot more than what a home movie maker like me needs but it's certainly comprehensive enough for a student of film who is getting into the field.

If you make movies, get this book and study it.Never underestimate soound.

Great college textbook for students seeking a career in sound for film and television!

This was not really my kind of book. It had the feel of a college textbook, and the material included was as dense and boring as any college textbook I have ever read. The pages were big, the print was small, and the page formatting was double column. There were pictures included the same way as in a typical college textbook. The author teaches a class or classes in California at the college level. And it is my understanding he uses this book as the course textbook.

I'm not in college any longer, and I haven't been there for some time. My reading preferences tend to weigh in positively with informative books that do not get too technical, but provide a lot of information and make good points. This book does not make many points at all. It is very technical. And quite frankly it does not provide much information that I could really use. Accordingly, I could not give it a 5-star rating.

Having said all that, I found the book to be a good college textbook. If the student is working toward an entry-level position in the motion picture industry as a sound techie, then this book is probably a must-read. It covers a lot of material. It is quite dense in the material it provides. And the student if she digests and assimilates the information in this book will probably be able to fit into a production company or consulting firm that help to make sound in film and television great.

Early in the book the author told me to read the chapters in the following order: 4, 8, 5-7, and 9-13. I took his advice and never went back to chapters 1-3. But I had already read the preface and the introduction. If you want to learn about much of the ins and outs of sound, microphones, and mixing sound recordings, or editing sound recordings so you can be the ultimate professional at what you do, then I highly recommend this book to you. But if you just want to know about sound regarding your camcorder projects and how to make it good or better, then this book might be a bit much for you. I did not see a way to translate what I read here into making better sound for my home videos. 4 stars!

A concise professional level overview of sound recording and design for motion pictures
"Sound for Film and Television" presents a concise and well rounded overview of the many issues, technologies and creative concerns involved in the recording, mixing, design and presentation of sound in motion pictures. The wide range, multi channel sound fields typical of modern films require an in depth understanding of sound design requirements, aesthetic concerns and the "reality" that many sounds imply and require. The sound of a truck, in the distance, for example, must not only be "distant" but suggest the ambience of "what distance", "where" and what sort of sound field that distance occurs in. Music, dialog and effects must all be considered as distinct elements. The modern sound mixer/designer is truly a "conductor" of a refined and precisely selected, crafted and presented sonic orchestra.

"Sound for Film and Television" gives good, professional level summaries of these concerns, and cites and includes many examples from well known films that are considered hallmarks of sound design and development. RECOMMENDED.

May Prove a Valuable Reference to Some ... Others, A Trip in a Time-Machine
Mostly written in the first-person plural, this technical text has an oddly informal approach. Likewise, the strange use of slang had me a little confused. For example, "bit-slinging"? Having never heard this expression, I took a break from the obligatory charts/grids and read this entry. Apparently, the author dubbed editing-room assistants "bit slingers" because they remind him of "gunslingers" from "cowboy movies." Hmm. Odd choice.

Moreover, while some of the images are helpful (like how lighting can expose the cabling on a body microphone), many have a 1970s appearance. Maybe a more modern approach to capturing these images would have helped. And, sure, I know the purpose of this text is to teach/inform ... but a "good-looking" book never hurts. (Especially when I have students who'd prefer not to read at all).

Still, for all its drabness, awkwardness, and "coined" terms, the text contains information that could help a person who is new to this field. So, while I'm not a fan, I can see how some may benefit it.

A Bible for Sound
I have all three of Holman's books: this one, Sound for DV, and Surround Sound. What I like about the books is their friendly style, their explanations of how to do things, and their being grounded in actual practice. Hence, this book has lots of examples from film and television.

For me, and perhaps for others, sound is not easy. There are lots of technical features you need to know, lots of ways of making errors, and a wide variety of equipment at a wide range of prices. (It's not like photography, where a point-and-shoot digital camera will do a good job. There's really no such "point-and-shoot" recorder/microphone that does a close to first rate job.) Holman holds your hands, and leads you to do a better job, explains along the way, and tells wonderful stories as well.

The book is not "easy," because the materials are not easy. But, if you want to master sound for film and television, you need this book, at least. ... Read more

Product Description
The founder of MTM Enterprises, who later rescued NBC from low profits and program failure, presents an insider's account of the history of network television. 40,000 first printing. National ad/promo. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

informative
tinker gives a good overview of the sitcom era of the 70s, however, it is a bit whiny.

From MTM to NBC
This book is the story of Grant Tinker, from his rise from a junior executive at NBC in 1949 to his rise to the presidency of the peacock network after the resignation of Fred Silverman in 1981.This bookchronicles the television industry through the eyes of one of its own majorplayers.It is a very good book for those who wish to become executives inthe fast going world of television.He goes into great detail over hispersonal life with Mary Tyler Moore and his involvement into the MTMEnterprises programs, and his years as president of NBC and his venturesafter he left NBC in 1986.This book is a must read for anybody who lovesthe history of television or would like to work in television. ... Read more

Product Description
From "getting loose" to "letting it all hang out," the 1970s were filled with exhortations to free oneself from artificial restraints and to discover oneself in a more authentic and creative life. In the wake of the counterculture of the 1960s, anything that could be made to yield to a more impulsive vitality was reinvented in a looser way. Food became purer, clothing more revealing, sex more orgiastic, and home decor more rustic and authentic.

Through a sociological analysis of the countercultural print culture of the 1970s, Sam Binkley investigates the dissemination of these self-loosening narratives and their widespread appeal to America's middle class. He describes the rise of a genre of lifestyle publishing that emerged from a network of small offbeat presses, mostly located on the West Coast. Amateurish and rough in production quality, these popular books and magazines blended Eastern mysticism, Freudian psychology, environmental ecology, and romantic American pastoralism as they offered "expert" advice--about how to be more in touch with the natural world, how to release oneself into trusting relationships with others, and how to delve deeper into the body's rhythms and natural sensuality. Binkley examines dozens of these publications, including the Whole Earth Catalog, Rainbook, the Catalog of Sexual Consciousness, Celery Wine, Domebook, and Getting Clear.

Drawing on the thought of Pierre Bourdieu, Zygmunt Bauman, and others, Binkley explains how self-loosening narratives helped the middle class confront the modernity of the 1970s. As rapid social change and political upheaval eroded middle-class cultural authority, the looser life provided opportunities for self-reinvention through everyday lifestyle choice. He traces this ethos of self-realization through the "yuppie" 1980s to the 1990s and today, demonstrating that what originated as an emancipatory call to loosen up soon evolved into a culture of highly commercialized consumption and lifestyle branding. ... Read more

Product Description
First published in 1976, Television: The Critical View set the foundation for the serious study of television, becoming the gold standard of anthologies in the field. With this seventh edition, editor Horace Newcomb has moved the book from one merely intended to legitimize the critical inquiry of television to a text that reflects how complex critical approaches to television have become today. Comprised of virtually all new selections that deal with both classic and contemporary programming, the seventh edition adds new material on television history, the reception context of television, and international programming such as Chinese soap operas and Brazilian telenovelas. Television: The Critical View remains a well established and critically acclaimed text essential for courses in critical studies, communication studies, cultural studies, media history, television criticism, television history, and broadcasting. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Television is NOT mindless entertainment!
I was assigned this book in a college course on television as popular culture. I seriously struggled with the text at first, but luckily I didn't sell it back.After rereading it again, it has completely smashed the myth that nothing on television is culturally viable.Do not fall into the trap of believing there is no culture left in America.This book will teach how to engage your television in a way that is as mentally stimulating as anything I can imagine.Do yourself a favor and get this book!It might take you a couple reads, but it's well worth it.Enjoy. (I took points off for density, but I have the 5th ed.) ... Read more

Product Description
A multi-faceted exploration of audience research, in which Morley draws on a rich body of empirical work to examine the emergence, development and future of audience research. ... Read more

Product Description
ABC, NBC and CBS and the three names most commonly associated with network television in America. The fourth name, Du Mont, is not usually recognizable by those younger than 50 or those who are not communications students. This volume tells the story of the rise, the development, and the failure of this fourth network. Ted Bergmann and Ira Skutch present the Du Mont network's story from its days in the basement of an old pickle factory to its collaborations with the Paramount company. The story of the network's founder, Dr Allen Du Mont, as well as details about management, programmes, new technologies and the network's fall from grace, are included. Bergmann, a former employee of the Du Mont network, provides an insider's view of the Du Mont network's history and its eventual demise. ... Read more

Product Description

We watch TV on computers, phones, and other mobile devices; television is now online as much as it is "on air." Television and New Media introduces readers to the ways that new media technologies have transformed contemporary broadcast television production, scheduling, distribution, and reception practices. Drawing upon recent examples including Lost, 24, and Heroes, this book examines the ways that television programming has changed—transforming nearly every TV series into a franchise, whose on-air, online, and on-mobile elements are created simultaneously and held together through a combination of transmedia marketing and storytelling. Television studios strive to keep their audiences in constant interaction with elements of the show franchise in between airings not only to boost ratings, but also to move viewers through the different divisions of a media conglomerate.

Organized around key industrial terms—platforming, networking, tracking, timeshifting, placeshifting, schedule-shifting, micro-segmenting, and channel branding this book is essential for understanding how creative and industrial forces have worked together to transform the way we watch TV.

Product Description

Conventional wisdom holds that television was a co-conspirator in the repressions of Cold War America, that it was a facilitator to the blacklist and handmaiden to McCarthyism. But Thomas Doherty argues that, through the influence of television, America actually became a more open and tolerant place. Although many books have been written about this period,Cold War, Cool Medium is the only one to examine it through the lens of television programming.

To the unjaded viewership of Cold War America, the television set was not a harbinger of intellectual degradation and moral decay, but a thrilling new household appliance capable of bringing the wonders of the world directly into the home. The "cool medium" permeated the lives of every American, quickly becoming one of the most powerful cultural forces of the twentieth century. While television has frequently been blamed for spurring the rise of Senator Joseph McCarthy, it was also the national stage upon which America witnessed -- and ultimately welcomed -- his downfall. In this provocative and nuanced cultural history, Doherty chronicles some of the most fascinating and ideologically charged episodes in television history: the warm-hearted Jewish sitcomThe Goldbergs; the subversive threat fromI Love Lucy; the sermons of Fulton J. Sheen onLife Is Worth Living; the anticommunist seriesI Led 3 Lives; the legendary jousts between Edward R. Murrow and Joseph McCarthy onSee It Now; and the hypnotic, 188-hour political spectacle that was the Army-McCarthy hearings.

By rerunning the programs, freezing the frames, and reading between the lines,Cold War, Cool Medium paints a picture of Cold War America that belies many black-and-white clichés. Doherty not only details how the blacklist operated within the television industry but also how the shows themselves struggled to defy it, arguing that television was preprogrammed to reinforce the very freedoms that McCarthyism attempted to curtail.

Customer Reviews (4)

Brilliant Analysis of Cold War Culture
In his 2003 book, "Cold War, Cool Medium," author Thomas Doherty brings together all of the most interesting media stories of the early Cold War. From HUAC to The Defenders, it is all here and written in an extremely engaging and frequently amusing style. My favorite stories concern the actor from "The Goldbergs" who became the victim of the Red Channels crowd, the history of "I Led 3 Lives" and the analysis of the movies "The Next Voice You Hear" and "Red Planet Mars." Mr. Doherty does an expert job of explaining these two films that share the gimmick of God communicating through the airwaves. There are a lot of books that deal with Cold War media, but this is one of the best, if not THE best. If you are a student looking for a great resource or someone who simply enjoys reading great writing about this era, I cannot recommend this book more strongly.

THIS BOOK IS NEEDED
I purchased this book as part of my research to a follow-up book, Don't Weep for Me, America: How Democracy in America Became the Prince (While We Slept). I wanted to see if the Cold War was the same big fraud as today's War on Terror. Thanks to author, Thomas Doherty, I learned that not only was McCarthy THE chief propagandist for the "red scare", but that television was almost invented for the purspose of providing its platform. The blacklist that author Doherty details in his excellent chapter, "The Gestalt of the Blacklist" is an incredible story that a reasonable person would have trouble understanding could happen in a true constitutional republic. But it did happen. And today, the level of crime committed by the state, through planned and systematic propaganda has reached its...zenith...

Superior Socio-Cultural History
The author should take a bow. He has written a wonderfully balanced, anecdotal-rich account of the simultaneous evolution of the Cold War, TV and political culture in the Age of McCarthy (which is, in all too many ways, an age we are still in.) That the junior senator from the cheeshead state was a craven opportunist is as well known now as it was even then, but what he exploited via the new electronic medium was the pervasive fear that subversion lurked behind every vacuum tube as well as behind every State Department desk.

Terrific
Cold War, Cool Medium is a terrific and compulsively readable study of McCarthyism in the context of the early history of television.Doherty astutely establishes the way televison worked in its formative days.Then he shows how its weaknesses aided in the rise of McCarthy and how both its strengths and weaknesses aided in his fall.Superb and easiy to read history. ... Read more

Product Description

"This intellectually sexy collection features some of the best and brightest academic media analysts from Britain and the United States." -- Voice Literary Supplement

"The essays in this volume rigorously engage the challenges of postmodern cultural criticism and theory, the central contemporary debate in the humanities." -- Communication Abstracts

"Mellencamp has produced a challenging and an invigorating text.... It should provide much inspiration." -- Journal of Communication

"This is a particularly good collection of thirteen papers with, overall, much more theoretically interesting yet less obscure and more pleasure-giving content than the norm. Give it priority." -- Media Information Australia

These essays, on the cutting edge of theoretical debate in the humanities, rigorously engage the challenges of postmodern cultural critique and theory. They range widely from detailed historical research to broad questions of theory and method.

Contributors are Patricia Mellencamp, Meaghan Morris, John Caughie, Charlotte Brunsdon, Lynn Spigel, William Boddy, Eileen R. Meehan, Andrew Ross, Lynne Joyrich, Jane Gaines, Margaret Morse, Mary Ann Doane, and Stephen Heath.

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

An excellent book if this is what you're looking for.

I've never written a review for Amazon before, but seeing as how I so often depend on them before buying a book I felt it was my duty to give back here.I gave this product a 5-star rating, maybe I would have given it a 4.5-star rating if it was possible.

I myself happen to work in the international television distribution field and so this book helped to illuminate a bit about the ins and outs of that field. A lot of what is written is in reference to what occurs at international markets such as MIPCOM, MIPTV and NATPE.If you've never been to one of these markets before then this book will help you to understand a little bit more about what goes on.However, a book will most certainly always have its limitations in explaining how these festivals and markets work.

The author himself writes the book with somewhat of an academic bent.In fact, the first few chapters seem very academic in the way they are written, citing many references to other papers written about the social, cultural and business interactions that occur within the field of international television acquisitions and distributions.In fact, the first few chapters are dragged down a bit by this overly academic approach, but later on the book eases and gives a more straightforward narrative.However, this shouldn't be looked down upon too much.It just goes to show that the author did his research.You just are not exactly sure whether or not the author has really been involved all that much business-wise in the field or if he has just hung out in the corners observing everything like a anthropologist/television-freak gone wrong.

That being said, the information and observation he makes about the international television marketplace have come from year and years and hours upon hours of interviews the author has done with various TV programming buyers and sellers from all over the world.This includes buyers from channels from Latin America channels, channels in the US and UK, Western European countries and especially in depth observations on emerging markets in Russia and other Eastern European countries who were once part of the Soviet Union / USSR / Soviet Bloc (sorry, trying to be a good internet reviewer and add in pertinent keywords).And while I'm at it, if you're doing any research on telenovelas or spanish-language programming of that sort, then this book will offer you some interesting facts, etc.

Again, if you've come across this book title through Amazon.com or Google or something, then chances are that you already have an interest in this fairly specific field. In which case, I would highly encourage you to buy this book.It's a pretty quick read and will give you a very good overview of the marketplace.

And just to be sure, I also want to say that I am in no way connected with the author or publisher or any interviewees mentioned in the book.I say this because it always pisses me off when I read other Amazon.com reviews and I can see that certain overly positive reviews have clearly been planted.

If there is anything negative I can say, or at least would suggest for complimentary literature, would be a book that specifically broke down the television industries of various countries.This would include chapters on "Television Channels in Africa," or "Television Industries in Africa" or very specific topics like that.If I ever find anything like that out there, then I will try to come here and revise this review to help those looking for those types of topics.

Take care! ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

An eye-opening glimpse into the evolution of TV and American democracy
THE CITIZEN MACHINE: GOVERNING BY TELEVISION IN 1950S AMERICA offers a new history of the ideas that have shaped American television and its viewing, drawing important links between TV media and American citizenship. From the early influence of massive corporations on television content to how modern leaders affect TV sponsorship choices, this comes from a media historian who offers an eye-opening glimpse into the evolution of TV and American democracy.
... Read more

Product Description

In the years immediately following World War II, NBC's legendary David Sarnoff and his cross-town equal, CBS's William S. Paley, decided that American television would be identified with quality live drama surrounded by news, light entertainment (in the form of variety and quiz shows), and family-oriented series generally spun off from radio. That initial vision eroded over the years and decades, but the dramatic part of this equation endured well into the 1960s, when, with NBC's Project 120 (which commissioned movies expressly for television in 120-minute doses), the genres known as Movies Made for Television and the miniseries emerged. Today, as Angels in America, Band of Brothers, Into the West, and Lackawanna Blues continue to draw huge cable audiences, the television movie and anthology drama is now in a unique position to represent, in a simple and direct way, the various states of the television industry itself over the past 60 years. This volume covers all of the important landmarks in the genre, from Kraft Television Theater to Roots to Rome, and provides a parallel history of the relevant events in television and American culture that helped to ensure the popularity and viability of this genre over time.

Until the early 1980s-when Cable began fragmenting the television audience-the three major networks had the airwaves mainly to themselves; but with Cable now on the scene, dramatic productions began falling victim to the bottom line. But just when it seemed that Cable was finally going to succeed in killing off such programming forever, it has itself come to play the savior to the genre; and now pay cable channels like HBO and Showtime (not subject to the same FCC restrictions as the original networks) thrive on such dramas as Angels in America, Band of Brothers, Into the West, and Lackawanna Blues. After making its several transitions across channels and decades and formats, the television movie is now in a unique position to represent, in a simple and direct way, the various states of the television industry itself over the past 60 years.

Product Description
Crime series are prime time viewing. They are significant in understanding the rhetorics of crime and law enforcement in our society. Richard Sparks explores the relations between watching 'cop shows' and the extent and intensity of public fear and alarm about crime. ... Read more

Product Description
A tour de force on why our viewing habits can act as a means for good, this book also comes with a warning that in meeting our voracious appetites for television, we may well be destroying liberty itself. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

disgusting
stop wasting your time and put it to better use. a book written because someone could string words together in a sentence. its incoherent and senseless....there is no central theme and totally scattered even from one sentence to another. i tried 3 times to read it and then switched from my tv class into another, something more useful than reading someone's thoughts about television...yuck....bad bad experience

An intelligent, prescient study of the medium of television
Raymond Williams's TELEVISION: TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURAL FORM is regarded as the first important book written about television.Certainly it is the oldest book that any student of television studies is expected to read.It is not a perfect book, mainly because of technological changes that have rendered many of Williams's points invalid or irrelevant.But what is amazing reading this book in 2008 is how much of television's potential Williams anticipated, as well as some of its weaknesses.

Television as a form of popular art was very slow to mature.Though one can cite a few -- a very, very few -- important television series before 1981, it wasn't until the eighties and nineties that television really grew up and became a fully formed means of artistic expression.Some of the books that many people love to cite as to the awfulness of TV -- such as Jerry Mander's abysmally awful FOUR ARGUMENTS FOR THE ELIMATION OF TELEVISION, which could easily compete for the title of the Worst Book Ever Written award -- depended not on the potential of TV, but on the way it appeared at the time.Williams correctly understood that TV had enormous potential for artistic excellence and was able to identify some of the better shows of his time, which is astonishing given that he wrote the book in 1973, when virtually all TV shows were awful.

Much of the book consists of a very accurate, very concise history of TV as a medium.Williams also sums up the various formats of TV series, even distinguishing between serials and episodic shows.I think he would have been surprised at the degree to which serials have dominated quality TV (indeed, I would argue that virtually all the very good TV series have been serials).He wrote in 1973, while the first non-soap serial in American TV was HILL STREET BLUES, which debuted in 1981.He was also extremely sensitive -- as a good Marxist, albeit a Western one -- of the role that corporate interests played in TV.Had he written the book at a later point, I'm sure he would have made a great deal out of the ludicrous assertion that the media, which is corporate owned and micro-managed, is liberal.(One of the great propaganda successes of the past forty years of the Right has been the creation of the myth of the Liberal Media, doubly ironic because media is so deeply entrenched in right winged interests and control.)It is a tragedy that Williams died at age 67, though he wrote this at age 51.The book is for the most part fundamentally solid, though seriously out of date.

More needs to be said about how the book is out of date.Williams attempted in the book to anticipate the changes that were about to occur in television.He correctly anticipated the role that cable would play, though I suspect he would have been amazed at how the VHS tape would alter things.But even more he would have been astonished at how DVDs would have changed the way we view TV.Indeed, when DVDs were first introduced, even the studios had no conception of how much demand there would be for television series in DVD form.Because of the bulkiness of VHS tapes, TV shows were never very popular in that form.But beginning with BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (which was the first series to price seasons below $50 a season -- shows like THE X-FILES and the various STAR TREK series were priced at twice that cost) the studios were taken aback at just how much demand there was for TV series on DVD.Also, Williams had no way of anticipating just how many channels cable would be able to accommodate or how large TV screens were going to become.While Williams's theory is solid for the most part, the technology grew at a pace he could scarcely anticipate.

The one part of Williams's book that I have serious problems with is the one part of the book that had enormous and widespread influence.By far the most famous part of Williams's book is that part in which he articulates his theory of "flow."He insists -- I believe correctly -- that studio personnel design entire evenings around the goal of causing a flow from one constituent element of the broadcast to another.In other words, a show begins, but cuts to a commercial, which leads to a preview for another show, which leads to another commercial, which takes the viewer back to the show, which eventually give way to another commercial, preview and commercial, all the way through the evening.Williams believes that the evening needs to be viewed as a whole, with each element reinforcing another.

I just think the idea of "flow" is all wrong.I'll grant that the networks plan an evening that is supposed to flow from one element to another, but I insist that it rarely if ever works out that way.At least, my personal experience doesn't bear this out.Williams imagines a viewer sitting entranced, passively viewing one element to the next.But I'm rarely passive.If I am watching, for instance, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, the second the commercial comes on, I'm out of my seat like a lightening bolt.I either hit the restroom, or the fridge, or my computer, where I check my e-mail or go to IMDB.com to check out the name of a guest star on the show or go to the TV board of which I'm a member (and where we all tend to congregate very briefly to record our reactions to a show).In other words, I rarely see the commercials Williams believes is integral to the "flow" of the evening.And when FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS is over, I'm gone.If my memory serves me correctly, the show that comes after FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS is VEGAS.I've never watched the show.I'd say the most I've seen is 3-5 seconds, and only then if I can't find the remote to turn off the TV.I suspect my experience is similar to most people's.The networks may fantasize about people sitting around passively succumbing to the "flow" of an evening, but I suspect we viewers have our own agendas.Myself, all my TV viewing is "by appointment."In never, ever watch TV in the sense of plopping myself down in front of the tube and then passively absorbing whatever is placed before me.I watch an enormous number of TV series, but all by appointment.And I believe that this is true for an enormous number of viewers.There is no way that Williams could have anticipated the kind of control viewers now have over their TV viewing.DVRs, streaming Internet, downloading torrents, DVDS:these completely undercut the idea of "flow."Whether the idea ever had any validity, it certainly does not now.

Nonetheless, this remains an important book, and not merely for the historical reason of its being the first important book on TV.Williams has many superb things to say about TV.His criticisms of McLuhan are as devastating today as they were in 1973.But it is nonetheless dated.Much of it has been rendered untrue by changes in technology.Still, for anyone interested in television studies, it remains on the shortest of short lists of crucial texts on the subject. ... Read more