Comprensione linguistica

Unit 3: The audiovisual media

Lesson 2 – Television

Text 1: Raymond Williams on Television

Pre-reading

Read the following passage quickly and decide if the author’s attitude towards television is positive or negative. Give reasons for your answers.

It is often said that television has altered our world. In the same way, people often speak of a new world, a new society, a new phase of history, being created, 'brought about' by this or that new technology: the steam-engine, the automobile, the atomic bomb.

We often discuss, with animation, this or that 'effect' of television, or of the kind of social behaviour, the cultural and psychological conditions, which television has 'led to', without feeling ourselves obliged to ask whether it is reasonable to describe any technology as a cause or, if we think of it as a cause, as what kind of cause, and in what relation with other kinds of causes.

The invention of television was no single event or series of events. It depended on a complex of inventions and developments in electricity, telegraphy, photography and motion pictures, and radio. It can be said to have separated out as a specific technological objective in the period 1875-1890, and then, after a lag, to have developed as a specific technological enterprise from 1920 through to the first public television systems of the 1930's.

There is a complicated interaction between the technology of television and the received forms of other kinds of cultural and social activity. Many people have said that television is essentially a combination and development of earlier forms: the newspaper, the public meeting, the educational class, the theatre, the cinema, the sports stadium, the advertising columns and billboards. Yet it is clearly not only a question of combination and development. The adaptation of received forms to the new technology has led in a number of cases to significant changes and to some real qualitative differences.

Television has been described as a battle ground for rival sets of moral perspectives and disputed assessments of the medium’s power to influence its audiences. It enters the home, may trade in vivid and unexpected images, and appeals greatly to children. It presents both reassuring and disturbing impressions of values and behaviours prevalent in society. The propriety of its program standards is therefore continually debated in many countries.

Over a wide range from general television through commercial advertising to centralised information and data-processing systems, the technology that is now or is becoming available can be used to affect, to alter, and in some cases to control our whole social process. And it is ironic that the uses offer such extreme social choices. We could have inexpensive, locally based yet internationally extended television systems, making possible communication and information-sharing on a scale that not long ago would have seemed utopian. These are the contemporary tools of the long revolution towards an educated and participatory democracy, and of recovery of effective communication in complex urban and industrial societies.

Glossary

• Lead /li d/ verb (led, led /led/): ~ to sth to have sth as a result: Eating too much sugar can lead to health problems. ~ sb (to sth) to be the reason why sb does or thinks sth: What led you to this conclusion? He's too easily led (= easily persuaded to do or think sth). [v to inf] This has led scientists to speculate on the existence of other galaxies. The situation is far worse than we had been led to believe.
• Time lag (also lag, time lapse) noun the period of time between two connected events: There is a long time lag between when I do the work and when I get paid.
• Dispute /d spju t/ noun, verb; verb: 1 to question whether sth is true and valid: These figures have been disputed. to dispute a decision / claim The family wanted to dispute the will. [v that] No one is disputing that there is a problem.; 2 to argue or disagree strongly with sb about sth, especially about who owns sth: The hotly disputed ownership of this land has been disputed for centuries. disputed territory The issue remains; 3 to fight to get control of sth or to win sth: On the last lap three runners were disputing the lead.
• Assessment / sesm nt/ noun: 1 [C] an opinion or a judgement about sb/sth that has been thought about very carefully
• Propriety /pr pra ti/ noun (formal) 1 [U] moral and social behaviour that is considered to be correct and acceptable: Nobody questioned the propriety of her being there alone.

Comprehension

Exercise 6: Read the text more carefully and choose the correct answer.

1. What does the text deal with?
   • The role of television in our society
   • The invention of television
   • Television in Britain
2. What did the invention of television depend on?
   • It depended on the invention of the steam engine, the automobile and the atomic bomb
   • It depended on a group of very curious people
   • It depended on a complex of inventions and developments
3. According to the text, when did television develop as a specific technological enterprise?
   • Between the First World War and the Second World War
   • Between 1920 and the first public television systems of the 1930’s
   • Between the 19th and the 20th century