Introduction
This essay will explore using Mudock’s theory for consumption and convergence, the two examples that the essay is using is Monitor and TV. Explain what those are used for, history on what development on TV and monitor and how the 2 have in common and how they are different
Main body
Television and Monitor
The monitor and the television are both viewing devices which accept signals and display them on the screens. However, there are substantial differences between them. Computer monitors accept signals from the Central Processing Unit of the computer with the help of connectors which do not have audio circuits like the television which have data processing systems known as the MINI SUB D15Connectors (VGA). In contrast, computer monitors are controlled by specialized adaptors like the monochrome or the graphic adaptors.
The television has tuners which the monitors do not have and therefore tuners are required in monitors to decode the signals which are sent or received through the cable or satellite. Monitors are thus devices which can be connected to computers or television sets and which require tuners or set-top boxes to display programs. Computer screens are forms of monitors which do not have tuners and hence require additional tuners to function as transmission devices. The television enables the viewing of programs with the help of an antenna or set-top box which a monitor does not since there is no provision of an inbuilt antenna inside a monitor. Monitors are of lesser cost than TV due to the technical differences between the two.
Monitors cannot produce color images due to the inability to accept signals which are again due to the lack of antennas. There are some substantial differences between the computer and the monitor with regard to the display and picture quality. The most telling information of all may eventually come from eye-tracking research. Laboratory experiments in which all user behavior may be monitored avoids most of the pitfalls of survey, server log and client log analysis. Eye-tracking produces data indicating not merely what interaction (such as a click) occurred between user and computer, but more important what the user did as a result of that interaction. Simply put, eye-tracking reveals not only what is clicked upon, but more important what is actually read on a clicked-upon page and what is done next as a result, whether it be online or off. The problem, of course, is that eye-tracking experiments are extremely intrusive and expensive, and the results often can be misinterpreted, as has been the case in print. Such assertions are supported by empirical evidence in print-based studies and by documented physiological differences between the upper (scanning) and lower (detail) fields of vision. Watch a newspaper reader as he or she picks up a page, holds it straight out and scans the headlines and graphics. When an item catches his or her interest, causing the reader to move from casual browsing to intent information seeking, the reader typically brings the newspaper lower and closer to his or her body, placing it into the lower field of view. Computer monitors often are positioned solely within the upper field, possibly giving rise to the often-expressed concern that readers find it uncomfortable to read large amounts of text on a monitor and would prefer reading such material in print (Murdock 2000).
Since monitors are controlled by specific adapters inside the central processing units of the computer and therefore their display pitch begins at 0.41 mm for the medium resolution, which gets smaller as the resolution increases. To present the viewer with high definition images of good quality, the monitors use greater convergence standards of small pixel sizes, which are vital for enhanced image quality.
In the monitors, the images are painted on the screen through the electronic beams which scan from either side of the display. In televisions, the images are painted with the help of beams which scan all over the screen more gradually, which subsequently allow the transition and intensity of color. The transitions in a monitor are abrupt as compared to the television due to the transition from high intensity areas to those of lower intensity.
Televisions utilize a process which relies on the ability of the brain to allow gradual transition as the image is painted on the screen and the process of transition occurs in phases. The first phase of the television includes the drawing of even-numbered lines and the following phase includes the drawing of the odd-numbered lines. The eye sends the images to the brain where they are integrated to create one single complete image. In contrast, the monitor of a computer is placed at a distance of one or two feet from the screen and is experiencing the frequent changes in the text images. The same technique as the television cannot be used for the monitor because the multiple transitions would produce flickering images, due to the rapid transition from bright to dark which the brain is incapable of integrating. Murdock underlines that: “television environments involve traditions and transactions which create a new public network” (Murdock 2000, p. 56).
History
The history of television goes back to the beginning of the XX century. Two inventors were Vladimir Zworykin and Philo Farnsworth. Zworykin developed the iconoscope also known as an electronic camera image. Farnsworth developed so called the image dissector. The color television was invented in 1953. The CBS system was used as the main technological tool in the signal receiver. This tool generates color picture. Television’s growth is also an international phenomenon. Only four countries — Britain, France, the United States, and the USSR — had television in 1949. By 1981, however, television had spread worldwide to at least 137 countries. Television inherited its industrial structure from radio. Local stations, which provided services for their communities, were associated with a network (ABC, CBS, NBC, and until 1956 DuMont.). Thus programming would be fed by the network to the local station where, in turn, it would be broadcast to the community. Television also inherited its business methods, including its role as a vehicle for commercial advertising, from radio. This function, however, would be useless unless people bought sets and watched television. In the late forties and early fifties the creation of an audience for television programs (and hence a market for television sets) was at the top of the agenda. In short, at a time when programming was in short supply, families had to be motivated to buy television sets. Murdock underlines that: “over last two decades the television system in Europe has moved from being centered around national public service system to being increasingly dominated by commercial operators” (Murdock 2000, p. 39).
The history of a monitor was closely linked to the development of TV screen. With the development of the first computers in the middle of 1950s, researchers borrowed ideas and technologies used by TV producers. Key to any effort at client-side analysis must be the random selection of appropriate client machines to monitor. Little applicability to a larger audience is possible unless analyzed client machines are selected by scientific sampling as opposed to ready availability, which likely would emphasize library and laboratory machines. Such methodology is, as with good survey research, quite expensive. Moreover, in many cases it raises serious questions about the privacy rights of users (Murdock 1990).
Conclusion
How Computer and TV are controlled or displayed by using some sort of device known as MINI SUB D15Connectors or graphic adaptors for it to work, for example TV uses a tuner to decode the signals through a satellite for it to display programs using a inbuilt antenna unlike the monitor. The monitors need CPU (Central processing unit) for the monitor to display what’s on the computer, but are more affordable since it only displays. For the monitor the electronic beam scans differently to a TV because monitor uses the beam to scan from side to side and uses a specific adapter making it more viewable close range with high definition images high definition output. TV uses a different method to scan, it scans from all directions making the brain see one printed image on the screen making it more viewable far range.
Bibliography
Murdock, Graham 2000. “Digital Futures: European Television in the Age of Convergence”. In Wieten, J. & al. (eds.): Television Across Europe. A Comparative Introduction. Sage: London, pp. 35-58
Murdock, Graham 1990, “Redrawing the Map of the Communications Industries: Concentration and Ownership in the Era of Privatization”. In Ferguson, M. (ed.): Public Communication – The New Imperatives: Future Directions for Media Research. Sage: London, 1-15.