Chapter 3 Review:

Sound recording has influenced our culture and in many instances have shaped our own personal identity one way or another; it can even be considered responsible for the number of social changes that we have today. I had no idea during our own history that popular music had been banned/prohibited including waltz music, tango music, jazz music so on and so forth. It never occurred to me that music, in any way, could "corrupt" young people but rather be used for one's personal listening enjoyment. The chapter continues elaborating on the convergence of both sound recording and radio industries as well as sound contributions made by Edison, Bell, Tainter, and Berliner. Later on this would cause sound recording to enter its own mass medium stage and thus recorded music would be available for home use from the advancements of both the gramophone and phonograph. I learned that audiotapes and players would be introduced in the 1940s, CDs in 1983, and Mp3s in 1992. The recording industry and radio would go into a financial feud because of copyright issues and the illegal file-sharing of Mp3s would lead to the music industries decline in sales.

Chapter 4 Review:

The evolution of radio would begin with the telegraph in the 1840s and further advanced by Samuel Morse, James Maxwell, and Heinrich Hertz. In 1899, Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian engineer would send "the first wireless Morse code signal across the English Channel to France." In 1921, five radio stations were introduced to America licensed by the U.S. Commerce Department. Most radio receivers at the time were manufactured by companies such as GE or Westinghouse and sold for about $55 each (approximately $664 in today's standards). 5.5 million radio sets were currently being used in America and the radio had officially became a mass medium by 1925. On the other hand, television had launched in the 1950s which many predicted would render the radio obsolete. However Edwin Armstrong, who first discovered and developed FM radio during the 1920s and 1930s, would sell his "'super' version of his circuit to RCA" allowing the radio to survive against the television to this day because FM stations presented crisp clear sound preferable for music.

Chapter 5 Review:

"In the 1880s, German inventor Paul Nipkow developed the 'scanning disk,' a large flat metal disk with a series of small perforations organized in a spiral pattern." This disk would serve as the foundation for future experiments involving the transmission of visual images. Although television sets originally appeared black and white in color, RCA made the first color television set in 1954 known as the "RCA CT-100." By 1966, television networks such as CBS, NBC, and ABC had "broadcast their entire evening lineups in color." By the late 1950s 90 percent of the U.S. households would have at least one television set. At the time television programming would include quiz shows, which would later be replaced by game shows, as well as journalism featured by NBC, CBS, and ABC News. Comedies, dramas, reality television, and many other genres would also develop for public audiences. "Television is the main storytelling medium of our time."

Chapter 6 Review:

During 1977, 14 percent American homes were watching cable television. By 1985, cable television grew to 46 percent and by 1999 about 70 percent of American homes received cable. However by 2008, that percentage fell to about 58 percent due to broadcast satellite services. Cable television first started out as small cable systems known as CATV (community antenna television) in areas such as Oregon, Pennsylvania, and New York City. Communication signals would be sent using space satellites for cable television and I find it quite interesting that many of the initial communication theories were derived from science fiction, perhaps science fiction will "be the future" as we know it. Cable television grew in popularity by the 1970s and 1980s that many channels and networks began starting up such as HBO which I have just learned stands for Home Box Office after all these years as well as WTBS and CNN (Cable News Network). "ABC, CBS, and NBC accounted for more than 95 percent of prime-time viewing; independent stations and public television accounted for the rest."

Chapter 7 Review:

Films have always been predominant within America influencing both cultural and social impacts. Some of the earliest developments of film began with the movement of photographs onto a projection screen by English photographer Eadweard Muybridge. Other inventors include George Eastman, Louis Le Prince, Hannibal Goodwin and many others that followed. Movies became a major industry by the 1910s and soon enough Hollywood would become the film capital of the world. Primarily films would only include motion pictures as advancements in sound were still being made. The silent era had "produced pioneering social dramas, mysteries, comedies, horror films, science fiction films, war films, crime dramas, westerns, and even spy films." It established the foundation for the Hollywood star system and supported the reputation of movies as a viable art form as opposed to novelty entertainment.