The development of high definition television : an ecology of games

This study is an analysis of the forces that shaped the overall character of a new US television system, high definition or HDTV, between the early 1980s and 2010, with a primary focus on the period leading up the Federal Communications Commission decision on the new standard in 1996. The study tries to answer the question: how did we get the system we got? The analysis uses the model of an ecology of games that Norton Long developed and William H. Dutton refined. It shows that two camps, or "games," competed to define the new system. One game, consisting of the traditional television broadcast industry, saw HDTV as a standalone system, at first using the traditional analog technologies and then, midway through the process, switching to digital technologies. The second game, consisting of a lose group of academics and computer company representatives, saw HDTV as part of the emerging digital network. The result of the analysis shows that although the FCC was the legitimate forum for determining the standard, the technological system that finally emerged was the result of unplanned, uncoordinated political, social, and market forces.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Political Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Neil, Suzanne Chambliss

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Charles Stewart, III.

• Political Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/62476

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/62476