What television does is to combine these powers of radio and print many times over. It commands attention in a way that nothing else does. But precisely because the basic setting for viewing is the home, it reinforces a particular form of spectatorship - private and passive. If it is now undeniable that television has become the principal medium of public conversation, easily outpacing the print media or the public meeting in this respect, it says much about the limitations of this 'conversation' that it is neither inter-active nor truly collective. With the emergence of television, the arts of the centuries can no longer dream of competing in regard to the sheer volume and variety of images created and circulated.
Television provides an unprecedented torrent of images.
But these are not just images. They carry messages and therefore those who control the production and transmission of these images and messages can aspire to inordinate social and ideological power. Any hopes that television would be a powerful educative and democratising instrument given the sheer numbers of its viewers have long since dissipated in the West and Japan. Compared to the serious print media, such is the dominant impact of the visual images on the TV screen that analysis and systematic argument are firmly subordinated to its power. A new technology may open up all kinds of potentials and possibilities.