-^ Technical Director. Usually acts as crew chief and does the
video switching (the process of choosing which of sev-
eral camera signals to send to viewers).
-^ Camera Operator. Operates a studio camera and often
manages lighting.
-^ Floor Director. Coordinates all studio activities, including
camera operation, microphones and lighting. He or she
relays the director’s instructions to all studio personnel.
-^ Graphic Artist. Prepares titles, slides and other materials
needed for visual presentation.
-^ Character Generator. Operates the character generator, a
device used to put words on the screen.
-^ Audio Engineer. In charge of all audio operations. During
a production, an audio engineer runs the audio control
board, which raises and lowers microphone levels.
-^ Set Designer. Designs and constructs the sets and provides
the necessary props.
Broadcast Ethics
Explicit sex! Full frontal nudity! Blood and gore! Well, not quite.
Since the television industry began, those who produce its programs
have been accused of presenting material that shocks and offends. To
what degree are broadcasters guilty of these charges? Are they simply
giving the public what it wants? Are there guidelines, rules or restric-
tions that govern what can and can’t be shown, said or played?The Federal Communications Commission
Television depends on a limited resource, the airwaves, to deliver mes-
sages to its viewers. According to U.S. law, the airwaves are owned by
the people. They are a natural resource, just like water or air, and they
cannot be bought or sold. Because so many people would like to use a
portion of the airwaves, though, some government regulation is neces-
sary. Without the assignment of space (what we frequently call chan-
nels) by a central authority, communications would be chaotic.
For this reason, Congress established the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) in 1934. The FCC is an independent federal agency
composed of five commissioners appointed by the president. It licenses
radio and television stations and assigns frequencies for their use. It
determines the call letters a station will use and regulates the amount
of power a station can have.
More to the point, the FCC also sets standards that must be met if
a station hopes to have its license renewed. The number of commer-
cials a station may carry, for example, is strictly limited by the FCC.
(Fortunately, there is no rule yet to prevent all of us from switching
channels during those commercials.) What about the content of the
programs themselves, though?448 MIXED MEDIA
OutTake
The Voice That
Caused a Seizure
Whether you have a pleasant
voice or not, you have probably
never driven anyone up the wall
simply by speaking. That is not
the case with television personal-
ity Mary Hart, whose voice once
caused an epileptic seizure.
According to Dr. Venkat
Ramani, who reported the case
in the New England Journal of
Medicine, Hart’s voice caused one
of his patients to have seizures.
In a laboratory test, Ramani
said, his patient would rub her
stomach and hold her head, “and
then she would look confused
and... like she was far away
and out of it” when he played a
tape of Hart’s voice. He added
that the woman has not had
any seizures since she stopped
watching Hart on television.
“It’s the pitch and quality of
the voice as a sound, rather than
what she’s actually saying,” com-
mented Dr. Marc Dichter of the
University of Pennsylvania Medical
School. Swamped with hundreds
of requests for a response, Hart
could only say, “My heart goes
out to anyone with this problem.”
Unless you sound like a
piece of chalk squeaking on the
blackboard, you can probably
draw some confidence from this
strange story. At one time, nearly
all the voices in broadcasting
were rich, masculine baritones.
Now, however, there’s room for
a wide variety of voices. Yours
may soon be one of them.
Source: Adapted from “That’s
Entertainment,” Science News.