TELEVISION: What's Behind What You See

by W. Carter with Linda Capus Riley Merbreier ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 19, 1996

The host of a long-running Philadelphia children's show and a journalist have teamed up to write a breezy, informative book describing how television shows are produced and broadcast. Using a magazine-like format (paragraphs are scattered around the page among cartoonish illustrations rather than organized into regular columns), the authors begin with a simple explanation of how television works and cover satellite and cable transmission, programming and ratings, studio and location shooting, technical production, and likely future developments. There is no mention of the concerns that have been raised about the effects of violent or otherwise meretricious TV programming nor about the correlations that have been made between increased viewing and decreased academic performance. The scattershot format makes the text difficult to follow sequentially; there are no visual clues to guide readers around the page (nor is there a table of contents or index). However, for those with the patience to reorganize the pages on their own, there is a great deal of information here, much of it surprising.

Pub Date: Jan. 19, 1996

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 40

Publisher: "Farrar, Straus & Giroux"

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1995

Categories: CHILDREN'S