3 Review(s)

For better or worse, television has been the dominant medium of communication for 50 years. Almost all American households have a television set; many have more than one. Transmitting images and sounds electronically is a relatively recent invention, one that required passionate inventors, determined businessmen, government regulators, and willing consumers. This volume in the Greenwood Technographies series covers the entire history of television from 19the-century European conceptions of transmitting moving images electrically to the death of TV as a discrete system in a digital age. Magoun also discusses the changing face of television in the displays that people watch around the globe. Television: The Life Story of a Technology appeals to students and lay readers alike in highlighting key events and people: the American engineers and entrepreneus such as Vladimir Zworykin and David Sarnoff who ignited the television industry; the bloom of programming choices in tandem with the Baby Boom generation; the development of cable and satellite TV; the Asians who innovated American inventions in videorecording and flat-panel displays; the use of TV in wartime; and the new worlds of digital and high-definition television. Based on the latest research, this crisply written, sometimes provocative survey includes a glossary, timeline, and bibliography for further infomration.