Broadcasting is the wireless distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via broadcast radio, broadcast television, or other. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof. It could also be for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication such as amateur (ham) radio and amateur television (ATV).

The term ''broadcast'' was first adopted by early radio engineers from the Midwestern United States, treating broadcast sowing as a metaphor for the dispersal inherent in omnidirectional radio signals.

Broadcasting forms a very large segment of the mass media.

Originally all broadcasting was composed of analog signals using analog transmission techniques and more recently broadcasters have switched to digital signals using digital transmission.

Forms of electronic broadcasting

Economic models

Broadcasters may rely on a combination of these business models. For example, National Public Radio (NPR), a non-commercial educational (NCE) public radio media organization within the U.S., receives grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) (which, in turn, receives funding from the U.S. government), by public membership and by selling "extended credits" to corporations.

Underwriting spots vs. commercials

Recorded broadcasts and live broadcasts

The first regular television broadcasts began in 1937. Broadcasts can be classified as "recorded" or "live". The former allows correcting errors, and removing superfluous or undesired material, rearranging it, applying slow-motion and repetitions, and other techniques to enhance the program. However, some live events like sports television can include some of the aspects including slow-motion clips of important goals/hits, etc., in between the live television telecast.

American radio-network broadcasters habitually forbade prerecorded broadcasts in the 1930s and 1940s requiring radio programs played for the Eastern and Central time zones to be repeated three hours later for the Pacific time zone (See: Effects of time on North American broadcasting). This restriction was dropped for special occasions, as in the case of the German dirigible airship ''Hindenburg'' disaster at Lakehurst, New Jersey, in 1937. During World War II, prerecorded broadcasts from war correspondents were allowed on U.S. radio. In addition, American radio programs were recorded for playback by Armed Forces Radio radio stations around the world.

A disadvantage of recording first is that the public may know the outcome of an event from another source, which may be a "spoiler". In addition, prerecording prevents live radio announcers from deviating from an officially approved script, as occurred with propaganda broadcasts from Germany in the 1940s and with Radio Moscow in the 1980s.

Many events are advertised as being live, although they are often "recorded live" (sometimes called "live-to-tape"). This is particularly true of performances of musical artists on radio when they visit for an in-studio concert performance. Similar situations have occurred in television production ("''The Cosby Show'' is recorded in front of a live television studio audience") and news broadcasting.

A broadcast may be distributed through several physical means. If coming directly from the radio studio at a single station or television station, it is simply sent through the studio/transmitter link to the transmitter and thence from the television antenna located on the radio masts and towers out to the world. Programming may also come through a communications satellite, played either live or recorded for later transmission. Networks of stations may simulcast the same programming at the same time, originally ''via'' microwave link, now usually by satellite.

Distribution to stations or networks may also be through physical media, such as magnetic tape, compact disc (CD), DVD, and sometimes other formats. Usually these are included in another broadcast, such as when electronic news gathering (ENG) returns a story to the station for inclusion on a news programme.

The final leg of broadcast distribution is how the signal gets to the listener or viewer. It may come over the air as with a radio station or television station to an antenna and radio receiver, or may come through cable television or cable radio (or "wireless cable") ''via'' the station or directly from a network. The Internet may also bring either internet radio or streaming media television to the recipient, especially with multicasting allowing the signal and bandwidth to be shared.

The term "broadcast network" is often used to distinguish networks that broadcast an over-the-air television signals that can be received using a tuner (television) inside a television set with a television antenna from so-called networks that are broadcast only ''via'' cable television (cablecast) or satellite television that uses a dish antenna. The term "broadcast television" can refer to the television programs of such networks.

Legal definitions

United Kingdom

Social impact

In his essay, John Durham Peters wrote that communication is a tool used for dissemination. Durham stated, “Dissemination is a lens- sometimes a usefully distorting one- that helps us tackle basic issues such as interaction, presence, and space and time…on the agenda of any future communication theory in general” (Durham, 211). Dissemination focuses on the message being relayed from one main source to one large audience without the exchange of dialogue in between. There’s chance for the message to be tweaked or corrupted once the main source releases it. There is really no way to predetermine how the larger population or audience will absorb the message. They can choose to listen, analyze, or simply ignore it. Dissemination in communication is widely used in the world of broadcasting.

Broadcasting focuses on getting one message out and it is up to the general public to do what they wish with it. Durham also states that broadcasting is used to address an open ended destination (Durham, 212). There are many forms of broadcast, but they all aim to distribute a signal that will reach the target audience. Broadcasting can arrange audiences into entire assemblies (Durham, 213).

In terms of media broadcasting, a radio show can gather a large number of followers who tune in every day to specifically listen to that specific disc jockey. The disc jockey follows the script for his or her radio show and just talks into the microphone. He or she does not expect immediate feedback from any listeners. The message is broadcast across airwaves throughout the community, but there the listeners cannot always respond immediately, especially since many radio shows are recorded prior to the actual air time.

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Bibliography

Further reading

External links

Category:Television terminology

Biography

Mel Proctor did the play-by-play for the Washington Bullets basketball games on Home Team Sports with Phil Chenier for several years.

Proctor was the play-by-play announcer for Washington Nationals baseball, teaming with former major-league pitcher Ron Darling on MASN but did not return for 2006.

Proctor operates a media training business for athletes and broadcasters.

In 2010, Proctor announced the reprinting of his 2004 book ''The Official Fan's Guide to The Fugitive''.

Personal life

Mel Proctor currently lives in San Diego County with wife Julie.

See also

References

Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:American television sports announcers Category:Baltimore Orioles broadcasters Category:Boxing commentators Category:College basketball announcers in the United States Category:College football announcers Category:Los Angeles Clippers broadcasters Category:Major League Baseball announcers Category:MASN Category:National Basketball Association broadcasters Category:National Football League announcers Category:New Jersey Nets broadcasters Category:People from Denver, Colorado Category:San Diego Padres broadcasters Category:Texas Rangers broadcasters Category:Washington Bullets broadcasters Category:Washington Nationals broadcasters

Judy Woodruff (born November 20, 1946) is an American television news anchor and journalist. Woodruff is a Board Member at the IWMF (International Women's Media Foundation).

Biography

Broadcast journalism career

In 1993, Woodruff joined CNN, where for 12 years she was the host of ''Inside Politics'', the nation's first program devoted exclusively to politics.

Woodruff stayed with CNN until 2005 when she decided not to renew her contract, looking toward teaching, writing, and working on documentaries. In August 2005, Woodruff was named a visiting fellow for the fall semester at Harvard University's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy. She previously taught the course "Media and Politics" at Duke University's Sanford Institute for Public Policy. CNN founder Ted Turner stated in a May 7, 2009 interview on the Diane Rehm Show that he was upset that CNN had let Woodruff go.

In 2006, Woodruff returned to PBS to work on "Generation Next," a documentary about American young people and their characteristics, values and thoughts on family, faith, politics and world events, produced in conjunction with MacNeil/Lehrer Productions. "Generation Next" partnered with USA Today, Yahoo! News and NPR. Additionally, in 2006 Woodruff contributed as a guest correspondent to the National Public Radio (NPR) ''Morning Edition'' week-long series "Muslims In America," as part of NPR's fifth-year observance of the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks.

On February 5, 2007, Judy Woodruff returned to ''The News Hour with Jim Lehrer'' on PBS full time as senior correspondent, editor of 2008 political coverage and substitute anchor. As of early 2007, she was also working on Part 2 of the "Generation Next" documentary for PBS.

From 2006 until the present, Woodruff has also anchored a weekly program for Bloomberg Television, called "Conversations with Judy Woodruff." Streaming video podcasts of her monthly interviews are available at Bloomberg.com.

Woodruff was selected to present the 2007 Red Smith Lecture in Journalism at the University of Notre Dame. The Red Smith lectureship annually selects renowned journalists to speak at the University to foster good writing and honor high journalistic standards.

Personal life

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Woodruff had her first taste of the limelight when at age 17 she won a hometown beauty pageant and was crowned Miss Augusta Junior Miss 1963. After high school, Woodruff attended Meredith College and Duke University, where she earned a degree in political science and was involved in the Student Union, Publications Board, Alpha Delta Pi sorority, and Associated Students of Duke University (precursor to Duke Student Government). One of her first jobs in TV news broadcasting was with WAGA-TV in Atlanta, Georgia as a news anchor, where she served from 1970 to 1975.

Woodruff is a founding Co-Chair of the International Women's Media Foundation; on the Boards of Trustees of the Freedom Forum and of the Freedom Forum's Newseum; and a member of the steering committee of the Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press.

Woodruff is the parent of three children including a son born with spina bifida. Her husband is Al Hunt, formerly of CNN and ''The Wall Street Journal'', now Executive Editor of the Bloomberg News Washington, D.C, bureau. She is not related to journalist Bob Woodruff.

Notes

References

Category:American television reporters and correspondents Category:American television news anchors Category:Duke University faculty Category:Duke University alumni Category:Harvard University people Category:University of Notre Dame people Category:People from Tulsa, Oklahoma Category:People from Augusta, Georgia Category:CNN people Category:People from Calvert County, Maryland Category:1946 births Category:Living people