Radio, television and computers

10.4.1. Radio is very popular among the British. Many people rely on the radio to learn the latest news. The main television and radio broadcasting organization in Britain is the British Broadcasting Corporation (the BBC) set up in 1922. It runs five radio stations, pro­vides television information service in Britain, operating two nation­al television channels. The BBC World Service broadcasts in English and about forty other languages of the world. Britain has one of the world’s largest and most technologically advanced telecommunications systems.

10.4.2. Television today is a most important mass medium. The principles on which television is based were discovered in the course of basic research. The Scottish scientist James Maxwell predicted the existence of the electromagnetic waves that make it possible to transmit ordinary television broadcasts. Some of the earliest work on television began in the 1880s, when a German engineer designed the first true television mechanism. His mechanical scanner was used in England by the inventor John L. Baird. The first television picture was shown on October 2, 1925. Baird transmitted a picture of a human face – the face of a fifteen-year-old boy.

10.4.3. In time, the process of watching images on a television screen made people interested in either producing their own images or watching programming at their leisure. Affordable videocassette recorders were introduced and in the 1980s became almost as common as television sets. During the late 1990s the digital video disc player had the most successful product launch in consumer electronics history. The DVD player also offered the digital surround-sound quality experienced in a state-of-the-art movie theater. Another development in this sphere is the high-definition television (HDTV) system.

10.4.4. The history of the computer is longer than most people think. An early mechanical computer was designed by British mathematician and scientist Charles Babbage. Babbage also made plans for another machine, the Analytical Engine, considered the mechanical precursor of the modern computer. One hundred years later, British mathematician Alan Turing proposed the idea of a machine that could process equations without human direction. Turing’s machine was the theoretical precursor to the modern digital computer. However, the first personal computer appeared only in 1975. Today, computers become more advanced and easier to use. Virtual reality, the technology of interacting with a computer using all of the human senses, contributes to better human and computer interfaces. Another crucial development is the emergence of the World Wide Web. The WWW was developed by British physicist and computer scientist Timothy Berners-Lee as a project within the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. All necessary information is available on the Web, including anything you will need for your seminars in British and /or American Studies. So, good luck then.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-07