Research on Introduction to Television (Asia) Essay

Research on Introduction to Television (Asia) - Essay Example e development of television news and broadcast environment in Hong Kong closely paralleled that of UK in that it is driven by public service broadcasting, which is confined to educational and community development programs in other countries. The public broadcasting concept was introduced in the US in the 1960s as university-related radio and television stations in response to mounting concerns that the commercial networks cater to the baser desires of audiences at the expense of socially meaningful programming. Thus, the very first public broadcasting station was called National Educational Television (NET), which up to now produces the popular children program â€Å"Sesame Street.† 10 Other such stations have since featured the American Civil War, documentaries and academic views on relevant issues such as medicine, AIDS, terrorism and scientific breakthroughs. Public service broadcasting is at the center of a contentious debate in Hong Kong now that the Chinese are its new masters. The reason is that public broadcasting is associated with regulation and state control, for which Chinese governance is known and still secretly feared and which are anathema to the free and unfettered presentation of television news. Already, Chinese officials from the Mainland are promoting Cantonese for wider use in Hong Kong, which is taken as a bad omen by the television news people who pursue their job mostly in British English. This research project gathers the views of people in the television news industry in Hong Kong as well as those with high stakes in its unruffled and dynamic operation like public relations, advertising and rating groups. The main focus of the research is whether public broadcasting can provide credible TV news programs and whether it does anything to lift the quality and commercial appeal of television news. The sample of interviewees from the television news industry consisted of 10 individuals, divided equally between those working for