COMM 10: FINAL MWS READINGS

What is the most familiar and far-reaching mass communication medium in the world? - Answer-radio What is the most widely available medium of mass communication? - Answer-radio What was the original use/function of radio? - Answer-person-to-person communication How was money originally made in the radio industry? - Answer--by the selling of radios -most money made by RCA When the original source of revenue in the radio industry proved insufficient, what two developments addressed the problem? - Answer-(1) stations became linked by networks= increased costs of expanding programming could be shared (2) advertising How does radio use the electromagnetic spectrum? - Answer-With broadcasting, a transmitter sends messages over part of the electromagnetic spectrum to receivers or antennae that translate the message to a radio Why was it seen as appropriate for the government to regulate the EM spectrum? - Answer--physical limitation of spectrum space, only a certain number of channels were available for use. There had been agreements among nations on how to manage the spectrum internationally, but each country was left to deal with its own domestic situation. -airwaves were a natural resource belonging to the public-- appropriate for the government to regulate the spectrum What was the "radio mess" of the late 1920s? How was it solved? - Answer--Radio Mess: In the early days of the medium, before 1927, anyone with a radio transmitter could broadcast on a frequency supplied by the government. To get rights to such a frequency all one had to do was mail a postcard to the Secretary of Commerce. -Congress passed the Federal Radio Act of 1927, which created the Federal Radio Commission to straighten out the radio mess. -What the Commission did: revoked the vast majority of radio licenses and instituted a new system that favored fewer, high-powered stations over many low-powered ones. -Frequency allocation became more efficient, and technology gradually led to more frequencies being available What is the Federal Communications Commission? - Answer--In 1934 Congress passed the Federal Communications Act, which expanded and clarified the 1927 act and established the Federal Communications Commission to regulate telephone, telegraph, and radio communications systems. Thereafter all stations had to secure a license from the FCC to operate. -licens