Television-a necessity?

The history of television is both complex and far-reaching, involving the work of many inventors and engineers in several countries over many decades.

In 1884 an invention called the scanning disk was patented by Paul Nipkow. That would be the beginning of television.

In 1921 the 14-year-old Mormon had an idea while working on his father's Idaho farm. Philo realized that an electron beam can scan a picture in horizontal lines and reproduce it instantly. This would be a important breakthrough for the development of television.

At the same time, Russian immigrant Vladimir Zworykin designed a camera that focused an image through a lens onto an array of photoelectric cells coating the end of a tube.

That was the beginning of television as we all know it today.

Television development was continued by different companies leading to the launch of commercial television in 1939 at New York World’s Fair.

Television had and has a great impact on people. From the beginning it was well-received providing an escape from problems and worries. Television is regarded as a source of information and a way to keep in touch with the reality therefore it gained popularity during time. Nowadays television has the power to manipulate us and to deform the reality presented more than ever. It has become such a common invention that even babies are allowed to watch television.

The Evolution of Television

Before...?

• Early 1900's:TV's weren't totally electric back in the day. They were semi-mechanical, had huge bodies, but the screens were tiny:

As the years passed, the screen stayed small, but the size of the whole TV was more compact.

• Pre World-War II: In the few years before WW2, the fully electric TV was perfected, and with this, many countries started broadcasting. Although still expensive, TV's relatively became a lot cheaper.Electric TV's didn't need all the space that the mechanical ones did, so the units were smaller and much more manageable.

• And then came the second world war and all TV production stopped, and many channels stopped broadcasting too.

• Post World-War II:As soon as the war was over in 1945 the real boom in TV's happened.TV's now were more portable than ever, and most looked like little radios.

• 1950's:The fifities signalled interesting developments for the TV:design-wise,sizes where you don't have to squint your eyes to see the image,color TV’s.

Later on the remote control was also finally invented, and the first design looked more like a gun.

1960-1980:

Color TV's became more and more popular ;more countries started broadcasting, and home video recorders were also created.

• TV's wooden look which was supposed to be classy, was soon replaced with the wood/silver (well, grey) look, and later in the 90's again replaced with the plain black plastic look.

• In 1997, Pioneer introduced the first Plasma TV to the market, and suddenly having a TV wasn't just a necessity, it was actually “cool”. Plasma technology was around for quite a while, but only in this year was it actually sold to the public.

Now…

• 2000-Modern Day:Having a TV is now cool. Plasma TV's, then LCD screens, then HDTV's and so on, slim enough to put in your room and make all that old furniture you have look stylish.

• And so it goes. LCD TV's have now become the mainstream, and cover 50% of all the TV's to be shipped globally in 2008, and they come in all shapes and sizes.

• Sizes? They also keep getting bigger; so far the largest LCD screen has recently been unveiled by Sharp at a whopping 108":

What’s next?

• I guess the coming years will be even more exciting!

Vocabulary

ExercisesExercises

.1.Match the items to form the definition:1.Match the items to form the definition:a. DTVb. Blue-ray-Disc (BD,Blu Ray)c. To scand. Cut off1)disconnected, shut down2) to take a look over the image,to explore the image to descompose the image3) sending and reciving of moving images and sound by discrete (digital) signals4) optical disc storage medium designed to superside the standard DVD format

2.Complete the sentences with one word:2.Complete the sentences with one word:1)The television can be turned on with the ………. control.2)The channels offered by our cable company can be ………… by us.3)After we unpack the packet with the TV we must ………. it in.4)Not paying your bills will make you have your TV cable ……… off.

The survey and the results

We have questioned twenty persons with age between 16-18 years.Their answers were numbered and transformed into diagrams as follows:

3.What kind of channels do you watch?

8.Why?

9.Why do you watch television?

10. Does television influence your life? How?

Television is part of our daily life, but depends on us how much importance we give to it…

As Ann Landers said:"Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other.“, so we’d better…

Project made by

Anghelină MădălinaCornea GeorgianaDuţu Bianca and

Grădinaru CristinaClasa a XI-a A