Teletext in Europe: from the Analog to the Digital Era

Abstract

This book is about teletext: a "broadcast service using several otherwise unused scanning lines (vertical blanking intervals) between frames of TV pictures to transmit information from a central data base to receiving television sets" (http://www.nielsentam.tv/glossary). To the contributors to this book and possibly to many readers, this technical definition will feel out of place as it obscures the rich history of a formidable if forgotten medium. Nevertheless, it is the basic technology of teletext that sets it apart from other media and that, in part, has been the basis for much of what did and did not happen to teletext in terms of policy, institutional setting, content, users and scholarly interest. Many contributions in this book will provide similar definitions, but mostly as a stepping-stone to explore all that has so far been left unsaid by this technical description. It is this gap in our knowledge of teletext in Europe that this book aims to fill. The first part of the book consists of three chapters that try to provide broad and, at times surprising, perspectives on teletext as a medium. As the raison d'être of this book was our perception that teletext in Europe constitutes something of a forgotten medium, at least with media scholars, the first chapter explores this lack of interest. As a case in point, we take the original and, for a long time, leading teletext service Ceefax of the BBC and the wider development of teletext in the UK. The chapter follows a traditional mass media model of communication as structuring principle to discuss various potential reasons for the lack of interest from media scholars in European teletext. Exploring relationships between teletext and the media industry and policies, characteristics of teletext content and the specifics of teletext use and users, the chapter tries to find answers to the questions regarding this absence of interest in teletext and argues why we should not ignore it. Next, combining sociological insights and artistic experiences, teletext artist Raquel Meyers makes a case for considering teletext as much more than just a medium and, even more importantly, as a medium not in decline but in the