Thanks to apps such as Netflix viewers can now experience television and movies on the go homes to watch the story unfold At the same time another girl drowned in a fishpond at home Yet few people followed her story It had little effect because it didn’t play out on television Today decades later our understanding of the world is filtered through what plays well on television In the beginning television brought people together through shared entertainment Because people had few choices of what to watch they could expect their neighbors classmates and coworkers had seen the same 10
shows Over the years new systems of distribution developed from cable to satellite to the Internet This allows access to many more stations and a much greater variety of programming This diversity has helped people find small communities of shared interests In response to the changing technology television programming changed both reflecting and influencing culture New methods of watching television also arose with viewers moving away from the traditional television set and watching shows on computers and phones This is changing the very definition of what it means to watch television THE FACE OF TELEVISION TODAY Fifty years ago watching television meant sitting in front of a television set and watching programs provided by the three networks National Broadcasting Company NBC American Broadcasting Company ABC and Columbia Broadcasting System CBS Then cable and later satellite offered more choices from new networks and cable stations Today televisions are also used for watching DVDs and playing video games Streaming on-demand companies such as Netflix and Hulu can be watched on a television set a computer or a phone The history of television has had a wide impact both positive and negative particularly on the United States and US culture throughout the last century 11
Chapter 2 Radio with Pictures Ancient methods of long-distance communication suffered major limitations Smoke signals and drumbeats had a limited range Letters took weeks or months to travel long distances These delays had dramatic effects on people’s lives For example President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation which freed slaves on January 1 1863 The news did not reach the state of Texas until June 19 1865 a full two and a half years later During that time slaves in Texas continued to live in slavery because they did not know they were free Many technologies have bridged the gap between ancient and modern communications 12
Years before television brought news to the corners of the world telegraphs were used to communicate 13
