Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in conference
Description
‘Something In-Between’: Finding a Television Identity
Early conceptions of the new medium of television identified it as sharing qualities of radio, theatre and film in its combination of liveness, intimacy and image. However, there were many varied opinions on how television should separate itself from these influences, and on how much it should borrow from them. Some believed that film should not be used in television, others that the outside broadcast or studio talk were the ideal material for the system, and others that television would operate as a mass medium in cinemas rather than in the domestic context of the home. Drawing on archival material, this paper will examine these debates around the creation of a particular identity and role for television separate from pre-existing media and consider the ways that they relate to the issues of purpose surrounding the success or failure of more recent new media.