Abstract
With The Origins of Television News in America: The Visualizers of CBS in the 1940s, Mike Conway presents an interesting account of the makings of CBS-TV news, and by extension, broadcast journalism itself. According to most historical accounts, television news began in the 1950s, and with established names from radio, like Edward R. Murrow. However, Conway presents a list of names since lost to history, and argues the news format and formula created in the 1940s by these ‘visualizers’, the first producers of television news, ‘is prevalent in network, cable and local news to this day’ (p. 289).
The book contains 13 chapters, with one chapter naturally blending into the next, advancing Conway’s argument that ‘the challenge of creating a news format [was left] to a virtually anonymous group of people working above the Grand Central terminal in New York City’ (p. 1). The book’s first two chapters give the reader a detailed account of the climate leading up to the first CBS-TV news broadcast (circa 1941), radio news during the Second World War, and the fits and starts television experienced during the 1930s. One of the book’s more interesting characters, Gilbert Seldes, is given attention here. While he is remembered more for his role as cultural critic (The 7 Lively Arts), Conway’s research presents him as one of the first, and most important, ‘visualizers’ of a fledgling television network (in his role as CBS’ ‘experimental television program director’ from 1937–1945).
Chapters 3 through 5 are devoted to the development of commercial television and television news in the days leading up to and during the Second World War. Chapters 6 through 8 reveal the role and place of television and the CBS-TV news division in the post-war climate, while Chapter 9 documents the construction and expanding role of the television newscaster. In this chapter, Conway discusses the rise of CBS news producer Don Hewitt, while making note of the exclusion of women in CBS-TV news circles. In the book’s remaining three chapters, Conway analyzes the intersections among television, politics, and journalism (with the 1948 national political conventions) and the implications of the success of CBS television news for the network itself, and he makes his final arguments as to the importance of the CBS-TV prototype for television broadcast news at the local and national levels.
Conway’s use and list of primary material is noteworthy. He makes use of several archival sources – the Edward Murrow Papers, the NBC and FCC records – but his most pertinent sources are the oral histories he uncovered and interviews he conducted with the surviving ‘visualizers’. Without Conway’s diligence in locating and videotaping the testimonies of Chester Berger, Frances Buch, Philip Scheffler, and the like, the book would not be nearly as valuable to the academic conversation.
Conway covers ground in his use of secondary literature as well – the works of Douglas, Barnouw, Sterling, and Lazarsfeld are here, as are pieces from Journalism History, American Journalism, and the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, among other relevant academic journals. These books and articles provide the necessary context for the reader to appreciate the development of television and television news and the reaction of journalists, scholars, and the general public to the new medium.
At the heart of Conway’s analysis (and list of secondary sources) is the book The Social Construction of Reality by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann, which advances the idea, in part, that the opinions of one group influence the work of later members of the group – so much so that the ideas of the first group become, according to Conway, ‘unwritten rules’ for the second group to follow (p. 2). In any case, the author does a nice job of threading Berger and Luckmann’s work through his own. For example, in chapter 4 (‘The Ambitious Birth of Television News’), Conway promotes the significant roles of Roger Skedgell and Richard Hubbell in developing the structure and style of the contemporary television news broadcast. In doing so, he advances the idea that legendary broadcasters like Murrow did not so much invent television news as capitalize on what had come before them.
Perhaps the book’s one weakness comes in the occasional awkward turn-of-phrase or sentence. Here are a couple of examples: ‘By the time the medium becomes mass …’ (p. 2); and ‘The method of presenting television was not the only interference causing a hazy view of the medium’s future’ (p. 17). However, these examples are not meant to detract from the fact that Conway’s book is an enjoyable read. The Origins of Television News in America: The Visualizers of CBS in the 1940s broadens the scope of television news history and, along the way, presents a more accurate historical record in an interesting fashion.