World Television Day

In December 1996 the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the 21st of November World Television Day, the same year the first World Television Forum was held. According to the United Nations, this decision was taken in order to give recognition to the increasing impact television has had on decision-making by bringing various conflicts and threats to peace and security to the world's attention, as well as its coverage of other major issues, including economic and social.

Prior to this people received information via radio broadcasting, if a household was equipped with a transistor radio, and the newspapers. Early television broadcasts followed the same format as radio, with a man reading a simple bulletin on a black and white screen. The technology however soon evolved to include images of events and interviews with people. The monochrome style was abandoned when color technology was developed in the mid to late sixties, and TV technology continues to advance with evermore sophisticated optics and digital enhancements. Television has long been thought to represent communication and globalization in the contemporary world, but not all of the government representatives present saw matters quite that way.

The internet has connected us in ways we didn't expect and perhaps could not have imagined, but on World Television Day we remember that television was there first, and paved the way for what was to come.