Television News, History of

Television news keyed the vision and imagination that accompanied the invention and development of television. Through most of the history of human communication, few dreamed that everyday people would see with their own eyes the same events later told in history books. Beginning with 15-minute news briefs at television’s inception in the 1940s, television news grew into an endeavor available around the clock on multitudes of platforms to billions of people wherever they lived.

While diverse in journalistic, technological, and proprietary roots, television news grew from a single breakthrough. For the first time, people were able to not merely read about and listen to but see the unfolding of news. Television’s capability for not merely showing events but for enabling people to participate in them explains ...