COMMUNICATION IN

HISTORYChapter 16, 17, 18

Karen Menecola, Amanda Moss, Darren McClure, Jennifer Morrow, Rachael Mckay

Chapter 16Amanda Moss – The Trade In News

The Trade In News

“The Trade in News” discusses the communication networks in early modern Europe during the course of the 15th and 18th century. It specifically highlights the impact that the development of printing had on the patterns of communication and how it has brought society to the news publications it knows today

The Trade In NewsBefore printing in Europe

4 different types of communication networks established: 1. Controlled by the Catholic Church 2. Controlled by the political authorities of

states and principalities3. Connected to the rise of commercial

activity4. Diffused to villages / towns through

merchants, travelling entertainers (storytellers & ballad singers)

The Trade In NewsChanges From the 15th – 17th Century *2 crucial developments affecting communication networks

1. Various states established postal services which became very popular for the public and general use:

- France (1464) & England – royal post charged private individuals to use it with permission

- Central Europe – post network linking Habsburg to European cities

• 1490 – imperial post system

- the general public did not have access to these postal services (foreign and domestic) until the early 17th century

The Trade In News

2. Printing press played a new role in news distribution

- “printed information leaflets, posters and broadsheets” (114) sold by hawkers and peddlers in the street

- 2nd half of 16th century – periodical publications of news

- mid 17th century – weekly appearance of journals

- news paper production centres – Cologne , Frankfurt, Antwerp, Berlin (European trading routes)

- news was more concerned with foreign news

- England (1640) – newspapers focused on more local news

- 1641 – 3 local newspapers were published weekly

The Trade In News

The Periodical Press in the 18th Century

- 1702 – England’s first daily newspaper – Daily Courant

- more specialized papers – entertainment, cultural events, financial and commercial news

-1750 – in total of all papers, 100,000 copies per week

The Trade In News

Paper and Taxes

- Political authorities imposed tax on newspapers to practice their control and power

- The Stamp Act of 1712 - newspaper owners paid one shilling per printed sheet and one shilling per advertisement

- many people were against this act

- 1803 – taxes were cut 1860 - TAX FREE

Questions

1. What is the name of the act passed for taxes on newspaper?

Questions

2. What were the 2 developments affecting the communication network?

Chapter 16Karen Menecola – Electricity Creates

the Wired World

Electricity Creates the Wired World

Intro

SO FAR: - media that physically carried information, for example, moving the medium moved the information (books, clay tablets, quipu)

- invention of harnessable electricity, brought the first wave of a new communications revolution, with the telegraph and the telephone

Electricity Creates the Wired WorldOld Technology to New Technology

-Marshall McLuhan: “messages travel faster than messengers”

- “transportation” model to “transmission”

- originally, they used - smoke signals- drum signals (talking drums)- heliographs (reflecting sunlight with metal)- torch signals that represented letters of the alphabet

Electricity Creates the Wired World`Invention of the Telegraph

- invented in 1840

- transformed words into electrical impulses

- used Morse code – short dots and long dots which represented letters

Electricity Creates the Wired WorldTelegraph and Railroad

- wherever the railroad went, the telegraph was built as well

- the railroad found it very convenient for the telegraph provided the ability to monitor rail traffic and warn of breakdowns

- telegraph became part of the railroads business:- forwarding orders- coordinated shipments- reported transactions

Electricity Creates the Wired WorldImpact on economy

- end of the 18th century, the telegraph became a global system

- the telegraph greatly influenced journalism and the newspaper

- Michael Schudson states that it created 2 types of journalism:

- the information press: directed to political, economical, and the business community

- the entertainment press: dramatic, scandalous, and everyday life of the urban working class

Electricity Creates the Wired WorldInvention of the telephone

- created in the third quarter of the 19th century

- overcame several limitations of the telegraph:- not restricted to transmission of written

documents- telegraph was limited to the literate- telegraph did not make its way into homes

- telephone competed with the telegraph, but also complimented it

Electricity Creates the Wired World

Invention of the Telephone (continued)

-late 1880s telephone moved into wealthy private homes

- 1890s, invention of switch boards and telephone into residential homes

- “electrical literacy”

Chapter 17Rachael McKay– Telegraphy: The

Victorian Internet

Telegraphy: The Victorian Internet

History of the Electric Telegraph - Name: Prof. Thomas Morse

- Invented the American electric telegraph

- Purpose: cosmopolitan use that was not restricted to railway lines

Telegraphy: The Victorian Internet

The Spread of the Electric Telegraph USA 

•1846 – Morse's experimental line ran 40 miles between Washington and Baltimore

•1850 – 12,000 miles and 20 different companies

•1852 – 23,000 miles + 10,000 under construction

•1861 – completion of transcontinental telegraph line connection east to west coast

Telegraphy: The Victorian InternetThe Spread of the Electric Telegraph

Britain:

- 1839 - first electric telegraph line

- 1848 – half of countries railway tracks have telegraph wires running alongside

- 1850 – 2,215 miles of wire along railway lines

- 1851 – Great Exhibition in London.

The Spread of the Electric Telegraph

Internationally... (1852)

- 1,493 miles – Prussia – buried telegraphic wires underground

- 1,053 miles – Austria

- 983 miles – Canada

- 750 miles – France – were reluctant to disregard old optical telegraph technology

- Operations in – Tuscany, Saxony, Spain, Russia, Holland, Australia, Cuba, Chile, and India

Telegraphy: The Victorian Internet

Telegraphy: The Victorian InternetThe Spread of the Electric Telegraph

Inter-Continental:

- 1849 – first interconnection treaty, special joint telegraph office

- 1850 – Austro German Telegraph

- Shortly after France, Belgium, Switzerland all established international agreements 

Telegraphy: The Victorian InternetThe Underwater Telegraph

Problem: To connect Britian with the rest of Europe they had to overcome the English Channel (150 miles wide)

Solutions:1. 1840 Wheatstone

2. 1843 Morse

3. Gutta-Percha

Telegraphy: The Victorian InternetJohn and Jacob Brett

Attempt #1: They took a very large spool of telegraph wire and coated it in ¼ inch of gutta-percha. They piled this on the back of their boat and dropped it in weighting it at regular intervals for it to sink to the bottom.

Problems: - electrical properties of the water mixed with the cable resulting in incomprehensible messages- was easily broken apart did not sink on it's own (had to be weighted down)

Telegraphy: The Victorian InternetAttempt #2: - With the help of Thomas Crampton, a railway engineer, they were able to design a new method.

-They took 4 telegraph wires and coated them in gutta-percha, twisted them together, wrapped them in tar covered hemp and encased the whole thing in tar covered cords.

-This new cord was much more durable and weighted so it would sink on it's own.

-In November 1951 the first international, underwater telegraph line was available to the public.

Telegraphy: The Victorian Internet 

By 1854:

- London was sending daily telegrams to Paris

- England had been linked to Ireland

- England was connected with Germany, Russia, and Holland

- Europe was linked with Africa

Questions

1. Who invented the American electric telegraph??

Questions

2. What were 2 major problems with the first attempt to underwater telegraphy by the Brett Brothers?

Chapter 18Darren McClure & Jennifer Morrow

-The New Journalism

The New Journalism 

-Most major news papers in New York started from penny press 

- the two largest were the World and the Journal        - "the new journalism" 

- World and Journal   -> entertainment (the ideal of the "story")

- old penny press style (eg Times) -> factuality (the ideal of "information")

The New Journalism 

Journalism as Entertainment

- the New York World – Begun in 1859

- revived by Joseph Pulitzer in 1883

- When he bought it, its circulation was about 15 000

- by 1886, its circulation was over a quarter million

- papers democratic position was an influence on its success

- the innovation most responsible for the paper’s success in circulation was sensationalism

The New Journalism 

Journalism as Entertainment

- sensationalism meant self-advertisement

- for example: the use of illustrations- larger and darker headlines

- the world came to embody the entertainment function of the newspaper

- newspapers also responded to the changes in city population patterns

The New Journalism 

Journalism as Information: 

- "All the News That's Fit to Print" 

- the New York Times set the standard for mass-circulation journalism after 1896 

- claimed highest circulation but didn't compete with the World or the Journal

The New Journalism 

Journalism as Information: 

- Times attracted aspiring wealth and status    - became a badge of respectability - Information journalism vs Story journalism     - a cover for class conflicts

Questions

1. How has the division between informative and entertainment news changed?

Questions

2. From this chapter, what 2 newspapers dealt with the ideal of the story?