The broadcasts were live, as the videotape did not yet exist, which allows you to record in advance and edit the programs. Only copies of films were distributed to several cities. Several artists traveled between cities, presenting the same program several times.
Satellite broadcasts and the appearance of videotapes ended the “artisanal” phase of TV. In the late 1960s, with the political project of the military regime to intensify national integration, a large microwave network was created . In the 1980s, it was completed by transmissions using Brasilsat satellites. Brazil was interconnected by TV, radio, telephone and data transmission.
With the videotape and the new means of remote transmission, the sending of programs started to be direct and simultaneous. Regional stations started to “affiliate” themselves
with the larger networks, in a rigid scheme of only showing programs acquired from the generator. This caused few companies to invest in production and generation of programs, as is the case of TVs Globo, Bandeirantes, Record, Rede TV and the old TV Tupi. At the same time that new technologies shortened distances, the production of regional and municipal programs declined.
TV influences: Producing tastes and lifestyles
Since the 1970s, what many researchers call verticality has occurred: a situation in which very different segments of the population are exposed to the same programming. With the strong concentration of the television industry on the Rio – São Paulo axis, not only did most people start consuming the same “cultural products”, but also to be influenced by the average taste of these metropolises.
According to Themotorcyclers, the greater fluidity in transmissions transports dreams of consumption, behaviors, habits and even slang and accents across the national territory. At the cultural level, this means that the whole country starts to share a certain image of Brazil, forged in the Southeast. The national identity, or the vision that Brazilians have of themselves and of the country, came to be strongly intermediated by São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
Since its inception, TV has maintained an essentially urban characteristic: the almost 300 generators (stations with its own programming) and about 8500 retransmitters registered at the beginning of the 21st century had their headquarters in cities, with programming aimed at urban populations and played largely through open and commercial national networks, belonging to a few family groups.
With educational TVs, the State occupied “voids” left by private companies. TV Universitária de Pernambuco was the first public broadcaster to go on the air in 1967. TV Cultura of São Paulo started operating two years later. Today, the public TV network in the country is composed of 20 broadcasters, linked to the state or federal governments. They are distinguished by good quality programming and educational content. There were many international prizes won by TV Cultura de São Paulo for its programming dedicated to children. Despite this, the majority of public broadcasters live in a situation of financial shortage.
The internet in Brazil
The combination of computers and advanced telephone systems gave rise to the internet, a communication system whose main characteristic is to integrate humanity on a planetary scale. It holds a “gigantic document”, the World Wide Web, which contains an extraordinary amount of information. It can be said that the Internet is the pipes and the Web is the water that circulates within them. Brazil is not out of this. Recent data confirm the speed of internet adoption in the country: in 1996, 36 thousand Brazilians accessed the network; in 2002, there were already 14 million. Although the ratio of users to number of inhabitants is still low, compared to countries like Finland or Sweden, it is undeniable that innovation is here to stay.
But how does the system work? What advantages or disadvantages does it bring? How can it help to improve life? In view of these and other questions, it is worth examining aspects of the network and its presence in Brazil, in order to have an idea of its potential.
In Brazil, the internet came into effective operation in 1994, when the first access providers were launched. The first connection is from 1991, made by the foundation of Amparo à Pesquisa de São Paulo (Fapesp), which until today controls the “.br” domain, for national pages.
Providers (companies that guarantee access to the network) proliferate, large media groups launch portals and companies, public agencies, social organizations and individuals rush to launch web pages. Increases advertising and e-commerce and the number of professionals working in the sector .
This increase was only possible with the spread of personal computers (PCs) and the combination of communication and information technologies.
The first computers
Pioneer computers appeared in England and the USA after World War II. For a long time (they were) reserved for the military (…) They were still large calculating machines, fragile, isolated in refrigerated rooms, which scientists in white uniforms fed with punched cards and who spit out unreadable lists. The turning point dates… from the 1970s, with the microprocessor, generating several large-scale processes: a new phase of industrial production, banking automation, the search for productivity gains. On the other hand, with the new technical possibilities, the personal computer was invented.
