A televised event can address audiences close to the
world's entire population. When recording images for television
became possible, television supported continued human
experiences of decentralization, which previous communication
technologies could not provide. The video camera and the video
cassette recorder, especially in its digital version, make each
of us own not only the receivers of the language of images and
sounds, but also emitters, the sources, the private Hollywood
studios. That is, they make us live the language of TV, and
substitute it for literacy. Interactive TV will undoubtedly
contribute even more in this direction.
It is already the case that instead of writing a letter, some
people make a video and send it to family and authorities, and
to TV stations interested in viewer feedback and news stories.
The massive deployment of troops in the Desert Storm operation
made clear how the shift from literate to illiterate
communication integrates video communication. Together with the
telephone, television and video dominated communication patterns
of the people involved. Subsequent troop deployments confirmed
the pattern of illiterate communication.
Among the many networks through which the foundation of our
existence is continuously altered, cable TV plays a distinct
role. Many consider it more important than libraries, probably
for the wrong reasons. Whether living in thickly populated urban
clusters or in remote locations, people are physically connected
through multi- channeled communication networks, and even through
interactive media.
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