'Strange Visitor From Another Planet': Genre, Corporate Identity and the Arrival of American Telefantasy on British Television

While the BBC had been broadcasting television Science Fiction productions from as early as 1938, and Horror since the start of television in 1936, American Telefantasy had no place on British television until ITV’s broadcast of Adventures of Superman (1952-1958) in 1956. It would be easy to assign this absence to the avoidance of popular American programming, but this would ignore the presence of Western and adventure serials imported from the US and Canada for monopoly British television. Similarly, it would be inaccurate to suggest that these imports were purely purchased as thrilling fare to appease a child audience, as it was the commercial ITV that was first to broadcast the more adult-orientated Science Fiction Theatre (1955-7) and Inner Sanctum (1954). This article builds on the work of Paul Rixon and Rob Leggott to argue that these imports were used primarily to supply relatively cheap broadcast material for the new channel, but that they also served to appeal to the notion of spectacular entertainment attached to the new channel through its own productions, such as The Invisible Man (1958-1959) and swashbucklers such as The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955-60). However, the appeal was not just to the exciting, but also to the transatlantic, with ITV embracing this conception of America as a modern place of adventure through its imports and its creation of productions for export, incorporating an American lead into The Invisible Man and drawing upon an (inexpensive) American talent pool of blacklisted screenwriters to provide a transatlantic style and relevance to its own adventure series. Where the BBC used its imported serials as filler directed at children, ITV embraced this transatlantic entertainment as part of its identity and differentiation from the BBC.

Experimental Moments: R.U.R. and the Birth of British Television Science Fiction

Drawing on material from the BBC Written Archive Centre, this article examines the earliest sf dramas broadcast by the BBC Television Service: two adaptations of Karel Capek's "R.U.R." ("Rossum's Universal Robots") from 1938 and 1948. These productions are used as sites of formal experimentation with the possibilities of the new medium, representing one aspect of contemporary debates about the purpose of television and the style it would assume.

Performance analysis of switch-and-stay combining in two-way relay systems with analog network coding and time-division broadcast protocols

In this paper, weconsider switch-and-stay combining (SSC) in two-way relay systems with two amplify-and-forward relays, one of which is activated to assist the information exchange between the two sources. The system operates in either analog network coding (ANC) protocol where the communication is only achieved with the help of the active relay or timedivision broadcast (TDBC) protocol where the direct link between two sources can be utilized to exploit more diversity gain. In both cases, we study the outage probability and bit error rate (BER) for Rayleigh fading channels. In particular, we derive closed-form lower bounds for the outage probability and the average BER, which remain tight for different fading conditions. We also present asymptotic analysis for both the outage probability and the average BER at high signalto-noise ratio. It is shown that SSC can achieve the full diversity order in two-way relay systems for both ANC and TDBC protocols with proper switching thresholds. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Breaking the Intimate Screen: Pre-Recording, Special Effects and the Aesthetics of Early British Television

The technological constraints of early British television encouraged drama productions which emphasised the immediate, the enclosed and the close-up, an approach which Jason Jacobs described in the title of his seminal study as 'the intimate screen'. While Jacobs' book showed that this conception of early British television drama was only part of the reality, he did not focus on the role that special effects played in expanding the scope of the early television screen. This article will focus upon this role, showing that special effects were not only of use in expanding the temporal and spatial scope of television, but were also considered to be of interest to the audience as a way of exploring the new medium, receiving coverage in the popular press. These effects included pre-recorded film inserts, pre-recorded narration, multiple sets, model work and animation, combined with the live studio performances. Drawing upon archival research into television production files and scripts as well as audience responses and periodical coverage of television at the time of broadcast, this article will focus on telefantasy. This genre offered particular opportunities for utilising effects in ways that seemed appropriate for the experimentation with the form of television and for the drama narratives. This period also saw a variety of shifts within television as the BBC sought to determine a specific identity and understand the possibilities for the new medium.
This research also incorporates the BBC's own research and internal dialogue concerning audiences and how their tastes should best be met, at a time when the television audience was not only growing in terms of number but was also expanding geographically and socially beyond the moneyed Londoners who could afford the first television sets and were within range of the Alexandra Palace transmissions. The primary case study for this article will be the 1949 production of H.G.Wells’ The Time Machine, which incorporated pre-recorded audio and film inserts, which expanded the narrative out of the live studio performance both temporally and spatially, with the effects work receiving coverage in the popular magazine Illustrated. Other productions considered will be the 1938 and 1948 productions of RUR, the 1948 production of Blithe Spirit, and the 1950 adaptation of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Despite the focus on telefantasy, this article will also include examples from other genres, both dramatic and factual, showing how the BBC's response to the changing television audience was to restrict drama to a more 'realistic' aesthetic and to move experimentation with televisual form to non-drama productions such as variety performances.

Most Haunted and the Convergence of Traditional Belief and Popular Television.

LivingTV's flagship series, Most Haunted, has been haunting the satellite network since 2002. The set-up of the series is straightforward: a team of investigators, including a historian, a parapsychologist, and "spiritualist medium" Derek Acorah, "legend-trip," spending the night at some location within the United Kingdom that is reputed to be haunted, with the hopes of catching on video concrete proof of the existence of ghosts. However, unlike other reality television or true-life supernatural television shows, Most Haunted includes and addresses the audience less as a spectator and more as an active participant in the ghost hunt. Watching Most Haunted, we are directed not so much to accept or reject the evidence provided, as to engage in the debate over the evidence's veracity. Like legend-telling in its oral form, belief in or rejection of the truth-claims of the story are less central than the possibility of the narrative's truth - a position that invites debates about those truth-claims. This paper argues that Most Haunted, in its premise and structure, not only depicts or represents legend texts (here ghost stories), but engages the audience in the debates about the status of its truth-claims, thereby bringing this mass-mediated popular culture text closer to the folkloristic, legend-telling dynamic than other similar shows.

Farm Programmes of Electronic Media: A Comparative Study of Audience Perception in Kerala

Farm communication and extension programs are vital part of the farm development attempts. Electronic media plays a major role in farm extension activities. Kerala, the consumer state, which was a complete agricultural state in pre-independence period, is the sprouting land of agricultural extension and publication activities in print media. Later AIR (All India Radio) farm programs and farm broadcasting of Doordarshan enriched the role of electronic media in farm extension activities. The media saturated southern state of India received this new electronic media farm communication revolution whole heartedly. However, after 1990, Kerala witnessed a flood of private T V channels and currently there are 24 channels in this regional language, named Malayalam. All major news and entertainment channels are broadcasting farm programs. Farm programs of AIR and Doordarshan, broadcasted in Malayalam language, have been well accepted to the farmers‘ in Kerala. However, post-independence period, witnessed the formation of Kerala state in Indian Union and the first ballot-elected communist Government started its administration. After the land reform bills, the state witnessed a gradual decrease in agricultural production. Even if it is not reflected much in the attitude and practices of farm community and farm broadcast of traditional electronic broadcasting, a change is observable after the post-liberalization era of India. Private Television channels, which were focused on entertainment value of programs, started broadcasting farm programs and the parameters of program production went through certain changes. In this situation, there is ample relevance for a study about the farm programs of electronic media in terms of a comparative study of audience perception. The study is limited in the state of Kerala as it is the most media saturated state in India. The study analyzes the rate, nature and scope of adoption of farming methods transmitted through electronic media (T.V. and Radio) in Malayalam language.All kinds of Farm programs including comprehensive program serials, success stories, seasonal cropping methods, experts opinion, been analyzed on the basis of the following objectives.  To find whether propagating new farm methods through farm programs in electronic media or the availability of adequate infrastructure and economic factors make a farmer to adopt a new farming method.  To find which electronic media has more influence on farmers to adopt agricultural programs.  To find which form of electronic media gets better feedback from farmers  To find out whether the programs of T.V. or Radio is more acceptable to farmers than the print media.  To find whether farmers gets the message through their preferred medium for the message. The researcher recorded opinions from a panel of agricultural officers, farm Information officers, agro extension researchers and experts. According to their opinions and guidelines, a pilot study is designed and conducted in Kanjikuzhy Panchayath, in Alappuzha district, Kerala. The Panchayath is selected by considering its ideal nature of being the sample for a social Science research. Besides, the nature of farming in the Panchayath, which devoid of the cultivation of cash crops also supported its sample value. As per the observations from the pilot study, researcher confirmed the Triangulation method as the methodology of research. The questionnaire survey, being the primary part contained 42 Questions with 6 independent and 32 dependent variables. The survey is conducted among 400 respondents in Idukki, Alappuzha and Pathanamthitta districts considering geographical differences and distribution of different types of crops. The response from a total of 360 respondents, 120 from each district, finally selected for tabulation and data analysis.The data analysis, based on percentage analysis, along with the results from focus group discussion among a selected group of 20 farmers, together produced the results as follows. Farmers, who are the audience of farm programs, have a very serious approach towards the medium. They are maintaining a critical point of view towards the content of the programs. Farmers are reasonably aware about the financial side of the programs and the monitory aspirations of both private and Government owned Television channels. Even though, the farmers are not aware on the technical terminology and jargons, they have ideas about success stories, program serials and they are even informed about channels are not maintaining an audience research section like AIR. Though the farmers accept Doordarshan as the credential source of farm information and methods, they are inclined to the entertainment value of programs too. They prefer to have more entertainment value for the programs of Doordarshan. Surprisingly, they have very solid suggestions on even about the shots which add entertainment value to the farm broadcasting methods of Doordarshan. Farmers are very much aware about the fact that media is just an instrument for inspiration and persuasion. They strongly believe that the source of information and new methods is agricultural research and an effective change happens only when there are adequate infrastructure and marketing facilities, along with the proper support from Government agricultural guideline and support systems like Krishi Bhavans. They strongly believe that media alone cannot create any magic in increasing agricultural production. Farmers are pointing out the lack of response to the feedback and queries of farmers on farming methods, as an evidence for the difference in levels of commitment of Government and private owned Television channels.Farmers are still perceiving AIR farm programs are far more committed to farmers and farming than any other electronic medium. However, they are seriously lacking Radio receivers with medium wave reception facility. Farmers perceive that the farming methods on new crops are more adoptable than the farming methods of traditional crops in both private and Government owned Television channels. There are multiple factors behind this observation from farmers. Farmers changed in terms of viewing habits and they prefer success stories, which are totally irrelevant and they even think that such stories encourage people to go for farming and they opined that such stories are good sources of inspiration. However, they are all very much sure about the importance and particular about the presence of entertainment factor even in farm programs. Farmers expect direct interaction of any expert of the new farming method to implement the method in their agriculture practices. Though introduction of a new idea in the T.V. is acceptable, farmers need the direct instruction of expert on field to start implementing the new farming practices Farmers still have an affinity towards print media reports and agricultural pages and they have complaints to print media on the removal of agricultural information pages from news papers. They prefer the reports in print media as it facilitates them to collect and refer articles when they need it. Farmers are having an eye of doubt about the credibility of farm programs by private T.V. channels. Even if they prefer private Television channels for listening and adopting new farming methods and other farm information, they scrutinize programs to know whether they are sponsored programs by agrochemical or agro-fertilizer manufacturer.

WAIS Seminar:LinkedTV: Building the Future of Television

Abstract Broadcast video can be augmented with links to information related to the topics in the video and to other related entities. Viewers are sufficiently digitally literate that they can carry out their own searches during or after a broadcast. We investigate what types of information viewers would actually like to see while being engaged in watching a news broadcast. On the base of this we have designed user interfaces for passive and active uses of a second screen to accompany a news broadcast. A next step is to understand the specific types of information users would like to consult and investigate whether these can be automatically generated.

Aerosol Direct Radiative Impact Experiment (ADRIEX) overview

The Aerosol Direct Radiative Experiment (ADRIEX) took place over the Adriatic and Black Seas during August and September 2004 with the aim of characterizing anthropogenic aerosol in these regions in terms of its physical and optical properties and establishing its impact on radiative balance. Eight successful flights of the UK BAE-146 Facility for Atmospheric Airborne Measurements were completed together with surface-based lidar and AERONET measurements, in conjunction with satellite overpasses. This paper outlines the motivation for the campaign, the methodology and instruments used, describes the synoptic situation and provides an overview of the key results. ADRIEX successfully measured a range of aerosol conditions across the northern Adriatic, Po Valley and Black Sea. Generally two layers of aerosol were found in the vertical: in the flights over the Black Sea and the Po Valley these showed differences in chemical and microphysical properties, whilst over the Adriatic the layers were often more similar. Nitrate aerosol was found to be important in the Po Valley region. The use of new instruments to measure the aerosol chemistry and mixing state and to use this information in determining optical properties is demonstrated. These results are described in much more detail in the subsequent papers of this special issue.

Television and the popular: viewing from the British perspective

The academic discipline of television studies has been constituted by the claim that television is worth studying because it is popular. Yet this claim has also entailed a need to defend the subject against the triviality that is associated with the television medium because of its very popularity. This article analyses the many attempts in the later twentieth and twenty-first centuries to constitute critical discourses about television as a popular medium. It focuses on how the theoretical currents of Television Studies emerged and changed in the UK, where a disciplinary identity for the subject was founded by borrowing from related disciplines, yet argued for the specificity of the medium as an object of criticism. Eschewing technological determinism, moral pathologization and sterile debates about television's supposed effects, UK writers such as Raymond Williams addressed television as an aspect of culture. Television theory in Britain has been part of, and also separate from, the disciplinary fields of media theory, literary theory and film theory. It has focused its attention on institutions, audio-visual texts, genres, authors and viewers according to the ways that research problems and theoretical inadequacies have emerged over time. But a consistent feature has been the problem of moving from a descriptive discourse to an analytical and evaluative one, and from studies of specific texts, moments and locations of television to larger theories. By discussing some historically significant critical work about television, the article considers how academic work has constructed relationships between the different kinds of objects of study. The article argues that a fundamental tension between descriptive and politically activist discourses has confused academic writing about ›the popular‹. Television study in Britain arose not to supply graduate professionals to the television industry, nor to perfect the instrumental techniques of allied sectors such as advertising and marketing, but to analyse and critique the medium's aesthetic forms and to evaluate its role in culture. Since television cannot be made by ›the people‹, the empowerment that discourses of television theory and analysis aimed for was focused on disseminating the tools for critique. Recent developments in factual entertainment television (in Britain and elsewhere) have greatly increased the visibility of ›the people‹ in programmes, notably in docusoaps, game shows and other participative formats. This has led to renewed debates about whether such ›popular‹ programmes appropriately represent ›the people‹ and how factual entertainment that is often despised relates to genres hitherto considered to be of high quality, such as scripted drama and socially-engaged documentary television. A further aspect of this problem of evaluation is how television globalisation has been addressed, and the example that the issue has crystallised around most is the reality TV contest Big Brother. Television theory has been largely based on studying the texts, institutions and audiences of television in the Anglophone world, and thus in specific geographical contexts. The transnational contexts of popular television have been addressed as spaces of contestation, for example between Americanisation and national or regional identities. Commentators have been ambivalent about whether the discipline's role is to celebrate or critique television, and whether to do so within a national, regional or global context. In the discourses of the television industry, ›popular television‹ is a quantitative and comparative measure, and because of the overlap between the programming with the largest audiences and the scheduling of established programme types at the times of day when the largest audiences are available, it has a strong relationship with genre. The measurement of audiences and the design of schedules are carried out in predominantly national contexts, but the article refers to programmes like Big Brother that have been broadcast transnationally, and programmes that have been extensively exported, to consider in what ways they too might be called popular. Strands of work in television studies have at different times attempted to diagnose what is at stake in the most popular programme types, such as reality TV, situation comedy and drama series. This has centred on questions of how aesthetic quality might be discriminated in television programmes, and how quality relates to popularity. The interaction of the designations ›popular‹ and ›quality‹ is exemplified in the ways that critical discourse has addressed US drama series that have been widely exported around the world, and the article shows how the two critical terms are both distinct and interrelated. In this context and in the article as a whole, the aim is not to arrive at a definitive meaning for ›the popular‹ inasmuch as it designates programmes or indeed the medium of television itself. Instead the aim is to show how, in historically and geographically contingent ways, these terms and ideas have been dynamically adopted and contested in order to address a multiple and changing object of analysis.

Nostalgia, music and the television past revisited in American dreams

The 1960s-set NBC family drama American Dreams presents not just the recent American past but its musical television as well. This paper examines how the show’s recreation of and interaction with the music show American Bandstand ties together the divergent experiences of a turbulent decade. American Dreams’ reshooting and appropriation of original broadcast footage is intricately interwoven with dramatic action allowing for new layers of commentary and meaning to be read across the music and image relationship. Through intercutting and juxtaposition, its use of music performance goes beyond the regressive recycling of images of nostalgia, as critiqued by Jameson and other theorists of postmodernity, to engage political and social debates through a complex web of reference, reproduction and commentary, presenting a politicised reading of the 1960s that problematises these charges of nostalgia texts as apolitical and ‘historicist’.

Teen TV meets T4: assimilating 'The O.C.' into British youth television

This article explores the presence of imported US Teen TV in the schedules of British youth television and the relationship between the two national forms. Focusing on the broadcast of The O.C on Channel 4 youth strand T4, it considers the role of the spaces in-between programmes in framing the audience’s experience of the imported US text. It demonstrates how the T4 supertext employed presenter performance, critique and parody to assimilate the glamorously aspirational US Teen TV text into the cynically engaged flow of British youth television.

Direct observations of the evolution of polar cap ionization patches

Patches of ionization are common in the polar ionosphere where their motion and associated density gradients give variable disturbances to High Frequency (HF) radio communications, over-the-horizon radar location errors, and disruption and errors to satellite navigation and communication. Their formation and evolution are poorly understood, particularly under disturbed space weather conditions. We report direct observations of the full evolution of patches during a geomagnetic storm, including formation, polar cap entry, transpolar evolution, polar cap exit, and sunward return flow. Our observations show that modulation of nightside reconnection in the substorm cycle of the magnetosphere helps form the gaps between patches where steady convection would give a “tongue” of ionization (TOI).

The 22-Year Hale Cycle in cosmic ray flux: evidence for direct heliospheric modulation

The ability to predict times of greater galactic cosmic ray (GCR) fluxes is important for reducing the hazards caused by these particles to satellite communications, aviation, or astronauts. The 11-year solar-cycle variation in cosmic rays is highly correlated with the strength of the heliospheric magnetic field. Differences in GCR flux during alternate solar cycles yield a 22-year cycle, known as the Hale Cycle, which is thought to be due to different particle drift patterns when the northern solar pole has predominantly positive (denoted as qA>0 cycle) or negative (qA<0) polarities. This results in the onset of the peak cosmic-ray flux at Earth occurring earlier during qA>0 cycles than for qA<0 cycles, which in turn causes the peak to be more dome-shaped for qA>0 and more sharply peaked for qA<0. In this study, we demonstrate that properties of the large-scale heliospheric magnetic field are different during the declining phase of the qA<0 and qA>0 solar cycles, when the difference in GCR flux is most apparent. This suggests that particle drifts may not be the sole mechanism responsible for the Hale Cycle in GCR flux at Earth. However, we also demonstrate that these polarity-dependent heliospheric differences are evident during the space-age but are much less clear in earlier data: using geomagnetic reconstructions, we show that for the period of 1905 - 1965, alternate polarities do not give as significant a difference during the declining phase of the solar cycle. Thus we suggest that the 22-year cycle in cosmic-ray flux is at least partly the result of direct modulation by the heliospheric magnetic field and that this effect may be primarily limited to the grand solar maximum of the space-age.

An “A-train” strategy for quantifying direct climate forcing by anthropogenic aerosols

This document outlines a practical strategy for achieving an observationally based quantification of direct climate forcing by anthropogenic aerosols. The strategy involves a four-step program for shifting the current assumption-laden estimates to an increasingly empirical basis using satellite observations coordinated with suborbital remote and in situ measurements and with chemical transport models. Conceptually, the problem is framed as a need for complete global mapping of four parameters: clear-sky aerosol optical depth δ, radiative efficiency per unit optical depth E, fine-mode fraction of optical depth ff, and the anthropogenic fraction of the fine mode faf. The first three parameters can be retrieved from satellites, but correlative, suborbital measurements are required for quantifying the aerosol properties that control E, for validating the retrieval of ff, and for partitioning fine-mode δ between natural and anthropogenic components. The satellite focus is on the “A-Train,” a constellation of six spacecraft that will fly in formation from about 2005 to 2008. Key satellite instruments for this report are the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) radiometers on Aqua, the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) radiometer on Aura, the Polarization and Directionality of Earth's Reflectances (POLDER) polarimeter on the Polarization and Anistropy of Reflectances for Atmospheric Sciences Coupled with Observations from a Lidar (PARASOL), and the Cloud and Aerosol Lider with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) lidar on the Cloud–Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO). This strategy is offered as an initial framework—subject to improvement over time—for scientists around the world to participate in the A-Train opportunity. It is a specific implementation of the Progressive Aerosol Retrieval and Assimilation Global Observing Network (PARAGON) program, presented earlier in this journal, which identified the integration of diverse data as the central challenge to progress in quantifying global-scale aerosol effects. By designing a strategy around this need for integration, we develop recommendations for both satellite data interpretation and correlative suborbital activities that represent, in many respects, departures from current practice

Comparison of the radiative properties and direct radiative effect of aerosols from a global aerosol model and remote sensing data over ocean

A global aerosol transport model (Oslo CTM2) with main aerosol components included is compared to five satellite retrievals of aerosol optical depth (AOD) and one data set of the satellite-derived radiative effect of aerosols. The model is driven with meteorological data for the period November 1996 to June 1997 which is the time period investigated in this study. The modelled AOD is within the range of the AOD from the various satellite retrievals over oceanic regions. The direct radiative effect of the aerosols as well as the atmospheric absorption by aerosols are in both cases found to be of the order of 20 Wm−2 in certain regions in both the satellite-derived and the modelled estimates as a mean over the period studied. Satellite and model data exhibit similar patterns of aerosol optical depth, radiative effect of aerosols, and atmospheric absorption of the aerosols. Recently published results show that global aerosol models have a tendency to underestimate the magnitude of the clear-sky direct radiative effect of aerosols over ocean compared to satellite-derived estimates. However, this is only to a small extent the case with the Oslo CTM2. The global mean direct radiative effect of aerosols over ocean is modelled with the Oslo CTM2 to be –5.5 Wm−2 and the atmospheric aerosol absorption 1.5 Wm−2.