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Journalist
A journalist is a person who practices journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues and people.
Reporters are one type of journalist. They create reports as a profession for broadcast or publication in mass media such as newspapers, television, radio, magazines, documentary film, and the Internet. Reporters find the sources for their work, their reports can be either spoken or written, and they are generally expected to report in the most objective and unbiased way to serve the public good.
Depending on the context, the term journalist also includes various types of editors and visual journalists, such as photographers, graphic artists, and page designers.
Origin and scope of the term
In the early 19th century, journalist simply meant someone who wrote for journals, such as Charles Dickens in his early career. In the past century it has come to mean a writer for newspapers and magazines as well.
Many people consider journalist interchangeable with reporter, a person who gathers information and creates a written report, or story. However, this overlooks many other types of journalists, including columnists, leader writers, photographers, editorial designers, and sub-editors (British) or copy editors (American). The only major distinction is that designers, writers and art directors who work exclusively on advertising material - that is, material in which the content is shaped by the person buying the ad, rather than the publication - are not considered journalists.
Regardless of medium, the term journalist carries a connotation or expectation of professionalism in reporting, with consideration for truth and ethics although in some areas, such as the downmarket, scandal-led tabloids, the standards are deliberately negated.
18th-century journalists
- Joseph Addison - wrote many of the finest pieces in Steele's publications713-14), The Monitor (1714), The Manufacturer (1719-21), The Commentator (1720) and The Director (1720-1)
- Daniel Defoe - as editor of the Review, he can claim to have invented many of the most popular formats, including the eye-witness report, the travel piece and the strongly opinionated column. Defoe's Review began publication on February 19, 1704, and lasted until June 11, 1713. He was also involved in several other periodicals, including The Master Mercury (1704), Mercator: or, Commerce Retrieved
- Richard Steele - founded and edited London-based periodicals including The Guardian and The Spectator in the early 1700s.
19th-century journalists
- Nellie Bly (1865-1922) - undercover reporter
- William Cowper Brann (1855-1898) - colorful editor of the Iconoclast in Waco, Texas
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge - political essayist, poet, and reporter
- Charles Dickens (1812-1870) - started as a shorthand writer logging debates in the courts and Houses of Parliament before becoming a Parliamentary journalist
- Henry Dunckley (1823- 1896), editor of Manchester Examiner and Times
- Pierce Egan (1772-1849) - early sportswriter and reporter on popular culture
- Rudyard Kipling (1865-1956) - newspaper editor and correspondent in India
- Jacob Riis (1849-1914) - journalist and slum reformer
- [http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0001/royall.html Anne Newport Royall] - crusading reporter, author, newspaper publisher, first journalist to publish an interview with a sitting US President
- George Augustus Henry Sala (1828-1895) - editor and columnist
20th-century print journalists
- Adams (1871-1958) - American investigative journalist
- Jack Anderson - considered one of the fathers of investigative reporting
- Pierre Berton (1920-2004 -- colourful Klondike-born vocal Canadian nationalist figure and longtime journalist, author-historian, and broadcaster
- Herb Caen - a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from the late 1930s until his passing in 1997
- Winston Churchill (1874-1965) war correspondent in the Boer War, captured by the Boers
- Claud Cockburn (1904-1981) radical Irish journalist
- C.P. Connolly (1863-1935) radical American investigative journalist associated for many years with Collier's Weekly.
- Paul Foot (1938-2004)
- Allan Fotheringham - witty and influential Canadian journalist and commentator for the Vancouver Sun, Maclean's Magazine and the Globe and Mail.
- Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998) war correspondent
- Carl Gordon (1931-2002) - West of Scotland based Journalist and columnist for The Glasgow Herald
- Emily Hahn (1905-1997) - wrote extensively on China
- John L. Hess (1917-2005) - journalist, food critic for the New York Times
- Bruce Hutchison (1901-1992) - long-time editor of the Vancouver Sun and writer/reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press and the Victoria Times, and editor of several books; considered the dean of British Columbian journalists
- Pauline Kael (1919-2001) - film critic for The New Yorker
- Andrew Kopkind (1935-1994) - radical American journalist wrote extensively social movements in the 1960s
- Will Lang Jr. (1914-1968) staff reporter and bureau head for Time and Life magazines
- A.J. Liebling (1904-1963) American journalist closely associated with The New Yorker
- Walter Lippmann (1889-1974)
- Jonathan Meades
- H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) - essayist, critic, and editor of The Baltimore Sun
- Margaret Lally "Ma" Murray (1908-1982)- editor and co-publisher of the outspoken and colourful backcountry newspaper, the Bridge River-Lillooet News and, later, the Alaska Highway News
- George Orwell (1903-1950), reported on poverty, misery, and the Spanish Civil War
- Robert Palmer (1945-1997) - first full-time, chief pop music critic for The New York Times, Rolling Stone contributing editor
- Daniel Pearl - acclaimed war correspondent
- William Rees-Mogg - editor of The Times newspaper from 1967 to 1981
- James ("Scotty") Reston (1909-1995), political commentator for the New York Times
- Edward Said (1935-2003) - essayist, Palestinian activist
- Paul Saint Pierre - (1923-present) - reporter, columnist, commentator in the Vancouver Sun and nationally across Canada, also a long-time Member of Parliament
- George Seldes (1890-1995), American journalist, editor and publisher of In Fact
- George Bernard Shaw - better known as a playwright, but influential as a music writer and wrote other forms of journalism
- Randy Shilts - reporter for The Advocate and San Francisco Chronicle
- Edgar Snow, pro-socialist journalist and writer, chronicled the Chinese revolution
- I.F. Stone (1907-1989), investigative journalist, publisher of I.F. Stone's Weekly
- Anna Louise Strong, pro-socialist journalist and writer
- Bob Woodward - Washington Post reporter, helped uncover the Watergate scandal of President Richard Nixon, in a historical journalistic partnership with Carl Bernstein; earned two Pulitzer Prizes
- Jack Wasserman - social/celebrity and politicial columnist for the Vancouver Sun beginning in 1949; Western Canada's equivalent to Walter Winchell
- Gary Webb - best known for his 1996 "Dark Alliance" investigative report series, in which he posited a connection between Nicaraguan Contras, the US military, and crack cocaine distribution in American cities
- Walter Winchell (1897-1972), American political columnist, radio broadcaster
20th-century broadcast journalists
- Lowell Bergman, a television producer for the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes; best known for investigating the tobacco industry
- David Brinkley, television anchor and interview show host on the American networks ABC and NBC
- Tom Brokaw, television journalist and former anchor and managing editor of The NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw
- Vernon Corea, a pioneering radio journalist and announcer with Radio Ceylon/SLBC and the BBC
- Walter Cronkite, former United Press correspondent, TV anchor for CBS News in the 50s, 60s
- Bob Edwards, anchor of Morning Edition on National Public Radio from 1979-2004
- Abraham Gubler, a television producer, magazine editor, journalist and broadcaster; best known for coverage of Iraq War
- Peter Jennings, television anchor for ABC
- Jim Lehrer, anchor of The Newshour with Jim Lehrer
- Dan Rather, succeeded Cronkite as managing editor and primary anchor of the CBS Evening News
- Edward R. Murrow, CBS News radio correspondent in London Blitz, maker of TV documentaries, noted interviewer
- Sorious Samura, CNN TV documentary maker from Sierra Leone
- Fritz Spiegl, popularizer of classical music for the BBC
- Brian Williams, succeeded Brokaw as managing editor and anchor of The NBC Nightly News
Internet-only journalists
In recent years the numbers of journalists publishing only on the Internet, as opposed to print or broadcast journalists whose work also appears online, has grown enormously. Some of the best-known include:
- Ana Marie Cox - works under the name Wonkette, known for humorous coverage of politics and life in Washington, D.C.
- Matt Drudge - The first famous Internet-only journalist for his work around scandals of the Clinton administration, in the United States.
- Richard Menta - Editor at MP3 Newswire and MP3.com
Journalists writing fiction
There are many examples of journalists who made their mark writing fiction or other non-journalism, including:
- Anthony Burgess, who wrote vast quantities of reviews and was famously fired as literary critic of the Yorkshire Post
- Amanda Craig, who writes satirical novels about English society
- Joan Didion
- Frederick Forsyth
- David Gates, who wrote about books and music for Newsweek
- Graham Greene who worked originally as sub-editor on The Times
- Carl Hiaasen, who writes about the corruption and glitter of Miami and Miami Beach, which he also covered as a reporter.
- Arturo Pérez Reverte and Manuel Leguineche were war correspondents before becoming successful Spanish novelists.
- Susan Sontag
- Calvin Trillin, who has written several humorous novels
- Tom Wolfe
Modern journalists
The explosion of modern media, including the creation of Internet-based news sources and the possibility that citizen journalism will greatly expand the field, has made it all but impossible to identify which journalists are notable, in the sense that they could be identified in the past.
See also
- Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
- Copy editor
- Editor
- Foreign correspondent
- International Freedom of Expression Exchange - monitors attacks on journalists
- Inverted pyramid - generally accepted method for composing a news story
- Investigative journalist
- Journalism scandals
- Lists of authors
- Muckraker
- Newsroom
- Objectivity (journalism)
- Reporters sans frontières (Reporters Without Borders)
- Scientific journalist
- Society of Professional Journalists - US professional organization
- Sportswriter
- War correspondent
External links
- [http://www.caj.ca/ Canadian Association of Journalists]
- [http://www.ifj.org/ International Federation of Journalists]
- [http://www.nuj.org.uk/ National Union of Journalists (UK)&(ROI)]
- [http://www.alliance.org.au/ Media, Arts and Entertainment Alliance (Australia)]
- [http://www.cpj.org/ Journalism.org: The Online Home of the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Committee of Concerned Journalists]
- [http://www.ire.org/ Investigative Reporters and Editors]
- [http://www.journalistid.com/ JournalistID International Database]
- [http://www.cpj.org/ Committee to Protect Journalists]
- [http://www.journalismnet.com/ The Investigative Guide to Internet Research]
- [http://www.theage.com.au/news/Opinion/The-write-stuff/2005/03/20/1111253883620.html?oneclick=true "The write stuff"]. The Age. March 21, 2005. Two reasons for being a journalist: curiosity and love of writing.
- [http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/5002/journalist.html What Makes a Journalist?] - March 5, 2005 article in support of blogging as a form of journalism.
-
Category:Media occupations
ja:ジャーナリスト
Journalism
Journalism is a discipline of collecting, verifying, analyzing and presenting information gathered regarding current events, including trends, issues and people. Those who practice journalism are known as journalists.
News-oriented journalism often is described as the "first draft of history." Even though journalists often write news articles to a deadline, news media usually edit and proofread the results prior to publication.
Reporting and editorializing
Journalism has as its main activity the reporting of events — stating who, what, when, where, why and how, and explaining the significance and effect of events or trends. Journalism exists in a number of media: newspapers, television, radio, magazines and, since the end of 20th century, the Internet.
Generally, publishers and consumers of journalism draw a distinction between reporting — "just the facts" — and opinions (such as editorials, the official opinions of the paper, and op-ed columns, "opposite the editorial page" commentary). However, this distinction sometimes can break down. Journalists may unintentionally fall prey to propaganda or disinformation. (See News management.) Journalists may give a biased account of facts by reporting selectively, for instance, focusing on anecdote or giving a partial explanation of actions. Foreign reporting may become more susceptible to bias, because the writers or editors of a newspaper in a given geographical area may find it more difficult to check the facts in reports about distant places. (See Media bias.)
Feature-writing
Newspapers and periodicals often contain features (see under heading feature style at article news style) written by journalists, many of whom specialize in this form of "in-depth" journalism.
Sources
Journalists' interaction with sources sometimes involves confidentiality. Many Western governments guarantee the freedom of the press. By extension, these freedoms sometimes also add legal protection for journalists, allowing them to keep the identity of a source private even when demanded by police or prosecutors.
Blogging
Recently there has been some controversy as to whether blogging constitutes a form of journalism. There have been arguments on both sides of the debate further fueled by a March 2005 court ruling in a case involving Apple Computer and several Apple rumor blogs. In that ruling the judge declared that the blogs were not entitled to journalist protections with regards to preserving the anonymity of sources because they don't qualify as a form of journalism. This set a legal precedent.
See also
- Freedom of the press
- Journalist
- Journalistic standards
- List of journalism books
- List of journalism topics
- McLurg's Law
- Magazine
- Newspaper
- Objectivity (journalism)
- Planted news
- Witness
- Mass media
- Trial by media
- Media circus
- Media hype
Types of journalism
- Advocacy journalism
- Alternative journalism
- Broadcast journalism
- Business journalism
- Chequebook/Checkbook journalism
- Citizen journalism
- Computer-assisted reporting
- Gonzo journalism
- Electronic journalism
- Environmental journalism
- Investigative journalism
- Literary journalism related to creative nonfiction
- Muckraking
- New journalism
- Online journalism
- Photo journalism
- Science journalism
- Sports journalism
- Tabloid journalism
- Trade journalism
- Watchdog journalism
- Yellow journalism
External links
- [http://www.journalism.org Journalism.org] - Homepage for the Project for Excellence in Journalism
- [http://poynter.org/ Poynter Institute]
- [http://www.spj.org Society of Professional Journalists]
- [http://journalism.wikicities.com/wiki/Main_Page Journawiki], a wiki about journalism
- [http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/5002/journalist.html What Makes a Journalist?] - March 5, 2005 article in support of blogging as a form of journalism.
- [http://www.fnpj.org.br National Forum of Journalism Professors]
- [http://www.sbpjor.org.br Brazilian Association of Researchers in Journalism]
Journalism education
- Knight Center for Journalism [http://knightcenter.utexas.edu/index.php]
- Columbia School of Journalism [http://www.jrn.columbia.edu]
Category:Mass media
Category:News media
Category:Applied sciences
ko:언론
ja:報道
fiu-vro:Aokirändüs
Reporter:For the legal term, see Reporter (law)
A reporter is a type of journalist who researches and presents information in certain types of mass media.
Reporting is usually distinguished from similar work, such as writing in general, by news judgment (determining newsworthiness) and journalism values (such as fairness).
Reporters get their information in a variety of ways, including tips, press releases, and witnessing an event. They perform research through interviews, public records and other sources. The information-gathering part of the job is sometimes called "reporting" as distinct from the production part of the job, such as writing articles. They split their time between working in a newsroom and going out to witness events or interview people.
Most reporters are assigned an area to focus on, called a "beat". They are encouraged to "cultivate sources" so they won't miss news.
Reporters usually have a college degree. The degree is often in journalism, but that is not required. When hiring reporters, editors give much weight to the reporter's previous work, (such as newspaper "clips") even when written for a student newspaper or as part of an internship.
One common misconception is that newspaper reporters write the headlines for their articles, but those are written by copy editors.
Although their work can often make them into minor celebrities, most reporters earn low salaries. It is not uncommon for a reporter fresh out of college working at a small newspaper in the US to make $20,000 annually or less. Newspaper reporters generally are paid more than television reporters.
Category:Journalism jobs
Category:Reporting
NewspaperA newspaper is a publication containing news and information and advertising, usually printed on low-cost paper called newsprint. It may be general or special interest, most often published daily or weekly. The first printed newspaper was published in 1605.
The newspaper industry survived competition from 20th-century technologies, especially radio and television, but 21st-century developments on the Internet are posing major threats.
General-interest newspapers are usually journals of current news. Those can include political events, crime, business, sports, and opinions (either editorials, columns, or political cartoons). Many also include weather news and forecasts. Newspapers use photographs to illustrate stories; use editorial cartoonists, usually to illustrate writing that is opinion, rather than news; and also often include comic strips and other entertainment, such as crosswords and horoscopes.
horoscope, South Carolina, United States]]
Overview
A daily newspaper is issued every day, often with the exception of Sundays and some national holidays. Saturday, and where they exist Sunday, editions of daily newspapers tend to be large, include more specialized sections, and cost more.
Weekly newspapers are also common and tend to be smaller and less prestigious than daily papers. However, those Sunday newspapers that do not have weekday editions are not considered to be weekly newspapers, and are generally equivalent in size and prestige to daily newspapers.
Most nations have at least one newspaper that circulates throughout the whole country: a national newspaper, as contrasted with a local newspaper serving a city or region. In the United States and Canada, there are few truly national newspapers, with the notable exceptions of USA Today in the United States and The Globe and Mail and The National Post in Canada. Large metropolitan newspapers with expanded distribution networks such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Toronto Star can fill the role of de facto national newspapers.
The owner of the newspaper, or person in charge, is the publisher. The person responsible for content is the editor, editor in chief, or executive editor.
Newspapers have been developed around very narrow topic areas, such as news for merchants in a specific industry, fans of particular sports, fans of the arts or of specific artists, and participants in the same sorts of activities or lifestyles.
History
According to the World Association of Newspapers:
59 BC: Regular publications have been created and distributed by governments for millennia, including Acta Diurna, a listing of events ordered by Julius Caesar in ancient Rome.
A.D. 713: The first newspaper, Mixed News in Kaiyuan, was published as a hand-written newssheet in Beijing, China. Kaiyuan was the name given to the year in which the paper was published.
1605: Johann Carolus published the first printed newspaper Relation aller fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien (Collection of all distinguished and commemorable news) in Strasbourg, now in France but at the time an independent city within the (mostly) German-speaking Holy Roman Empire. In the same year Abraham Verhoeven of Antwerp (Low Countries/Belgium) publishes Nieuwe Tydingen (source : Encyclopaedia Britannica).The continuous publication of the Nieuwe Tijdingen indicates that the demand for newspapers soon became well-established.
1621: The first English-language private newspaper, The Corante, was first published, in London.
1631: La Gazette, the first French newspaper, was founded.
1632: Courante uyt Italien ende Duytschlandt, the first Dutch newspaper, was founded.
1645: the oldest newspaper still in circulation, Post-och Inrikes Tidningar of Sweden, began publishing.
1650: The world's first daily printed newspaper, Einkommende Zeitungen (Incoming news) founded in Leipzig, Germany.
1665: The oldest surviving English newspaper, The London Gazette begins publication.
1666: The first Danish newspaper, Den Danske Mercurius is published in Ribe by Anders Bording.
1690: Worcester Post-Man founded, which became Berrow's Worcester Journal in 1753, The Worcester Post-Man/Berrow's Worcester Journal is the world's oldest surviving unofficial newspaper. Also, Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick in Boston became the first newspaper published in British North America. It was suppressed after one issue.
1701: (September 6) Estimated first issue of the Norwich Post in England, which was probably the first provincial newspaper.
1702: The first English daily newspaper, the Daily Courant, was founded by Samuel Buckley on 11 March. (Publication ceased in 1735).
1728: St. Petersburg Vedomosti, the oldest Russian newspaper still in circulation, is founded in Saint Petersburg.
1749: Berlingske Tidende, the first surviving Danish newspaper, is founded by E.H Berling.
1763: Norske Intelligenz-Sedler, Norway's first newspaper, was published.
1780: The Bengal Gazette, India's first newspaper, was founded.
1785: The Daily Universal Register was founded by John Walters. It became The Times on January 1, 1788.
1803: Just 15 years after the first British penal colony was established, Australia's military government published the Sydney Gazette and the New South Wales Advertiser, Australia's first newspapers.
1821: The Guardian was founded.
1827: El Mercurio, the oldest continually-published Spanish language newspaper, was founded in the port city of Valparaíso, Chile.
1833: (September 3) The New York Sun, the first truly successful penny press in the United States, was first published by Benjamin H. Day. By 1936, the paper was the largest seller in the country, with a circulation of over 30,000 copies.
1851 The New York Times was first published.
1871: Yokohama Mainichi Shimbun (Yokohama Daily News) is launched as the first daily newspaper in Japan. Today, on a per-capita basis, Japan ranks first in the world in circulation of newspapers.
1884: Otto Merganthaler invented the Linotype machine, which casts type in full lines using hot lead, a quantum leap in newspaper publishing, and ushering in the era of "hot lead." The systems remained in general production in the industry well into the 1980s, when computerized pagination became prominent.
1962: The Los Angeles Times drives Linotype hot metal typesetters with perforated tape created from RCA computers speeding up the typesetting. The key was development of a dictionary and method to automate the hyphenation and justification of text in columns (tasks that had taken 40 percent of a manual operator's time).
1973: Harris introduced editing terminals, which were quickly followed by terminals from Raytheon, Atex, Digital Equipment Corporation and others. The output was strips of type on film from phototypesetters ("cold type" replacing the "hot type" of Linotype machines)). Atex worked with the Minneapolis Star to develop the first pagination system that allowed the creation and output of full editorial pages, eliminating the need for manual paste-up of strips of film. The Atex system featured "Atex Messaging" which is widely believed to be the forerunner of both e-mail and instant messenger applications.
Format
Most modern newspapers are in one of three sizes:
- Broadsheets: 600mm by 380mm (23½ by 15 inches), generally associated with more intellectual newspapers, although a trend towards 'compact' newspapers is changing this.
- Tabloids: half the size of broadsheets at 380mm by 300mm (15 by 11¾ inches), and often perceived as sensationalist in contrast to broadsheets.
- Berliner or Midi: 470mm by 315mm (18½ by 12¼ inches) used by European papers such as Le Monde in France, La Stampa in Italy or, from 12 September 2005, The Guardian in the United Kingdom.
Newspapers are usually printed on inexpensive, off-white paper known as newsprint. Since the 1980s, the newspaper industry has largely moved away from lower-quality letterpress printing to higher-quality, four-color process, offset printing. In addition, desktop computers, word processing software, graphics software, digital cameras and digital prepress and typesetting technologies have revolutionized the newspaper production process. These technologies have enabled newspaper to make publish color photographs and graphics, as well as innovative layouts and better design.
To help their titles stand out on newsstands, some newspapers are printed on coloured newsprint. For example, the Financial Times is printed on a distinctive salmon pink paper, the Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport is printed on pink paper, while L'Équipe (formerly L'Auto) is printed on yellow paper. Both the latter promoted major cycling races and their newsprint colours were reflected in the colours of the jerseys used to denote the race leader; thus, the leader in the Giro d'Italia wears a pink jersey, while the Tour de France leader wears a yellow jersey, or maillot jaune.
Circulation and readership
The number of copies distributed on an average day is called the newspaper's circulation, and is one of the principal factors used to set advertising rates. Circulation is not the same as copies sold since some newspapers are distributed without cost. Readership figures are usually higher than circulation figures because of the common assumption that a typical copy of the newspaper is read by more than one person.
maillot jaune, February 2005]]
According to United Nations data from 1995 Japan has three daily papers - the Asahi Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun and Yomiuri Shimbun - with circulations well above 4 million. Germany's Bild, with a circulation of 4.5 million, was the only other paper in that category.
In the United Kingdom The Sun is the top seller, with around 3.2 million copies distributed daily (late-2004).
In India, The Times of India is the largest English newspaper with 2.14 million copies daily.
In the United States and the United Kingdom at least, overall newspaper circulation has been declining for many years, although some individual titles have thrived.
USA Today has a daily circulation of approximately 2 million, making it the most widely distributed paper in the country. However, the validity of USA Todays circulation figures are disputed by some in the newspaper community. This is because of the newspaper's contracts with hotels; many of its papers are delivered to hotel guests who do not realise they are being charged for it. (However, this technique of increasing circulation, sometimes known as bulk sales, is not unique to USA Today.)
In 2004, several large U.S. newspapers were found to have overstated their circulation.
Advertising
Most newspapers make nearly all their money from advertising. The income from the customer's payment at the news-stand is small in comparison. For that reason newspapers are not expensive to buy, and some (such as AM New York) are free. The portion of the newspaper that is not advertising is called editorial content, editorial matter, or simply editorial, although the last term is also used to refer specifically to those articles in which the newspaper expresses its opinions.
Publishers of commercial newspapers strive for higher circulation so that advertising in their newspaper becomes more effective, allowing the newspaper to attract more advertisers and charge more for the service. But some advertising sales also market demographics: some newspapers might sacrifice higher circulation numbers in favor of an audience with a higher income.
Many paid-for newspapers offer a variety of subscription plans. For example, someone might only want a Sunday paper, or perhaps only Sunday and Saturday, or maybe only a workweek subscription, or perhaps a daily subscription.
Some newspapers provide some or all of their content on the Internet, either at no cost or for a fee. In some cases free access is only available for a matter of days or weeks, after which readers must register and provide personal data. In other cases, free archives are provided.
Newspaper journalism
Since newspapers began as a journal (record of current events), the profession involved in the making of newspapers began to be called journalism. Much emphasis has been placed upon the accuracy and fairness of the journalist - see Ethics.
In the yellow journalism era of the 19th century, many newspapers in the United States relied on sensational stories that were meant to anger or excite the public, rather than to inform. The more restrained style of reporting that relies on fact checking and accuracy regained popularity around World War II.
Criticism of journalism is varied and sometimes vehement. Credibility is questioned because of anonymous sources; errors in facts, spelling, and grammar; real or perceived bias; and scandals involving plagiarism and fabrication.
In the past newspapers have often been owned by so-called press barons, and were used either as a rich man's toy, or a political tool. More recently in the United States, a greater number of newspapers (and all of the largest ones) are being run by large media corporations such as Gannett (the largest in the United States), Cox, The Tribune Company, etc. Many industry watchers have concerns that the growing need for profit growth natural to corporations will have a negative impact on the overall quality of journalism.
Even though the opinions of the owners are often relegated to the editorial section, and the opinions of the readers are in the op-ed ("opposite the editorial page") and letters to the editors sections of the paper, newspapers have been used for political purposes by insinuating some kind of bias outside of the editorial section and into straight news. For example, The New York Times is often criticised for a leftist slant to its stories, or, by others, for supporting the American political establishment in nearly all cases, whereas The Wall Street Journal has a history of emphasising the position of the right.
Some ways newspapers have tried to improve their credibility are: appointing ombudsmen, developing ethics policies and training, using more stringent corrections policies, communicating their processes and rationale with readers, and asking sources to review articles after publication. Many larger newspapers are now using more aggressive random fact-checking to further improve the chances that false information will be found before it is printed.
The future of newspapers
The future of newspapers is cloudy, with overall readership slowly declining in most developed countries due to increasing competition from television and the Internet. The 57th annual World Newspaper Congress, held in Istanbul in June 2004, reported circulation increases in only 35 of 208 countries studied. Most of the increase came in developing countries, notably China.
A report at the gathering indicated that China tops total newspaper circulation, with more than 85 million copies of papers sold every day, followed by India with 72 million—China and India are the two most populous countries in the world—followed by Japan with 70 million and the United States with 55 million. The report said circulation declined by an average of 2.2 percent across 13 of the 15 countries that made up the European Union before May 1. The biggest declines were in Ireland, down 7.8 percent; Britain, down 4.7 percent; and Portugal, where numbers fell by 4.0 percent. One growth area is the distribution of free newspapers, which are not reflected in the above circulation data. Led by the [http://www.metro.lu Metro] chain of newspapers, they grew 16 percent in 2003.
Another growth area is high-quality tabloids, particularly in the UK, where several of the major broadsheets are experimenting with the format (see Broadsheet#Switch to smaller sizes). Smaller and easier to hold than broadsheets, but presenting serious journalism rather than traditional tabloid fodder, they appear to have drawn some younger readers who are otherwise abandoning newspapers.
Newspapers also face increased competition from the Internet for classified ads, especially for jobs, real estate, and cars, which have long been a key source of revenue.
Newspapers in different countries
:Main article: List of newspapers
Afghanistan
Printed in Afghanistan and other countries by Afghan nationals.
List of newspapers in and out of print:
Argentina
In Argentina, the broadsheet format is almost non-existent. The only remaining national newspaper published in that format is La Nación.
Belgium
:Main article: List of newspapers in Belgium
Belgium's quality newspapers:
- De Standaard [http://www.standaard.be] (christian, patriotically Flemish - 80,000 copies per day)
- De Morgen (left - 40,000 copies per day)
- Le Soir (French-language, centre - 100,000 copies per day)
Popular newspapers:
- Het Laatste Nieuws (right, a lot of sports news - 291,000 copies per day)
- Het Nieuwsblad (christian, a lot of sports news - 200,000 copies per day)
- Vers l'avenir (French-language, catholic roots - 99,000 copies per day)
- Het Volk (left, christian - 92,000 copies per day)
Source: [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3737311.stm BBC: The press in Belgium]
Brazil
Most important newspapers of Brazil are:
- Folha de São Paulo
- O Estado de São Paulo (also known as Estadão)
- O Globo
- Jornal do Brasil
- Correio Braziliense
- Zero Hora
Chile
- El Mercurio
- La Tercera
- Las Últimas Noticias
- La Cuarta
- La Nación
Europe
There are several newspapers that target Europe, or the European Union, as a whole. Many are published in English, being owned both by USA-based or European-based companies.
- European Voice: Owned by the British (European Union) The Economist Group
- The Wall Street Journal Europe: Owned by the USA-based Wall Street Journal
- International Herald Tribune: Owned by USA-based The New York Times Company
- New Europe: Owned by USA-based News Corporation
- EU Reporter: (ownership unchecked), distributed without charge
Germany
:Main article: List of German newspapers
Important national newspapers are the daily Die Welt and the weekly Die Zeit as well as the daily tabloid Bild, but local ones draw a much wider readership. Some local or regional newspapers assume the role of national papers, such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine of Frankfurt and the Süddeutsche Zeitung of Munich. The taz (long form: Die Tageszeitung) was founded 1978, partly in reaction to the terrorist events of the German Autumn, and considers itself as an alternative to the (in 1978) mostly conservative newspaper market. The now independent Neues Deutschland was the newspaper of the Socialist_Unity_Party_of_Germany, which ruled the communist East Germany until 1989.
The largest publishing companies are located in Hamburg, notably the Axel Springer Verlag and Gruner und Jahr. About one half of Germany's nation-wide newspapers and magazines are produced in Hamburg. The Axel Springer Verlag dominates the newspaper market with its tabloid Bild and a large number of local papers.
France
Daily:
Le Figaro
Libération
Le Monde
Weekly:
Les Échos
Le Canard Enchâiné
Hong Kong
:Main article: Newspapers in Hong Kong
Hong Kong has a vibrant newspaper publishing industry. Most papers use the broadsheet size. Almost all newspapers focus on the local Hong Kong market, but some may also target at the markets in Macau and Pearl River Delta. Although they are broadsheets, the three papers with the largest circulation are all considered tabloid-style, with large and colourful photos and sensational coverage to attract readers. Most papers adopt a daily magazine approach, with coverage ranging from local and international news, entertainment, culture, lifestyle, economic and finance, sport and horseracing. Hong Kong Economic Journal, Hong Kong Economic Times and South China Morning Post have are stronger focus on economics and finance. Ta Kung Pao, Wen Wei Po, Singtao Daily and Oriental Daily are the mouthpieces of the communist government in Beijing (Peking). There are also papers specifically published for horse racing tips.
India
Compared with many other developing countries, the Indian press has flourished since independence and exercises a large degree of independence. In 2001, India had 45,974 newspapers, including 5364 daily newspapers published in over 100 languages. The largest number of newspapers were published in Hindi (20,589), followed by English (7,596), Marathi (2,943), Urdu (2,906), Bengali (2,741), Gujarati (2,215), Tamil (2,119), Kannada (1,816), Malayalam(1,505) and Telugu (1,289). The Hindi daily press has a circulation of over 23 million copies, followed by English with over 8 million copies.
There are several major publishing groups in India, the most prominent among them being the Times of India Group, the Indian Express Group, the Hindustan Times Group, The Hindu group, the Anandabazar Patrika Group, the Malayala Manorama Group, the Sahara group, the Bhaskar group, and the Jagran group.
India has more than forty domestic news agencies. The Express News Service, the Press Trust of India, and the United News of India are among the major news agencies.
See Also: Mass media in India
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man publishes three weekly newspapers; Isle of Man Courier, Manx Independent and Isle of Man Examiner. All three newspapers are printed by Isle of Man Newspapers who have their publishing house in Douglas, the capital. The Courier is free and is distributed to all households on the Island every Thursday. They have no official political affiliations. The Courier is distributed to approximately 30,000 households weekly.
Mexico
In Mexico there is no publication that can be considered a national newspaper. The most important ones, such as El Universal, La Jornada and Reforma are in Mexico City, and because of a heavy national centralisation, a lot of redistribution happens (newspapers from Mexico City are sold in almost every city in the country, some with a day or two lag).
The only attempts to create a national newspaper originate in Monterrey. One of them is Milenio, a midi format newspaper, which is distributed in Mexico City; Monterrey, Nuevo León; Veracruz, Veracruz; Guadalajara, Jalisco; Tampico, Tamaulipas; and the state of Tabasco.
The other attempt to make a national newspaper is from the Reforma News Group, which also originated and is run in Monterrey but that has big coverage from Mexico City. Reforma publishes different newspapers with the same main content, but with specific local content in the major cities of the country: El Norte in Monterrey, Reforma in Mexico City, Mural in Guadalajara and Palabra in Saltillo. All of the newspapers by Reforma are published in the broadsheet format.
Reforma is one of the most prestigious, and often considered among the most reliable news sources in Mexico, in spite of its youth (it appeared in Mexico City in 1993). It has gained its prestige with its attractive editorial design, wide-spectrum editorialists and denouncements of government corruption.
Until very recently, newsprint in Mexico was a product made only by the government-owned monopoly. Importing the product from other countries was illegal. This allowed the Mexican government, for many years, to put out of circulation any dissident newspaper. Reforma survived the boycott and fought heavily until the government allowed for importing the product in the 1990s.
Since then, the Mexican press has been undergoing a process towards more freedom of speech, especially after the election of President Vicente Fox in the year 2000.
Netherlands
The biggest left winged quality paper in the Netherlands is the "de Volkskrant" [http://www.volkskrant.nl De Volkskrant].
Its opposite is the right winged "NRC Handelsblad", which stands for "Nieuwe Roterdamse Courant"[http://www.nrc.nl NRC].
A right winged paper of inferior quality is "de Telegraaf". [http://www.telegraaf.nl de Telegraaf]
Further there is "Trouw", a conservative and good paper. It is founded in the second World War by the Dutch resist. [http://www.trouw.nl Trouw]
Norway
- Verdens Gang (VG) (tabloid)
- Aftenposten
- Dagbladet (tabloid)
- Morgenbladet
- Stavanger Aftenblad
- Rogalands Avis (tabloid)
Philippines
The Philippine press has been flourishing, with a large number of newspapers and tabloids. A partial list is provided below:
- Philippine Daily Inquirer
- The Philippine Star
- Manila Bulletin
- Malaya
- The Manila Times
- Manila Standard Today
- BusinessWorld
- Business Mirror
- The Daily Tribune
- Abante (tabloid)
- Balita (tabloid; owned by the Manila Bulletin)
- Bulgar (tabloid)
- Pilipino Star Ngayon (tabloid; owned by the Philippine Star)
- Tonite (tabloid)
- Tiktik (tabloid)
Poland
:Main article: List of Polish newspapers
List of Polish newspapers (the most popular ones)
United Kingdom
:Main article: List of newspapers in the United Kingdom
:See also: History of British newspapers
In the United Kingdom, newspapers can be classified by distribution as local or national, and by page size as tabloids and broadsheets. The principal newspapers of England are all nationals edited in London. Wales and Northern Ireland are also dominated by the London-based press; in Scotland, although the London-based press is widely available and widely read, two Scottish newspapers can claim quasi-national status: The Scotsman (based in Edinburgh) and the Glasgow Herald.
There is often an implication that tabloids cater for more vulgar tastes than broadsheet. Within the tabloid category the most down market titles are classed as red-tops because of the design of their front pages. This term is often used deprecatingly by newspapers that consider themselves more serious. There are also "middle-market" tabloids such as The Daily Mail and The Daily Express.
This distinction began to be blurred in October 2003 as two broadsheet newspapers, The Independent and The Times, began tabloid editions in some parts of the U.K. The Independent switched entirely to producing what it prefers to call a "compact" edition from May 2004, and The Times changed to this format at the beginning of November 2004, despite initial opposition from its more traditional and conservative readership. The Guardian changed to a Berliner format (larger than a tabloid, more compact than a broadsheet) in September 2005. This leaves The Daily Telegraph and The Financial Times as the UK's only daily national broadsheets.
Aside from The Guardian, The Independent and the Daily Mirror (combined circulation of approximately 2,500,000), all of the other daily national newspapers (combined circulation of approximately 9,500,000) are known for holding conservative or right-wing political views. Due to this, many people (especially those on the political left) argue that there is a conservative bias amongst British newspapers. The fact that many of these (e.g. The Times, The Sun, the News of the World) are owned by Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch strengthens these claims.
There are daily paid papers in most of the larger cities, and weekly paid papers in some other areas. These focus on local news and generally do not attempt to be a direct substitute for the London-based national newspapers, although some such as The Western Mail (based in Cardiff), Eastern Daily Press in Norwich and Yorkshire Post in Leeds offer competition to the London newspapers within their limited home territories. Most areas also typically have one or more free local papers, with extensive classified advertising. Many towns with professional football teams also have a weekly paper dedicated to that sport, usually published on Saturdays.
Free morning newspapers for commuters have been launched in major metropolitan areas, offering a concise summary of the news designed to be read on public transport. In London, Glasgow and a number of other urban centres this is the Metro.
There are also a wide variety of English language national newspapers catering for ethnic minority readers including The Voice, Eastern Eye and Desi Xpress.
External link
- [http://www.abc.org.uk The Audit Bureau of Circulation] provides circulation figures for British newspapers. Their research is also reproduced in digested form at [http://media.guardian.co.uk/circulationfigures/ this Media Guardian index] along with commentary.
United States
:Main article: List of newspapers in the United States
List of newspapers in the United States, November 11, 1918.]]
The majority of American newspapers are printed as broadsheets. A small number of daily papers are printed in the tabloid format.
U.S. dailies commonly separate the physical newspaper into sections on particular topics. Most major American cities' papers will have sections covering at least a few of the following topics:
- National and international news, usually the first section. In the most prestigious newspapers like the New York Times, the majority of articles in this section are dispatched by the paper's own journalists from bureaux around the world. Smaller papers usually fill almost all of this section with stories taken from newswires like the Associated Press or Reuters.
- Local and regional news, usually the second section. This is often called the metro (from metropolitan) section. Many large newspapers use "zoning," with different zones, receiving somewhat different articles, or the same articles arranged differently. Zoning is most predominant in the local section, but also plays a role in the front page.
- Sports
- Business
- Classified ads
- Features: This may include Arts, Home furnishing, Fashion, Style, or some combination. This section usually also includes general advice columns and amusements, such as comic strips, horoscopes and puzzles.
- A weekly general-interest magazine-type feature, usually appearing on Sunday, such as Parade, USA Weekend, or their own magazine (for larger papers) such as The New York Times Magazine or the Washington Post Magazine.
- Weekend or Entertainment. This section includes advertisements for entertainment events; this section usually appears on a Friday, or the last newspaper printed before the weekend.
- Comics. Typically only a separate section on Sundays; daily papers will include a page or more of comics in another section. Although colour printing technology has seen the use of colour in comics (and other editorial content) to daily editions, for many years the expense of colour printing meant that only the Sunday editions of many newspapers carried most comics in full colour.
- Opinion or Editorial. Includes both editorials by the newspaper's editorial staff and letters to the editor from readers. Typically only a separate section on Sundays; daily papers will include these materials in the back of the national, regional, metro, or local news sections. Sometimes may include commentaries or "op-ed pieces" from nationally renowned writers.
See also
- Alternative weekly
- Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
- Freedom of the press
- Graphic design
- Gazette
- History of British newspapers
- International Freedom of Expression Exchange
- Journalism
- List of newspapers (by country)
- List of common newspaper names
- Magazine
- Mass media
- Muckraker
- News design
- Newspaper circulation
- Newspaper archives online
- Newspapers on demand
- Photojournalism
- Printing
- Propaganda model
- School newspaper
- Trade newspaper
- Underground press
- Weekly newspaper
External links
- [http://www.allyoucanread.com/ AllYouCanRead.com - 23,000 Newspapers and Magazines from 200 Countries]
- [http://www.newspaperindex.com/ Worldwide Newspaper Directory by country]
- [http://rni.nic.in/ Registrar of Newspapers for India]
- [http://www.hotbulletin.com Read hundreds of newspapers online]
- [http://library.prakashan.org/newspapers-worldwide-directory/ Newspapers List Worldwide]
- [http://www.wan-press.org/ World Association of Newspapers]
- [http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/ Daily showcase of newspaper front pages from around the world]
- [http://www.gazetelerin.com/ Turkish Newspapers]
- [http://www.gutenberg-museum.de/index.php?id=32&language=e Exhibition on the Occasion of the 400th Anniversary of the Newspaper in the Gutenberg-Museum Mainz (Germany)]
Category:Newspapering
Category:Ephemera
Category:Serials, periodicals and journals
ja:新聞
ms:Akhbar
simple:Newspaper
th:หนังสือพิมพ์
zh-cn:报纸
zh-tw:報紙
Television:
Television is a telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound over a distance. The term has come to refer to all the aspects of television programming and transmission as well.
programming ]]
History
The development of television technology can be partitioned along two lines: those developments that depended upon both mechanical and electronic principles, and those which are purely electronic. From the latter descended all modern televisions, but these would not have been possible without discoveries and insights from the mechanical systems.
The word television is a hybrid word, created from both Greek and Latin. Tele- is Greek for "far", while -vision is from the Latin visio, meaning "vision" or "sight". It is often abbreviated as TV or the telly.
Electromechanical television
The German student Paul Gottlieb Nipkow proposed and patented the first electromechanical television system in 1885. Nipkow's spinning disk design is credited with being the first television image rasterizer. However, it wasn't until 1907 that developments in amplification tube technology made the design practical. Meanwhile, Constantin Perskyi had coined the word television in a paper read to the International Electricity Congress at the International World Fair in Paris on August 25, 1900. Perskeyi's paper reviewed the existing electromechanical technologies, mentioning the work of Nipkow and others.
1900
In 1911, Boris Rosing and his student Vladimir Kosma Zworykin achieved a television system that used a mechanical mirror-drum scanner to transmit, in Zworykin's words, "very crude images" over wires to the electronic Braun tube (cathode ray tube) in the receiver. Moving images were not possible because, in the scanner, "the sensitivity was not enough and the selenium cell was very laggy." Zworykin later went to work for RCA to build a purely electronic television, the design of which was eventually found to violate patents by Philo Taylor Farnsworth.
On March 25, 1925, Scottish inventor John Logie Baird gave a demonstration of televised silhouette images at Selfridge's Department Store in London. But if television is defined as the transmission of live, moving, half-tone (grayscale) images, and not silhouette or still images, Baird achieved this privately on October 2, 1925, and gave the world's first public demonstration of a working television system to members of the Royal Institution and a newspaper reporter on January 26, 1926 at his laboratory in London. Unlike later electronic systems with several hundred lines of resolution, Baird's vertically scanned image, using a scanning disc embedded with a double spiral of lenses, had only 30 lines, just enough to reproduce a recognizable human face.
In 1928 Baird's company (Baird Television Development Company / Cinema Television) broadcast the first transatlantic television signal, between London and New York, and the first shore to ship transmission. He also demonstrated an electromechanical colour, infrared (dubbed "Noctovision"), and stereoscopic television, using additional lenses, disks and filters. In parallel he developed a video disk recording system dubbed "Phonovision"; a number of the Phonovision[http://www.tvdawn.com/tvimage.htm] recordings, dating back to 1927, still exist. In 1929 he became involved in the first experimental electromechanical television service in Germany. In 1931 he made the first live transmission, of the Epsom Derby. In 1932 he demonstrated ultra-short wave television. Baird's electromechanical system reached a peak of 240 lines of resolution on BBC television broadcasts in 1936, before being discontinued in favor of a 405 line all-electronic system.
In the U.S., Charles Francis Jenkins was able to demonstrate on June 13, 1925, the transmission of the silhouette image of a toy windmill in motion from a naval radio station to his laboratory in Washington, using a lensed disc scanner with 48 lines per picture, 16 pictures per second. AT&T's Bell Telephone Laboratories transmitted half-tone images of transparencies in May 1925. But Bell Labs gave the most dramatic demonstration of television yet on April 7, 1927, when it field tested reflected-light television systems using small-scale (2 by 2.5 inches) and large-scale (24 by 30 inches) viewing screens over a wire link from Washington to New York City, and over-the-air broadcast from Whippany, New Jersey. The subjects, which included Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, were illuminated by a flying spot beam and scanned by a 50-aperture disc at 16 pictures per second.
Electronic television
Herbert Hoover
Although the discoveries of Nipkow, Rosing, Baird and others were extraordinary, little of their technology is used in modern television. By 1934, all electromechanical television systems were outmoded, although electromechanical broadcasts continued on some stations until 1939.
A.A. Campbell-Swinton wrote a letter to Nature on the 18 June 1908 describing his concept of electronic television using the cathode ray tube, which had been invented in 1897 by the German physicist and Nobel prize winner Karl Ferdinand Braun. He proposed using an electron beam in both the camera and the receiver, which could be steered electronically to produce moving pictures. He lectured on the subject in 1911 and displayed circuit diagrams, but no one, including Swinton, knew how to realize the design. Although his system was never built, the cathode ray tube did come to be used to display images in almost all television sets and computer monitors until the invention of the LCD panel.
A fully electronic system was first achieved by Philo Taylor Farnsworth on September 7, 1927, although the low-resolution, light-insensitive camera tube limited the image to a plate of glass painted black, with a straight line etched across it, rotated in front of a bright carbon arc lamp. Seven years later, on August 25, 1934, at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Farnsworth gave the world's first public demonstration of a working, all-electronic television system, with 220 lines per picture, 30 pictures per second. Over a three week period, vaudeville acts, athletic and sports demonstrations, politicians, and hundreds of ordinary citizens were captured on Farnsworth's cameras in the open air and simultaneously shown on his receiving sets.
Farnsworth, a Mormon farm boy from Rigby, Idaho, first envisioned his system at age 14. He discussed the idea with his high school chemistry teacher, who could think of no reason why it would not work (Farnsworth would later credit this teacher, Justin Tolman, as providing key insights into his invention). He continued to pursue the idea at Brigham Young Academy (now Brigham Young University). At age 21, he demonstrated a working system at his own laboratory in San Francisco. His breakthrough freed television from reliance on spinning discs and other mechanical parts. All modern picture tube televisions descend directly from his design.
Vladimir Kosma Zworykin is also sometimes cited as the father of electronic television because of his invention of the iconoscope in 1923 and his invention of the kinescope in 1929. His design was one of the first to demonstrate a television system with all the features of modern picture tubes. His previous work with Rosing on electromechanical television gave him key insights into how to produce such a system, but his (and RCA's) claim to being its original inventor was largely invalidated by three facts: a) Zworykin's 1923 patent presented an incomplete design, incapable of working in its given form (it was not until 1933 that Zworykin achieved a working implementation), b) the 1923 patent application was not granted until 1938, and not until it had been seriously revised, and c) courts eventually found that RCA was in violation of the television design patented by Philo Taylor Farnsworth, whose lab Zworykin had visited while working on his designs for RCA.
The controversy over whether it was first Farnsworth or Zworykin who invented modern television is still hotly debated today. Some of this debate stems from the fact that while Farnsworth appears to have gotten there first as an inventor, RCA brought television sets to market before Farnsworth, and it was RCA employees who first wrote the history of television. Even though Farnsworth eventually won the legal battle over this issue, he was never able to fully capitalize financially on his invention.
Color television
Most television researchers appreciated the value of color image transmission, with an early patent application in Russia in 1889 for a mechanically-scanned color system showing how early the importance of color was realized. John Logie Baird demonstrated the world's first color transmission on July 3, 1928, using scanning discs at the transmitting and receiving ends with three spirals of apertures, each spiral with filters of a different primary color; and three light sources at the receiving end, with a commutator to alternate their illumination.
Color television in the United States had a protracted history due to conflicting technical systems vying for approval by the Federal Communications Commission for commercial use. Mechanically scanned color television was demonstrated by Bell Laboratories in June 1929 using three complete systems of photoelectric cells, amplifiers, glow-tubes, and color filters, with a series of mirrors to superimpose the red, green, and blue images into one full color image.
In the electronically scanned era, the first color television demonstration was on February 5, 1940, when RCA privately showed to members of the FCC at the RCA plant in Camden, New Jersey, a television receiver producing images in color by a field sequential color system. CBS began non-broadcast color experiments using film as early as August 28, 1940, and live cameras by November 12. The CBS "field sequential" color system was partly mechanical, with a disc made of red, blue, and green filters spinning inside the television camera at 1,200 rpm, and a similar disc spinning in synchronization in front of the cathode ray tube inside the receiver set. RCA's later "dot sequential" color system had no moving parts, using a series of dichroic mirrors to separate and direct red, green, and blue light from the subject through three separate lenses into three scanning tubes, and electronic switching that allowed the tubes to send their signals in rotation, dot by dot. These signals were sorted by a second switching device in the receiver set and sent to red, green, and blue picture tubes, and combined by a second set of dichroic mirrors into a full color image.
The first field test (i.e., broadcast) of color television was by NBC (owned by RCA) on February 20, 1941. CBS began daily color field tests on June 1, 1941. These color systems were not compatible with existing black and white television sets, and as no color television sets were available to the public at this time, viewership of the color field tests was limited to RCA and CBS engineers and the invited press. The War Production Board halted the manufacture of television and radio equipment for civilian use from April 1, 1942 to October 1, 1945, limiting any opportunity to introduce color television to the general public.
The post-war development of color television was dominated by three systems competing for approval by the FCC as the U.S. color broadcasting standard: CBS's field sequential system, which was incompatible with existing black and white sets without an adaptor; RCA's dot sequential system, which in 1949 became compatible with existing black and white sets; and CTI's system (also incompatible with existing black and white sets), which used three camera lenses, behind which were color filters that produced red, green, and blue images side by side on a single scanning tube, and a receiver set that used lenses in front of the picture tube (which had sectors treated with different phosphorescent compounds to glow in red, green, or blue) to project these three side by side images into one combined picture on the viewing screen.
After a series of hearings beginning in September 1949, the FCC found the RCA and CTI systems fraught with technical problems, inaccurate color reproduction, and expensive equipment, and so formally approved the CBS system as the U.S. color broadcasting standard on October 11 1950. An unsuccessful lawsuit by RCA delayed the world's first network color broadcast until June 25 1951, when a musical variety special titled simply Premiere was shown over a network of five east coast CBS affiliates. Viewership was again extremely limited: the program could not be seen on black and white sets, and Variety estimated that only thirty prototype color receivers were available in the New York area. Regular color broadcasts began that same week with the daytime series The World Is Yours and Modern Homemakers.
While the CBS color broadcasting schedule gradually expanded to twelve hours per week (but never into prime time), and the color network expanded to eleven affiliates as far west as Chicago, its commercial success was doomed by the lack of color receivers necessary to watch the programs, the refusal of television manufacturers to create adaptor mechanisms for their existing black and white sets, and the unwillingness of advertisers to sponsor broadcasts seen by almost no one. In desperation, CBS bought a television manufacturer, and on September 20, 1951, production began on the first and only CBS color television model. But it was too little, too late. Only 200 sets had been shipped, and only 100 sold, when CBS pulled the plug on its color television system on October 20, 1951, and bought back all the CBS color sets it could to prevent law suits by disappointed customers.
Starting before CBS color even got on the air, the U.S. television industry, represented by the National Television System Committee, worked in 1950-1953 to develop a color system that was compatible with existing black and white sets and would pass FCC quality standards, with RCA developing the hardware elements. When CBS testified before Congress in March 1953 that it had no further plans for its own color system, the path was open for the NTSC to submit its petition for FCC approval in July 1953, which was granted in December. The first publicly announced experimental TV broadcast of a program using the NTSC-RCA "compatible color" system was an episode of NBC's Kukla, Fran and Ollie on August 30, 1953.
NBC made the first coast-to-coast color broadcast when it covered the Tournament of Roses Parade on January 1 1954, with public demonstrations given across the United States on prototype color receivers. A few days later Admiral brought out the first commercially made color television set using the RCA standards, followed in March by RCA's own model. Television's first prime time network color series was The Marriage, a situation comedy broadcast live by NBC in the summer of 1954. NBC's anthology series Ford Theatre became the first color filmed series that October.
NBC was naturally at the forefront of color programming because its parent company RCA manufactured the most successful line of color sets in the 1950s. CBS and ABC, which were not affiliated with set manufacturers, and were not eager to promote their competitor's product, dragged their feet into color, with ABC delaying its first color series (The Flintstones and The Jetsons) until 1962. The Du Mont network, although it did have a television-manufacturing parent company, was in financial decline by 1954 and was dissolved two years later. Thus the relatively small amount of network color programming, combined with the high cost of color television sets, meant that as late as 1964 only 3.1 percent of television households in the U.S. had a color set. NBC provided the catalyst for rapid color expansion by announcing that its prime time schedule for fall 1965 would be almost entirely in color (the exception being I Dream of Jeannie). All three broadcast networks were airing full color prime time schedules by the 1966–67 broadcast season. But the number of color television sets sold in the U.S. did not exceed black and white sales until 1972, which was also the first year that more than fifty percent of television households in the U.S. had a color set.
In Mexico, Guillermo González Camarena (1917–1965), invented the early color television transmission system. He received patents for color television systems in 1940 (U.S. Patent 1942 (2296019), 1960 and 1962. The 1942 patent was for a mechanically scanned color filter adapter for an existing monochrome electronic transmission system.
In August 31, 1946 he sent his first color transmission from his lab in the offices of The Mexican League of Radio Experiments in Lucerna St. #1, in Mexico City. The video signal was transmitted at a frequency of 115 MHz. and the audio in the 40 metre band.
European color television was developed somewhat later and was hindered by a continuing division on technical standards. Having decided to adopt a higher-definition 625-line system for monochrome transmissions, with a lower frame rate but with a higher overall bandwidth, Europeans could not directly adopt the U.S. color standard, which was widely perceived as wanting anyway, because of its tint control problems. There was also less urgency, since there were fewer commercial motivations, European television broadcasters being predominantly state-owned at the time.
As a consequence, although work on various color encoding systems started already in the 1950s, with the first SECAM patent being registered in 1956, many years had passed till the first broadcasts actually started in 1967. Unsatisfied with the performance of NTSC and of initial SECAM implementations, the Germans unveiled PAL (phase alternating line) in 1963, staying closer to NTSC but borrowing some ideas from SECAM. The French continued with SECAM, notably involving Russians in the development.
The first regular colour broadcasts in Europe were by BBC2 beginning on July 1, 1967, using PAL. Germans did their first broadcast in September (PAL), while the French in October (SECAM). PAL was eventually adopted by West Germany, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, much of Africa, Asia and South America, and most Western European countries except France.
In addition to France and Luxembourg, SECAM was adopted by Soviet Union, much of Eastern Europe, much of Africa and of the Middle East. Both systems broadcast on UHF frequencies, the VHF being used for legacy black and white, 405 lines in UK or 819 lines in France, till the beginning of the eighties.
It should be noted that some British television programmes, particularly those made by or for ITC Entertainment, were made in colour before the introduction of colour television to the UK, for the purpose of sales to US networks. The first British show to be made in colour was the drama series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956-57), which was initially made in black and white but later shot in colour for sale to the NBC network in the United States.
In Japan, NHK introduced color television in the year 1960.
Broadcast television
NHK
The first regularly scheduled television service in the United States began on July 2, 1928. The Federal Radio Commission authorized C.F. Jenkins to broadcast from experimental station W3XK in a suburb of Washington, D.C. But for at least the first eighteen months, only silhouette images from motion picture film were broadcast due to the narrow 10kHz bandwidth allotted | | |