The Decade That Shaped Television News: CBS in the 1950s

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Television news made meteoric progress in the 1950s. It rose from being a plaything for the rich to a major factor in informing the American public, and an aggressive rival to newspapers, radio, and news magazines. This volume is an insider's account of the arduous and frequently critical steps undertaken by inexperienced staffs in the development of television news, documentaries, and sports broadcasts. The author, the first president of CBS News, provides a treasure trove of facts and anecdotes about plotting in the corridors, the ascendancy of stars, and the retirement into oblivion of the less favored. This volume is an important contribution to the history of television journalism and will appeal both to journalism and broadcasting scholars and to those interested in the meteoric rise of television.

Reviews

He offers the reader an interesting, management-level account of numerous challenges faced, and decisions made, regarding prominent individuals, such as Edward R. Murrow, and the evolution of news programming.-Journal History
Libraries with active media collections and readers more interested in straight scoop than titillating gossip will want to consider this analysis from the first president of CBS News....Mickelson's narrative may be most valuable for discussing topics glitzier media surveys underplay, for example, technological developments that allowed TV news to define a role for itself different from both print and newsreels, the slow building of national networks (and national audiences)....Worthwhile.-Booklist
This is an important book for its focus on the behind-the-scenes world of changing technology while a new journalism medium was being invented. Mickelson writes well and sheds considerable insight on events still helping to shape the current world of television news.-CBQ
"He offers the reader an interesting, management-level account of numerous challenges faced, and decisions made, regarding prominent individuals, such as Edward R. Murrow, and the evolution of news programming."-Journal History
"This is an important book for its focus on the behind-the-scenes world of changing technology while a new journalism medium was being invented. Mickelson writes well and sheds considerable insight on events still helping to shape the current world of television news."-CBQ
"Libraries with active media collections and readers more interested in straight scoop than titillating gossip will want to consider this analysis from the first president of CBS News....Mickelson's narrative may be most valuable for discussing topics glitzier media surveys underplay, for example, technological developments that allowed TV news to define a role for itself different from both print and newsreels, the slow building of national networks (and national audiences)....Worthwhile."-Booklist

Author Bio

SIG MICKELSON is a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and Distinguished Professor of Journalism at the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University. He has served as Vice President of CBS, Inc., and was the first president of CBS News. He is the author of America's Other Voice (Praeger, 1983) and From Whistle Stop to Sound Bite (Praeger, 1989), and the editor of The First AmendmentThe Challenge of New Technology (Praeger, 1989).