ABSTRACT
Rudolf Arnheim’s essay, “A Forecast of Television,” became well known in film studies following its inclusion in Film as Art more than twenty years after its original version appeared in Italy in 1935. As its title suggests, the essay offers a speculative theorization about television. It was written during the period when television was not yet put into practice as a mass medium, but was no longer a matter of science fiction, having been tested successfully in numerous laboratories and stations around the world. However, despite its inclusion in the canonical volume of Arnheim’s writings and its unusual status as a remarkably early theoretical consideration of television, the essay has not inspired a great deal of scholarly debate or enduring influence on subsequent media studies.
