Introduction
This paper discusses the article “Television in the World of Tomorrow”, which describes the debut of television technology at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Through a series of summarizing and evaluating, the article heralds a novel means of human communication in its epoch, rendering television’s early appearance a historical event (Television in the World of Tomorrow 1939). However, it mostly boasts about the technical wonders of television as a brand-new medium while remaining deaf to the critiques or the societal implications.
Summary of Article
The article starts with the information that the UK had been using mechanical transmission to conduct regular television broadcasting since 1929, though the images needed to be of better quality. It says that by 1936, the BBC had applied an electronic 405-line system that enabled HDTV. However, in the United States, television took a somewhat delayed development due to litigation between the inventor, Philo Farnsworth, and the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) over patent rights. The RCA’s victory in this legal dispute was in 1939 when it commenced mass production of consumer TV receivers in earnest. The story tells the dramatic creation of RCA who spearheaded the public viewing of television at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. For example, the speech of President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the Opening day of the Fair was the first televised event. It specifically talks about the different television technology displays and how visitors can watch the programming on RCA’s newest television models. RCA’s attempts to spark engagement, from hosting their pre-Fair launch party to the see-through screen that allowed the inner workings to be seen, were emphasized by the author Television in the World of (Tomorrow 1939). Cooking shows, fashion reviews and other novelties are also listed as keeping people involved with this unique device using sight and sound. Quotes are employed from figures like RCA president David Sarnoff, who ponders the idea of the radio living room of tomorrow’s existence made possible by television, which merges both audio and visual media with one device for the home. In general, the article considers the 1939 TV World’s Fair an inflexion point in home entertainment and communication.
Analysis of Perspective
The article’s author uses an enthusiastically celebratory tone from start to finish as he takes the reader back to the 1939 World’s Fair, where television was first opened to the public. Technological expertise and products introduced by leading manufacturers like RCA are the main themes in it. A description of the latest television receiver models, the camera equipment used during broadcasting, and futuristic home entertainment exhibits are given. Statements from executives such as David Sarnoff were like uncontrolled boosterism of television as the best and the most revolutionary breakthrough, offering us entry to an entirely new media-powered era. The language of the author portrays the unfolding as a grand occurrence, often through nestled words like “amazed” and “novelty” for people’s satisfaction with the shows. Nevertheless, the article needs a more critical approach, which is necessary for evaluating television as more than a means for transmitting pictures and voices. This involves only technical matters without the consideration of television as a communication technology or its impact and implications on such areas as news, education or human behavior.
Such perspective corresponds to what media scholars such as Michael Schudson name as early television coverage that is full of cultural awe with new technologies unlimitedly positive. In the early days of the digital revolution, however, communication was the norm more than the complex breakdown of the new technologies. So, marvels were reported over closer examination. Although necessary, given the unprecedented novelty of television for the average American viewer in 1939, the limited scope of in-depth analysis is disappointing. The article appears rather as a promotional written piece that is mainly focused on the technical facets of television and its rarity as a high-end consumer item.
Connection to Course Concepts
To better contextualize television’s cultural significance when it arrived, we can draw from concepts in academic readings:
Postman’s Critique of Technological Change
The article reveals that Television Fair embodies the type of technological utopian view that Postma argues against. This is rooted in the belief that TV is going to create a beautiful world called “tomorrow without arithmetic”, whether it will also overlook or exaggerate some cultural domains or aspects of the discourse.
McLuhan’s Idea of Medium as a Message
By the view of Marshall McLuhan, the article is concentrated so much on TV as a mediates technology that a good deal is not paid to the restructuring process it may cause in the realms of human experiences and environments. It illustrates this fact of the matter, which is an obsession over the significance of the medium not below the level of deep examination of the society’s impacts and messages.
Meyrowitz on Blurring Social Roles
Meyrowitz’s thoughts on the inevitable displacement of situation-specific behaviours and role separations between private and public spheres due to television should be mentioned in the article. However, the mid-1939 article, which was written as the framing of television as a home technology, could already foresee this disruption. The very fact that the media outlets drew lenses from course materials hints at the limited portrayal that television initially received. The biased presentation of it demonstrates a general disregard for the intricate factors behind such a revolutionary telecommunication technology that can reshape fundamental human constructs and only focuses on it as a technical marvel on par with space exploration (Nye, 1996).
Conclusion
The article not only supplies first-hand documentation of the pomp and shows how television became a publicly acclaimed overnight sensation, but it does so in a tone of admiration which clearly demonstrates gaps in the way technology was initially framed as merely a prodigy of the engineering equipment rather than a possible social transformation. Appealing to the opinions of Postman, McLuhan or Meyrowitz while analyzing the lack of deeper thought gives our study the one-sided serious analysis of television as a mighty communication device capable of influencing human life and environments.
References
Television in the World of Tomorrow. Television at the 1939 New York World’s Fair – Bairdtelevision.com. (n.d.). https://www.bairdtelevision.com/television-at-the-1939-new-york-worlds-fair.html
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