A History of Mass Communication

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A History of Mass

Communication

Irving Fang

Focal Press Boston, Oxford, Johannesburg, Melbourne, New Delhi, Singapore Focal Press is an imprint of Butterworth-Heinemann. Copyright ® 1997 by Butterworth-Heinemann

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fang, Irving E. A history of information revolutions / Irving Fang. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-240-80254-3 (pbk. : acid-free paper) 1. Communication—History. I. Title. P90.F26 1997 302.2'09-dc20 96-36527 CIP

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Printed in the United States of America Contents

Acknowledgments xiv

What Are Information Revolutions? Defining an Information Revolution xv Six Information Revolutions xvii Shared Characteristics xviii The Power of Information xix Highway and Village xx Sorting Media from Content xx Replacing Transportation xxi Shaping and Being Shaped xxi Difficult Beginnings xxii Life Is Different xxii Political Tools and Weapons xxiii Arresting Gorbachev xxiv Tiananmen Square xxiv The Infection of Mass Communication xxvi Terrorism and the Media xxvii Clandestine Radio xxvii Middle Eastern Examples of Media's Force xxviii New World Information Order xxviii Cultural Imperialism xxix Economic Freedom with Political Controls xxx Altering American Politics xxxi The Gulf War xxxi Notes xxxiii

1 Writing The First Revolution 1 The Invention of Writing 1 Writing on Clay 1 Advancing Knowledge 2 vi CONTENTS

Skin and Bones and Papyrus 3 Papyrus in Egypt 4 Papyrus in Greek Hands 5 Parchment 6 Other Writing Surfaces 7 The Greeks 7 The Alphabet 8 Out of the Dark Ages 8 A Time of Turmoil 10 Supplementing an Oral Culture 11 The Warning of Socrates 12 From Greece to Rome 12 The First Libraries 12 The Lamp of Reason 14 Carrying the Message 14 Notes 16

2 Printing The Second Revolution 18 Turbulent Europe 18 Sources of News 19 Reformation and Renaissance 20 A Gift from China 20 Origins 21 No Information Revolution 22 Paper Moves West 22 300 Sheep Skins for One Bible 23 Books and Universities 23 The First Universities 24 The New Book Culture 25 Censorship 26 Punishment for Publishing 27 Mail in the Middle Ages 28 Postal Services for Town and Gown 28 Postal Service as a Business 29 Here a New, There a New 30 Forerunners of Newspapers 31 The First Newspapers 31 Unintended Consequences 32 Printing and Literacy 32 Vernacular Printing 32 Why Bother to Read? 33 The Engines of Printing and Literacy 34 Literacy and Equality 34 Did Gutenberg Know About China? 35 European Ferment 36 CONTENTS vii

What Did Gutenberg Know? 36 Movable Type in China and Korea 38 Gutenberg's Achievement 38 Notes 41

3 Mass Media The Third Revolution 43 The Turmoil of a New Age 43 The Shift to Cities 43 It Also Brought Misery 44 Three Revolutions 44 Child Labor 45 Social Changes 46 Mass Dependencies 46 Printing for Everyone 47 Printing Changes 47 Stereotyping 48 Setting the Type 48 Offset Lithography 49 Paper for Everyone 49 A Continuous Sheet of Paper 49 A Lesson from a Wasp 50 The Information Pump 51 The Business of Newspapers 51 The Penny Press 52 Reporting 52 The Birth of Objectivity 53 Improvements in the Composing Room 54 Photographs in Newspapers 54 Free Presses 55 Controlled Presses 55 The Muckrakers 56 Women Can Type 57 Helping to Bring Women Out 57 The Old Office 57 Inventing a Writing Machine 58 The Sholes Machine 58 Women Mean Business 59 QWERTY 59 "If Anyone Desires..." 60 Creating Demand 60 Origins of Advertising 61 The Word Is "Advertising" 61 The Advertising Agency 62 Catalogs and Patent Medicines 63 Brand Names 63 More Advertising Tools 64 viii CONTENTS

Radio Advertising 64 Televising Advertising 64 Setting Standards 65 Solving Postal Problems 65 Postmasters and Publishers 66 Postal Services for Newspapers 67 Transporting the Mail 67 International Agreement 68 Photography 69 Ancient Roots 69 The Chemical Basis of Photography 70 Daguerre and TaTbot 70 Wet-Plate Photography 72 Photographing the World 72 The Muckrakers' Photos 74 Photoengraving 74 The Copier 75 Looking Ahead 76 Current News 77 Newspapers Change 77 Ancient Signals 77 The First Telegraphs 78 "What Hath God Wrought?" 79 Western Union Takes the Lead 79 Its Role in Transmitting News 80 News Agencies 81 Changes in Service 82 Voices on a Wire 83 Intruder and Rescuer 83 "Mr. Watson, come here. I want you." 84 Can the Lower Classes Use It? 86 The Telephone As an Early Radio 86 Telephone Operators 87 Into the Twentieth Century 88 Signals in the Air 89 Some of Radio's Societal Effects 89 Origins of Radio 90 Marconi 90 Competition 91 The Titanic 92 Voice 92 Hobbyists Tune In 93 Movies Are Born 95 Movies As a Communication Medium 95 How Movies Began 96 Edison Orders an Invention 97 Motion Picture Projection 97 Projected Movies Come to America 98 CONTENTS ix

The Earliest Films 98 Notes 99

4 Entertainment The Fourth Revolution 101 Public Recreation 101 Money from the Poor 102 Entertaining Newspapers 103 Adding Color 103 Magazines for the Fragmented Public 104 English and Colonial Beginnings 104 Plagiarism Was Common 105 The Nickel Magazines 106 The Novel 106 Entertainment on a Plate 107 The Start of Recorded Music 107 Nothing Ever Like It 108 Phonograph Parlors 109 The Phonograph as Furniture 109 Dancing and Jazz 110 High Fidelity 111 Portable Recording 112 The Story of Audiotape 112 Germans Move A head 113 A Tool for Journalists 113 New Formats 114 Broadcasting 114 Isolating Listeners 115 The Radio Act of 1927 116 Commercials 117 Broadcasting Policy in Other Countries 118 Networks 118 Owning Cameras 119 Technical Improvements 119 The Kodak 120 More Improvements 121 Pictures that Lie 121 Holograms 122 Movies Tell Stories 123 Nickelodeons 123 Fear of Revolutionary Ideas 125 A Market for Simple Stories 126 The Actors 127 Assembly Line Production 128 Motion Pictures in Other Countries 129 The Coming of Sound 130 X CONTENTS

The Coming of Color 131 The Stars and Their Films 132 Censorship 133 Political Issues 133 The Drive-in 134 Enter Television 134 The Distribution Schedule 135 Making Movies Cheaply 136 Notes 137

5 The Toolshed Home The Fifth Revolution 138 The Communication Toolshed 138 What Makes a House a Home? 138 Contacts Decrease 139 Extending the Toolshed Home 140 Problems with Heavy Media Usage 141 Home Mail Delivery 142 Free Home Delivery 142 Parcels, Catalogs, and Junk Mail 143 Changes 144 New Uses for Phones 145 Telephone Company Reorganizations 145 Cellular Phones 146 Pocket Phones 146 The New Picturephones 147 A Variety of Uses 147 Reach Out Without Touching 148 "Free" Entertainment 148 Political Broadcasts 149 Cultural Influence 149 Improving the Sound 150 Radio Reinvents Itself 150 Citizen's Band 151 Looking in Radio's Crystal Ball 151 The Benefits of Broadcasting 151 Pictures in the Parlor 152 Time Spent Watching 153 The Scientific Roots of Television 154 Electronic Television 154 The Public Is Introduced to Television 156 The Fight Over Standards 157 HDTV 158 The Commercial Basis 158 Programming 158 Settings and Plots 159 Soap Operas 159 CONTENTS xi

The Sitcoms 160 What Is for Children ? 160 Talk Shows and "Infotainment" 161 Paying for Programming 161 The Decline of Broadcasting 162 Tragedy in the Parlor 162 Radio News 163 Two Roots of Television News 164 Kennedy Assassination Coverage 165 The Civil Rights Movement 165 Anti-War Demonstrations 166 "The Living Room War" 167 Not Newspaper Journalism 168 Sometimes a Global Village 168 Wiring the Toolshed 169 Two Trojan Horses 170 How Cable Began 170 CATV Pioneers 171 Originating Programming 172 Cable's Early Growth 172 City Franchises 173 Pay-TV Without Cable 174 Videotape, a New Book 174 Advantages of the Home VCR 174 Trying to Record Television 175 The First Videotape Machines 175 Electronic News Gathering 176 Going to the Movies at Home 177 The Near Future 178 Spreading Worldwide 179 Broadening the Video Journalist Base 180 Video Piracy 180 "Cultural Imperialism" 181 Video Production Diffusion 181 Setting New Records 182 Radio and Recording 183 High Fidelity 184 We Still Have Books 185 Notes 187

6 The Highway The Sixth Revolution 189 Heavy Traffic 189 Choices 190 Interactivity 191 Separated by Communication 192 Distant Connections 193 xii CONTENTS

Computer at the Wheel 194 A Tool of Communication 194 How It All Began 195 Desktop Publishing 195 Magazines Target Their Readers 197 Multimedia, a Newer Book 198 What Is Multimedia? 198 CD- ROM 199 CD-ROM Zines 200 Cable Narrowcasting 201 Ted Turner Moves In 201 New Channels 202 Home Shopping 203 Cable Franchises 203 Pay Cable 204 Wireless Cable 205 Fiber Optics 205 Programming Through Optical Fibers 206 Footprints on the Globe 207 Geopolitical Considerations 207 A Split-Second Apart 208 Changes in News Reporting Structures 208 The Beginnings 209 INTELSAT 210 Video Teleconferencing 211 Direct Broadcasting 211 C-Band and Ku-Band 212 Scrambling the Signal 213 Teleports 213 A Limit to Infinite Space 213 Electronic Commuting 214 Who Works at Home? 215 Advantages of Working from Home 215 The Telecenter 216 Where Will We Live? 216 What Will Happen to Cities? 217 The Internet 217 Who Owns the Internet? 218 The World Wide Web 219 Electronic Cash 220 Bulletin Boards 220 Exercising Control 221 Knowlege Groups 222 Advertising 222 Chat Lines 223 Social Implications 223 Radio on the Internet 224 Mailbox in the Computer 225 CONTENTS xiii

Faxing 226 Speed of Facsimile 227 "Fax" Is More Than a Noun 227 Facsimile's Origins 227 A Variety of Uses 228 Going Up the Highway 229 The Qube Experiment 230 Teletext and Videotex 231 Online Services 232 Other Interactive Operations 232 Interactive Possibilities 232 Manipulating Television Programs 233 News Online 234 The Electronic Newspaper 234 Telcos, Newspapers, and Newscasts 234 Selling News Instead of Newspapers 235 The Computerized Newspaper 236 National Distribution 236 Notes 237

A Summing Up 239 Revisiting the Six Information Revolutions 240 Communication in Three Eras 241 Notes 243 Bibliography 244 Communication Timeline 255

Index 268 Acknowledgments

This book is an attempt to find common tise and the kindness of others. Among themes in the long and complex history of them are Hyman Berman, Ken Doyle, communication. It endeavors to show how Mark Heistad, Nancy Roberts, Phillip the means of communication grew out of Tichenor, and William Wells, all of the Uni- their eras, how the tools were developed, versity of Minnesota; documentarists how they influenced the societies of those R. Smith Schuneman, Niels Jensen, and eras, and how they have continued to exert Peter Hammar; William Cologie, National influence upon subsequent generations. Cable Television Center; George Potter, The book is divided into six periods that Pennsylvania Cable & Telecommunica- are identified as information revolutions, tions Association; Martin Collins, National recognizing that the events that constitute Air and Space Museum; Haney Howell, an information revolution defy neat cate- Winthrop University; Scott Bourne, net.ra- gorization. For example, motion pictures dio; David Glitzer, Blender; Steve Yelv- are both mass information and packaged ington, Minneapolis Star Tribune; Bernard entertainment. Placing certain events Finn, Kay Youngflesh, and E.N. Sivowitch, within a particular movement became a Smithsonian Institution; Thomas Volek, necessity for the sake of clarity and narra- University of Kansas; Steve Blum, USSB; tive flow. and James Bruns, National Postal Museum. Because the author has not found it pos- Special thanks are due to Cheri Anderson sible to have a sufficiently detailed knowl- and Erin Labbie for their research as- edge of the entire sweep of history covered sistance, and to Annie Singer for her by this volume, he has relied on the exper- drawings.

xiv

What Are

Information

Revolutions?

Year by year more people are saying more present in every generation. Venturesome over more channels on more topics to a souls have risked personal freedom, sav- bigger total audience. The Internet is ex- ings, reputation, even life and limb to cre- ploding. The talk in cable television is of ate and distribute information. In the 500 channels. Videotape stores sell used present generation, when technology has tapes to clear their crowded shelves. Desk- merged the computer and other connective top publishing pours out newsletters, self- media like cable and satellite with end-user published books, magazines, and multimedia like books and television, opportuni- media presentations, with no end in sight. ties have arisen that find their closest com- New computer software arrives every day. parison in the fifteenth century, when In free industrial nations, bookstores and printing began in Europe and the old limits magazine stands are jammed with product. crumbled. Libraries hardly know what to do with all their books. It has been true for decades that anyone can own a book. Now, in indus- Defining an Information trial societies, almost anyone can own a Revolution movie. Meanwhile, more movies are being The wish to remember something by writ- shot than ever. And desktop video is bringing it down led over the course of millennia ing a budget version of Hollywood to Main to the start of the first information revolu- Street. Meanwhile, home computers ex- tion. It and the revolutions that followed pand information use in ways only recently would shape humankind more than any undreamed. wars or any kings ever did or could. With a Even if it were nothing else, our Infor- few scratches, our inventive ancestors set mation Age is the latest in a series of social in motion the never ending story of re- revolutions that define and span recorded corded information, the communication history. A desire to produce communica- and storage of knowledge outside the brain. tion as well as to consume it has been Here broke history's long dawn.

XV xvi A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

What would constitute an information Social revolutions—those that perma- revolution? The word revolution implies a nently affect the lives of most inhabi- sudden and often violent change, but revo- tants—do not emanate from royal edicts. lutions can be more subtle, evolving over They grow from disturbed soil, an open- decades, even centuries.1 In the general ness to change, at least at some societal parlance, revolution is an overwrought de- levels. Media join the turbulence, fastening scription of any societal developments. means to purpose. The tools of communi- The word long ago became a cliche. Con- cation become weapons in some hands, sider it here in the sense of profound while in others they serve to extend hu- changes involving new means of commu- mankind's knowledge and the richness of nication that permanently affect entire so- intelligent life. cieties, changes that have shaken political The social turbulence that provides the structures and influenced economic devel- necessary basis for an information revolu- opment, communal activity, and personal tion leads to independence of thought and behavior. Unlike so many of our wars and the capacity for growth. Graham Greene switching of rulers, information revolu- played a bit fast and loose with history, but tions create changes, intended or not, that made at least a discussable point in The stick. The new media of information be- Third Man, when his amoral character come part of the changing society. Harry Lime said, "In Italy for 30 years It appears evident that for an information under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, revolution to succeed, media that will pro- murder, and bloodshed, but they produced vide new means for communication must Michaelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the be disseminated within societies already un- Renaissance. In Switzerland they had dergoing change. Communication technolo- brotherly love. They had 500 years of de- giesby themselves are not enough. The media mocracy and peace. And what did they both aid and are aided by whatever has produce? The cuckoo clock." shaken the existing order, for those who One or more new communication tech- seek change will reach out to grasp what- nologies arriving in the midst of social ever means become available to gain sup- change can lead to an information revolu- port for their opinions. This is not a new tion that adds to the turmoil and, more idea. A Chinese of the T'ang dynasty (7th to importantly, leaves permanent marks on 10th centuries A.D.) wrote, "When customs the society. Indeed, the world is in the change, writing changes."2 As those opinions midst of an information revolution now, a spread, so does awareness of the media period identified with capital letters as the themselves. From awareness comes use by Information Age, a product of the informa- other hands. The interwoven cause and tion revolution of the second half of the effect relationship between social change twentieth century. Yet, the second half of and media development has continued the fifteenth century, following Guten- since the beginnings of recorded history. berg's invention of printing, deserves as The argument may be stated this way: if you much as our own half century to be called build a better mousetrap, the world will not the Information Age. A strong claim as the beat a path to your door unless the world Information Age could also be made for can be shown that there are mice to be the second half of the nineteenth century, caught. That has been the story of the tools following the inventions of photography of communication, the "better mousetraps." and the telegraph, a half century that gave They have affected much in our lives, but birth to the phonograph, telephone, type- inventions by themselves do not change writer, motion pictures, and radio, plus society. When people want change enough significant changes in printing and early to take action, an invention helps. In the experiments in television and in recording industrial nations throughout the century tape technology. Each of these communi- that we are now completing, change has cation technologies was born in the midst been constant and constantly desired. of the Industrial Revolution, a time of ten- WHAT ARE INFORMATION REVOLUTIONS xvii sion across all layers of contemporaneous with the convergence of advances in paper society. production and printing press methods, Of course, changes in communication and the invention of the telegraph, which occurred during quieter periods as well, but changed the way information was con- those identified here took a role in creating veyed. For the first time, newspapers and a qualitative difference in society. The magazines reached out to the common change has always led toward an equalizing man with news about events near and far, of the status of members of society, the and packaged goods for sale. Photography road toward democracy. That there has spoke to his heart. Public schools and pub- never in human history been true equality lic libraries dotted the countryside and the should not detract from an appreciation of growing cities. For the masses, literacy genuine improvement in human affairs. came within reach. The fourth information revolution, the Six Information Entertainment Revolution, started in Revolutions Europe and America toward the end of the This book identifies six periods in Western nineteenth century with such technologies history that fit the description of an infor- as stored sound, affordable cameras, and mation revolution. The periods range in motion photography. Stories were printed time from the eighth century B.C. to the and sold cheaply. Like the pots and pans near future. coming off the assembly lines of the Indus- The first of the six information revolu- trial Revolution, entertainment could now tions may be characterized as the Writing be infinitely replicated and canned. In the Revolution. It began primarily in Greece coming decades, it would be seen in the about the eighth century B.C., with the nickelodeons and heard on the radio. The convergence of the phonetic alphabet, an whole world would come to love the enter- import from Phoenicia to the east, and pa- tainment products. At the start of the En- pyrus, an import from Egypt to the south. tertainment Revolution, no one could have With writing used to store knowledge, the imagined the number of hours that we human mind would no longer be con- would spend entangled with this love. strained by the limits of memory. Knowl- The fifth information revolution, the edge would be boundless. creation of the Communication Toolshed The second information revolution, the Home, evolved during the middle of the Printing Revolution, began in Europe in the twentieth century, transforming the home second half of the fifteenth century, with into the central location for receiving infor- the convergence of paper, an import origi- mation and entertainment, thanks to the nally from China, but proximately from the telephone, broadcasting, recording, im- Arab and Moorish cultures, and a printing provements in print technologies, and system that the German goldsmith Johan- cheap, universal mail services. The cen- nes Gutenberg assembled, perhaps from a tury has, of course, been a period of unre- variety of sources. With printing, informa- lieved political, cultural, and psychological tion spread through many layers of society. turmoil and shifting. That the media of Printing lent itself to massive political, re- communication have become inseparable ligious, economic, educational, and per- from our lives is a matter that has been sonal alterations. We have called these written about in countless worried articles, changes the Reformation, the Renaissance, books, and research papers. humanism, mercantilism, and the end of The sixth information revolution, the feudalism. Printing marked the start of the Information Highway, is now being con- modern world. structed out of the convergence of com- The third information revolution, the puter, broadcasting, satellite, and visual Mass Media Revolution, began in western technologies. Communication is shaking Europe and the eastern United States dur- off transportation for work, study, and ing the middle of the nineteenth century, play. Yet, if the information-elite can live xviii A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION anywhere, doubt arises about the future of more specialization of knowledge than our cities, which grew with the centripetal previously existed. They also led to an demands of the Industrial Revolution cou- overloading of information and to an in- pled with sharp population increases. crease in misinformation. If economies depend upon information, • As each information revolution has run what does the future hold for vast areas of its course, which was based on the the globe that are not fully plugged into the widening availability of the tools of com information streams? What will happen to munication, content broadened. More our interdependent world of instant com- producers sent a greater amount of infor munication and weapons of mass destruc- mation on a greater variety of subjects tion if these areas continue to respond with over more channels to more and more economic stagnation, environmental de- receivers. struction, and overpopulation? Can we af- • The spread of media production, emanat ford to let the Information Highway bypass ing from a multiplicity of independent any communities? thought, led to increases in what post The pace of information revolution is modernism identifies as decentering and speeding up. The second revolution ar- fragmentation, with a widening of the rived 1,700 years after the first crested. The expression of points of view, frames of last four, each quite distinct, have over- reference, experiences, and histories. lapped during the last two centuries.3 Although by definition postmodernism followed modernism, elements of a dis Shared Characteristics tinctive pattern have been a charac Each information revolution appears to teristic of every information revolution. • Each new communication technology share certain characteristics with the others: has displaced some other means of com • Each is based upon the invention of more munication or behavior that had been than one tool of communication, such as satisfactory until the new technology be papyrus and the phonetic alphabet, paper came available. When something was and printing, or television and satellites. gained, something of value may have Their convergences have had powerful been lost. effects. • All tools of communication have had one • Each took place where change of a differ or more hardware components and at ent sort was stirring the society and least one software component; that is, where a social structure existed that en physical tools and methods or systems. abled change to occur, such as those in As the tools reached more hands, both modern Western democracies. hardware and software became more • The tools of communication gave social complex, but they became simpler to and political changes added dynamism manage. Their unit costs dropped and and were themselves given a forward they were also likely to shrink and to thrust by those other changes, a symbi transmit data faster. otic relationship of cause and effect.4 • The need for physical transportation to • Information revolutions tended toward send information has been reduced as some leveling of conditions for those who communication replaced transportation participated in them. Their results tended of messages. to be egalitarian. They pointed toward a • The tools of communication have been greater degree of democratization or diffused, or distributed, across most of sharing of influence than previously ex the societies into which they were intro isted. Where the use of the tools has been duced, or at least that portion of each limited, both in ancient times and now, society that gave—or gives—direction to human beings have been less free. the whole of that society; in short, the • The changes wrought by these disper tools were in the hands of each society's sions led toward a greater sharing and movers and shakers. In fully open de- WHAT ARE INFORMATION REVOLUTIONS xix

mocracies, many of the tools are avail- cation and group activity. In extreme able to those who want them. cases, a social dysfunction has resulted. • • Changes in communication encountered Unlike political revolutions, the dates of opposition from those who, for political social revolutions, including information or financial reasons, disliked the changes revolutions, do not lend themselves to taking place. Reaction was inevitable pinpointing. All the information revolu- from those who must surrender a share tions had more or less identifiable begin- of influence and power. They responded nings. None has truly ended. both by using the media themselves and by trying to control their use by others. However, given enough time media The Power of Information availability has continued to spread. Communication media intrude into our • New literacies have arisen to accommo lives more than most of us realize. They date the new communication technolo influence our daily activities. We cannot gies, from the phonetic alphabet of the ignore them or abandon them. When we first information revolution to the com use them judiciously, we harness their puter codes of the latest. With each new strength. language has come a new class of experts At a national level they have assisted in fully aware of the advantage emanating overthrowing governments. The tools have from the hoarding of their knowledge. worked quite efficiently in the hands of • As to the belief that the average citizen those who would sell us every known form lies increasingly helpless under the heel of government from democracy to fascism, of political and economic tyrants who communism to theocracy. From Tom dominate the media and suppress free Paine's Common Sense pamphlets to Mao's dom of thought, history tells the opposite little red books and the Ayatollah Khome- story. The dissemination of the tools of ini's audiotapes, media have been used as mass communication has increased the tools of revolution. Lenin's smuggled writ- potential for social protest, and to that ings promoted the Bolshevik revolution extent it has made humankind more free, and the underground samizdat of writers not less. Their limitation has the opposite living under communism promoted its result. end. • Tools of communication were influenced Electronic tools have now joined the by marketing considerations. Within the printed tools to bring added breadth to boundaries of available technology and revolutionary fervor. Our age has also wit- scientific possibility, communication nessed successful media use by those who tools ultimately have become what their have no apparent ideology, no political users wanted. agenda other than to grow rich or influen- • The technology has changed markedly, tial. but not people's tastes or interests. The Even if control of information does not old wine is poured into the new bottles. always include responsibility, it does bring • Use of communication media, their ef influence by journalists and other writers fects multiplied by their convergence, for the popular media, whom Witold led inevitably to the separation of their Rybczynski calls the "ragmen of informa- users. Herein lies a dilemma. The tools tion." have given us communication without transportation, yet we still possess a hu While secondhand experience still depends, man need for face-to-face contact. to a certain extent, on personal contact- rumor and hearsay—the greatest single • Heavy personal use of the tools of com source of most people's secondhand experi- munication has been accompanied by ence is neither education nor conversation, less social activity. The more time spent but the media: newspapers, magazines, film, with mass communication, the less time radio, and television. Nowhere is the has remained for face-to-face communi- influence of these ragmen of information XX A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

felt more than on the public perception of these individual toolsheds that the Infor- 6 technology. mation Highway will have its offramps. The information will be cheaper, ena- Highway and Village bling larger segments of the population to ride on the Highway and dwell in commu- Much consideration will be given in this nication toolsheds. At the turn of the cen- book to what is called the Information tury, the cost of renting a telephone for a Highway. To abuse an overworked meta- month represented about two weeks wages phor, let us note that highways have direc- for an average workman. The first com- tions, and their travelers have points of mercial television sets sold for half the cost departure and destinations. As the tele- of a new car. Just a few decades ago the phone companies, cable companies, and thought of self-publishing anything except broadcasting companies pour the cement, via mimeograph was almost out of the there are strong indications that this new question for middle-class Americans. To- highway is not coming from the public day, even making a movie is not beyond a library or the news office despite the pub- middle-class purse. licity releases, as much as it is coming from the cinema, the shopping mall, and the video arcade. What we, the audience, want Sorting Media from Content is oftentimes the stuff of dreams. Why do we believe what we believe? What And where is this information highway are the sources of our opinions and atti- going? It is not heading toward the "global tudes? Although the answers to such broad village." Marshall McLuhan was correct in questions are complex, it is obvious that foreseeing the technological possibility of a almost everything we know about present "global village" in which most of human- events beyond our limited horizons comes kind could share information.7 However, from media. In this we are different from his metaphor of a village, where folks nor- ancestors who learned most of what they mally communicate by talking face to face, knew through direct experience. If not presumes that radio and television are re- from such current events media as newspa- turning us to an oral culture; for example, pers, radio, and television, our information "...the electric implosion now brings oral has come from books, the storehouses of and tribal ear-culture to the literate West."8 human memory. At times our information Yet, broadcasting although it strikes the is mediated through other people who de- ear, has not returned us to an oral culture, rive their information from communica- which is based upon a two-way, limited tions media and may distort it in the scale of information on a human dimen- process. sion. Instead, one-way radio and television, It is a highly arguable point, but in rela- plus their content of recordings and motion tive terms of societal good, what we are pictures, are oral versions of the limitless watching, the content, may not matter as quantity of information that identifies a much as the way we shape our lives around written culture that no single human being media. The medium, Marshall McLuhan can, absorb in its totality. told us, is the message. The effects of con- A further reality has been that only on tent are quite independent of the effects of rare occasions, such as a lunar walk, the using the medium carrying it. For example, Olympic Games, or the Gulf War, do we the effects on a child of watching violent venture together into the shared space of a cartoons and junkfood commercials on a global village. Mostly, we prefer to retreat Saturday morning are quite distinct from into our homes, where we now spend so the effects of spending the entire Saturday much of our time with so many communi- morning watching television, no matter cation media that our homes can be what is on. thought of as communication toolsheds, It has been argued that the problem with which is another focus of this book. It is to television, a justifiable focus of irritation, is WHAT ARE INFORMATION REVOLUTIONS xxi that society, especially producers and edu- Shaping and Being Shaped cators, has not fully marshaled its re- As we spend time with the tools of commu- sources to use the television medium nication, we spend less time with one an- wisely, or in fact to consider this medium other. Fewer Americans attend town or the way we regard the medium of books as school meetings. Voter turnout has de- existing for more than financial gain. Yet, clined. At the same time, distrust of govern- a visit to the paperback racks of any drug- ment has grown. Memberships in the PTA, store will remind us that books are not the League of Women Voters, and labor always used as means of acquiring knowl- unions is down, while social distrust is up. edge. It is useful to distinguish content Fewer volunteers turn out for the Boy from the carriers of content, media. Scouts, Red Cross, Lions Club, Shriners, and Jaycees.9 The nation has drifted from De- Tocqueville's observation in the early nine- Replacing Transportation teenth century that Americans liked to Through recorded time, most communica- form civic associations. In organizations tion depended upon transportation. Infor- whose membership has increased, like the mation was bound by human limitations, Sierra Club, the National Organization of the sound of a voice, the time it took a pair Women, and the American Association of of feet, or a horse, or a ship to reach a Retired Persons, people do not normally destination. Communication technology attend meetings. changed that. Human limitations fell away. McLuhan observed that not only the me- The promise of the Internet and the rest dia are shaped. As the technology is shape4 of the Information Highway is even more for and by its users, the technology shapes replacement of transportation. Shopping the users. It shapes our lives and our views. by electronic catalog, working and learning When enough people adopt a new means at home via computer modem and facsimile, of communication so that people change video teleconferencing in place of business the way they go about their daily activities, travel, acquiring specialized education, the society itself is altered. and receiving computer-assisted diagnostic medical care are all reporting success. ... in operational and practical fact, the me- If significant parts of one's work, mar- dium is the message. This is merely to say keting, education, entertainment, and that the personal and social consequences of well-being can be accomplished without any medium—that is, of any extension of leaving home, will more people choose to ourselves—result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension live in the countryside instead of in cities of ourselves, or by any new technology. ... or suburbs? Will they choose San Francisco the "message" of any medium or tech- and commute electronically to Omaha in- nology is the change of scale or pace or pat- stead of living in Omaha? Such a pattern tern that it introduces into human affairs.10 could lead to a further decline in cities. Population transfers resulting from For example, the ways that we use a com- technology are not new. The Industrial puter changed because the technology Revolution shoveled people out of the changed. Because it is more efficient than countryside into cities. The post-World War it used to be to work on an airplane or even II shift of middle-class families from the in a taxi weaving through traffic, people city to the suburbs, a move encouraged by now work who once relaxed while traveling the technologies of cars and highways, al- by reading a magazine article about some- tered American life. A new population shift thing unrelated to their work, or staring out based on the emerging communication of a window and thinking, or chatting with technologies promises to shake up life as a seatmate. Now the traveler works. We much as these earlier mass movements changed the media and then the media did. changed us. xxii A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Difficult Beginnings of the technology to that end. Before the Many tools of communication began with turn of the century, Bell's telephone com- quite limited ownership. For the centuries pany, formed soon after the telephone's when books were hand produced by monks invention in 1876, had become AT&T. By and booksellers, most people lived out their 1920, a web of telephone wires provided lives not knowing that such a thing as a long distance service for much of the coun- book existed, let alone ever seeing a book. try, and conducting business by telephone For a half century after its invention, the had become a norm of American business. still camera was a complicated piece of Some common tools of communication equipment for the serious hobbyist and the may have begun their public existence as professional. Even though ordinary people novelties beyond most people's under- aspired to own photographs they did not standing of how they could possibly have think of owning a camera. The videotape any meaning to daily life, yet as they were recorder and the video camera were not diffused into society, the public found that initially designed for untrained hands. Sci- meaning. Public feedback led to further entists alone worked with the first comput- refinement, which in turn led to new uses ers. In 1943 IBM chairman Thomas Watson by yet more people. Photography, for in- said, "I think there is a world market for stance, had value for almost no one except maybe five computers." hobbyists until a steady stream of improve- Some familiar means of personal comments led first to a demand for family pic- munication began as tools of government tures and later to a rush to own simple and business, but achieved success in per- cameras that required only the push of a sonal use. The world's postal systems, a real button. Market driven, photography flowed communication technology, belong to this into art and journalism. It spread to printed category. In the last quarter of the nineteenth media and, in motion pictures, photogra- century, the typewriter, the telephone, the phy spawned a new medium of arguably phonograph, and the radio all saw the first greater impact than its own. light of day as aids to the world of com- As the quality of communication tools merce. In the twentieth century, audiotape, improved and their advantages became videotape, and the computer evolved with known, they spread throughout their po- no idea that millions of ordinary people tential market. Their costs dropped in the would take them into their homes. Those pattern of the so-called "calculator syn- familiar business and government tools, the drome" that has affected the entire elec- fax machine and the copier, are in the proc- tronics industry. Engineers also improved ess of joining them in the home. designs to make the equipment easier to Not all technologies showed immediate operate. The "buttons" went inside. Video promise. The telegraph and the computer cameras and decks, once limited mostly to went through periods of government sup- television stations and industries, meta- port and little public acceptance. In time, morphosed into camcorders, a hot selling they altered our world. item for the home. As a result, for a growing New technologies found acceptance number of families, spoken words and pic- when their superiority over existing tech- tures have replaced words written on paper. nologies for specific uses was recognized, A letter to a distant loved one is sent in the but diffusion required an infrastructure that form of a video. In high schools, the video extended far beyond an invention, bringing yearbook joins the familiar bound version. together elements of business, finance, engineering, and government regulation. Businesses and individuals adopted the tele- Life Is Different phone because it offered an attractive alter- The success of the means of communica- native to communication by mail and tion in becoming almost transparent to the telegraph. Then structures grew in support user has the unintended effect of leading WHAT ARE INFORMATION REVOLUTIONS xxiii us to overlook their individual and collec- Recent telephone technologies like cel- tive impact on the society. lular phones and facsimile machines have For example, consider the percentage of affected some occupations, such as selling our lives devoted to watching a television real estate and the lunch trade of some city screen. The set is on in the average Ameri- restaurants. In the late 1980s and the early can home for more than seven hours a day. 1990s, cellular and fax were hot items in Our general sense that life is different than news stories and full page ads, so they got it was only a few short years ago—more a lot of attention, but telephone answering comfortable or more dangerous, more un- machines, based on a simple technology, der our control or more beyond it—may fail never were exciting. Yet, when we arrive to lead us thoughtfully to consider that at home each evening, because of its time- among the reasons that we regard life as shifting advantage the answering machine different is the time we spend looking at may be our first stop after opening the front phosphor dots. It is just a step from regard- door. It liberated us from the need to be ing life as different to regarding life as physically near the telephone if we awaited strange. That may raise some concerns and an important call. It will remain an impor- unease that can affect our attitudes about tant tool of communication until the tele- the world around us. Heavy television us- phone itself shrinks to a cellphone that is ers, for instance, tend on the whole to be as convenient to carry as a wallet, and we more fearful persons than non-users. As a are always "at home." result of our concerns, we may hesitate to go out at night, we may buy a deadbolt lock or a large dog, and we may vote for a law- It is the communication tools themselves and-order candidate for mayor, all without and their effect upon the societies into the attendant recognition that our which they were introduced that compose attitudes can be traced to one of the tools these chapters, the communication tools of communication in the toolsheds that we that we all pick up as comfortably as a call our homes. Saturday sweater.

Political Tools and Weapons

Russian television carried the horrors from The power of the tools of mass commu- Chechnya, of hungry dogs circling the nication first to shake and then to shape corpses in Grozny. For decades such national policy was evident on the streets scenes, neither photographed nor transmit- of American cities during the Vietnam War. ted, did not disturb the Kremlin's rigid con- It became clearer in the Soviet Union just trol. No longer. Russia and the rest of the a few years ago. world are far different places now that television cameras see, videotape records, sat- ...while it once appeared that the new media ellites transmit, and television sets in living would enhance the power of governments rooms show. Even if the Kremlin had the (as, for example, Orwell argued in 1984), power it once had to block broadcasts on their effect recently has been the opposite: Russian media, CNN would beam the sig- breaking state monopolies of information, permeating national boundaries, allowing nals from the border of Finland to Vladivos- peoples to hear and see how others do things tok. Jamming a satellite TV signal is differently. It has also made richer and considerably more difficult than jamming poorer countries more aware of the gap radio. With 24-hour-a-day financial transac- between them than was possible a half tions and the penetration by global news century ago, and stimulated legal and illegal agencies, we live in what is becoming a migration.11 borderless world. xxiv A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Arresting Gorbachev On just one data network between Moscow In 1991, a cabal of old-guard Communist and Helsinki, 13,000 messages were leaders tried to overthrow the more liberal counted. Fax machines and cellular phones government of Mikhail Gorbachev. The So- carried reports to distant corners of the viet President, his family, and aides were empire, emboldening those who opposed placed under house arrest in a villa on the the coup. Self-printed samizdat were aug- Crimean peninsula hundreds of miles mented by the electronic magnitizdat. In south of Moscow. The plotters did their best the end, the plotters of a return to the to shut down telephone, radio, and televi- tyranny of the past were undone, at least in sion communication. But something went part, by the tools of the Information Age. wrong. The plotters were either not aware Nowhere have the effects of the informa- of the Internet, the globe-girdling network tion revolution of the twentieth century of computer networks, or they did not been more evident than in nations where worry about it. They should have. Boris information clashed with autocratic rule. Yeltsen knew about the enormous network "If it hadn't been for television—and radio, and was tapping it to plot counter strategy too—none of this would be happening." with experts at NATO. Some of his state- Those were the words of a friend who has ments, relayed back to the Soviet Union by long experience of Russia and Russians. We the Voice of America, rallied public sup- were watching news reports of jubilant port. At the same time, shut off from what crowds in Red Square as tanks retreated. was going on, Gorbachev and his aides rum- Only a few years ago, she said, all of the dirty maged around in the basement and came business of the coup could have been carried up with some old radio sets in working out in secret. But now, "because of television, order. They were able to pick up signals nothing can be hidden." Or, as a State from the BBC, the Voice of America, and Department official told the Washington Post, "The bottom line is, you can't lie to people any Radio Liberty. Reports of the coup and its more. You're going to get caught."14 collapse made it easier for Gorbachev to act quickly to resume power. The coup failed and, in the days1 that Tiananmen Square followed, a stunned world listened as the An earlier round of communication wiz- Soviet empire fell apart. That world of lis- ardry came to widespread public attention teners included the people of the Soviet in China, a millennium and more ago the Union themselves, who were denied local wellspring of such communication technol- radio. ogy as paper and printing, but now its re- "They have closed the papers, but that's cipient. The events in Tiananmen Square not so important," said Vladimir Sluzhekov, are further evidence that the tools of com- a reporter, as he stood by a surging crowd munication can make life difficult for even of demonstrators. "The radio—that's what the most determined dictatorships by send- hurts. Without the radio, no one knows ing out text and pictures where the govern- what's going on except the people who are ment preferred silence and darkness. right here."12 Early in the summer of 1989, taking ad- However, through glasnost, the policy of vantage of an influx of foreign reporters openness, they were getting access to covering the state visit of the Soviet leader worldwide radio and television sources Mikhail Gorbachev, a thousand university from the streets of Moscow. students in Beijing occupied Tiananmen Square and began a hunger strike as a pro- I think the histories of these incredible three test against the rigid government of China. days will focus heavily on Radio Free Europe An estimated 300,000 protesters supported and the Voice of America and the BBC, for them in Beijing as demonstrations erupted relaying back to the Russian people what in cities across China. Some students in Boris Yeltsin was saying.13 Tiananmen Square sculpted their own ver- WHAT ARE INFORMATION REVOLUTIONS XXV sion of the Statue of Liberty, the "goddess Meanwhile, renegade Chinese students of freedom and democracy." The world abroad mobilized telephones, facsimile watched, stunned, as television news sto- machines, audiotape, the mails, and the ries and pictures were beamed out by sat- Bitnet telecommunications network to ellite day after day. keep abreast of the latest news. At first, Deng Xiaoping's government appeared just as shocked. Then it unrolled an The fax machines are, in a way, the fuel of intense campaign of disinformation while the (Chinese) revolution. The faxed materials it tried to put an end to the western cover- inform, encourage, embolden the young age by pulling the plugs on the satellite revolutionaries. They have become the wall feeds, but its efforts at censorship were posters of this generation. Never has there been anything like it.15 circumvented, mostly by now familiar tools of communication, but partly by a Newsweek reported: new piece of equipment, the Pixilator, an electronic device that broke an individual The students collected about 1,500 fax num- video frame into bits for transmission over bers in China from anyone who knew them. an ordinary telephone line. The govern- They posted the numbers on their computer ment's efforts to limit what the camera was bulletin boards and sent their messages able to photograph were also frustrated by without any idea who was at the other end— small, low-light 8mm cameras which, in the electronic equivalent of a note in a the hands of one resourceful photographer, bottle. In China, students, hotel waiters or was hidden in a shoebox tied to a bicycle. office workers retrieved the messages; then they were reproduced by the hundreds in The flyaway portable satellite uplink 16 found effective employment in Beijing. photocopiers and put on public display. Brought there by a CNN crew to supple- They fed back into Chinese cities outside ment the overworked Chinese uplinks dur- Beijing what was happening in their own ing the visit by Soviet President Gorbachev, capital city. Faxes, multiplied by copier ma- a flyaway uplink was transmitting video chines, sometimes ended up as wall post- pictures accompanying television news re- ers, a simple but effective news distribution ports when the student demonstrations be- system. In at least one city, Nanjing, large gan. The Chinese government could not crowds gathered around boom boxes tuned "pull the plug," for in this case it was not loudly to the Voice of America. Elsewhere their plug. The CNN signal traveled a com- the direct-dial telephone and the photocop- plex route. Its transmission frequency was ier spread the news. converted from Ku-band to C-band as it moved from Beijing to a satellite to a relay station in California to another satellite to Now from China comes the news that the police are guarding the fax machines. What the CNN news center in Atlanta, then was comes next, house arrest for the telephone? returned to Beijing two seconds later as Interrogation for the portable computer and part of a satellite newscast, a trip of 200,000 its modem? Will we see a cellular phone in miles. The pictures were sharp, dramatic, manacles? and so damaging to the Chinese govern- There is something horribly appropriate ment that the CNN crew was commanded about the attempt by this government to to stop the transmissions. As the city was take back the fax. It is not just the student under martial law, the journalists had little leaders who are being held responsible for option but to comply. Yet, they had accom- protests this time. Nor is it just reporters plished much because the entire world was who are being expelled for spreading the word. It is the demon of communication witness to the protests. technology itself... When the Chinese government-run tele- In China, days of protest and repression vision broadcasts did not reveal the truth have shown the relationship between infor- about the demonstrations which spread mation and freedom, technology and de- rapidly from city to city, people across mocracy. Between fax and facts.17 China turned to overseas radio broadcasts. xxvi A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

A Wall Street Journal article added this: television what Solidarity had done in Po- land. When I was in Romania, I learned that Can the (Chinese) government keep news the revolution over there began in the small reports from making their way back to city of Timasoara because Timasoara hap- China? Fax machines in this country have pens to be on the border with Yugoslavia and been speeding photographs and newspaper Hungary, and it was there that they— as articles across the Pacific ever since the pro- distinct from the rest of the Romanians and tests began. International phone lines are the rest of the country—saw CNN broadcasts humming... China's 40,000 students in the at one o'clock in the morning on Romanian U.S. write letters home. Hong Kong televi- television explaining to them what was sion is picked up in Canton. The Voice of happening in Hungary. America.. .is reportedly ready to transmit In other words, the interaction that ex- from a jam-proof site in the Philippines. ists, exists on such a level that it is produc- China's days as an isolated empire are ing revolution in the world today. It is definitively over. producing changes, the substance of which The Chinese may call their country the is absolutely indisputable. Middle Kingdom, but it's really just a billion-citizen suburb of McLuhan's global Some version of media-aided uprising village.18 could be found from Chile, where banned movies, documentaries, and protest music The government at last put an end to the were circulated on videotapes, to the Baltic protests by brutal repression at night, at an countries, where videos of protest demon- hour when the camera's eye saw only strations were shot. In the Philippines, a dimly, then began a public relations cam- "living room video" of news reports of the paign by all its available means of mass assassination of President Ferdinand Mar- communication to create a different real- cos' political opponent Benigno Aquino was ity. Meanwhile, the satellite pictures from among the videotapes widely copied and the West were examined by government shown to groups of people gathered in liv- authorities to identify protesters to be ar- ing rooms. Spliced-together newsreels were rested. Some of those pictures were shown available as video rentals. Massive mailings on Chinese television to enlist public help of news clippings added fuel to the fires of in locating protesters who otherwise might anger that eventually toppled Marcos and have gone into hiding to form an under- brought Aquino's widow, Corazon Aquino, ground movement. to power.20 From the start, the events of May and Governments have proven virtually June in China were not only reported by powerless to stop determined underground the tools of mass communication, they exchanges of media. In many developing were altered by them. Never had more countries, television sets and videotape re- dramatic evidence been offered of the corders set up in villages to carry govern- power of communication technology to al- ment-approved material were being ter the course of history. diverted to whatever videocassettes the villagers found more interesting. Some gov- The Infection of Mass ernment agencies supply and advertise Communication entertaining tapes just to attract villagers, hoping they'll stay for their own tapes. Peo- To stop the infection brought by free access ple tune out state television to view a wide to mass communication, governments take selection of cassettes.21 whatever steps they can get away with short of engendering revolts in the streets. If VCRs and videocassettes had never done ABC's Ted Koppel saw at first hand how anything but alleviate the oppressions of easily the contagion can spread. censorship, they would have earned an important place in history. Their powers have When I was in China last year at this time, not stopped there, but have extended in in- the Chinese students over there did much numerable directions. Videotaped press re- of what they did because they had seen on leases, home made videotapes of hostages WHAT ARE INFORMATION REVOLUTIONS xxvii

passed to the mass media by terrorist groups, public demand, inflamed by those pictures, and individual purchases of satellite and to do something. cable TV time to show specially prepared All this the journalists reported, for jour- videos, are a few of the new means of nalists and terrorists, pursuing parallel individual political expression made possible 22 paths for what Margaret Thatcher called by this medium. the "oxygen of publicity,"25 act out of dis- tinctly different motives, but share the goal Terrorism and the Media of seeking maximum drama from the tak- That we live in the midst of an information ing of hostages. revolution is not by itself a cause for celebration. If one component of revolutionary Clandestine Radio fervor is the demand to be heard, then the wish can be granted without overthrowing Unapproved, clandestine radio stations a government. No one knows this better have been broadcasting for decades, fre- than the modern terrorist who neither quently from a transmitter outside the tar- knows nor cares to know his fellow air or get country's borders, so its government ship travelers, through whom he can cannot shut them down. Often an opposing achieve the heady experience of reaching a government supports the clandestine sta- global audience. tions, a fact ignored in the broadcasts, which claim to be "The voice of a free...... The terrorist operating within (a liberal) (name of country)." Where conflict exists, society knows that his acts of terrorism will either civil war or strife between nations be instantly publicized by the television, clandestine radio has become a weapon. radio and press and that pictures of a really During the Cold War, such radio stations sensational attack or outrage can be relayed round the world with the aid of TV satellites.23 were scattered across Europe, Asia, and Africa. Another comment on the same subject: It should have come as no surprise that the end of the Cold War brought an increase The terrorists and the TV executives cooper- in the number of clandestine stations. Al- ate in raising terror and ratings. There would though it seemed to be time to sign off the still be terrorism without TV, but it wouldn't 24 air, many stations that had existed because have much impact on us. of the hostilities between the United States Beirut and Iranian hostage takers sporadi- and the Soviet Union did not do so. They cally issued photographs and videotapes of kept broadcasting because the new free- their American and European victims that doms and halting movements to democ- American and European journalists racy unleashed nationalistic fervor and eagerly featured on the front pages of their demands for change. The numbers of pro- newspapers and played and replayed on ducers of media have increased because television newscasts. As anticipated, public there was influence to be had. opinion, pricked by hostage relatives, was Opposition television may not be far be- aroused by their cries to their governments hind. A report from the laboratory prom- to do something. Thus, the forceful political ised direct broadcast satellite reception to tools of media were employed to generate anyone with a receiver the size of a dinner the emotions essential to undergird foreign napkin. policy shifts in democracies. What lasting Censorship does not block news flow as effects they had is arguable, but they cer- it once did. Shepherds now receive news as tainly augmented the general impression quickly as national leaders do. Goat herd- that Jimmy Carter was an ineffectual presi- ers in Siberian villages now watch their dent. The disastrous helicopter effort to republic's news each night and they're talk- 26 rescue the hostages in Tehran grew out of a ing about it. Bedouins on their camels listen to radios as they cross the Sahara. xxviii A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Middle Eastern Examples of Ayatollah Khomeini sent fiery pronounce- Media's Force ments from his Paris exile on audiotapes that were transcribed and either Xeroxed or In the Middle East, the rapid spread of mimeographed. A Tehran University pro- transistor radios was credited with having fessor commented, "We are struggling contributed to the resurgence of Arab na- 27 against autocracy, for democracy, by tionalism. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein means of xerocracy."32 Clandestine radio banned typewriters for years, perhaps re- stations located outside Iran pumped in calling his own use of a typewriter and a more messages. When the call to revolution mimeograph machine as he plotted to seize came, the masses responded. The opposi- power. In remote Balochistan, deep in the tion made itself felt in the streets in 1978 mountains of Pakistan, radio made the dif- with strikes and demonstrations, aston- ference: ishing observers with well orchestrated demonstrations of as many as three million ...illiteracy here was ninety-five percent but 33 everyone seemed to have a radio, and in the people. most isolated villages tribesmen were agile in discussing world affairs. Undeveloped Through centuries of war, battle plans were Balochistan certainly was; backward it roughly the same: secure the main garrison certainly was not.28 or palace. When the new flag went up, it was all over. High ground is now the transmission tower; the new flag is a different Meanwhile, Israelis and Jordanians contin- 34 ued to watch each other's television pro- face in the anchor's chair. grams. Pakistanis watched Indian movies For would-be revolutionaries, the tools of while their armies sniped at one another. communication have the decided advan- An interesting if perverse example of tage of privacy over public rallies as a way the power of tools of communication arose to spread the message.35 Messages of hate in Iran during the 1970s, where the govern- and calls to revolt can be received in the ment of Shah Reza Pahlevi, an absolute privacy of the home, where no stranger monarch, used communication -exten- intrudes and where virtually no danger ex- sively, but did so counterproductively. His ists of the policeman's billy club. regime rapidly acquired a formidable arse- nal of broadcasting equipment and computers for information storage and retrieval.29 New World Information Books and films were censored or refused Order publication. Macbeth and Hamlet were pro- The U.N. was at the center of a controversy hibited because they showed the murder of 30 about transmitting information that gov- a king. ernments did not like across their frontiers. UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, At the same time, with effects that were more subtle but no less real, the TV por- Scientific, and Cultural Organization, was trayal of upper and middle-class standards of the forum of bitter debates about the world- living must have augmented the sense of wide flow of information. The argument of injustice, envy and outrage felt by the poor many Third World countries was that the and the devout.31 principal news agencies, controlled in the industrialized West, distorted what was go- Countering the government's control of ing on in the developing nations by empha- television and other "large media," a com- sizing natural and man-made disasters, munication network of "small media" arose dictatorship, government corruption, and across Iran, centered on 90,000 mosques backwardness. The spread of such stories supplemented by meetings in lecture halls around the world, it was argued, accom- and private homes where audiotapes carry- plished little more than to humiliate the ing religious messages were either played developing countries and harm their ef- or read in mimeographed transcripts. The forts at improvement. WHAT ARE INFORMATION REVOLUTIONS xxix

It was further argued that, because of the cation Order has yet to be established, but the diffusion of the tools of communication, issue has not disappeared. Whatever the out- like inexpensive shortwave portable radios come, the quarrel has shown the influence in the huts of peasants, the power of West- of modern tools of mass communication on ern-based media, with their Western cul- life in even the most remote of villages. ture and biases, had become too great, poking into the countries being examined Cultural Imperialism and undermining them. The flow of news between First and Third World nations was Entertainment supplies another form of in- deeply imbalanced. Direct broadcast satel- formation, so it came as no surprise when lites posed an even greater threat as their governments of smaller nations around the signals spilled over into many countries globe sounded the alarm at what they with televised entertainment, carrying in- defined as the "cultural imperialism" of West- formation and culture beyond the power of ern, especially American, fictional televi- national governments to counter. sion fare. American attitudes, at least those Censorship and jamming cannot halt the displayed by Hollywood and the television communication flow across porous bor- networks, toward the family structure, gov- ders. What Third World countries proposed ernment executives, the police, sex, and was a New World Information and Commu- religious values are by no means uniformly nication Order of international agreements shared around the world. In addition, what about communication. If Western journal- struck American viewers as innocent fun ists chose to ignore a basic tenet of public was viewed with alarm by political leaders journalism—that journalism should serve in some less developed nations because of to improve society—then they should be the potential of situation comedies, soap pressed to do so. operas, and adventure shows to make the Needless to say, proponents of freedom people of their countries dissatisfied with of information bitterly opposed the idea of their own lots when they saw unattainable a New World Information and Communica- levels of freedom and opulence. The poten- tion Order, convinced that much of the tial of mass media as an agent of social opposition stemmed from the fear by these change has not escaped notice beyond our regimes that the media could be a crowbar frontiers. For example, a dispatch from that pried out their entrenched dictator- Reuters: ships. Opponents argued, among other things, that the proposal was nothing more China's television minister called Thursday for vigilant control of programming. Minister than a wish to expand from national to of Radio, Film and Television Ai Zhisheng, international censorship, the purpose of writing in the People's Daily, urged broadcast which was to perpetuate corrupt govern- officials to keep a tight grip on the ments and hide the misery and poverty of flourishing satellite TV market, which over the majority of their populations. Oppo- two years has virtually slipped from nents of the NWICO argued that the fancy government control.... phrases were doubletalk to maintain "Keeping a firm grip on the direction of authority in the hands of dictators who public opinion is an important responsibility already controlled their nation's presses of television as the mouthpiece of the party and microphones. Look, they said, at the and government," he wrote in a long record of journalists either murdered or commentary. silenced by death threats against their Media cultural imperialism, sometimes families or simply the threat of being de- dubbed "Coca-colonization," has been a fa- prived of the relative prosperity permitted miliar subject of debate in international by their livelihood. forums. The argument may never end. At present, it is less heated than in the past, and "A lot of us really admire Americans' way of the New World Information and Communi- living: better houses, better education. I XXX A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

want CNN," said Muhammad Ishgi, a Cham- only slow the process; they cannot stop it. ber of Commerce official in the Red Sea port That does not, however, keep the oligarchs of Jidda. "But there is what you might call from trying, as the Iranian government did an American cultural danger to us, because in 1994 by restricting use and ownership of they show us another way to look at things. They tell us we might do things differently. an estimated 250,000 satellite dishes as a You must know that education is a weapons means of keeping Western influence out. system. It can go either way."37 Some dish owners risked heavy fines, so they disguised the rooftop dishes as air Before the Berlin Wall crumbled and the conditioners. two Germanys were locked together, a sur- As an editorial put it, "Tyranny cannot vey showed that Dresden area residents survive in a nation equipped with fax machines and video cameras, the high tech- were five times as likely to seek permission 38 to leave as other East Germans, grumbling nology of free speech." Other comments: that life under communism was intolerable without the consolation of television from In the long run, a country can't have a mod- West Germany. The city was too distant ern economy or society without its mega- bytes and modems, its phones and fax from the border of West Germany to receive machines. It cannot conduct research or its television signals over the air. After dis- business without the ability of communicate cussion, local authorities in the East Ger- easily, directly, personally.39 man city of Dresden brought West German signals in by cable. Likewise, in Canton, From The Economist: China, observing that rooftop antennae were pointed toward Hong Kong, the com- The telephone, the calculator and the per- munist authorities allowed dubbed ver- sonal computer are gradually outflanking the sions of an American police adventure thought-police. Only places that cannot yet program and a Mexican soap opera. Anec- afford those gadgets, plus the North Koreans dotes like this can be found in other places and Albanians which still manage to control where television is sharply controlled. every corner of life, are immune to the effects of this new wave of self knowledge.40 Economic Freedom with To this short list of media-controlled coun- Political Controls tries can be added the pieces of what once A fundamental question facing countries was Yugoslavia. In Slovenia, Croatia, and, that want economic development along especially, Serbia, rigid controls came with dictatorial political control is whether down on television, radio, and print. Their they can have both in the Information Age. somewhat isolated populations heard a The dictators and oligarchs who run coun- propaganda storm of hatred and lies di- tries want the latest electronic communica- rected at their neighbors. The mutual vili- tions in order to compete in today's global fication by what someone called media marketplace, but they don't want the gangsters, unchecked and untempered by thoughts that pour through them. Exiled other voices, allowed the mutual slaughter dissidents from safe havens in western de- to proceed.41 mocracies are sending home all the subver- "Always we first protected the typewrit- sive material they can by all the media they ers, then the printing presses, and then can, especially these days over the Internet. ourselves," recalled the editor of a Polish Dictators who acquired power by sub- underground weekly newspaper.42 Once versive means complain of western-spon- free, the Polish people continue to use me- sored subversion. They also complain of dia, but far differently: cultural imperialism and fret that their populaces are being ruined by what they Consider a Polish family settling into the Fri- are seeing and hearing via television, radio, day night TV lineup with remote control in computers, and telephones, but they can WHAT ARE INFORMATION REVOLUTIONS xxxi

hand, a cable box atop the color set and a If mainstream politicians could use the me- satellite dish outside the window. dia, so could political extremists. It is not They can flick between lowbrow and necessary to be a political leader to dissemi- high, new American or classic, MTV or the nate opinions. At least one pro-Nazi com- Simpsons. They can tune in CNN or Euro- pean or Polish stations for news or political puter bulletin board managed to surface on discussion. There is the wildly popular satire, the Prodigy network. A racist talk show, "Polish Zoo."... Race and Reason, turned up across the Poland, a country of some 10 million United States on public access cable chan- television sets, all dutifully tuned to propa- nels where it could be taped for later group ganda during the 40-plus years of Commu- viewing.48 Its producer, Tom Metzger, nist rule, is being wired for almost anything hardly a household name, could thus ex- these days. tend his unpleasant opinions far and wide, visible testimony not only to the First Asked what caused the fall of communism Amendment, but to the democratic effects in Eastern Europe, Polish president Lech of the tools of communication. Walesa pointed to a TV set. "It all came from there," he said.44 He also said it was "especially radio (which) brought information The Gulf War prohibited in our country. It raised our The Gulf War was characterized by high- spirits, strengthened faith and hope. It cre- tech weaponry and a public glued to their ated a feeling of togetherness and interna- television sets for what came to be labeled tional solidarity of free people."45 the CNN syndrome. No amateur at manipulating media, the general in charge of the coalition forces was moved to remind eve- Altering American Politics ryone that real blood was being spilled. War, It is not only outside the borders of the said General Norman Schwarzkopf, is "not United States that mass communication a Nintendo game." technology can alter governments. News Yet, it seemed so. The war may have and commentary have been credited—or appeared unreal to some of the hundreds blamed—for helping to bring down Senator of millions of people around the globe who Joseph McCarthy and President Richard watched the bridges and buildings blowing Nixon. up, seeing it through the camera lenses of In 1995, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee the very missiles that struck the targets. A began a campaign for the Republican presi- science fiction unreality accompanied the dential nomination by announcing it on the Gulf War. It was not only the Stealth air- Internet. "No bunting, no pretzels, no planes, the missiles that intercepted mis- beer," said his media adviser, Mike Mur- 46 siles, or the smart bombs, but the cleanliness phy. Vice President Al Gore and Speaker of a Buck Rogers war. We all knew, of of the House Newt Gingrich were among course, that this war like all wars was not leaders who carried politics into cyber- clean, but was filled with pain, misery, and space. There they were joined by everyone death. Yet while we knew it, most of us did from highly organized groups to angry lon- not see it or hear it, so we did not feel it, as ers across the entire spectrum of issues. one should feel wars, in our guts. Instead, we were treated to the glossiest presenta- Each new communications medium in tion to date of the glossiest war to date, at America elevated leaders who could use it. least from the Western perspective. FDR was radio itself. JFK and Reagan thrived on television. But these were unify- The wizardry of mass communication ing mediums, at least when there were only technology effortlessly sent the audience three networks. The nation assembled, liter- ping-ponging from videotape of missiles ally, in front of them to hear and see real- landing to actual live views of incoming time theater. But who could possibly lead a missiles in Saudi Arabia, from statements nation of cybertribes in a time-shifting by officials in Washington to interviews in world with no center stage?47 Amman, from a few moments at a ruined xxxii A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

house in Israel to a walk through a ruined as a long-distance intercom to carry re- neighborhood in Baghdad. ports, notably those of foreign correspon- With these instant images and on-the- dent Peter Arnett, who concluded, "I was spot reports burning in their minds, yet having an impact on what was happening." with virtually no knowledge of events other 6. Remote-sensing technology enabled than those supplied by modern mass com- ABC News to show pictures taken from a munication, people in scores of cities satellite of such scenes as the Kuwaiti oil around the world took to the streets to well fires. (A French commercial satellite support one political course of action or had alerted the world of the Chernobyl another. Government leaders heard them disaster.) and, in many instances, after seeing and hearing the same mass mediated reports, 7. Laptop computers carried by report added their own voices. The full conse- ers were linked by modem with central quences of this public action, informed and news bureaus. That simplified and expe inspired by mass communication report- dited the news dispatches. ing, may not be known for years, but the 8. Flyaway satellite uplinks, relatively likelihood that consequences result from easy to transport, let television correspon mass media is certain, just as consequences dents send live video from remote loca followed news coverage of the Vietnam War tions on short notice. a generation before. General Schwarzkopf 9. The correspondents did so via inter at a military briefing sardonically thanked national data transmission networks, a com reporters who were fooled into believing plex of satellites, uplinks, downlinks, and the fully revealed plans for a seaborne inva- transmission facilities that could focus the sion of Kuwait, a disinformation strategy world's attention on a patch of desert sand. that kept Iraqi guns pointed in the wrong Wire service reporters could call in their direction. stories via portable satellite telephones. A review of what might be called the top 10. Computer graphics added a high- 10 technologies of coverage during the tech glitter to the on-air reports of this Gulf War may be instructive, evidence of high-tech war. the current pace of communications technology: Watching the televised Gulf War or the more recent tank shelling of the Russian 1. E-mail links connected reporters at parliament building, we were now living in newsworthy scenes with producers at dis the world of "Imagine that!" Thanks to com- tribution centers in spite of the turmoil. munication technology it may have 2. Still pictures of high quality destined seemed that we had awakened inside an for newspapers and magazines could be arcade game. Small wonder that, by an sent in either analog or digital form by overwhelming percentage, Americans at radio and ordinary telephone lines. home supported and applauded the Gulf 3. The ability to transmit pictures War, whereas the Vietnam War two decades from the scene of events was matched by earlier brought riots into our city streets. frame capture equipment that received Journalists in Vietnam were enviably them in newsrooms thousands of miles free to roam about. Less enviable were the logistics of television reports. The black- away. and-white 16 millimeter film traveled by 4. Portable facsimile machines could truck, car, and then airplane to the United move reporters' stories and other docu States for processing in a West Coast film ments quickly from any telephone. lab, after which an edited segment was 5. Even when bombs demolished the transmitted to New York at considerable Baghdad telephone exchange, a special sat cost over leased wideband telephone com- ellite uplink permitted by the Iraqi govern pany lines for showing to the American ment only to Cable News Network served public two or three days after the film was xxxiv A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

35 Daniel J. Boorstin, The Americans: The Demo 41 Letter by Karolina Udovicki, The New cratic Experience (New York: Random House, Yorker, 23 May 1994, 12. 1973), 476. 42 Helena Luczywo, editor-in-chief of Tygodnik 36 Minneapolis Star Tribune, 4 November 1993, Mazowsze, reported in Kontakt, No. 6/86, sec. 13E. 1989. 37 Minneapolis Star Tribune, 12 October 1990, 43 The New York Times, 26 November 1993. sec. 11Ae. 44 The Economist, 13 February 1994, 4. 38 Rochester, NY, Democrat-Chronicle, 22 45 Speech to Freedom Forum, Columbia Univer August 1991, sec. 12A. sity, April 1993. 39 Ellen Goodman, The Boston Globe syndica 46 Newsweek, 27 February 1995, 30. tion service, 23 June 1989. 47 Op. cit.: 33. 40 The Economist, 15 October 1988, 19. 48 Ganley, 29.

The First Revolution

Writing

The Invention of Writing

With the cultivation of grains and the do- get what they needed, for even at this early mestication of animals, tribes of hunters, stage of history, the requirements of the fishers, and gatherers could put down roots users were driving the technology. Writing in stable communities, expecting to be able would be the foundation of progress. The to feed themselves from year to year. In tools themselves were ordinary, humble alluvial valleys and deltas, the nomads set- things. What ancient peoples eventually tled down to the more certain life of farm- did with them was not. ers. So it was in the Nile delta of Egypt, Primeval Chinese ku-wan—gesture pic- along the banks of the Indus in northwest tures—preceded pictographs, the picture India, the Yellow in China, and the Tigris symbols that first appeared in Western and Euphrates in the part of Mesopotamia Asia. Native American tribes notched or that is now Iraq, where the Sumerians once painted sticks to convey messages. In South dwelled. Communities grew, conquests America, Incas knotted colored quipu cords united them, governments followed, and to keep complex records. Aside from port- commerce spread. Priests required tribute ability, however, these media were of lim- to the gods and tax collectors came calling ited use. for much of what was left. All of this getting and giving required writing and record keeping. Writing on Clay On what medium were kept all these The Chauvet cave paintings recently dis- records, these calendars and contracts, covered in France are 30,000 years old and these land deeds and calculations? To be those of Lascaux and Altamira perhaps half practical the medium had to be transport- that old. But we must look to the Fertile able, storable, reasonably permanent, read- Crescent, particularly to Mesopotamia, for ily made, and cheap. The writing had to be the long trek to reproducing and storing fixed, so a contract, government docu- spoken language, which began about 8,000 ment, or religious proclamation could not B.C. in Sumer. Small clay triangles, spheres, be altered. The writers of documents would cones, and other tokens were molded to

1 2 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION represent sheep, measures of grain, jars of Advancing Knowledge oil, and other trading goods. These tokens About 3100 B.C., the Sumerians invented served a community as a means of keeping numerals, separating the symbol for sheep track of goods for the purpose of pooling from the number of sheep. So, some re- and redistributing the community's re- 1 searchers believe, both writing and mathe- sources. As status symbols for the elite matics evolved together. The earliest members of the community, they were Sumerian writings were pictographs, sim- sometimes placed in burial sites. The to- ple drawings of objects. Archaeological dig- kens also indicated gifts brought to the tem- gings at Uruk showed that the Sumerians ple for the gods, or brought to a ruler as advanced to ideographic writing, in which tribute, or yielded with the best possible an image or symbol might stand for one or grace to the tax gatherer. more objects; a symbol could also represent The shape of the token carried its mean- a concept. Writing developed into a tool ing. Dozens of different clay tokens aided that was able to communicate ideas. About the accounting over an astonishing period 2 the time that the Sumerians invented nu- of 5,000 years. Starting about 3,700 B.C., merals, they advanced an additional step the tokens were placed in hollow clay balls, with phonetic writing, where the symbol a kind of envelope, for storage. It may have meant the sound of a consonant and a been frustrating that, once the tokens had vowel, thus combining the written and spo- been sealed inside the ball, there was no ken language. The Sumerians had invented way to determine what was inside without syllabic writing, somewhat like the modern cracking the ball open. Sumerian account- Japanese kana, not yet an alphabet. ants figured out that they could identify the Babylon carried its predecessor Sumer- contents of the ball either by fixing an ian and Akkadian cultures to new heights. identical token set into the ball's soft clay Writing, as the Sumerians and the Akkadi- surface or leaving an impression by press- ans did on clay tablets with cuneiform ing each token against the surface before it script, plus a syllabary (each symbol is a hardened. The next step toward writing syllable, usually a consonant and a vowel) was taken by scratching a representation of that they interspersed with ideographs,4 the token in the clay instead of impressing the Babylonians recorded abstract religious the actual token. In surviving specimens in and philosophical thoughts. They classified the world's museums, the shapes of the plants, animals, metals, and rocks. They ad- representation do not match the tokens, vanced knowledge in mathematics, astron- indicating an important step toward ab- omy, and engineering. However, unlike stract thinking.3 Because the outside mark- ings carried the meaning, there was really no need to stuff the actual tokens inside a hollow ball, nor was there really any need for the ball itself. Without the tokens, the ball could be flattened to the shape of a tablet that bore all the information anyone needed. Sumerians also engraved pieces of stone or metal to make seals that, when pressed on the clay of a wine jar, announced its ownership. The stamped seal gave way to the cylinder seal, which was rolled over the wet clay. As it rolled along it reproduced a Figure 1.1 Pictographs carved into clay tablets pattern, a forerunner of the cylinder press enabled peoples of the ancient of our own era. Near East to keep records. WRITING 3

the analytical thinking of the later Greeks, ious writing. From hieratic, a secular ver- the Babylonians mixed logic with supersti- sion, demotic, was conceived for daily use tion and myth.5 such as record keeping and correspon- The most famous of all documents in dence. It was a combination of picture and Mesopotamian history, Hammurabi's legal phonetic writing, yet still not an alphabet. code, written during the eighteenth cen- With demotic writing, the Egyptians had tury B.C. in the Semitic Babylonian lan- developed a writing system that brought guage, was carved on stelae and placed in written communication to a slightly wider temples. Among the nearly 300 laws by this segment of society, but it was still compli- "Mighty King of the Four Quarters of the cated and difficult to master, and it was by World," was a reformed, standard writing no means mass communication. system for the lands he had conquered, extending from present day Syria to Iran. Writing that began in Sumer was later The next step up the evolutionary ladder of adopted by Egypt. How it traveled there is writing beyond the symbolic ideographs not known. Perhaps it moved along the would be an integrated system of symbols trade route that had existed since prehis- for both written and spoken language. In a toric times.6 Hieroglyphics, serving mostly word, an alphabet. Neither the Sumerians for sacred writing, were inscribed on Egyp- nor the Chinese nor the Egyptians, for all tian tomb walls and on pottery. Hiero- their innovations in the uses of writing, had glyphs were used also for recording each produced the simple, practical system in ruler's version of history, not as a way for which one written symbol stands for pne ordinary mortals to communicate with spoken sound, so a combination of visible each other. Egyptian priests formulated a symbols represents what is spoken aloud. second written language, hieratic, for relig- The next step would be the phonetic alphabet.

Skin and Bones and Papyrus

Animal skins and bones, palm leaves and The Latin word liber, referring to the inner oak tree bark, wood and wax, metal and bark of trees, gives us library. From the stone, seashells and pottery, silk and cotton, Anglo-Saxon boc, also meaning bark, we get jade and ivory from elephant tusks have all book. The word volume derives from the been used to store humankind's memory. Latin word for revolve; papyrus scrolls were Other writing media included brass tab- read by unrolling them. The word paper lets and sheets of leather. Homer's Iliad itself comes from the word papyrus. The speaks of messages written on wood. In Greek word for papyrus was byblos, after Roman times, wax coated the wood. That the Phoenician city of Byblos, home of sea permitted reuse, as the wax could be traders who carried the bales of papyrus to warmed and smoothed over, an early recy- the Greek cities. From byblos comes the cling program. The reply to a letter might word bible, meaning book or books. be written on the same letter while the Across the ancient Near East from messenger waited. Officials in Julius Cae- Sumer to Egypt, common, familiar clay was sar's government used such wax tablets to finding use as a writing medium. The clay provide a daily bulletin exhibited in the was sometimes shaped as flat tablets, some- Forum; the Acta Diurna was a precursor to times as octagonal cylinders. Moses re- newspapers. ceived the Ten Commandments on "tablets The familiar vocabulary of the written of stone," which some scholars think were word began to take shape. Pliny speaks of actually sun-dried clay. Historical records early writing on leaves and tree bark. From might be preserved in books consisting of a the practice of writing on palm leaves series of tablets varying in size from one to comes our use of leaf as a page of a book. twelve inches square. 4 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Figure 1.2 Bone inscribed with questions and answers was used to tell the future during the Shang dynasty in China, 1760-1122 B.C.

Ink and inking tools had evolved for Papyrus in Egypt untold centuries. Common soot such as Ancient Egyptians found it in the Nile river collects on pots was mixed with water and delta, the reed called papyrus, growing 10 some vegetable gum like plant sap to pro- feet high along its banks. From it," peasants duce a serviceable ink. A reed cut to a point constructed boats and huts. It would also or a brush of hair from a braying animal prove to be what Durant whimsically served as a pen. termed "the very stuff (and nonsense)" of Systematic written language began with which civilization was made.7 Workers split the Sumerians, who used reeds to scratch the reeds into thin strips, placed one layer marks on tablets of clay. To solve the sticky crosswise over another in close-set rows, problem that a reed scratching into wet hammered them gently for a couple of clay will pull the clay up as it is withdrawn, hours, and let them dry in the sun. A sea- they designed a writing tool with a wedge shell or a piece of ivory was used to smooth tip, resulting in the writing we know as the resulting sheets. The product of this cuneiform. Hardened in fire or the sun's heat, effort weighed little, but lasted for years. thousands of these clay tablets have sur- Glue fastened the sheets end to end to make vived to this day, more durable than paper. a scroll. It could be rolled up for convenient Although the medium of clay offered transport and storage. Scribes could fasten permanent writing and record keeping, the papyrus sheets to form a single piece 30 plus widespread availability, its disadvan- feet or more in length, which they rolled tages of inconvenience and weight limited around a cylinder of wood, metal, or ivory. its value. The makers and keepers of re- Scribes also tied smaller sheets together by cords required something different, a me- passing a string through holes along one dium that ideally was plentiful, cheap, margin, an early form of bookbinding. lightweight, and reasonably durable in the short run.

Figure 1.3 Stylus used in the ancient Near East to write on soft clay. WRITING 5

When we recognize that even in our own The concepts of time and space reflect the time those who can understand certain significance of media to civilization. Media kinds of symbols such as computer pro- that emphasize time are those that are dura- gramming languages have an advantage in ble in character, such as parchment, clay, a computer-dependent society, we can ap- and stone. The heavy materials are suited to the development of architecture and preciate without difficulty what happened sculpture. Media that emphasize space are in Egypt with a shift of writing from priestly apt to be less durable and light in character, control to its widespread use. Egypt under such as papyrus and paper. The latter are the pharaohs around 2000 B.C. underwent suited to wide areas in administration and a transformation from absolute monarchy trade. The conquest of Egypt by Rome gave to a more egalitarian system of organiza- access to supplies of papyrus, which became tion that coincided with a shift to papyrus the basis of a large administrative empire.11 as a medium of communication.8 The flow of power from a tightly organized class, the A civilization using clay, like the Sumerian, pharaohs and the priests of the Theban would be limited in area and would be temples, led to a decentralization of com- concerned with religion and morality, mand. A government that depended upon which change little. On the other hand, a absolute and centralized control, such as civilization using papyrus, like the Roman, that of the pharaohs, weakened as Egyptian would be encouraged to build a vast empire minor officials far from Thebes discovered and would be more concerned with chang- the ease with which they could communi- ing values, such as those of law, administra- cate with each other. tion, and politics. The introduction of writing undermined the magic of the spo- The shift from dependence on stone to de- ken word and the authority and tradition of pendence on papyrus and the changes in the elders, leading toward science and secu- political and religious institutions imposed an larism.12 enormous strain on Egyptian civilization. Reeds gathered along the Nile would Egypt quickly succumbed to invasion from make Egypt a paper mill to other civiliza- peoples equipped with new instruments of 9 tions for an estimated 3,000 years, an attack. astonishing span. Ships leaving the port city of Alexandria carried bales of papyrus The invaders were the Hyksos, sometimes to Athens, Rome, and hundreds of other called the shepherd kings, who proceeded to cities as literacy spread. rule Lower Egypt for a century and may have been the predecessors of the ancient Hebrews, who would leave meaningful Papyrus in Greek Hands writing of their own centuries later. Papyrus widened Greek influence because It was not only that the Egyptians recog- the Greeks were the source of so much of nized the administrative benefits of papyrus. the Mediterranean world's teaching. The The increased writing was accompanied by Ptolemies who ruled Egypt and controlled secularization of writing and also of in- the papyrus industry were of Greek origin. creased thought and activity. Writing on The Egyptian queen Cleopatra was de- papyrus was quicker and more relaxed, scended from one of Alexander's generals. even hasty, compared to the stiff and for- Papyrus saw increasing use in the Hellenic mal stone chiseling. Thought gained light- world. As Greek influence dominated Egypt ness.10 At the same time, new religions under the Ptolemies, the Greek-controlled emerged in Egypt, including the mono- port city of Alexandria in Egypt became the theism of the pharaoh Akhnaton. Human- leading source of book publishing. With pa- kind was at the dawn of recorded history, pyrus and the phonetic alphabet as the yet evidence shows that a means of com- carrier of thought, knowledge and ideas munication had already strengthened its traveled the Hellenic world and returned users. enriched. 6 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

In Egypt and Mesopotamia, the scribes, durable and more universally available was those programmers of the ancient world, also manufactured. enjoyed a high social status because the That was parchment, made from the writing was complex and took much study skin of a sheep, a calf, or a goat. The skin to learn. The scribe's craft even attracted was scraped clean to remove the hairs, recruits from the privileged classes.13 For rubbed smooth with pumice stone, then slave and freeman literacy became a skill dressed with chalk and lime. Ancient writ- worth achieving, a path to a better life. The ers also used vellum, the thin and supple literate, those who could write and read skin of unborn lambs or kids. contracts, oversee commercial dealings, Like papyrus, parchment was rolled up and engage in exchanges of diplomatic as books, with their edges fastened, page notes, achieved a measure of influence. after page, or folded into books, their pages Illiterates hired scribes if it was necessary cut and bound for turning. Both papyrus to conduct written business. and parchment loaned themselves to col- Among the Greeks and Romans, perhaps lecting and archiving. Both were relatively because phonetic simplicities dispelled cheap and easily transported. Parchment the mysteries of the writing craft, slaves had some advantages. It could take writing were trained as copyists, readers, and, in on both sides. It was sturdy and durable, Rome, librarians. For literate household which schoolchildren and travelers appre- slaves, the scribe's life was infinitely bet- ciated, but less so the scribes, for writing on ter than an existence of toiling in the parchment took some physical effort. It fields, and no doubt longer. The scribe kept was actually recyclable, because the ink the family's accounts, noted what was could be removed and the parchment writ- bought, what was sold, how much was ten on again. Perhaps its greatest advan- paid or received for this and that. The tage was that it could be fabricated scribe counted the sheaves of wheat and anywhere there were sheep. Papyrus grew the sheep going to market, recorded the only in the Nile Valley. Parchment also tribute given to the tax collectors and to resisted time better than papyrus. Old the priests. Egyptian scribes, whose trade parchment documents still exist, but al- was literacy, considered themselves su- most no papyrus from ancient times. perior to others, a persistent delusion of Both were to continue in use for centu- the literate. Observing the statue of the ries, interchangeable as writing media. nude Egyptian scribe in the Louvre, Will Which would be used depended upon po- Durant surmised: litical, economic, and cultural conditions. Use of the parchment codex, the cut and He is sedulously attentive and mechanically folded pages written on both sides that industrious; he has just enough intelligence made up a book, expanded at about the not to be dangerous. His life is monotonous, same time that Christianity spread. By the but he consoles himself by writing essays on second century A.D., Christianity had de- the hardships of the manual worker's existence, and the princely dignity of those veloped a strong written tradition with the whose food is paper and whose blood is ink.14 publication in Greek on books of parchment codex of the four Gospels, making them accessible across the known world in Parchment a familiar language. Papyrus had its limitations. Manuscripts The written tradition was strengthened made from the reeds growing along the in the third century as scholars tried to find banks of the Nile eventually turned brittle a synthesis between Hebraic religious be- and disintegrated. Only a very few papyri liefs, which were at the base of Christianity, still survive in libraries, carefully pre- and Greek philosophy, which was at the served. A further limitation, papyrus came base of intellectual life in the Roman em- from one source, Egypt. Something more pire. In this period, the new practice of writing things down overcame the continu- WRITING 7 ing oral tradition of the Hebrew and Greek Indian civilizations from Mexico to peoples. South America used the inner bark of cer- From the Greek phonetic alphabet, so tain trees. Their books survived the ele- essential an element of the first informa- ments, but not the missionaries. A Spanish tion revolution, came the Roman alphabet, missionary in the Yucatan peninsula wrote and from that came other alphabets of in the sixteenth century, "We found a great Western civilization, including English. number of books written with their characters, and because they contained nothing but superstitions and falsehoods about the Other Writing Surfaces devil, we burned them all."15 Papyrus would prove to be less enduring With the fiery charge of Islam in the sev- than the alphabet it carried across the enth century across the Middle East and Greek and Roman civilizations. Half a North Africa, exports of papyrus from Egypt world away, another culture, older and to Europe dropped sharply. Marshall more firmly established than the Greek, McLuhan has argued that this led to declines had long ago learned to rely upon a differ- in bureaucracy, uniform roads, and cities.16 ent, non-alphabetic writing, and upon paper, a medium much cheaper to produce, which would one day sweep into history In Europe, now began centuries of monas- papyrus, parchment, and all other writing tic responsibility for knowledge and infor- surfaces. Yet China, where paper and print- mation. As monasteries were built in ing with movable type were invented, Europe during the Dark Ages of western would never give rise to an information civilization, monks, chiefly Benedictines-, revolution. took up the profession of scribe. Among Paper would not be made from trees their tasks, they were charged with the duty until nearly two thousand years passed, but of transcribing the crumbling old papyrus in their experiments with materials Chi- manuscripts in the libraries onto fresh nese and Japanese paper makers used mul- parchment that was prepared in or near the berry bark for paper that has remained in monastery. To be a scribe was no longer a perfect condition to this day. mean calling. It was to do the work of God.

The Greeks

The Greeks took the alphabetic building alphabet.23 At first the Greeks shaped their blocks of their neighbors to the east and letters like the Phoenician letters. Accord- with them built a soaring edifice. The ing to Herodotus, King Cadmus, the legen- Greek historian Herodotus tells us that the dary inventor of the alphabet, may have Phoenicians introduced writing into the actually been a Phoenician immigrant.24 Hellenic world.22 The date was somewhere They expanded the use of writing well between 1100 and 800 B.C. The Greeks beyond the trading of Canaanite shepherds added vowel sounds and both expanded and Phoenicians sailors to embrace philoso- and contracted the Phoenician alphabet to phy, metaphysics, history, science, mathe- create the uniquely Greek alphabet. matics, medicine, politics, and the arts, The Greeks broke speech down into its using it even for comedy and tragedy. The individual elements. What one community Greeks would seek the abstract visions of could do, others could also. Copied inex- pure truth and pure beauty. The Greek actly and altered locally, the alphabet took genius for abstract thinking, for logic, unique forms wherever it settled. The alpha- analysis, rationality, and plain common bet could serve any language, any dialect. sense would light up Western civilization. Until the end of the fifth century B.C., By separating humankind and its works almost every Hellenic state had its own from the world around it, they conceived 8 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

THE ALPHABET The invention of the alphabet, about 1700 accepted them, enduring values, but underly- B.C., fell to the relatively unlettered Semitic ing many of the religions, an oral culture people in the Sinai and Canaan of modern breathed. The stories of the Old and New Israel, perhaps the Midianites or Kenites of Testaments were told and retold for centuries the Bible. A simplified rendering of the diffi- before someone committed them to writing. cult Egyptian writing for their own spoken So were the god-drenched stories of the Tro- language, it transcribed their spoken lan- jan War, which was fought 500 years before guage so efficiently that it was adopted by someone set down on papyrus the Homeric one tribe after another, each modifying what version of the events. they received to suit the sounds of their own As the use of the alphabet widened, it was language17 copied and inevitably changed. Derived from A version of the Canaanite alphabet was the Phoenician alphabet were the Hebrew adopted by the Phoenicians, living along what alphabet, beginning aleph, bet, said the Greek are now the coastal strips of Syria, Lebanon, alphabet, beginning alpha, beta. To a Phoeni- and Israel.18 Famous as seagoing traders, cian, aleph and bet meant, respectively, ox and their ships plied the Mediterranean, estab- house. Invert a capital A and you may see the lishing colonies in Greece and at Carthage face of an ox. The original bet was in the shape on the North African coast. It should not of a square, a typical house. seem at all odd that such a wide-ranging and Robert Logan has argued that "the phonetic commercially active people would formulate alphabet, monotheism, and codified law were a unified language system, for the alphabet introduced for the first time to the Israelites met the needs of trade. Nor is it surprising by Moses at Mount Sinai in the form of the that such an advance came from this rela- Ten Commandments."20 This hypothesis, tively free society on the Mediterranean startling in itsbreadth, falls in line with abasic coast instead of the controlled and centralized argument of this book, that for an information empire of Persia, or that other equally con- revolution to succeed, there must be new trolled empire spreading from the banks of communication technology reaching people the Nile. who are in the midst of profound change. For With the alphabet, speech itself could be the illiterate slaves who followed Moses out stored. Human communication was now no of Egypt, these conditions were certainly met longer restricted to the temporary sound of a by laws written "with the finger of God."21 And voice. Additionally, the alphabet's simplicity that their history, their myths, and their permitted more of the populace to figure out monotheistic beliefs would be documented in how to use it.19 book after book of what would become the Organized religion that was founded upon Bible, certainly meets any test of an informa- written scriptures set, for the societies that tion revolution that succeeded.

of nature as something separate, an entity Because of the alphabetic script and the worthy of study, and that increasingly availability of papyrus, the Iliad and the meant committing to papyrus as well as Odyssey, the epic poems of Homer, recalled communicating orally. and repeated orally for the previous four centuries by storytellers, were at last written down. Out of the Dark Ages The information revolution gathered The gathering of knowledge in a way that strength over the next century as the first might be characterized as an information readers came into being.25 During the fol- revolution had its faint beginnings in the lowing three centuries, there would be an Hellenic world during the eighth century outpouring of intellectual, artistic, and po- B.C., when the Phoenician alphabet took litical ideas such as the world had never root in Aegean soil. It was the period after seen before and has scarcely known since. the Greek emergence out of the Dark Ages. By the seventh century B.C., the Greeks WRITING 9 must have had papyrus.26 Throughout the inductive reasoning. It left them trying to Mediterranean world, words on papyrus explain a static world existing under an led to a knowledge explosion as scrolls unchanging heaven. Pure deduction based reached isolated scholars. Aristotle could upon incorrect premises would hamper not have gathered the body of known Western science past the Middle Ages. knowledge without the means of creating a Yet, written symbols to objectify speech permanent record on a storable medium. and codify information aided the Greeks Science and medicine could not have ad- and eventually other peoples to govern vanced as they did without ideas, conclu- themselves, to trade, and to express a reli- sions, and reports of experiments written gious faith. Fixing the spoken word on a transportable medium. By the time of changed the human condition.33 Writing Aristotle in the fourth century B.C., the added to humankind's ability to think ab- Greeks, especially the Athenians, had a stractly. reading public, some collections of books, The invention of written language devel- and of libraries. oped over a period of centuries, advancing The burst of Greek lyric poetry has been sporadically in different locations toward attributed to cheap papyrus.27 Access to modern alphabetic systems. Creating an supplies of papyrus brought the copying of additional mode of communication, writ- books and perhaps the first private collec- ing came out of practical need, probably tions. By the fifth century B.C., in Greece a with little experimentation. book market existed.28 In the cities, free Examination of most communication people could read and write. Athens cre- technologies shows a pattern of slow pro- ated a public depository of books in 330 gress that is illuminated occasionally by a B.C., during the lifetime of Aristotle, who sudden sharp advance. Early Greek civili- according to the Greek historian Strabo, zation advanced in a similar manner, a was the first book collector; it was Aristotle laborious crawl that exploded in revolu- who taught the kings of Egypt to set up tionary political, social, and economic proper libraries instead of mere collections changes, interlinked changes in virtually of books, and it is from his collections that every field of life, of which the information we have the word museum.29 revolution was a small but integral part. With Aristotle the Greek world passed It is reasonable to assume that the diffu- from oral instruction to the habit of read- sion of writing sped through society being.30 Aristotle classified as much of the cause it was a sensible way to communicate world's knowledge as he could acquire. (He and archive information. A slave bore or- also observed that writing was useful for ders from a ruler to a provincial governor, making money and managing house- a fellow slave carried messages of eternal holds.)31 Others made great strides in affection between a general in the field and mathematics, medicine, astronomy, geog- his mistress, and a third slave ran between raphy, and biology. Style was introduced to two merchants clutching orders to sell at a written and spoken communication. After certain price, with the written instructions Aristotle, the Hellenic world had a new remaining as a record of the transaction. reality, a written culture functioning along- Commerce beyond the village would come side its oral culture.32 Life would no longer to rely heavily on the diffusion of writing. be the same. In a sense, the first informa- And government officials surely learned tion revolution had ended, and had been a early to love written documents, a love that success, although virtually by definition a has withstood the erosion of the centuries. successful revolution never ends. The Greek city-state evolved over sev- Not everything the Greeks did was per- eral centuries to the limited democracy fect by any means. The principal weakness that was Athens, limited because only a in Greek thought was a reliance on deduc- portion of its residents could become citi- tively derived logical conclusions in prefer- zens.34 Writing and political freedom were ence to observation, experimentation, and the roots for the extraordinary growth of 10 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION what Hegel has called the civil society, a Most Greek scientists worked in isolation.39 domain distinct from government. The That they maintained some written con- spread of democracy may have owed some- tacts and read each other's books seems thing to the spread of literacy that soon. obvious, for the alphabet was known to them and papyrus was available. It seems Even to ostracize (banish) an undesirable natural that they corresponded.40 Greek person from Athens for ten years was only scholars wrote extensively and their writ- possible if 6,000 men each wrote his name, ing was meant to be read by their contem- simultaneously, on individual pieces of os- poraries or to be read aloud in public.41 traca (potsherd). Writing, far from being a (semi-) secret art practiced by a specially With democracy in Hellenic society came a growth in schools for freeborn boys trained elite, was an essential element of 42 Greek democracy.35 and girls. Learning was by rote, but it led to a widening basic literacy. That led in "We who dwell between the Phasis River turn to a greater capacity to acquire infor- and the Pillars of Heracles," wrote Plato mation, and the inescapable thrust toward quoting Socrates, inhabit a small portion of egalitarianism that accompanies commu- the earth, "living around the sea like ants nication. or frogs around a marsh."36 The Greeks dwelt mostly in coastal communities stretching from the eastern edges of Asia A Time of Turmoil Minor and the Black Sea to the western As with all revolutions, the seeds of infor- edges of the Mediterranean, where it meets mation revolutions, when they are scat- the Atlantic Ocean. Athens may have been tered in disturbed soil, plant roots most a leader of culture, but by no means was it deeply to send forth both their flowers and the only center. Away from Athens, in the their weeds. So it was in Athens, the first thousand colonies that constituted the Hel- among the Greek cities, for its economy lenic civilization, were born Greek poetry and politics suitably churned the ground of and prose, history, philosophy, mathemat- ancient Attica centuries before the height ics, and oratory.37 of Greek civilization. Importantly, the Greeks shared a lan- The landowners, the aristocratic Eupa- guage, both spoken and written, that re- trids, were citizens who took power into mained stable for a thousand years.38 To their own hands and reduced the king to a appreciate what this means, consider how figurehead. These oligarchs, living in lux- much English has changed in the six cen- ury in town, sent freedmen and slaves to turies between us and Chaucer, or even the till their fields. Next in wealth, a middle four centuries since Shakespeare. Al- class of professionals, craftsmen, traders, though Greece never had an empire like and other free men were pushed down by those of Egypt, Persia, or Rome, there was the aristocrats and, in turn, pushed down a far-flung Hellenic world traversed by the poorest free laborers. At bottom were ships on the Mediterranean Sea, the high- the slaves. way of a remarkable people. For the knowl- Add to this feudal mix the hard scrabble edge that it carried on papyrus and in the harvests of the stony Greek soil. Coinage heads of travelers, the Mediterranean de- was introduced to replace barter, which serves to be recognized as the world's first proved a great calamity for many. It pre- information highway. cipitated an economic revolution.43 Money After schooling in the academies of Ath- shook up the Aegean world. Commerce ens and other cities, students returned to offered an effective means to disturb the the corners of that wider Hellenic world. feudal society, much as it would prove ef- The amount of communication that contin- fective nearly two millennia later in feudal ued among them can only be guessed at. Europe. The bread one earned by trade has WRITING 11 always tasted richer than the bread earned Supplementing an by sweat. Commerce freed men from de- Oral Culture pendence on the land of the nobility, on herding and farming. Across cultures and Pre-literate societies preserved their histo- centuries, people have ventured into un- ries in what Eric Havelock called "the living memories of successive living people who known lands to better their lives. No matter 47 what their luck, those who survived re- are young and then old and then die." turned home more worldly. If they had not They did so through their oral culture, en- actually moved toward democracy, they riching their lives and enhancing memory had at least taken steps toward leveling the with the verbal and metrical patterns of epic poetry, story, and song. aristocrat's advantage. Commerce by sea and land over long Because they did not require such a tech- distances promoted the use of writing. It nology as writing, many oral cultures did could not have been the case that all not adopt it, as Durant pointed out: wealthy merchants accompanied all the Simple tribes living for the most part in goods they traded to distant ports. Inevita- comparative isolation, and knowing the hap- bly, partnerships formed, goods were con- piness of having no history, felt little need signed, and documents were drawn up to for writing. Their memories were all the keep traders relatively honest. stronger from having no written aids; they Sending men off to fight added to the learned and retained, and passed on to their economic dislocations. Sporadic wars children by recitation, whatever seemed necessary in the way of historical record and erupted among the city-states and with the 48 powerful empire of Persia to the east. From cultural transmission. the late seventh century to the late sixth century, five great empires collapsed, Writing supplemented, but by no means those of Assyria, Medea, Babylonia, Lydia, supplanted, the predominantly oral Greek and Egypt, plus several Greek tyrannies. At culture. The early writing in the new Greek home, there was the cruelty of Draco's alphabet was meant not to be read but to be code, which brought the word draconian heard, either sung or spoken to the accompaniment of the lyre and other musical into the language. The reforms of Solon 49 pointed the way toward the democracy that instruments. Rhetoric, so important to po- was established by Cleisthenes in Athens in litical affairs, was taught as a spoken art. 507 B.C., and later in other cities.44 A clue Reciting on public occasions was common- that literacy entered into the managing of place. It is true that Plato wrote his Dia- affairs was the Athenian requirement a logues, but they were, after all, written as century later that magistrates could not conversations. How much the Greeks apply "an unwritten law."45 learned orally and how much from written Sparta refused to embrace written com- sources is not clear. We are certain only that munication with the enthusiasm that Ath- much knowledge was, for the first time, ens showed, contending that literacy by written, and therefore it was meant to be itself guarantees no cultural superiority. read by contemporaries. Writing encour- Lycurgus, reputed founder of the Spartan aged reflection and critical thinking, unlike memorization, which the rhythms of po- constitution, among his reforms actually 50 forbade writing. He had his reasons. etry served well. Recitation was suited to poetry, writing to prose. In the Greek historians, we see the shift The long history of its praise in the Western tradition is the self-interested product of from oral to written communication. those who write, but there has always been a Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon, party, less audible by the nature of its doc- preferring spoken eyewitness accounts to trine, opposed to writing. The Spartan be- documents, used only a few written lieved that the unrecorded good behavior of sources, but they themselves wrote their citizens, though lost to history, was worth a accounts. Thucydides was able to tran- book full of unrealized ideals.46 scribe some letters, inscriptions and trea- 12 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION ties, but, like Herodotus, preferred oral to from the writer. Through writing the written evidence.51 Greeks fashioned the idea of objectivity, the separation of the knower from what is The Warning of Socrates known. It was the beginning of objective thinking, of the scientific method.55 Legend has it that when the ibis-headed god The Greek language would be the lan- of magic, Thoth, told the Egyptian pharaoh guage of education, diplomacy, literature, Thamos of Thoth's invention of writing, and science in the eastern Mediterranean Thamos denounced it because students, for another thousand years. Romans con- "now that they possessed a means of storing quered the Greek city-states, but adopted up knowledge without trouble, would cease their culture. Rome replaced the Greeks in to apply themselves, and would neglect to 52 power and eminence, building a large exercise their memories." Recalling this standing army and a large bureaucracy. venerable tale, Socrates, the old conserva- They ruled a dominion beyond the dreams tive, used it to bemoan writing: of any Greek city-state tyrant. Caesar's conquest of Egypt assured a steady supply of For your invention will produce forgetful- papyrus for the administration needed to ness in the souls of those who have learned 56 run their empire. Romans wrote things it, through lack of practice at using their memory, as through reliance on writing they down and kept records. are reminded from outside by alien marks, not from inside, themselves by themselves: ... And what was that mechanism of (Roman) you have discovered an elixir not of memory law and administration based upon? Paper, but of reminding. To your students you give or more exactly, papyrus... Engraving in an appearance of wisdom, not the reality of stone is for the priests; they have an affinity it; having heard much, in the absence of for spanning eras. But soldiers are no- teaching, they will appear to know much nonsense managers. They need to deal with when for the most part they know nothing, the here and now. The alphabet and paper and they will be difficult to get along with, create armies, or rather the bureaucracies because they have acquired the appearance which run armies. Paper creates self- of wisdom instead of wisdom itself.53 contained kingdoms at a distance.57 After the population attains a certain size, for Socrates correctly foresaw that memory example, government cannot expand would be weakened by our reliance on writ- without written records. Human ing. Many oral-aural societies, past and pre- messengers, relying only upon their mem- sent, nourish memory skills that are ory, impose a severe limit on the power of beyond our technological cultures.54 For the state. Only so much of resources can be the Greeks, there occurred, besides mem- allocated to communication before military ory skill losses, some reduction in the oral and economic sectors begin to suffer.58 tradition itself. Disseminated across the educated populace of the Hellenic world, The First Libraries writing gradually sent the oral tradition into a decline that affected everything, Ancient Egyptian temples held collections even the tellers of tales and the schools of of writing principally about religion, lit- rhetoric. Nevertheless, although the Greeks urgy, and rituals. The temple libraries were are credited with inventing literacy and the called houses of life. What little we know of their holdings we learn principally from literate basis of modern thinking, their tra- 59 dition remained predominantly oral. Greek writers. These were archives, not true libraries.60 The Egyptians did not consider literacy a part of general education, From Greece to Rome but rather specialized training for govern- Spoken thoughts hover about the speaker. ment or temple bureaucracy.61 Temple The words never quite leave their source. priests had a monopoly on papyrus, but Writing, on the other hand, stands apart some of the writing may have been on parchment, too. Nothing remains. WRITING 13

We know more about Assyrian and Baby- searched for manuscripts that were not in lonian libraries because their books were the library. At its height in the first century on clay tablets that have survived the cen- A.D., the library, ambitiously intended to turies. The oldest extant catalog of books is hold a copy of every book in the world, Sumerian, listing the titles of 62 literary generated dictionaries, concordances, and works.62 The first library of significance encyclopedias.68 was built in Ninevah by kings of the 8th and By the fourth century A.D., Rome could 7th centuries B.C., begun by Sargon, con- boast at least 28 libraries with 20,000 or tinued by Senacherib, and expanded by his more rolls each, divided into Greek and grandson, Assurbanipal, who undertook a Roman sections. Throughout the empire, systematic collection of Assyro-Babylonian collections grew in municipal libraries and literature, neatly divided and each book the private libraries of the wealthy. numbered according to its location. It was The Alexandrian Library was partly de- the world's first book collection library, stroyed in 48 B.C. during street fighting in estimated at 20,000 to 25,000 tablets. The an uprising after Julius Caesar captured the Assyrian conquest of Babylon improved city. As compensation for the lost Museum the collection considerably, because the library scrolls, a collection numbering conquered territory was ransacked for clay some 200,000 scrolls, Antony made a gift to books on grammar, poetry, history, sci- the Alexandrian Library of the library of ence, and religion.63 The library was de- Pergamum, which was Roman state prop- signed to serve church and state, to erty. Antony's accusers charged that he advance scientific knowledge, and to pro- gave away Roman state property illegally mote the fame of the king. Assurbanipal's as a further expression of his affection for library kept copyists, a library staff, and a Cleopatra. cataloguing system to register its religious, All tales of how the Alexandrian library historical, and scientific documents.64 The was eventually destroyed are in dispute. question of access is unclear, for this was a According to one version, the famed library private royal reference library. Those was demolished by a mob of infuriated highly placed at court could probably have Christians in the fifth century. In the gained access, but it was unlikely that this twelfth century, a story was spread that this privilege was extended to scholars.65 library had been destroyed by Moslems.69 Beyond this remarkable venture, we must look to the Greeks.66 At Pergamum, a Greek city-state in what is now western Turkey, a city known for its devotion to the arts, its grand library figures in an interesting tale involving Cleopatra's ancestor, the pharaoh Ptolemy. It seems that Ptolemy grew jealous of the library assembled by King Eumenes II, and blocked further ship- ments of papyrus to him. Eumenes, so the story goes, encouraged the mass production of treated animal skins, and that is how parchment came to rival papyrus and, later, paper.67 The greatest of the Hellenic world libraries, established by the Ptolemies at the start of the third century B.C., was the Alexan- drian, which served as a university, a re- Figure 1.4 An Egyptian scribe, usually a search center, and a publishing house slave, kept the household employing a cadre of educated slaves as accounts and wrote letters for his master. Scribes also copied books. scribes. Ships docking at Alexandria were 14 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

The Lamp of Reason winging across space and time to be pored In a world of darkness, Greece lit the lamp over by other minds in different places and of reason. Writing allowed that lamp to different centuries, continuing to benefit shine for all the generations to come. The our own minds today. Political and commu- first information revolution, the Writing nication changes would continue to inter- Revolution, slowly moved the Hellenic twine across continents and eras. world—and subsequently Western civilization—from an exclusively oral culture to one that left its tracks by means of writing. During this period, approximately the 8th With writing used to store knowledge, the through the 4th centuries B.C., the world's human mind would no longer be re- first democracies formed in the Greek city- stricted by the limits of memory. Knowl- states. By the third century B.C., writing edge henceforth would have no was accepted throughout the educated seg- boundaries. To the Greek writers who went ment of the Hellenistic world as a means beyond mundane communication into the for learning and for communication. Read- sciences, philosophy, and religion, there ing was taught in schools. It had reached a was allowed, far more than simple picto- large segment of Greek society.70 Papyrus graphs on walls, a means of surviving their books were gathered into libraries. The first own life span by leaving behind their mor- information revolution had succeeded. tal years a detailed legacy of their thoughts, The invention of writing made it possi- satisfying the unspoken, but ever present, ble to encapsulate information and send it human need to be remembered.

CARRYING THE MESSAGE Like most communication technologies, the the written page, the quality of communica- postal system was not invented by any indi- tion remained a function of the available vidual, but changed over time, with the un- transportation technology. When what was enviable distinction of backsliding during the being mailed was a newspaper, magazine, or Dark Ages. The European merchant in 1400 book, the mails were transmitting forms of probably did not feel as safe in entrusting a mass communication, just as they were when dispatch to the mails as an Assyrian mer- the parcel being mailed was a news story, a chant did some four thousand years earlier. manuscript, or photographs destined for pub- The history of postal service describes not an lication. Only by improving transportation information revolution, but a slow, erratic did the information get out more quickly to information evolution as old as writing itself. more people at greater distances and at less Yet, postal service shows a history of im- cost. provements that have widened public access, The postman through history followed two a definite trend toward equality of access to trails, the path of the government and the information. Speed of delivery also improved path of the private citizen. In only the past despite setbacks. Today, with fax and E-mail, few centuries, a fraction of postal history, both of them existing outside of government- have they merged. managed service, the delivery of letters is The beginnings of communication by post virtually instantaneous. The Post Office sys- are lost in the fog of antiquity. It is useless to tem, managed by governments in every na- ask, "Who wrote the first letter?" Like lan- tion, is dismissed as snail mail. guage, postal service was not invented. It For most of recorded time, the history of grew.71 Letters are extant in ancient Egyptian communication was a history of transporta- characters and there is reference to a regular tion, with postal service serving as a common postal service; in an ancient papyrus some- carrier of writing. Since transmission before one advised, "Write to me by the letter-carrier." the telegraph required physically carrying Continued WRITING 15

Carrying the Message (continued)

The Egyptians had a relay system that helped message "Nike!"— "victory." His feat is cele- maintain central control of their empire. Mu- brated in the modern marathon races. Private seums also have letters from the kingdoms of messenger services also existed in the Greek Babylon and Ninevah. Both the Old and New city states. Using homing pigeons to carry Testaments contain ample references to let- messages may have begun either in Greece or ters, such as King David's letter to the battle- China. Both literatures refer to them. field that sealed the fate of Bathsheba's The Romans, rulers of the Mediterranean unlucky husband and Paul's letter to the World south into Africa and north to the Brit- Romans. ish Isles, ran a much larger postal system, the In China an organized postal service ex- cursus publicus, for papyrus and parchment isted in the tenth century B.C. Probably all letters. Those famous Roman roads have been such services until recent centuries were for credited, in part, to the wish to improve the government use, although no doubt business mails. Roman emperors wanted to receive correspondence and love letters were carried intelligence and send out orders quickly. A along. Japan's postal system was limited to simple alphabet written on easily transport- government use until a private courier serv- able papyrus and parchment encouraged ice began in the seventeenth century. communication, which was later discouraged In the New World, lacking horses, Incas by the walled towns and city-states that rose and Mayas employed relay stations of run- as Rome fell.73 Walled towns would flourish ners. Perhaps at the same time in the Old during the Dark Ages when literacy and writ- World the Assyrians allowed merchants to ing were at their nadir. send letters by government post. These were By the fourth century A.D., the Roman small clay tablets encased in clay envelopes postal service included officials called curiosi, bearing addresses. whose duties included keeping an eye out for Persians under Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes fraud involving the posts and also govern- established relay stations of horses throughout ment spying, probably including opening let- the empire. They could not have been ters. In the Phillipics, Cicero rails against popular because the public was forbidden to spying on private letters. So indeed, 1,500 use the service, yet nearby communities were years later, would Martin Luther, who wrote, forced to support each station with horses, "There is no greater forger of letters than he food, and labor. It was said that the burden of who intercepts a letter." supporting the larger stations was so crushing Ordinary citizens of the Roman Empire, that people fled nearby farms and villages. It forbidden to use the government cursus pub- was of the Persian postal service that licus, devised their own means of communi- Herodotus wrote, "Neither snow nor rain nor cation. For long journeys, the writer had to heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers rely upon traders and ship captains. Over from the swift completion of their appointed short distances, private messengers or ser- rounds." vants, usually slaves, carried letters. It was a Ancient Greeks employed runners. The dangerous duty, for a slave risked loss of limb most famous, we know, was the youth who or life if he was caught by his master's ene- ran so hard to carry the news of the victory at mies but, if he failed to deliver the letters Marathon that he fell dead after delivering the promptly, faced a similar fate at home. 16 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Notes 25 Will Durant, The Life of Greece, vol. 2 of The Story of Civilization (New York: Simon and 1 Denise Schmandt-Besserat, Before Writing Schuster, 1939), 206. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1992), 26 Henri-Jean Martin, The History and Power of 178 + . Writing (Chicago: University of Chicago 2 Schmandt-Besserat, 198. Press, 1994), 46.

3 Schmandt-Besserat, 128. 27 Innis, 7. 4 G.R. Driver, Semitic Writing: From Pictograph 28 M.I. Finley, ed., The Legacy of Greece (New to Alphabet (London: Oxford University York: Oxford University Press, 1984), 16. Press, 1948), 196. 29 Goody, 55. 5 Robert K. Logan, The Alphabet Effect: The 30 Frederic G. Kenyon, Books and Readers in Impact of the Phonetic Alphabet on the Develop Ancient Greece and Rome, 2nd ed. (Oxford: ment of Western Civilization (New York: Clarendon Press, 1951), 25. William Morrow and Co., 1986), 73. 31 Aristotle, Politics viii.3.1338a 15-17. 6 Leonard Cottrell, The Quest for Sumer (New 32 Innis, 58. York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1965), 86. 7 Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage, vol. 1 of 33 Schmandt-Besserat, 1. The Story of Civilization (New York: 34 Chester G. Starr, The Origins of Greek Civiliza Simon and Schuster, 1935), 171. tion: 1100 - 650 B.C. (New York: Alfred A. 8 Harold A. Innis, The Bias of Communication Knopf, 1961), 337. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, rev. 35 Albertine Gaur, A History of Writing (Lon ed., 1972), 15. don: The British Library, 1987), 156. 9 Innis, 19. 36 Plato, Phaedo, 109B-C, trans. & ed. David Gallop (New York: Oxford University Press, 10 Innis, 16. 1993), 69. 11 Innis, 7. 37 Durant, 174. 12 Innis's arguments on communication, dense 38 Finley, 3. with historical references, are not always 39 Lloyd, G.E.R., "Science and Mathematics," in easy to follow, but The Bias of Communica Finley, 262. tion and Empire of Communication reward the 40 William V. Harris, Ancient Literacy (Cam patient reader. For a lucid exposition of bridge: Harvard University Press, 1989), 56. Innis's main points, as well as those of Mar 41 For example: "Herodotus's Histories were shall McLuhan, see James Carey, "Harold composed in writing to be read in public." Adams Innis and Marshall McLuhan," The Kathryn Payne, "Information Collection and Antioch Review 27 (1967): 5-39. Transmission in Classical Greece," Libri 43.4 13 Albertine Gaur, A History of Writing (Lon (1993): 278. don: The British Library, 1987), 150. 42 Henri-Jean Martin, The History and Power of 14 Durant, 161. Writing (Chicago: University of Chicago 15 Diego de Landa, of the Monastery of Izamal, Press, 1994), 69. Yucatan. Reported in Dard Hunter, Paper- 43 Bush, Wendell T., "An Impression of Greek making: The History and Technique of an Political Philosophy," Studies in the History of Ancient Craft (New York: Dover Publications, Ideas, vol. 1 (New York: Columbia University 1978), 26. Press, 1918), 52-53. 16 McLuhan, Marshall, Understanding Media: 44 Durant, 109-24. The Extensions of Man (New York: McGraw- 45 Marti Lu Allen, The Beginning of Under Hill, 1964), 100. standing: Writing in the Ancient World (Ann 17 Logan, 33-36. Arbor: Kelsey Museum of Archaeology), 4. 18 W.M. Flinders Petrie, The Formation of the 46 Robert Pattison, On Literacy (New York: Alphabet (London: MacMillan & Co., 1912), 5. Oxford University Press, 1982), 57. 19 Jack Goody, Literacy in Traditional Societies 47 Eric A. Havelock, Preface to Plato (Cam (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, bridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1963), 42. 1968), 3. 48 Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage, 76. 20 Logan, 82. 49 Starr, 263. 21 Exodus 31:18. 50 Gaur, 14. 22 Herodotus, The History 5:58. 51 Arnaldo Momigliano, "History and Biogra 23 William A. Mason, A History of the Art of Writ phy," in Finley, 160. ing (New York: Macmillan Co., 1920), 343. 52 Gaston Maspero, The Dawn of Civilization: 24 Herodotus 5:57ff. Egypt and Chaldcea, trans. M.L. McClure (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1922), 220. WRITING 17

53 Plato, Phaedrus, 275, trans. C.J. Rowe, 2nd 61 Steven Shubert, "The Oriental Origins of the (corrected) ed. (Warminster, England: Aris & Alexandrian Library," Libri 43. 2(1993): 163. Rowe, 1988), 123. 62 Samuel Kramer, From the Tablets of Sumer 54 Walter S. Ong, The Presence of the Word: (Indian Hills, CO: Falcon's Wing Press, Some Prolegomena for Cultural and Religious 1956), 254. History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 63 Thompson, 11. 1967), 23. 64 Alfred Hessel, A History of Libraries, trans. 55 Logan, 107. Reuben Peiss (New Brunswick, N.J.: The 56 Innis, 7. Scarecrow Press, 1955), 2. 57 Marshall McLuhan and Bruce Powers, The 65 Shubert, 163. Global Village (New York: Oxford University 66 Thompson, 17. Press, 1989), 137. 67 Durant, The Life of Greece, 600. 58 Mark Poster, The Mode of Information: Post- 68 Shubert, 143. structuralism and Social Context (The Univer 69 Thompson, 23. sity of Chicago Press, 1990), 7. 70 Harris, 46. 59 James W. Thompson, Ancient Libraries 71 Alvin F. Harlow, Old Post Bags (New York: (Berkeley: University of California Press, D. Appleton, 1938), 7. 1940), 2. 72 Herodotus, The History 8:98. 60 Thompson, 15. 73 McLuhan, 90.

The Second Revolution

Printing

Turbulent Europe

Despair is the mother of renewal. The Dark and fleas, but ignorant of this, the survivors Ages of European civilization had lasted for reached for other explanations. The Devil almost a thousand years, but by the middle was blamed and, as usual, the Jews. Massa- of the fourteenth century, changes were cres followed, unchecked by the few rea- clearly afoot. A Little Ice Age began at the soned voices who pointed out that all were start of the century. It reduced crops and dying of the plague together. Then, as if the left the population prey to starvation and slaughter of the previous Crusades and the disease. Gossip spread of people taking the devastation of the plague were not enough, flesh of hanged corpses for food and even Europe embarked on the Hundred Years eating their own children. War and still another failed Crusade. Starting in India or China, the bubonic There was more. Food ran short. So did plague swept across Asia and into Europe. ore deposits from easily worked mines. A Black swellings the size of an egg appeared money economy was replacing the old feu- in armpits and groins, oozing blood and dal service arrangements, which worsened pus, followed by spreading boils and black economic conditions for many. Across blotches, fever, much pain and, within five France and Italy, lawless bands of knights days, death. Between 1348 and 1350, the spread terror. A decade after the first wave Black Death killed an estimated one person of the bubonic plague subsided, a second in three. Perhaps 20 million people died in wave followed, less deadly but no less Europe alone, but no one can ever know. dreadful. It suffused Europe with a pro- As the death carts rumbled by, the cities found sense of doom. A third wave of emptied. Paris, Florence, and Vienna had plague began in 1373. the most victims. Entire villages were wiped A schism saw rival popes in Avignon and out. Almost everyone expected to die. Rome. The Vatican was weakened by cor- The stunned survivors fell into social ruption that reached from the papacy to and economic turbulence, bedeviled by all monasteries with a reputation for promis- the deadly sins that sloth, avarice, and de- cuity. The licentious behavior of priests bauchery could assemble. The bubonic and nuns led to the closing of convents in plague was borne by the omnipresent rats England and to scandals elsewhere.1 This

18 PRINTING 19 was also the century of the fanatical Flag- hole in the roof for escaping smoke. Chim- ellants, the Peasants Revolt in England, and neys along the walls opened onto fireplaces the oddity of a dancing mania that led peo- in private rooms. For the first time, the ple in the Rhineland, Holland, and Flan- noble family members separated them- ders to dance themselves into exhaustion selves from their servants in the common accompanied by leaps and screams and hall, where all had come together to be religious visions. Everything seemed to be warm. It was a small, early step to meet a falling apart. human desire for privacy. For most people, privacy was unknown. The ills and disorders of the fourteenth century could not be without consequence. Sources of News Times were to grow worse over the next fifty-odd years until at some imperceptible News from afar came at third and fourth moment, by some mysterious chemistry, hand from itinerant monks, soldiers, ped- energies were refreshed, ideas broke out of dlers, couriers, and the pardoners who trav- the mold of the Middle Ages into new eled from town to town selling absolution realms, and humanity found itself 2 from sin. For the most part, people neither redirected. knew nor cared how the rest of the world fared. For the few common men who were In fourteenth century England, John Wyclif fortunate enough to be literate, not much preached man's direct communication was available to be read, and what literacy with God, and his Lollard disciples pains- existed was held in low regard. Most nobles, takingly copied and recopied an English even kings, could neither read nor write. translation of the Bible, knowing they Medieval bishops encouraged civil illiter- risked the cruel death meted out to here- acy.5 The Bible could not be translated into tics.3 Not long into the next century came the vernacular, and only the clergy could the voices heard by Joan of Arc, the peasant possess copies, in Latin. Yet, the ranks of girl who combined the old religious fervor those with some measure of education had with the new force of national patriotism expanded. and strength on the battlefield that shook Most information reached the brain France. The Holy Roman Empire was declin- through the ear, via gossip, morality plays, ing, to be replaced eventually by nation- sermons, narrative ballads and tales, but states. here, too, technology was bringing change. Pope Boniface VIII issued a papal bull, Cheap, locally produced paper was replac- "It is necessary to salvation that every hu- ing papyrus. The invention of spectacles man creature be subject to the Roman pon- aided old and weary eyes to read more. tiff."4 In smaller territories, many nobles By the end of the century, literacy was were no less arrogant in asserting their own being considered a test for intelligence. primacy over the Third Estate, which con- Limited as it was, the mass of writing had sisted of everyone who was not a member multiplied considerably.6 For the scholar, of the clergy or nobility. there were, in addition to the Bible, books But commerce was beginning to demand on the various arts and sciences, plus ro- attention and there were stirrings in the mances and other diverting topics. The mo- establishment of towns, cities, and univer- nastic rotula, the university couriers, the sities, in banking and invention, and in merchants' messenger services, and the brave ships that ventured into unknown new Tasso family postal system planted the seas. The Mongol horde sweeping to the roots of European mail services. eastern gates of Europe opened a window Centuries of struggle between Christian to China that had been blocked by Arab and and Moslem forces deeply affected the Persian middlemen who had always taken spread of knowledge, not always negatively. their cut of trade. The fall of Toledo, a center of Moorish and At home, nobles built themselves houses Jewish culture, to El Cid in the eleventh with a new feature to replace the simple century had opened its libraries to western 20 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Europe. In the fourteenth century, the Ot- of classical Greek and Roman manuscripts. toman Turks overwhelmed Byzantine rule This is not to say that they went hand in in Gallipoli, a vestige of the Roman Empire, hand. They did not. Martin Luther de- and stood poised at the doorway of Europe. nounced Desiderius Erasmus, the most They would capture Constantinople itself brilliant humanist of his age, as a dreamer. at about the same time that Gutenberg was The humanists, while they favored reform- printing the 42-line Bible. Fearing Ottoman ing the church, saw the Protestants, with control even more than they disliked Roman their talk of hell, as reactionaries bent on a orthodoxy, Byzantine scholars brought out return to medievalism.9 classical Greek and Roman manuscripts of Their quarrel continued for many centu- whose existence Western European schol- ries under many names, and continues to- ars had been largely unaware. This began day between secular humanism and a search through lands under Byzantine religious fundamentalism. With all of this control for manuscripts, statues, and other and more, the medieval world crumbled. artifacts of the ancient cultures. The church Not since Rome fell had change been so deep, supported the hunt for ancient treasures so complete. Princes who wished to attract provided that any report about classical humanists to their entourage scooped up learning would be written in Latin or precious manuscripts from abandoned Greek, languages that were meaningless to monasteries and anywhere else they could the common people.7 be found to create libraries. All viewpoints In the fourteenth century, Dante wrote would turn to Gutenberg's invention for The Divine Comedy. Petrarch showed the their expression and dissemination. Latin and Greek classics to a new age. The age of humanism is said to have been born in 1348 when Petrarch discovered letters written by Printing had not disturbed the monolithic Cicero, writings unknown in all the inter- Chinese empire. The introduction of print- vening centuries.8 Boccaccio's tales laid the ing in mid-fifteenth century Europe might foundation for modern literature. also have made little headway if Europe were not ripe for change. As it turned out, because fifteenth century Europe was what Reformation and it was, the ingenious system devised by the Renaissance German goldsmith acted as a catalyst for Here was fertile ground for change, for the forces that staggered the world. The reform of the church, Reformation, and for world's second information revolution was rebirth, Renaissance, sparked by discovery printing.

A Gift from China

Paper is the most common, the most Paper dispersed the Renaissance through homely of things, hardly worth mentioning Europe. Paper fueled the flames of the Ref- alongside the computer, digital compact ormation and the Counter-Reformation discs, and satellites in geostationary orbit. and every religious, political, and social Yet, with all these electronic wonders at our upheaval since. command, to imagine a world suddenly To understand paper's impact is to be without paper is to plunge us into the midst aware of the force that communication of the Dark Ages, when the head of the technology exerts on our lives. It would Holy Roman Empire, Charlemagne, who take an effort to consider what the econ- never learned to write, and surely had omy, religion, or our personal lives would never heard of paper, standardized writing be like without it, let alone what education, to secure his empire. science, or medicine would be today. Paper PRINTING 21 has unobtrusively served as the hand- developed a phonetic alphabet. The advent maiden of literacy. Because literacy and of their written character words is dated to printing have fed each other, paper contin- about 2700 B.C., nearly 3,000 years before ues today as a fundament of freedom of paper. thought, for it is most available in demo- The invention of paper in China is cred- cratic nations, least available in the most ited to a eunuch, Ts'ai Lun, the emperor's repressive tyrannies. It is not by chance minister of public works, in 105 A.D., al- that some governments, while trumpeting though he may have been given credit for freedom of the press, retain tight control someone else's invention.10 In view of his over the newsprint supply. important position, it is not unreasonable To be aware of how important paper is to infer that the government welcomed the to our lives, yet how transparent it is to our invention because paper met an obvious sight, it is necessary only to look up from need. It is hard to imagine that any govern- the paper page on which these words ap- ment ever existed that didn't wish for more pear and to glance around. Its applications substances on which to record information are almost infinite. A goal of our late twen- and send out orders. tieth century technology includes the pa- The clever inventor may have observed perless office. The goal itself is written on the wasp, which chews plants into a moist paper. It is still "ten years away," as it has pulp and presses them into layers for its been for decades although there has lately nest. The inventor tore rags apart into fi- been movement in that direction, espe- bers, soaked them in water and beat them cially in record keeping and databases. into a pulp, then pressed the pulp flat in a screen, and allowed the thin sheets of pulp Origins to dry. The resultant paper held together, The ancient Chinese incised animal bones could be cut to any size, and could be and tortoise shells for messages and some- written upon. Further experiments showed times as a tool for fortune telling. Early that linen, hemp, even fish nets and tree Chinese emperors recorded messages on bark could be used to make paper. A hair jade tablets, while nobles and high govern- brush served as the writing instrument, ment officials did so on ivory, but obviously with ink from lamp black. none of this was economically practical for No doubt exists that the Chinese inven- sustained or widespread communication. tion of paper eventually reached Europe. What the Chinese needed was something How much of printing the rest of the world readily available and less difficult to ac- owes to China is a matter to be taken up quire than polished jade or ivory. They later. Cheap, plentiful, and flexible in use, found a better writing surface in bamboo, paper turned out to be indispensable to from which they made tablets on which Chinese religious elites, bureaucrats, and they wrote with a pointed bamboo or scholars. Paper helped to establish Confu- wooden stylus dipped into a black varnish. cianism in classical literature. Buddhist Bamboo had its limitations, too. A lot of priests found paper of value to propagate records were a bulky load for a government their faith just as Christians would find functionary to carry around. parchment and then paper worthy for their The Chinese also invented the camel's faith. The Chinese carved word characters hair brush, gently writing on silk and on a into wooden blocks that they inked and type of silk paper. These writing surfaces, printed on pieces of paper sold as charms. though expensive, had the advantage of Other employment for paper included convenience, for they could be carried and shoes, hats, belts, wrapping, wallpaper, stored in rolls. Chinese writing, the oldest napkins, curtains, toilet paper, and even written language still in use, is pictographic military armor that protected against an and ideographic, each character a separate enemy's arrows. The Chinese discovered word derived from one or more modified the delights attendant upon printing paper pictures. The Chinese have not to this day money, which fascinated Marco Polo, 22 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION whose usual curiosity about everything he distinct written forms often appear in the witnessed in China did not extend to the same sentence. printing methods. He wrote only about the banknotes. Unfortunately, the successive Paper Moves West Chinese governments also paid a great deal of attention to paper money. After several Paper craft also began its long journey west. waves of inflation, they discontinued its When the Arabs captured Samarkand in use in 1425, not to be resumed until the 751, they discovered among their prisoners mid-nineteenth century. several Chinese papermakers. According to one version the men voluntarily gave up the secrets of their craft; another version No Information Revolution claims they did so only under torture.12 The inventive Chinese are also credited From them the Arabs learned the paper- with, among many things, the first uses of maker's art. A large industry of papermak- cast iron, steel, the mechanical clock, the ing grew in Samarkand, then traveled the umbrella, porcelain, the compass, wheel- Silk Road to Baghdad and Damascus, which barrows, spinning wheels, the parachute, was to supply Europe with paper for several kites, playing cards, the magic lantern, the centuries. Islamic civilization was at its chain pump, the fishing reel, the suspen- height. Its famed love of learning was well sion bridge, whiskey, gunpowder, and served by this new art. Paper replaced pa- printing. Some of these inventions shook pyrus even in Egypt. A ninth century polite Europe. Gunpowder, for example, helped to letter of thanks closes with the words, "Par- blow feudalism apart and raise citizen ar- don the papyrus." It seems as if the* writer mies, for a horsed knight could not stand is apologizing for not using the new and against cannon or musket. And the com- obviously more stylish paper.13 In a macabre pass pointed the way to new worlds. China footnote to paper's history, mummies were also gave Italy the noodle. being disinterred for their wrappings.14 Approximately during the same period When the Moors brought papermaking that the ancient Greeks were wrestling with to Spain in the twelfth century, they antici- political ideas along with a great expansion pated the machine age by attaching stamp- of knowledge in several fields, the Chinese ers to the shaft of a water wheel. Except in were also advancing in medical theory, Holland, which preferred its abundant mathematics, philosophy, and technology windmill power, the water wheel contin- generally far ahead of anything in the West.11 ued to be an integral part of papermaking Yet, in China there was no possibility of until the introduction of steam power in radical change. Free debate in an open so- the nineteenth century. ciety did not exist. Dynasties might change, The first paper factory in Christian but imperial rule remained untouchable. Europe was reportedly established in For 500 years after its invention, paper France during the twelfth century by Jean was made only in China. Then Buddhist Montgolfier, a crusader who escaped his priests carried the secrets of paper and ink Saracen captors in Damascus, where he making to Korea and Japan, where the worked as a prisoner in a paper mill. The papermaker's art developed in unique art of papermaking established itself in ways. Some of the finest handmade paper mills near Fabriano, Italy, and eventually in the world today is Japanese, fabricated spread across Europe. Medieval paper, by centuries-old methods. The Japanese though more fragile and with a rougher adopted the Chinese characters, too, but surface than parchment, took ink better.15 the Japanese expanded their own written Neither product was cheap by modern language by adding two additional sets of standards. Much more significant was the characters based on syllables to produce amount of available rags compared to the what is widely regarded as the world's most available sheep and calf skins. Parchment complicated system of writing. Their three and vellum continued to be used for luxury PRINTING 23 editions and for the production by monas- paper. Each parchment copy required, it teries of missals and breviaries. was estimated, the skins of 300 sheep. Not A commercial expansion began in Europe surprisingly, parchment for book printing toward the end of the thirteenth century, did not survive to any extent beyond 1500. aided by Arabic numerals and paper for As for the 180 bibles printed on paper, the contracts, insurance, bills of lading, and quality of the paper was so good com- bills of exchange. pared to today's bleached and treated paper that 500 years from now a Gutenberg Paper production served the needs of mer- Bible, made in 1455, will probably look chants, bureaucrats, preachers, and literati; it better than a Bible manufactured in 1997. quickened the pace of correspondence and enabled more men of letters to act as their own scribes.16 The greatest pressure of all for literacy, however, was caused by the sudden avail- To the more conservative mind, paper was ability of paper... As the paper mills spread, suspect, the product of a pagan culture. so too did the spirit of religious reform... As Attitudes about this were by no means uni- the price of paper continued to fall, the development of eye-glasses intensified the form and many in the church welcomed pressure for literacy. Glasses had first paper as they would printing, but Emperor appeared in the early fourteenth century, Frederick II decreed in 1221 that docu- and a hundred years later they were ments written on paper had no legal valid- generally available. Their use lengthened ity.17 By then parchment had been well the working life of copyist and reader alike. established for centuries. It served the needs Demand for texts increased.18 of church and state and was for the most part under their authority, notably under the monasteries, large users of parchment. In any event, paper did not find wide In Nuremberg in the fourteenth century, use in Europe until printing was invented. the man who built the first paper mill in Low literacy kept demand down. If paper Germany, Ulman Stroemer, to assure him- made printing effective, it was printing self a monopoly, demanded a vow of se- that introduced paper to most Europeans. crecy from his employees and a pledge Ultimately, the printing press won the day never to work for anyone other than him- for paper. Parchment was too expensive self and his heirs. What followed was the for mass production. It was also not porous first recorded labor strike in history. Stroe- enough to absorb printing ink very well. mer broke the strike by imprisoning his workers until they gave in. It is likely that 300 Sheep Skins for One Bible we know about this because someone Of the 210 printed copies of the first Guten- wrote it down on paper. berg Bible, 30 were on parchment, 180 on

Books and Universities

During the centuries of the Roman Empire, philosophical questions, religious thought, not many people even knew what a book and a gathering of scientific knowledge. was, but the riches of classical verse and In the depths of the Dark Ages, these prose were available to the small percent- volumes disappeared, hidden away or lost age of the populace of the far-flung empire forever. Scattered points of light shone in literate in Greek or Latin and able to afford the European literary darkness in the scrip- the hand-written copies. They could read toria of monasteries as monks huddled over the epic poetry of Homer and Virgil, the their painstaking illuminations on vellum tragedies and satires, political speeches, of the Bible, religious commentary and, in 24 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Figure 2.1 The fourteenth century Stromer paper mill, Nuremberg, the First paper mill in Germany.

some orders, perhaps a copy of a work from The First Universities classical Greece or Rome. The book pro- Establishment of European universities duction of the monasteries was almost ex- from the twelfth century onward marked clusively limited to church scholars and the the end of the 700-year-old Monastic Age. schools that the monasteries kept for their The more secular age that followed saw the novices and sometimes also for boys who emergence of a literate middle class and a were not destined to become monks. For rising demand for books of all kinds. Nobles nearly a thousand years, from the fall of may have known literature fro'm hearing it Rome to the introduction of the printing read aloud, but those members of the new press, the monasteries kept the sputtering middle classes who were more familiar flame of knowledge. with reading and writing wanted books. Monks, hunched over their scriptorium Inevitably, errors crept into the copied and desktops, painstakingly hand lettered and recopied books. Not until Gutenberg were painted manuscripts magnificently to re- books consistent from volume to volume. produce books, incunabula, for libraries The founding of universities, beginning and cathedrals. The monks customarily in Bologna in 1158, shook the monopoly of mumbled or read aloud, not silently; mon- the monasteries over the production and astery scriptoria resonated to a medley of distribution of books, knowledge, and in- oral communication accompanying the formation. That monopoly would be badly scratching of pens on parchment. weakened by the winds of change blowing

Figure 2.2 In a monastery scriptorium monks copied books onto parchment, a prepared animal skin, usually from a sheep or a goat. PRINTING 25 through university towns where private single work. And they finally had the oppor- booksellers and the secular copyists known tunity to cross-reference among texts.22 as scriveners were to be found.19 Reading in the medieval monastery did As the centers of intellectual life shifted not always mean what we mean today. from the monasteries to the universities, Reading, or lectio, usually meant that the private book dealers and copyists plied master read to the students. Books of the their trades, encouraged by teachers and period were meant to be read aloud. The cost students. The university booksellers were of books and the limited number of readers licensed and considered to be university permitted no other choice. A school man- officials. They enjoyed such privileges as ual of a later period summed it up: exemption from certain taxes and the right to be tried in university courts, in exchange "Are you a scholar, what do you read?" for which they accepted strict control by "I do not read, I listen." "What do you hear?" the university. They also had what 23 amounted to a franchise, because outsiders "Donatus or Alexander, or logic or music." could not compete. The university fixed the sale price of books, setting it cheap With the rise in book production, literature enough for a number of students to afford. could be absorbed in privacy instead of by Booksellers were not so much retailers as sitting in an audience to hear it, an example custodians of books through successive of mass communication's pattern of sepa- generations of teachers and students. Book- rating people from one another. sellers found a greater profit in renting them. Poor students shared books or copied The New Book Culture 20 them by hand. Elizabeth Eisenstein drew a Besides religious works, printers were comparison between early printing and turning out texts for schoolchildren and modern times: books on a variety of subjects for adults, among which guides and manuals to a ... there are irreversible aspects to the early well regulated family life seemed to be modern printing revolution. Cumulative popular. Whether these were read aloud processes were set in motion in the mid- or perused privately, the result was a col- fifteenth century, and they have not ceased lective morality emanating from the to gather momentum in the age of the com- 24 puter printout and the television guide... shops of printers. Commercial copy centers, for example, have Demand grew gradually for many kinds begun to appear within the precincts of of books, especially for classical literature modern universities, much as stationers' stalls and for books on the sciences, many from did near medieval universities.21 India and the Arab cultural centers. Collec- tions were small. A fourteenth century French bishop owned what was regarded as Early university students read little outside 25 of theology and law. It was the age of scho- a large library of 76 books. Authors cov- lasticism, with its attempt to prove faith by ered a range of topics. England's first reason. Many monasteries produced few printer, William Caxton, chose the English books outside of theology. In fact, the language, not Latin, to publish the ro- monks may have been forbidden to do so, mances he turned out for the upper classes, although at a few monasteries the secular and he found a ready market. writings of Roman authors were considered fit to be copied, for which later ages have Books of universal knowledge, mostly dating been grateful. from the thirteenth century and written in (or translated from the Latin into) French With scholarly texts once so rare now and other vernaculars for the use of the rippling out of printers' shops, wandering layman, were literary staples familiar in scholars had less need to go afield in order every country over several centuries. A to consult a variety of texts, nor did they fourteenth century man drew also on the Bi- find it necessary to pore so long over a ble, romances, bestiaries, satires, books of 26 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

astronomy, geography, universal history, the old medieval order reduced the need for church history, rhetoric, law, medicine, al- military expertise, in which the nobility ex- chemy, falconry, hunting, fighting, music, 28 celled, in favor of logical thinking, administra- and any number of special subjects. tive skills, and a knowledge of the law. For some gentry, the change came hard. Wrote one six- Even before Gutenberg, the availability of teenth- century English gentleman: paper helped to spread literacy to the new merchant class, which was ready to read I swear by God's body, I'd rather that my son books on topics ranging from bawdy tales should hang than study letters. For it to religious works.27 Xylographic printing, becomes the sons of gentlemen to blow the which impressed an entire page from an horn nicely, to hunt skilfully and elegantly, carry and train a hawk. But the study of let- engraved block of wood, preceded movable 36 type. Sheets of cloth or vellum or paper, ters should be left to the sons of rustics. printed on one side and folded over or bound back to back were assembled into The change came hard, but it came. "block books." The earliest block books A sign of later times was the founding in were only of pictures, mostly religious. 1665, with the encouragement of the Later, text was added.28 French government, of the Journal des sa- People who could afford books treated vants, the first periodical to review books. them as liquid assets because they kept their value more than other personal items, Censorship to be sold when cash was needed. Bibles With the printing of books in Eurppe came were family treasures to be mentioned in severe censorship as to what could be wills and passed down along the genera- printed. Publishing lay fully under the tions. In the absence of public libraries, thumb of authority. Printers feared origi- literate people loaned books to one an- 29 nality by authors, for it could cost printers other. their lives in the usual horrible ways de- Authors who were not born to the nobil- vised by Church and State. New books, usu- ity remained poor. Without copyright laws ally in the vernacular, were sometimes they did not dream of royalties, but de- shunned.30 pended on the protection and the purse of Before printing, few people in Europe a wealthy patron unless they sold a manu- other than scholars were literate, so the script outright to a bookseller. Milton parted Church was not especially concerned about with the manuscript of Paradise Lost for £5, heresy in books, which were considered with the promise of an equal sum if the the working tools of scholars. Yet the dan- printing sold out. The Middle Ages saw a ger of new ideas was that those in authority gradual shift toward the recognition of might themselves be swayed. authors that is part of the shift from an oral to a written tradition. Curiously, the threat print posed to authority In the Middle Ages authors had had little in- was not that the masses would become terest in attaching their name to a work, voracious readers of incendiary tracts but Printers were led to seek out, or have sought that the authorities and exegetes from out, the true identity of the author of the whom they habitually took their opinions would themselves become infected with new works they printed—where, that is, they 31 didn't invent it... But standards soon ideas. changed. Contemporary writers who had their names attached to hundreds and thou- Church leaders were much more worried sands of copies of their works became con- about what passed the lips of preachers scious of their individual reputations.35 who spoke to the masses in the common language.32 That changed about 1478 with The reading of books during the Renaissance the publication of a handsomely illustrated may have had as much to do with a struggle for Bible in Low German. Here was a direct power as with a love of learning. The passing of challenge to the power of the church as the PRINTING 27 sole interpreter of God's Word. Rome re- Latin. Not the least of the responses were sponded by ordering the chastisement of all the book burning and the publishing of the printers, buyers, and readers of heresy. In index of forbidden books. A papal bill of Mainz, where printing was born, the arch- 1502 ordered the burning of all books that bishop established a commission to grant questioned the authority of the Church. In permission for the printing of any book. 1516 the Fifth Lateran Council set forth De Governments were quick to discover impressione liborum, forbidding any print- that printing is easier to control than ing that lacked Church approval. speech, for presses can be taxed and seized, Before the invention of printing, a four- paper can be rationed, newspapers can be teenth century English religious sect, the censored, and books can be burned. Print- Lollards, translated the Bible into English ing arrived in lands that had already known on the theory that God speaks directly to spoken heresies, and so government offi- people in their own tongue, and that eve- cials were not unprepared for the new he- ryone can interpret God's message. This retical messages set before them in ink on anticlerical heresy undercut the argument paper. for hierarchy, was opposed by Church and The church was particularly suspicious State with burning by the former and of printing in any language but Latin. hanging by the latter. Church opposition to printing itself was Church and State did not shrink from a minimal; in fact, except for some pockets policy of publish and perish. When William of worry about its potential for mischief, Tyndale, a humanist, printed an English printing was generally encouraged. Print- translation of the New Testament, he. ing in the vernacular caused greater con- aroused the furies. Captured, he was im- cern, for that cut into the exclusive domain prisoned, tried for heresy, and garroted. over written communication of the ecclesi- Then his corpse was tied to a stake and astic authorities. Printers encountered no burned. Sir John Oldcastle, who has been problems when they restricted themselves identified as Shakespeare's model for Fal- to folk tales and similar entertaining fare, staff, was first hanged and then burned, both but both the religious and civil authorities Church and State again getting their due.33 cracked down upon printing in the ver- In Spain, as Columbus was getting ready nacular that challenged authority. As for to sail across the ocean to the Indies, the scholars writing in Latin or Greek for other Inquisition burned books. Across Europe, scholars, there were relatively few com- the powers of Church and State cracked plaints, so long as the common people were down hard on printers to assure that unap- not troubled. proved pamphlets and books were not distributed. Fines, prison, whippings, and Punishment for Publishing death sentences were meted out to disobe- dient printers. By the time the Bastille fell Burning books has proved a durable, if not in the French Revolution, more than 800 always effective, means of control that has publishers, writers, and booksellers had continued into this century. Writing con- been imprisoned there. fers too much influence to be ignored by the already powerful. As writing spread, so did its shadow, controls of writing. In many cultures across many centuries, writing has An exception to the dark cloud of censor- been restricted and invested with magical ship was Holland after it freed itself from force, access granted to only a few. Such Spain in the seventeenth century. Booksell- action inevitably led to turmoil. The most ers and intellectuals fled other countries famous reactions of all, adding tinder to the for the freer air of Dutch cities, where they fires of the Reformation, were the restric- prospered, publishing banned books that tions during the Middle Ages on reading the they at times smuggled into the countries Bible and on printing it in anything but that banned them.34 28 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Mail in the Middle Ages

During the Dark Ages and the early Middle By the twelfth century, monasteries were Ages, when knowledge and literacy in communicating with one another. A fa- Europe were the dominion of the church, vored means of swapping gossip and infor- little if any postal service existed. Few peo- mation was the rotula, a round-robin news ple could read, and nobles took pride in letter on a parchment scroll. The abbot of their illiteracy, believing that a strong a monastery would impart some news on memory would be weakened if the mind the scroll, which was borne to the next began to rely too much upon the written monastery, whose abbot might comment word. Few peasants journeyed even a few on this news and add a fresh item or two leagues from the place they were born. If about actual events, although the reader they had, they might not have been able to also found such entries as "Common report return to it, for those who lived in these has it that Antichrist has been born at Baby- nameless hamlets had little perception of lon."38 As the rotula made the rounds, it what lay beyond the next hill or the next could grow quite long. turn in a rutted path. The land beyond their reach consisted at least as much of fantasy as reality. It was a flat world with heaven Postal Services for Town in the sky above and hell in the earth below. and Gown Dragons patrolled the edges of a world The establishment of universities and the shared with races of gryphons and pygmies. growth of towns and mercantilism ex- Unless their lord took them off on a panded written communication. Mer- crusade, the peasants married, raised their chants, peddlers, pilgrims, and crusaders children, and died where they were born, carried news and private messages as they for they belonged to the land. No doubt traveled more or less regular routes across they enjoyed gossip as much as we do to- Europe and the Near East. At the University day, but they seldom if ever received news of Paris, a system arose in the thirteenth from afar. They could not have identified century that helped lay the foundation of a the country in which they lived, what the national postal service. All university year was, or even the century. Life re- teachers and students were fortunate to be volved around the seasons for planting and regarded as ecclesiastics. As such they en- for harvesting, and religious festivals. For joyed royal protection, including safe con- almost everyone, independent thought did duct when they traveled, exemption from not exist. The notion of freedom to choose military duty, and exemption from the a government would have been as bewil- taxes that other citizens had to bear. How- dering as choosing a religion. You were ever, royal favor did not prevent students what you were. from sporadically writing home for money, When the Roman Empire collapsed, so one medieval tradition that survived the did the efficient Roman postal system. centuries. Subject only to the laws of the Peasants certainly had no need of a postal king and not to local justice, students lived service. Hardly anyone else did either. a clamorous and penurious existence, cheated by the good townsfolk who blamed One must try to conceive an age when there them for robbery, rape, and general de- were no colleges nor even common schools, bauchery. when rulers and even many of the clergy were immoral, filthy and ignorant. Nobles To carry letters and money between the and knights were illiterate, and proud of it. students and their parents, the University Reading and writing were for churchmen, of Paris decided to set up a system of mes- clerks (a rather despised profession), and sengers, extending to them the same royal perhaps a few highbrow women. A real guarantees and exemptions that faculty upstanding man scorned such things.37 and students enjoyed. As a result of this generous gesture, the inconsequential job PRINTING 29 of messenger became a coveted position organizations. Finally, this outside busi- despite the wages, or, to put it more pre- ness became a part of their duties; the cisely, the franchise to employ messengers organizations they worked for profited was greatly coveted. To obtain their ap- from the courier's mail business sideline. pointments, the messengers and their man- During the fourteenth century, commer- agers swore an oath of office and put up a cial letters were flowing among the port bond. As the years passed, they supple- cities of the Hanseatic League. By 1500, mented their incomes by carrying along letter routes open to the public crisscrossed dispatches from outsiders. Ignoring restric- Europe. tions, some messengers extended their The quality of service was often a matter routes to meet this growing, profitable de- of luck. While some routes were overser- mand. University administrators clam- viced, large areas of the continent were bered down from their ivory towers to ignored. Postal fees soared, sometimes to make sure that the university, too, derived the point of real personal sacrifice, with considerable income from the mail service. most of the fees paid by the receiver of the The spreading commercial interests of mail. If writing to a distant loved one might cities and towns led to arrangements to plunge him into debt, the lover did not protect their trade with the outside world, write such a letter casually. particularly against bandits and feudal lords who taxed and sometimes seized When Patience Breton's letter arrived, if it goods crossing their lands. Arrangements did, her brother would no doubt be happy to included postal service between the towns. have it. But he would be stunned at the fee The prospering towns also set up a court he would have to pay. It would certamry help him to understand why the various postal system that required a separate messenger 40 service to coordinate their decisions. Many systems were anxious to render him service. of the powerful guilds of craftsmen and Rival postal systems emerged. Sometimes merchants wanted their own exchange of there were too many postmen, and compe- dispatches. In sum, what was hardly tition grew nasty. Competition led to royal thought of during the illiterate feudal age court intrigues and to violence on the high- of Europe became a necessity during the ways. mercantile age that followed. In the fourteenth century, an extended Italian family named Tasso developed a The safe way, indeed the only way, to travel private courier service that over the years was in groups. In the Middle Ages, a lone traveler was a rare figure. He was usually a fanned out across Europe. Tassi is the Ital- courier on the king's business, trained to ian word for badgers; as a symbol of author- repeat long messages word for word. Such a ity the courier tied a badger skin over the message could not be forged or lost.39 forehead of his horse. Later, the couriers wore blue and silver uniforms. As the business prospered, the family became better Postal Service as a Business known by the German name of Taxis and It might be expected that an ordinary citi- through marriage as Thurn and Taxis. Op- zen wishing to speed a letter to another erating under charters of the Holy Roman ordinary citizen in another place, say a Empire, the firm built a swift and depend- lover to the object of his or her desire, able postal system across central Europe, a would search out anyone from a monk kind of pony express serving emperors, bearing a rotula to a messenger for the military officers, and merchants. Butchers Guild willing to carry a perfumed Because a postal service could be estab- letter along for a silver coin. lished in a country only with the permis- Regular couriers were appointed to sion of its ruler, it became the practice of a carry mail for their organizations. They king to appoint postmasters not unlike the added outside letters, at first secretly and way a city today grants a franchise to a then openly with the permission of their 30 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION cable television company. In Britain, the In the early history of the United States, franchise was called a farm and the franchi- some private delivery services carried let- see a farmer. Besides these new private ters within cities for a penny apiece and services, the government services contin- advertised that they could beat the govern- ued. Eventually, most of them merged into ment mail between Boston and Philadel- a single State Post, a practice that began in phia; in 1851 the Supreme Court ruled France in 1627. However, some private against the practice on the grounds that services continued. The historic antece- private carriers deprived the government dents of UPS and Federal Express run deep. of income from postage stamps.42 Congress In 1627, it became possible to send enforced the monopoly by declaring all money by registered mail, the first arrange- roads to be post roads. Efficiency was not ment of its kind. Soon after, a parcel post at issue. service began. A privately run city mail service for Paris was permitted in 1653. Letters were put into postage-paid enve- Time would bring change. At the effort to lopes, an early version of the postage keep competition away, the postal service stamp, and collection boxes were placed would not always be so fortunate. around the city. The project, however, In the Moslem nations, pigeons were proved to be a failure. employed extensively to carry news. Thou- In 1682, one William Dockwra began a sands were used during the Crusades. In private postal service in London with Europe, too, until this century, pigeons car- penny postage and five hundred collection ried correspondence, especially business boxes, hourly collection, and six to ten de- information. Nathan Rothschild, who liveries a day.41 Miffed, the government put headed the London branch of the banking Dockwra on trial, convicted him, and took family, reportedly made a killing on the over his business, promptly ending its effi- stock market when a pigeon brought him ciency and low prices. Another Londoner the first news of Napoleon's defeat at Wa- tried to set up a similar private service a terloo. Others used pigeons to learn which generation later and met a similar response horse won a race. Julius Reuter started the from the government. The service was international news service that bears his quickly suppressed. After that, no one else name by using pigeons to fill a gap in the anywhere in Europe tried competing with telegraph lines between Berlin and Paris. his or her government for two centuries.

Here a New, There a New

At first, no one considered that the public tion that would not be matched for a thou- had a right to know, but apparently they sand years. wanted to know. Julius Caesar ordered In China, a few centuries later a similar that a record of official government news gazette, known as tipao (palace report), car- and announcements should be posted ried official announcements and news around Rome. It was called the Acta Di~ from the far-flung provinces to a readership urna (Daily Transactions), a gazette of of bureaucrats, not for ordinary people, what happened at the Senate plus other most of whom were illiterate in any case. matters the government thought the pub- Publication of these tipao, at first written by lic should know. Newsletters that in- hand or printed with wooden blocks, concluded items from the Acta were copied by tinued until the end of the Manchu empire scribe slaves to be privately circulated in 1911. Although the tipao had not been throughout the vast Roman Empire, which published frequently or widely, in one at its height of power stretched from Scot- form or another they survived for about a land to Egypt, a level of news dissemina- dozen centuries! PRINTING 31

Forerunners of Newspapers earliest newssheets, a single sheet of paper When mercantilism in Europe replaced the slightly smaller than a modern sheet of feudalism of the Middle Ages, literate mer- 8 1/2 x 11-inch office stationery folded in chants and government officials sought re- half, was usually printed on one side of a liable and prompt tidings from distant cities piece of paper. In Italy, a small coin called relating to trade, political events, or the a gazetta paid for a copy. In time, many of outcome of battles. By the middle of the the early newspapers came to be known as fifteenth century, about the time that Jo- gazettes. hannes Gutenberg began printing Bibles, The popularity of these newssheets, handwritten newsletters appeared once published sporadically, sometimes anony- again in Europe, where they had appar- mously under changing names either un- ently been absent since the days of the der the government's watchful eye or a step Roman Empire. They were sent irregularly ahead of the police, led to the concept of at first and then on a regular basis, at times the newspaper, a publication that would be coinciding with a weekly mail delivery. published under the same name on a regu- The occasional printed pamphlet or lar schedule, a source of the latest news and broadside was published when someone a variety of news, a private enterprise not wanted a piece of news or an an- dependent upon the government or any nouncement distributed widely. Fifty years other organization for its information. It after Gutenberg's invention, political news- was a wonderful idea, if not altogether safe. letters, some in ballad form, were being By the seventeenth century, newssheets distributed either printed or as handwritten began to expand into newspapers. manuscripts where printing was unable for one reason or another to meet the new demand for information. Broadsides at The First Newspapers times carried their reports in the form of a Scholars disagree as to which was the first rhyming ballad, following the tradition of newspaper. It may have been the Latin balladeers who went from town to town news periodical Mercurius Gallo-Belgicus earning coins by songs that included news printed in Cologne starting in 1594.44 Both in rhyme. Thanks to the printed pamphlet, Holland and Switzerland claim the location there existed for the first time the means of for the world's first newspaper. What is reaching a large and scattered public agreed is that the idea of the newspaper quickly with information in each sub- soon spread across western Europe. It sequent copy exactly as accurate as the reached the American colonies in 1690, information in the first copy. Some pam- when Benjamin Harris produced a single phlets, called canards in French, reported issue of Publick Occurrences in Boston be- devilish actions, miracles, monsters, catas- fore colonial authorities shut him down. trophes, and the arrival of comets. Harris was not unaccustomed to such treat- Later, the literate were able to read ment, for he had fled to Boston from Lon- printed newsbooks, a compilation of several don, where authorities took exception to his pages, usually on a single topic, occasion- politically inflammatory publications. ally illustrated with woodcuts and includ- Printers in eighteenth century America ing the text of letters. Likely as not, the had a hard time surviving until they discov- topic of a newsbook was a situation or event ered the newspaper as a source of income.45 that someone in power wanted to bring to A printer starting up in business made sure the public's attention, such as victory in that a newspaper was part of his output, battle or a planned royal wedding. even though he might be the only contribu- From Venice came the more current tor of articles. Borrowing from other news- newssheets. They supplemented the town papers became commonplace. It saved crier and the coffeehouse gossip with short wear and tear. political and military news items from vari- The emergence of the daily newspaper ous European cities—except Venice.43 The enlarged the public's appetite for new in- 32 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION formation. Here a new, there a new added Divine Right of Kings. As so often recurs in up to news. the course of human affairs, the diffusion of a means of communication distributed Unintended Consequences political power, too. The printing of news was awaited so eagerly, even by illiterate A growing commercial press, whose pages commoners who listened to reports read included not only news of commerce, but aloud, that those in power found them- advertisements, was matched by a growing selves obliged to publish in order to assure political press. The spreading of literacy, support. So it was that King James I of which printing made possible, led during England felt it necessary, though extremely the 17th and 18th centuries to news about distasteful, to "descend many degrees be- public affairs and the establishment of a neath Our Selfe" and print his decision to base of public opinion that governments dissolve Parliament. At least his statement ignored at their peril. In Europe, nation stood in splendid isolation. No opposing after nation saw the Divine Right of Kings viewpoint was permitted printers' ink. fall before a public crying for reform and a voice in their governance, and willing to go to the barricades to achieve them. In the American colonies, the Stamp Act of 1765, A new tool of communication may replace which laid a heavy duty on newsprint, something useful or pleasurable. Newspa- exacerbated the agitation preceding the pers, the new tool of communication, Revolution. replaced some measure of oral communication. Given the opportunity, people pre- If it seems farfetched to relate the French ferred to read their information than to and American and British revolutions to the hear about it. Instead of at church, gossip 42-line Bible that came off the press in could be picked up by reading a newspaper Mainz in 1455, it is less farfetched to relate at home. Private life expanded as communal them to news sheets, newspapers, and activities and neighborly relationships 46 political tracts. shrank. An unintended consequence of the print- Complaints about the "sullen silence" of ing of news, whether by newsbook, news- newspaper readers in seventeenth century letter, newssheet, or newspaper, was that it coffeehouses point to the intrusive effects of chipped away at authority. News printing printed materials on some forms of helped to undermine the concept of the sociability.47

Printing and Literacy

Printing spread literacy. Literacy spread Vernacular Printing printing. Together they created the modern world. In Europe, for more than one thou- Less than fifty years after Gutenberg intro- sand years, Latin was the international lan- duced his printing system some 10 million guage and the language of diplomacy, just copies of books had been printed in Europe, as Chinese was in the Far East and English an astonishing number in light of limited is today all over the world. Latin was the literacy. The number would rise tobetween 150 million and 200 million by the end of language of scholars and schoolboys, the 48 language of books, the language used to the next century. Books printed in some communicate with God. It was a pillar of the of the European vernaculars codified those unchanging medieval world. Then came languages. By neglect, other vernaculars, printing, and with it the publication of like Gaelic and Provengal, were consigned books in the vernacular, in the several lan- to being spoken but rarely written. With the guages spoken on the streets of Europe. shift to printing in vernaculars, over a period PRINTING 33 of centuries Latin itself, along with those consciousness hardly existed when literate other classical languages whose knowledge people read only Latin and the spoken lan- once signified the scholar, Greek and He- guage was a babble of unrecognizable dia- brew, fell into disuse except for formal lects.50 prayer. Vernacular printing also gave rise to Why Bother to Read? standards of spelling and rules of syntax. When words were spelled at all they first Printing and its accompanying literacy rep- appeared as they sounded, which could be resent one of the greatest, if not the greatest as different as the shape of the ears of the of the watersheds of human history. In the printers who struggled for a visual equiva- Middle Ages, most people were illiterate. lent of what they heard, unlike the preci- Someone who needed to locate an unfamil- sion of Latin. In time, English and other iar shop would look for a picture over the vernacular languages would develop the door. A hatmaker painted a hat on a sign. orthographic and syntactical structures Why bother learning to read? And without that have been the despair of generations something to read there was little reason to of schoolchildren ever since. learn the difficult art. As books became available, literacy was fostered. As literacy expanded, so did the For over five hundred years this achievement (to be able to read and write) was rare in call for even more books. It is a tale that Western Europe. It is a shock to realise that would recur through history. during all this time practically no lay person, from kings and emperors downward, could The new presses... probably did not gradu- read or write. Charlemagne learnt to read, ally make available to low-born men what but he never could write. He had wax tablets had previously been restricted to the high beside his bed to practise on, but said he born. Instead, changes in mental habits and couldn't get the hang of it.51 attitudes entailed by access to printed materials affected a wide social spectrum from What literacy existed was mostly for men. the outset. In fifteenth century England, for Women were not expected to be schooled example, mercers and scriveners engaged in 52 a manuscript book trade were already and just a modest percentage could read. catering to the needs of lowly bakers and Among women of the poorer classes, liter- merchants as well as to those of lawyers, acy probably did not exist. But for both aldermen and knights.49 sexes printing was something to listen to when a book was opened by someone who Commoners steeped in book learning were would read aloud. now sitting in the highest councils of gov- With religious and political tracts in the ernment. When the ability to read and vernacular instead of Latin, to say nothing write conferred a measure of authority, of the Holy Bible itself, making the heroic aristocrats who had expressed contempt for effort to decipher the words on a page now literacy began to treat books and learning became for some a worthwhile endeavor. with a bit more respect so they could The astonishing dispersion of printed ma- resume what they regarded as their right- terials, matched by the spreading literacy, ful, God-given places of power. Accompa- in turn increased the market for books and nying the change in behavior toward other written material, an ever widening reading came the sometimes surprising dis- circle. Literacy also brought a measure of covery that reading could be enjoyable; independent thought to its possessors, indeed, the acquisition of knowledge could even the means to power and wealth in a be a pleasure! world where centuries of feudalism had Vernacular printing also led French blocked personal advancement. In a few readers to think of themselves as being part cases, a desire may have been born to use of France, and English readers to regard the printing press to say something to oth- themselves as part of England. This national ers.53 Peasants also discovered what the 34 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Gospels really said about the poor and op- All this ferment led to that rarest of cultural pressed. phenomena, an intellectual movement which alters the course of both learning and The monopoly position of the Bible and the civilization. Pythagoreans had tried it, four Latin language in the church was destroyed hundred years before the birth of Christ, and by the press and in its place there developed failed. So, in the third and fourth centuries a widespread market for the Bible in the A.D., had Manichaeans, Stoics, and Epicure- vernacular and a concern with its literal ans. But the humanists of the sixteenth cen- interpretation... The effect of the discovery tury were to succeed spectacularly—so of printing was evident in the savage relig- much so that their triumph is unique. They ious wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth would be followed by other ideologies deter- centuries.54 mined to shape the future—seventeenth century rationalism, the eighteenth century Enlightenment, Marxism in the nineteenth The Engines of Printing century, and, in the twentieth, by pragma- and Literacy tism, determinism, and empiricism. Each would alter the stream of great events, but Printing and literacy were engines that none would match the achievements of helped to fuel the religious Reformation, Renaissance humanists.57 the secular Renaissance, a spirit of nationalism, and the growth of mercantilism. An Curiously, and perhaps by coincidence, evangelical impulse powered the early modern handwriting was born shortly after presses with rapid, spectacular conse- 55 printing came to Europe and the hand- quences. Bibles, tracts, and sermons were written book died.58 Credit is given to the held in roughened hands newly washed. inventor of italic type, the printer Aldus Over several centuries the presses broke Manutius of Venice, the possessor of what down the feudal system of kings and bar- is still referred to as a fine Italian hand. The ons. Priests lost the exclusive prerogative of art of penning a charming letter in a flowing interpreting the Bible. The rigid social style of penmanship grew to be an accom- structure that determined a man's fate from plishment admired among the literate. the day of his birth crumbled as men empowered by literacy dared to reach out in new directions. Printing gave a boost to Literacy and Equality public excitement over ocean exploration As printing spread at the close of the Middle just as, in our own day, television fired the Ages (more accurately, the spread of print- public imagination for exploring space. ing closed the Middle Ages), so did written communication, but oral communication As the presses disgorged new printed matter, obviously did not disappear as a resonating the yearning for literacy spread like a fever; source of information. Preaching contin- millions of Europeans led their children to ued, as did traveling plays and the news- classrooms and remained to learn 56 peppered ballads of itinerant minstrels. themselves. Oral and written cultures have, in one expression or another, existed side by side up Caught up in the ideas of humanism—with to the present moment. its focus on life, not on eternity—and the rediscovery of the learning of ancient Greece and Rome, fueled by the books made by paper, movable type, and presses, The diffusion of printing across the world, scholars and students came together at new like the diffusion of so many other tools of universities. Within six decades of the pub- communication where they have not been lication of the 42-line Bible, more than a restrictedby a power elite, led to the equal- dozen additional universities were estab- izing effects of an increased number of lished. In just the two decades between producers delivering information of ever 1496 and 1516, five additional colleges were greater variety to a widening pool of users. founded at Oxford and Cambridge. In short, diffusion led to a decentralizing PRINTING 35 of authority and influence. Here was an what had been a limited, rigid view of the early version of what in the late twentieth world and challenged accepted views. With century would be termed postmodernism, as printing and literacy feeding one another, scholars and other writers brought a vari- literacy itself served as a tool of communi- ety of backgrounds and perspectives to cation.

Did Gutenberg Know About China?

Francis Bacon said printing, the compass, much as Gutenberg is in the West.59 Carv- and gunpowder were the three inventions ing a pageful of characters and drawings that changed the world. Each was Chinese. into a single wooden block for inking was We tend to think of printing only in the basis for block printing, which existed terms of typography, the printing of words for centuries before the invention of mov- with the single letters of movable type. able type in China. Although the Chinese Actually, printing flourished long before invented movable type, they made little typography. The Chinese printed books us- use of it. ing carved wooden blocks. Feng Tao, who Inked seals had been used in the ancient improved the art of block printing, or xy- Mediterranean civilizations as far back as lography, is regarded in Chinese history 4000 B.C. Alexander the Great may have brought them to India during his invasion. Merchants traveling between India and the Orient may have introduced them to the Chinese, who restricted the number of copies of the books they printed, unlike the West- ern practice of finding wider audiences.60 Romans in the first century B.C. discovered that printing stamps could be aligned for the efficient production of tablets or texts. However, the idea went nowhere. No suitable ink was available and papyrus and vellum were expensive and not ideal for printing. Also, little demand existed for large numbers of copies of books or documents. Literacy was not widespread; scribes could reproduce by hand all the written material needed. It is instructive to compare Europe with China, which had known little but strong central governments, where paper manufacture and printing had been born, but where printing had languished. Monolithic government control must be taken into account. In China, from earliest times, printing was associated with either religious belief or government. Chinese ideographic characters were stamped on bamboo strips, many characters on a strip, to be worn as Figure 2.3 A sketch of the reconstructed amulets to keep tigers and wolves away, workshop of Johannes Gutenberg in the Gutenberg and to cure illness. Bamboo strips were also Museum in Mainz, Germany. stamped with such identification of the 36 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION traveler as name, age, and appearance. for centuries. A turning of attention from Since stamps and ink were officially sanc- medieval attitudes and alchemy to the tioned, the government could use these newly rediscovered literature, morality, early passports to regulate movement, like and politics of classical Greece separates permission to enter a city gate. the Renaissance from the Middle Ages.62

European Ferment What Did Gutenberg Know? Europe added several elements essential to What of printing was known to Johannes the continent's rapid absorption of print- Gutenberg before he assembled the system ing. As noted, it was a Europe in ferment, that produced the famous 42-line Bible? at the dawn of religious and secular change, Specifically, how much of what the Chinese its knights home from the Crusades, its had invented, if anything, was known to the cities pulsing with new ideas. Unlike German goldsmith who is credited with one China, mired in imperial rigidity, fifteenth of the world's most earth-shaking inven- century Europe was wrestling with change. tions? When Gutenberg produced printing, From the twelfth century onward, there he may not have heard of far off Cathay. were the universities, whose scholars The real question is, was he aware of the needed books. printing that had been done there for cen- There was religious ferment. By translat- turies? The answer will probably never be ing the Bible into the German vernacular, the known, but one of history's great mysteries Augustinian monk Martin Luther allowed tantalizes us with its clues. people to do something astonishing—to Oriental technology and products trav- read the Word of God for themselves in the eled west from China by way of traders language they spoke daily and to respond journeying along the Silk Road through fa- as individuals. To enlist a broader audi- bled cities like Samarkand, Baghdad, and ence, including much of the nobility who Damascus. It is not at all clear that the knew no Latin, he wrote in the German that invention of typography—movable type all those around him had spoken since and the casting of type—had ever reached childhood. The printing medium placed Europe from the Orient, but block-printed this vernacular Bible in their hands.61 books could well have found their way to Europe also added an increasingly literate Europe before Gutenberg's first impres- population among the elite. No sooner had sions in the fifteenth century, for great Luther nailed on the church doors his numbers of books had been printed in propositions against indulgences than a China. Some block printing had also been campaign of posters, pamphlets, and cari- done in Europe. cature drawings began first across Ger- The oldest book surviving today is, in many and then across the rest of Europe. fact, a religious work dated 868, the Dia- The available presses could not print pam- mond Sutra, on a roll 16 feet long, a Chinese phlets and books fast enough. version of Buddhist scripture. Two copies Bound up with the Reformation's almost have been found, one printed from stone, insatiable appetite for religious books, the other from wood, discovered undis- printing presses were also tied to the Ren- turbed amid thousands of Buddhist texts aissance, with its great appetite for copies stored in a subterranean chamber in the of the newly discovered Greek classics, and desert of western China, where the dry indeed for learning of all kinds. These hun- conditions minimized decay. gers could not be satisfied by the slow pen In imperial China, a book was a rolled of copyists in the monasteries and the back manuscript of silk or paper until the tenth shops of the booksellers. century, when the first folded books ap- The convergence of printing with the peared, a precursor to the stitched book. A religious impulses of the Reformation and book was folded from a single sheet of the humanism of the Renaissance frac- paper, but like all block prints it was tured a medieval structure that had stood printed on only one side of the paper. The PRINTING 37 folds were pasted together so the book Before Gutenberg no less than eight Euro- could be read by turning the pages. pean travelers, Marco Polo among them, de- The contents of all books must have scribed printed paper money.65 Pope been known to government officials be- Innocent IV sent an emissary, John of cause censorship was a known fact of life Piano Carpini, to the Grand Khan in the among Chinese scholars, hundreds having mid-thirteenth century. He returned with been buried alive by the first emperor of a letter sealed in the Chinese style, ink the Chin dynasty, who also burned all the printed upon paper two centuries before books he could find. Gutenberg. At the same time, several Euro- As for other printed material that trav- pean prisoners, both men and women, eled west along the Silk Road, we can only were living in the Mongol capital. Yet, the speculate. With active commerce, it is trail remains cloudy. likely that decks of block-printed playing cards and religious images moved freely No positive documentary evidence has yet between Europe and the Far East. Perhaps been found to show that... European block some trader took along a religious picture printing came from the Far East at all. But to comfort his hours along the route. The strong circumstantial evidence leads to the earliest known European block prints are conviction that either through Russia, through Europeans in China, through Persia, religious images. Surely other traders or through Egypt—perhaps through several packed decks of playing cards among their or all of these routes—the influence of the possessions to while away the hours at block printing of China entered the campsites far from home. Playing cards are European world during the time of the Mon- known to have been in Europe by the four- gol Empire and the years immediately fol- teenth century, because a moralist of that lowing and had its part in bringing about the era complained of card playing during sa- rise and gradual development of that activity which in turn paved the way for Gutenberg's cred festivals and the hawking of obscene 66 pictures in church.63 invention. Block printing, although an active art across the Far East, had been unknown to In the thirteenth century, Genghis Khan the Europe of the Dark Ages, where monks and his Mongol army ripped down the Is- patiently copied manuscripts. Between lamic blockade and brought the Orient to China and Europe lay the Islamic world, Europe's door for one century, until the which refused for religious reasons to print Mongols fell. What Europe did not realize its literature. The first mention in Euro- in its terror was that the Mongols had pean literature of the Chinese invention of cleared away the impediments to direct printing comes in 1546, a century after communication with a highly civilized Gutenberg's 42-line Bible was printed, from kingdom to the east, China. the Italian historian Jovius, who examined The Mongols were an unlettered people printed books brought from China by Por- when they swept out of their remote king- tuguese travelers and concluded that Euro- dom. As they relentlessly galloped westward, pean printing was derived from China.64 they conquered people who printed, in- The known history of paper hints at the cluding the Buddhist priests who used the way that printing technology may have art mostly to duplicate sutras, which are re- traveled. Missionaries and other travelers ligious manuscripts comprising narrative relayed information that the Chinese in- text and charms.67 The Mongols adopted vented paper, played with printed cards, what they wanted of the cultures of the van- spent printed paper money, and treasured quished. Content to patronize Chinese lit- printed religious pictures. It would be rea- erature in the East and Arabic literature in sonable to conclude that the missionaries the West,68 they even printed Chinese litera- also shared the knowledge that a great ture in their own Mongol language.69 number of books were printed in China. 38 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Movable Type in China Korean government even created a Depart- and Korea ment of Books. The far-seeing king also ordered his For material such as documents and books, scholars to create a simple alphabet for the the East Asian written languages were at a common people. They produced hangul distinct disadvantage for printing, espe- ("Korean letters"), a phonetic system based cially when compared with Western lan- on Sanskrit with eighteen consonants and guages. Each Chinese character and most ten vowels. Sejong's enlightened attitude Japanese characters represented a word, of was quite at variance with the cramped, which there were many tens of thousands. suspicious policies of Chinese emperors of Western languages were based on alphabets the era. It was used to further literature and of little more than two dozen letters that education. were combined to make words. The Chi- The type used was the Chinese character nese printer worked under another disad- set of perhaps 8,000 word characters in- vantage. He did not use a press. Instead, his stead of the much simpler Korean phonetic brush pressed the paper against the inked alphabet, because Chinese was the lan- blocks, probably a single block at a time. guage of literacy, just as Latin was at the In the eleventh century, one Pi Sheng, a same time in Europe. Sejong's government blacksmith and alchemist, invented mov- type foundry cast copper type. The pieces able type, molding characters out of baked of type were inferior to the kind that Guten- clay—pottery type that he placed in an iron berg would invent a half century later. The frame. He made several copies of each type molds enabled Korean printers to cast word character and 20 or more of the most identical character after character in small common words so he could print a whole flat squares, a system that worked, but page at once. Unfortunately, success must have made binding in a form difficult. eluded Pi Sheng. No ink behaved well with By 1434, a book had been printed in mov- pottery type and the sheer volume of Chi- able type, with both Chinese pictograph nese word characters worked against his characters and their corresponding Korean idea, so it was easier just to engrave wooden phonetic symbols apparently joined on the blocks. He had translated an ingenious idea 72 same type mold. into an invention, but he could not complete a printing system and move it to the innovation stage, where it would find a use. It is a strange fact that China, Korea, and Ja- Pi Sheng was a man with an idea ahead of pan, whose languages present the most difficulties to the typographic printer, should his time. His invention was not, however, have been the first nations to invent and de- completely forgotten. In 1313, about twenty velop the art of typography.73 years after Marco Polo returned to Venice, a historian, Wang Chen, wrote a detailed account of movable type, so it stands as part Gutenberg's Achievement of the history of communication.70 What Gutenberg produced that did not exist Although typesetting failed to take hold in Asia was a printing system. Most obvious in China, which was wedded to block print- among its elements were controlled, exact ing, it was used in Korea decades before dimensions of alphabet type cast from met- Gutenberg printed Bibles in Germany. Lo- al punches made of hardened steel. These cated where it was, the effect on the world were not unlike the dies, stamps, and of Korean publishing appears to have been punches that were well known to European modest, yet it should not be discounted. In leather workers, metalsmiths, and pewter that remote corner of the world in the early makers. Gutenberg invented the type mold. fifteenth century, King Sejong encouraged All of Gutenberg's individual casts of letters book production "so as to satisfy reason and were of the same height and could be set in to reform men's evil nature."71 The royal rows. A wooden frame held the page of type firmly in place for the handpress, which PRINTING 39

A lawsuit in the year 1444 refers to two steel alphabets, and it is known that Gutenberg printed with movable type about 1450 to publish what is known as the 36-line Bible; that is, 36 lines per page. He refined his method over the next several years to print—around 1457-1458—the more famous 42-line Bible of 1,282 two-column pages, of which 48 copies are still in existence. Victor Hugo would state, "The Gothic sun set behind the gigantic printing press of Mainz."75 It was a turning point of history. To print a page, a sheet of damp paper was pressed down on the inked type. Then, the sheet was hung up to dry, after which it was dampened again for printing on the other side. Printing caught on immedi- Figure 2.4 Type was chosen from a job case ately. When apprentices learned the se- and set by hand. crets of their masters, they moved on to their own establishments. The cousinly art of paper making, some was a familiar item in fifteenth century three centuries earlier, had coursed Europe as both a linen press to remove through the cities of Europe the same Way. wrinkles from clothes and a grape press to When Mainz was sacked in 1462 by the make wine. Perhaps borrowing from artists army of Adolphus of Nassau, printing who were using oil as a base for their paint, moved to Italy, where wealthy nobles pa- Gutenberg added a linseed oil-varnish ink tronized the arts and liberal churchmen that was suitable for making legible impres- encouraged learning.76 In England, presses sions from metal type upon paper. were set up at Oxford and Cambridge. A A few efforts had been made to produce press was set up in Rome, 1464; Paris, 1470; books by block printing, but carving a page- Holland, 1471; Switzerland, 1472; Spain, sized block of wood for each page was 1474; England, 1476; Denmark, 1482; Con- plainly unsatisfactory. Gutenberg found a stantinople, 1490. better answer by molding individual letters The thousands of scribes at work that could be used again and again. The throughout Europe did not disappear over- idea may have come from the goldsmiths night. Hand copying continued for dec- and silversmiths in the region around ades, but as it is today, handmade goods Mainz who used distinctive punches to im- were more expensive. In Paris in 1470, a press their hallmark in the soft precious manuscript Bible fetched five times the metals. price of a printed Bible. A curious riddle in Middle English about a book, describing We know little about the contribution of how parchment is made and then written Johann Gutenberg, an inventor whose name on with a quill, goes as follows: is associated with the achievement of printing with movable type. Many of the references to him in history are forgeries, and A foe deprived me of life, took away my his name appears nowhere in books claimed bodily strength; afterwards wet me, dipped to have been printed by him. The evidence me in water, took me out again, set me in the that he invented printing with movable type sun where I quickly lost the hairs I had. is scanty, consisting mostly of a lawsuit Afterwards the hard edge of the knife cut me, against him which describes the nature of with all impurities ground off; fingers folded the printing that went on in his Mainz, me, and the bird's delight sprinkled me over Germany, establishment.74 with useful drops... If the sons of men will use me they will be the safer and 40 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

the more victorious, the bolder in heart and the blither in thought, the wiser in mind... Ask what my name is, useful to me; my Gutenberg's little press in Mainz would be name is famous, of service to men, sacred in 77 a pebble dropped into the pond of history, myself. spreading ripples in an ever widening cir- Sometimes a new edition of a printed book cle. Just as the phonetic alphabet on papy- that had been sold out was hand copied rus dispersed knowledge two thousand when only a few copies were demanded years earlier, so now did printing. By the because copying by hand was cheaper than sixteenth century, printing had expanded resetting all the type. But the sun was set- specialization and an even wider distributing on the honorable profession of scribe. tion of information and ideas. It was estimated that a printer could on In inventing printing, Gutenberg had average produce in two days what a copyist also invented industrial repetition. The in- produced in one year.78 formation revolution that he began in the Because the amount of type was limited fifteenth century would flower in the in- and because stereotyping had not been industrial revolution of the nineteenth cen- vented, book printers could set up just a tury. That era would bring into being yet few dozen pages at a time. As a result, a another information revolution, one single edition of a book was apt to be stud- marked by William Fox Talbot's invention ded with variants, for harried authors were of the repeatability of images and Thomas Edison's invention of the repeatability of able to correct their texts only in the midst 82 of the printing process.79 sounds. The phrases upper case, meaning capital letters, and lower case were born at this time. The early cases in which printers kept their type were divided horizontally, with the capital letters stored in the upper case and the smajl letters in the lower case. Anyone who is aware of the measurement of type sizes determined in points may also be interested to learn that one point was 144th the size of the foot of King Louis XVI of France, who died on the scaffold. The many printing presses established by the Roman Catholic Church were part of the reason that the supply of books, which changed within a few decades from handwritten script to mostly print, changed also from scarcity to glut.80 Each of the states of western Europe had at least one major publishing center. The numerous small states, towns, and bishoprics that existed in place of a strong central authority had created a fragmented political power in Europe. The consequent political competition and active evangelism set up diverse and competitive islands of power. This encouraged printing, for in every age of history people who compete with others will use the means of communication at their dis- 81 Figure 2.5 The printing press changed little posal. in more than three centuries. PRINTING 41

Notes 27 Tuchman, 453. 28 Mason, 456. 1 William Manchester, A World Lit Only By Fire: 29 Natalie Davis, "Printing and the People: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance (Bos Early Modern France," in Literacy and Social ton: Little, Brown, and Company, 1992), 130. Development in the West: A Reader, ed. 2 Barbara Tuchman, A Distant Mirror: The Harvey J. Graff. (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Calamitous 14th Century (New York: Alfred versity Press, 1981), 85. A. Knopf, 1978), 581. 30 Febvre, 153. 3 Tuchman, 339. 31 Pattison, 113. 4 His second bull, Unam Sanctam, in 1302. 32 Henri-Jean Martin, The History and Power of 5 William A. Mason, A History of the Art of Writ Writing. Trans. Lydia G. Cochrane (Chicago: ing (New York: The MacMillan Co., 1920), University of Chicago Press, 1994), 266. 454 33 Will Durant, The Reformation. Vol 5. of The 6 Stanley Morison, Politics and Script (Oxford: Story of Civilization (New York: Simon and The Clarendon Press, 1972), 247. Schuster, 1957), 117. 7 Manchester, 182. 34 Febvre, 196-97. 8 Morison, 265. 35 Febvre, 261. 9 Manchester, 182. 36 Lawrence Stone, "The Thirst for Learning,"

10 Thomas F. Carter, The Invention of Printing in in Norman Cantor and Michael Werthman, China and Its Spread Westward, 2nd ed. (New The History of Popular Culture (New York: York: Ronald Press, 1955), 3. Macmillan, 1968), 279. 11 G.E.R. Lloyd, "Democracy, Philosophy, and 37 F. Harlow, Old Post Bags (New York: Science in Ancient Greece," in John Dunn, D. Appleton, 1938), 25. ed., Democracy: The Unfinished Journey, 508 38 Manchester, 61. BC to AD 1993 (New York: Oxford University 39 James Burke, "Communication in the Middle Press, 1992), 55. Ages," in David Crowley and Paul Heyer, 12 Albertine Gaur, A History of Writing (Lon Communication in History (New York: Long don: The British Library, 1987), 46. man, 1991), 70. 13 Carter, 136 40 Laurin Zilliacus, Mail for the World (New 14 Harold Innis, Empire and Communication York: John Day Company, 1953), 18. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, re 41 Daniel C. Roper, The United States Post Office vised ed., 1972), 129. (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1917), 10 15 Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin, The 42 United States v. Bromley, 12 How (US) 88, 13 Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing, Led. 905. 1450-1800 , trans. David Gerard (London: 43 Mitchell Stephens, A History of News (New Verso Editions, 1984), 16. York: Viking Press, 1986), 153. 16 Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Revolu 44 Anthony Smith, "Technology and Control: tion in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: the interactive dimensions of journalism," in Cambridge University Press, 1983), 17. Mass Communication and Society. James 17 Douglas C. McMurtrie, The Book (New York: Curran, et. al., eds. (London: Edward Arnold, Dorset Press, 1989), 67. Ltd., 1977), 178.

18 James Burke, "Communication in the Middle 45 Febvre, 208-211. Ages," in David Crowley and Paul Heyer, 46 Wilbur Schramm, The Story of Human Com Communication in History (New York: Long munication (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), man, 1991), 75-76. 128-9. 47 Eisenstein, 93. 19 Robert Pattison, On Literacy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), 95. 48 Febvre and Martin, 242. 20 Febvre, 20. 49 Eisenstein, "Some Conjectures," 5. 21 Eisenstein, 274. 50 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nation 22 Elizabeth Eisenstein, "Some Conjectures alism (London: Verso, 1991), 44. about the Impact of Printing on Western Soci 51 Kenneth Clark, Civilisation (New York: ety and Thought: A Preliminary Report," The Harper & Row, 1969), 17 Journal of Modern History, (March 1968), 7. 52 A study of social groups in the diocese of 23 Charles H. Haskins, Studies in Medieval Cul Norwich, England, 1580-1700, estimates i ture (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1929) 83. illiteracy among women of all classes. See Also, F.M. Powicke, The Christian Life in the David Cressy, "Levels of Illiteracy in Eng Middle Ages, (1935), 88. land, 1530-1730," Historical Journal, Cam 24 Elizabeth Eisenstein, "Some Conjectures," 40. bridge University Press (1977): 1-23. 25 Tuchman, 156. 53 Davis, 72-73. 26 Tuchman, 60. 42 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

54 Harold A. Innis, The Bias of Communication 70 Carter, 213+ . (University of Toronto Press, 1951), 24-9. 71 Febvre and Martin, 76. 55 Eisenstein, 262. 72 Walter S. Ong, The Presence of the Word: Some 56 Manchester, 98. Prolegomena for Cultural and Religious History 57 Manchester, 106. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967), 49. 58 Mason, 436. 73 Carter, 233. 59 Carter, 32. 74 Frank J. Krompak, "Communication Before 60 Robert Pattison, On Literacy (Oxford: Oxford America," in The Media in America. William University Press, 1982), 88. Sloan, et. al., eds. (Worthington, OH: Publish 61 Clark, 159-60. ing Horizons, 1989), 16. 62 R.R. Bolgar, "The Greek Legacy," in 75 Tuchman, 594. M.I. Finley, ed., The Legacy of Greece (Oxford: 76 Mason, 468-69. Oxford University Press, 1984), 452. 77 Anglo-Saxon Poetry, trans. R.K. Gordon 63 Nicolas de Clamanges in his tract De Ruina et (London: Dent., 1954), 297-98. Reparatione Ecclesia (The Ruin and Reform of 78 Ithiel de Sola Pool, Technologies of Freedom. the Church), reported in Barbara W. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983) Tuchman, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14. 14th Century (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 79 Febvre, 60. 1978), 485. 80 Febvre, 186. 64 Carter, X. 81 Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, lecture, "The 65 Carter, 112. Fifteenth Century Media Revolution," 66 Carter, 174. Macalester College, 22 September 1993. 67 Carter, 49 +. 82 See Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave (New 68 Carter, 88. York: William Morrow, 1980), 135. 69 Carter, 157.

The Third Revolution Mass Media

The Turmoil of a New Age

Beginning around the time of the American The Shift to Cities and French revolutions and the Enlighten- ment, which elevated reason above faith, With the invention of steam power, Europe the Industrial Revolution would create and the United States shifted from an agri- mass society. It would bring much to im- cultural to an industrial economy. Villages prove life: cheap cotton for clothing, cheap racked by disease, malnutrition, and drunk- pottery for dishes, mass produced furni- enness were cleared out as men, women, ture, cheap coal to fuel factories, cheap and children trudged with empty bellies to transportation for people and goods. The cities, where factories arose to produce Industrial Revolution at last would give goods in mass quantity. They crowded into most people the chance to live as only a few squalid urban communities. The world of had lived. The centuries of dependence on the former villagers in their own country handicrafts or of doing without were swiftly was disrupted almost as much as that of the passing. immigrants to the United States who aban- The Industrial Revolution put print into doned not only home, but homeland. Yet, unaccustomed hands. It created books and bad as life was in the city slums, it was an magazines, which it shelved in city librar- improvement over the miserable food and housing, and too often the whips of their ies, and it trained minds to read them. It 1 printed newspapers for everyone and filled masters and landlords. Contrary to what them with the kind of news and advertising Marx and Engels concluded, the working to which everyone could respond. And as classes saw the Industrial Revolution as an it did all these things to open people's opportunity to break free, a chance for wealth and social advancement beyond the minds, it led them into mental seclusion, 2 for reading is not so often a collective activ- dreams of their parents. ity in a family setting or a literary salon as Starting in Great Britain and spreading it is solitary and silent. across western Europe and the American

43 44 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION colonies, the Industrial Revolution created illness or aging. Cities dumped untreated much more than grimy factories and air sewage into rivers to flow alongside the choked with coal soot. It built the farm chemicals dumped by factories. In some machinery that plowed the soil and har- cities the smoke was so thick that midday vested the crops to bring a rich variety of appeared like dusk. A legend circulating in food to the tables that were assembled in Pittsburgh held that the smoke was actually factories. It carried chilled meat and fish beneficial because it kept down the germs.4 never tasted by an earlier generation to be In the village a man and a woman knew eaten with knives and forks made in other their place, in all the senses of that term, but factories. It brought medicines to children in the city the Industrial Revolution made who once had only home remedies. Now life impersonal and transitory. What little they had a better chance of surviving. They leisure existed centered on the tavern, would live to be adults, and grow taller than where workers drank away their pay. A their parents. growing bourgeoisie of shopkeepers and The Industrial Revolution brought a va- entrepreneurs joined the classes of owners riety of clothing to those who once had only and workers, but unlike the two traditional make-do. It would bring sheets and shoes classes, upper and lower, which had little and shotguns, pins and pipes, envelopes daily contact with each other but shared and engines, furniture and phonographs, ideas about life, the emerging middle class magazines and movies. was in frequent contact—and frequent con- It added choices to life and a cash econ- flict—with workers. omy. It extended the span of human years. For all classes, the social disruptions of It established universal compulsory educa- the industrial age changed courtship pat- tion in assembly line schools that widened terns because, where families were no literacy. The reading of books spread in the longer together, arranged marriages were nineteenth century with the free mass edu- less possible and less desirable. Yet, the rates cation movement, led in the United States of marriage went up in western Europe by Horace Mann, and the free public li- during the nineteenth century because, brary system, which had its origins during hard as life was, more people could hope to pre-Revolutionary times in the subscrip- support a family.5 Nuclear families of a fa- tion library started by Benjamin Franklin ther, mother, and two or three children in Philadelphia. Unlike hereditary land- replaced the traditional extended families owners who wished to keep the laborer of an earlier age. Also in this century uneducated and in his place, the no-non- women entered factories and, later, offices. sense cotton masters preferred that their With the invention of the electric light, employees could read and write.3 That was night turned into day for work and leisure, one of the few nice things one might say further disrupting what had once been an about the factory owners of the period. even flow of the pattern of life. The Industrial Revolution spun off information revolutions that brought knowl- Three Revolutions edge and mass entertainment undreamed of in pre-industrial times, and all of it would The Industrial Revolution, centered in Eng- be built from mass media technology. land, coincided approximately with the French Revolution, which was political, and the American Revolution, which saw It Also Brought Misery the emergence of a new force in modern The Industrial Revolution also brought the world history, the colony that broke free to misery of grueling labor, often for longer become a nation. All contained elements of hours than in pre-industrial times, the class consciousness. The French Revolu- breakup of families, machinery accidents, tion poked its fingers into every class of job insecurity, employers who cared for society all across Europe as few events machines not workers, sudden spurts in have in human history. Yet, in ways unin- food prices, and the lack of any cushion for tended by the framers of the legislation it MASS MEDIA 45 made industrialization easier by laws abol- Harsh as the lives of children were in the ishing guilds and prohibiting worker compre-industrial era, the Industrial Revolu- binations, which reduced labor's capacity tion worsened the lot of some who were to organize.6 Belgium, Germany, and recruited in gangs from orphanages, poor- England approved similar laws. In the Eng- houses, and the city slums. Because their lish countryside, the enclosing of com- fingers were small and nimble, little girls mon land that peasants had used to graze were sought for cotton spinning mills. Be- their animals and gather their fuel drove cause their bodies were small, little boys them into the teeming city slums, the fac- could crawl into narrow coal slopes. They tories, and the collieries. The nineteenth were sometimes beaten to spur production century writer Thomas Carlyle described twelve to fourteen hours a day. In this the "half-frightful scene" of an iron and coal Dickensian England, the 1833 Factories works: Regulation Act prohibited employment of children under nine, and for children be- A space perhaps of 30 square miles to the tween nine and twelve, a maximum of nine north of us, covered over with furnaces, hours work a day. The employers also had rolling-mills, steam-engines and sooty men. to pay for two hours of schooling daily. A dense cloud of pestilential smoke hangs Until governments enacted child labor laws over it for ever, blackening even the grain that grows upon it; and at night the whole and regulated factory conditions, suicides were reported among children driven to region burns like a volcano spitting fire from 9 a thousand tubes of brick. But oh the despair in a sunless world. wretched hundred and fifty thousand mor- As for working women, as unpleasant as tals that grind out their destiny there! In the life was in the factories, it was usually coal-mines they were literally naked, many better than the drudgery of domestic serv- of them, all but trousers; black as ravens; ice and the sweated labor of women in plashing about among dripping caverns, or pre-industrial times. Some observers ex- scrambling amid heaps of broken mineral; pressed alarm at the growing inde- and thirsting unquenchably for beer... .Yet pendence of factory women.10 on the whole I am told they are very happy: Women were valued by the number of they make forty shillings or more per week, and few of them will work on Mondays.7 children they bore. Populations exploded, doubling in England between 1750 and 1800 and rising in France during this same Child Labor period by 50 percent. Yet, the rise in the Children were not coddled or romanticized, birth rate was a minor contributor to popu- but from an early age were regarded as lation increase compared to the sharp drop incomplete adults. It was not unusual be- in the number of Europeans who died fore the Industrial Revolution for children young. 11 War, accidents, and violence har- to work, but the new age made them par- vested their share then as now, but a larger ticularly attractive for factory and mine portion had been demanded by those other because they were for hire cheaper than horsemen, disease and famine. Now the their fathers, cheaper even than their Industrial Revolution brought cheaper mothers, and expendable. Children also soap, iron to cook in, pottery to eat from, worked, as they had always done, in agri- more food, and a greater variety of food to culture and craft manufacturing. Child la- people whose standard of living had risen. bor and female labor had existed for untold Despite the great crowding of the cities and centuries, and were depended upon. A Ger- the greater sanitation problems, the better- man elector in 1543 specified that parents fed, better-clothed, and actually better- renting rooms from others could not keep housed population had new means to resist children above the age of nine, but had to disease.13 send them out to work or the parents would In England at the start of the Industrial be punished.8 Revolution, the multitude of the lower classes subsisted on little more than bread 46 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION and potatoes. One letter writer described itself was fought not only over the familiar the daily fare as "oat bread, a little milk or issues of states rights, national unity, and tea, in the morning; potatoes, and some- slavery, but also over such economic times a little flesh, but not often, at noon, issues as tariffs on manufactured goods with potatoes for supper."14 and where cotton wouldbe sewn into Well into the Industrial Revolution the shirts. diet improved. Friedrich Engels noted that War, the greatest violence of all, had among better-paid workers meat could be markedly changed to sweep up civilians enjoyed every day, with bacon and cheese into citizen armies. Warfare no longer lim- for dinner.15 Although potatoes, brought ited itself to professional soldiers. The from the New World, were for a long time French Revolution gave birth to a national suspect, by the end of the eighteenth cen- patriotism that altered the scale of war as tury European peasants were growing French civilians became army conscripts. them as a food staple in place of wheat and In Napoleon's battle of Borodino on the oats because they produced more calories road to Moscow, 77,000 died. Industrial from smaller, less fertile plots of land. Until Revolution factories turned out guns with the blight wiped out the crops, the potato increased killing power. Rifled musket bar- was an ideal crop to plant to feed the grow- rels improved accuracy. The Maxim ma- ing number of mouths. chine gun spewed 600 bullets a minute. By the start of the twentieth century, peacetime Social Changes conscription had led to national mobiliza- tions. The means of mass communication When a member of a family moved to a helped to stir nationalistic feelings. World distant city, every element of personality War I would replace setpiece engagements departed forever, except possibly some- with trench warfare that allowed soldiers to thing special mentioned in a rare letter fight without letup. And with military home for those who had the skill and the goods flowing steadily from cities to the means to write. So a young woman marry- front, civilian populations became natural ing and moving away or a young man targets of the new total war. going off to seek his fortune was in a way "Watch and ward" has medieval roots, a personal grief as well as a time of joy. but the modern city police force is another Most folks did not leave for distant places. product of the Industrial Revolution, for Most lived out their lives within 50 miles city crowding invariably raises the level of of where they were born. The Industrial city crime. In London, Sir Robert Peel's Revolution changed that pattern of behav- "bobbies," the metropolitan constabulary, ior just as it changed so much else in became the prototype for uniformed city people's lives. police everywhere, although not always Violence sporadically attended the In- with the same benign results. dustrial Revolution. Food riots erupted as factory workers attacked bakeries for raising bread prices. Mobs of workers attacked Mass Dependencies competing workers, such as the uprising of Demand grew for more workers, not only Philadelphia weavers against Irish immi- in industry but in agriculture, to feed the grants. British textile workers between swelling cities. Industrious rural families 1810 and 1820 attacked and destroyed the made do by mixing farming with off-season new machinery that threatened their jobs. and household manufacturing tasks to pro- These British Luddites were followed a vide themselves with furniture, clothes, decade later by Luddites in France. Indus- and tools, and perhaps to turn out something trial strikes, sometimes accompanied by extra to barter in the local community. The rioting, followed economic slumps when poor who did not own farms survived on employers tried to cut wages. Efforts to whatever meager wages they could ac- form labor unions brought swift and bloody quire. Country people often did not have police response. The American Civil War occupations like farmer or carpenter as such; instead, they managed a shifting MASS MEDIA 47 assortment of tasks.16 Before the Industrial ers who no longer could or would provide Revolution, farm households practiced for themselves. The system of interdepen- mixed farming, not the more efficient pro- dency worked, and continues to work, be- duction of one or two crops or types of cause each element functions. livestock. People produced much of what Visiting the industrial city Manchester, they consumed, or bought what was made England, that keen observer Alexis de Toc- not far from where they lived. Goods were queville wrote, "Civilized man is turned at times exchanged for labor in a cash-poor back almost into a savage."17 barter economy. The Industrial Revolution replaced this self-sufficient economic system with a It was among these people in western chain of mass dependencies. Mass quanti- Europe and the United States, sometimes ties of raw materials were shipped by or- torn from their roots into a world of both ganized transportation to factories fueled deprivation and choices, sometimes trem- by dependable supplies of the fossil fuels of bling with fatigue, that communication coal, oil, or gas. The mass production by technologies would insinuate themselves machines of identical finished goods were to make life even more different. These distributed by organized transportation to communication technologies influenced urban centers, and marketed by means of the era of modernism that was given a big mass advertising in mass media, the means push by the Industrial Revolution, but they of mass communication. In time, the iden- would also mark the postmodernism that tical goods—light bulbs and automobiles followed.18 The world's third information and corn flakes—would be sold to consum- revolution was mass media.

Printing for Everyone

The French Revolution depended on the tion, printing was done much as it had been printed word to get out the message of accomplished in Gutenberg's day. liberty, equality, and fraternity. To seize power the revolutionaries had to fortify a Printing Changes lower class enfeebled by centuries of misery. Most peasants were illiterate, but they After 1800, swiftly changing technology in could look at posters and they could listen the printing industry helped to alter the to others read. entire fabric of society. Religion on both Most people in Europe and North Amer- sides of the Atlantic had been the major impulse to teach men and some women to ica could not read, let alone write. Beyond 19 the few who were educated, most skilled read, but printing further encouraged lit- craftsmen knew their letters, while most eracy, broadened knowledge, and involved women, unskilled laborers, and peasants ordinary people in public affairs to a greater did not. extent than ever before as they tried in a The printing methods themselves had more complex world to go through life ade- not changed. It would seem reasonable that quately. the burst of technology that gave western Europe and then the world a system of The effects produced by printing may be printing would continue its pace of inven- plausibly related to an increased incidence of creative acts... Thus we need not invoke tion and innovation to meet the excited some sort of "mutation in the human gene demand. Yet, between 1450 and 1800 sur- pool" to explain an entire "century of prisingly little changed in the printing in- genius"... we may also make room for the dustry. Printers continued to set type by new print technology which made food for hand. A typical screw press impressed no thought much more abundant and allowed more than 100 to 150 sheets of paper an mental energies to be more efficiently used.20 hour. At the start of the Industrial Revolu- 48 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

The Industrial Revolution brought to print- Stereotyping ing the advantages of mass production—a Stereotyping solved many of the type prob- greater output of printed material at a far lems. An impression of the page of type was lower cost. First came the Fourdrinier ma- taken on a cardboard-like flexible paper chine, which made paper in a continuous mache mat. From the mat, one or more web and increased papermaking capacity lead casts of the page were pressed. The tenfold. Paper supply however, would re- lead type that made up the page, used once main a problem for decades more, because only and no longer required, was reused or it still depended on rags. remelted for employment elsewhere. Iron presses, easier to operate and mak- Introduction of the stereotyping process ing better impressions, replaced wooden during the last half of the nineteenth cen- presses around the turn of the nineteenth tury also provided multiple copies of a cast century. The lever press replaced the an- page, further expanding speed and capac- cient method of pressing pages by twisting ity. It laid to rest the restraints of the tomb- a screw. A steam press was operating in stone style of page makeup, dreary single 1810. Richard Hoe's rotary cylinder press, vertical columns whose column rules held making use of the rolls of newsprint from the type in place during press runs. Now the Fourdrinier machines, replaced the multi-column headlines, wood-block or flatbed press, multiplying newspaper pro- metal engravings and, later, photographs duction manyfold and increasing circula- could enhance the page's appearance. The tion. Pages came off the presses at the rate curved stereo plate, developed in 1854, was of 1,100 sheets per hour per side. Friedrich coming into wide use, the pages cast so Koenig hooked two presses together, so they could be placed in pairs around a that they printed both sides of the sheet at cylinder, to be printed by a rotary press. once. By 1827, output on the most modern During the 1880s a new method, electro- presses was 7,000 sheets an hour, although typing, improved the quality of printing, this technology was spreading slowly and especially of photographs, which were re- flatbed newspaper printing presses still re- shot through a fine mesh screen onto a quired muscles and patience. sensitized copper plate that was then Society had changed, too. An emphasis etched in acid. It created a pattern of dots on basic education for all brought literacy known as a half-tone. The problem of how to many of the common folk of Europe and to put photographs in newspapers and the United States for the first time in his- magazines was solved and would get better tory. In Britain, Parliament passed the with time. The public loved seeing pictures Compulsory Education Act in 1870. Other with their news. Because photographs and European nations and the United States line drawings also appeared in ads, the soon followed. Now the printing press advertisers joined the happy chorus. would have a mass market for its mass production capability. By the end of the century, huge Hoe presses were printing Setting the Type 72,000 copies an hour. Due to the increasing automation and Paper was not the only commodity in speed of the presses, the slowest part of short supply. Printers were forever run- printing was now the setting of type, letter ning out of lead type. Smaller publishers by letter from a job case. Many inventors could not afford all the type needed for an tried to design a machine to do the job. entire edition. That meant printing a few Mark Twain lost a fortune investing in one pages at a time, then tearing apart the page inventor's design. The first successful me- form to reset other pages. Even worse, the chanical composing machine was built in lead type eventually broke down from the 1886 by a German immigrant watchmaker, punishing pressure of the repetitive print- Ottmar Merganthaler. The machine was ing process. called a Linotype because it extruded one MASS MEDIA 49 line of hot lead type at a time. The brass graphic) will accept ink; the background matrix for each letter in that line of type portion (normally the white part of the was then carried automatically back up to page) does not accept ink. In the most its original position. common form, offset lithography, the inked In other advances, two cylinders printed image is transferred onto a rubber roller, on opposite sides of the sheet at the same which then rolls the image onto the paper. time, a knife cut the rolls into newspaper In this photographic-based printing sys- sheets, a mechanical folder sorted and tem, the photo-typesetter replaces the folded the sheets, and a binder wrapped Linotype. wire around bundles of finished newspapers for efficient delivery. This classic system of printing is known as letterpress. Raised letters are inked, then Over the course of a century that began pressed onto paper, leaving an inked image. with the Industrial Revolution, the Ameri- can Revolution, and the French Revolution, the Western world underwent a tremen- Offset Lithography dous alteration. Printing played a signifi- A different system started with printing cant role in all three revolutions, and was from the surface of a specially prepared itself part of an information revolution. As stone. Lithography grew in popularity until we shall see, printing helped sell the goods today it has replaced letterpress in most produced by the Industrial Revolution. applications. Based on the fact that oil and Pamphlets such as Tom Paine's Common water do not mix, a photographic image is Sense spread the revolt that led to the made on a metal plate—a picture of the American Revolution. And printing awak- typeset page. The plate is coated so those ened France and shook all of Europe with portions where there is type (or lines of a its Declaration of the Rights of Man21

Paper for Everyone

At the end of the seventeenth century, A Continuous Sheet of Paper when the wage of a papermaker was be- Paper was made in small batches every- tween two and three shillings a week, a where until, in 1798, Nickolas Robert, the ream of writing paper—500 sheets—sold for manager of a mill in France, thought of 20 shillings, about two months wages. That making a continuous sheet of paper on a kept what was printed on paper costly. To single machine using a web to pick up the spread literacy, the price of paper would have to drop. During the Colonial period most Ameri- can newspapers got their stock from Europe. Colonial mills were small and inefficient; three men labored one day to manufacture 3,000 small sheets of poor quality. The irrepressible Benjamin Frank- lin, while a Philadelphia printer, is credited with having a hand in building more paper mills, although the interruption of paper delivery caused by the American Revolu- tion led a number of newspapers to sus- pend publication. Figure 3.1 The first papermaking machine, invented by Nicholas Robert, 1798. 50 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION wet pulp. He got financial backing in Eng- soared, Americans turned to Asia for rags, land from two brothers named Fourdrinier. buying from China, Japan, and India, but the The invention, known as the Fourdrinier problem continued to bedevil publishers. machine, could accomplish in two days what took three months of hand labor. After Aside from the introduction of the printed two decades of improvement, the Four- book, the demand for paper was felt in many drinier papermaking machine was turning new fields: teaching spread, business out newsprint in an endless sheet. Newspa- transactions became more complex, writing per reliance on small hand-made batches of multiplied, and there was a growing need for paper for non-literary uses by tradesmen, paper had ended. Separate paper making haberdashers, grocers, chandlers. A whole processes were combined into a single ma- new species of trades was created which chine. With steam-powered printing presses, depended on paper: carriers, box-makers, newspapers could reach for large circula- playing-card makers, bill-posters and related tions. In another decade, the era of the trades whose precise duties were never penny press placed paper into hands unaccus- exactly demarcated, despite endless lawsuits 23 tomed to receiving information like this. between the rival Guilds. In Europe and the American colonies, the need for paper to print books and newspapers outstripped the supply of rags. Cu- A Lesson from a Wasp riously, some help came from an unusual A chlorine bleaching process gave mills the quarter. A sharp increase in the population use of colored rags plus rope and other of western Europe led to a great demand fibrous scraps, but it still was not enough. for clothing, which was met during the Something new was needed. Tnat some- Industrial Revolution by new textile ma- thing new had actually been discovered chinery and, in America, by Eli Whitney's more than a century earlier. In 1719 a cotton gin. This in turn increased the sup- French scientist, Rene de Reaumur, advised ply of worn-out clothes. Rags were still the papermakers to learn from a type of wasp source of paper, and this chain of events that built its nest out of dry wood that it led to a slightly improved supply of paper mixed with its saliva to form a paste. The by the turn of the nineteenth century. wasp smeared the paste in thin, overlap- ping strips that strongly resembled paper. To clothe this new population (explosion) Little was done with this idea of using wood would have been impossible... had it not pulp until German papermakers eventu- been for the perfection, in the county of ally picked up the concept. The first wood Lancaster in England, of cotton spinning and pulp paper machines were manufactured weaving machinery, shortly followed in the in the 1840s, and by the end of the nine- 1790s by the invention in America of the teenth century, after processes were devel- cotton gin... Another consequence of oped to separate the wood fibers and to cook cotton production was ... an immense increase in worn-out clothes, or rags. Rags the pulp with chemicals, wood pulp was the were the raw material of the paper-making basis for papermaking. Prices plummeted. industry... By 1839, publishing had been Wood pulp that brought 81/2 cents a pound revolutionized. Printed matter was now in 1875 could be bought for 1 1/2 cents in cheap—for the first time in human history 1897. literacy could be massively extended through all levels of the population. 22

Yet, demand grew. But where was the paper The world at last had a cheap, renewable to come from? Demand outstripped the source of raw material for paper. The ad- supply of rags. American papermakers, vance in mechanical production and an pushed by newspaper publishers, scoured abundant supply of material added impe- Europe. Prussia and Rome followed France tus to the first mass medium in history, the in prohibiting the export of rags. As prices penny press. MASS MEDIA 51

The Information Pump

Because of political and religious sensitivi- Zenger's attorney, Andrew Hamilton, the ties at home, many early newspapers lim- jury disregarded instructions that only the ited their news to what was happening in judge could decide whether a publication other countries. A publisher landed in jail was treasonable and found Zenger inno- if he was not careful, which might have cent. Newspapers would now, more than meant being on the wrong side when a new ever, be a force for freedom. It should not government came to power. Publishing be surprising that the concept of a printing news was always risky. There were 350 press unfettered by government leads the newspapers in Paris alone during the Bill of Rights, nor that Thomas Jefferson, French Revolution, but only four newspa- who once wrote that if forced to choose he pers during the later period of the Empire. would choose newspapers over govern- Yet, change was coming. ment, eventually grew heartily sick of Not long after newspapers were intro- newspaper agitation. duced into an England torn by factional strife, around the time when King Charles I was beheaded, they were telling news of The Business of Newspapers political events in England itself. England's A printer turned out newspapers, books, newspapers could boast of having not just and periodicals as a means of keeping his editors in the office, but reporters, includ- workers and equipment fully occupied. By ing at least one woman, who went out to the middle of the nineteenth century, the ask questions and gather information. shift to larger presses and news by tele- These seventeenth and eighteenth century graph led to greater infusions of capital to newspapers might also feature woodcut il- produce the newspapers and greater in- lustrations, and headlines piled up on the come from them. In the New World, pub- front page. London newspapers were sold lishing newspapers helped to keep printers mainly in the coffee houses, where it was in business. relatively safe to engage in political dispu- tation in public. There were also street Printing did not really develop in America hawkers, both boys and girls. during the eighteenth century until the printers discovered a new source of in- The advanced stage coach, improved roads, come—the newspaper. Far from their home- and the train helped to expand the lines of land, in sparsely populated areas, the distribution of the press and release it from pioneers felt cut off from contact with the the dependence on the coffee-house which rest of the world; probably that is why the newspaper developed more quickly in had been the chief means of circulation 25 since Cromwellian days.24 America than elsewhere. Sweden in 1766 passed a press freedom law. Newspapers in larger cities detached them- Later, in the new United States the First selves from general printing houses and, Amendment to the Constitution guaran- more than ever, news was a commodity teed freedom of the press. Other nations that could be manufactured from the raw over the next century matched, to a greater material of facts and sold at a profit. or lesser degree, these promises of independence from government wrath. With the diffusion of literacy, the technology of printing, and the development of the Printers like Benjamin Franklin agitated modern newspaper, there was, then the de- against the government of the crown, often velopment of the modern notion of "news" slipping into another colony just ahead of itself. Indeed, between, say, about 1780 and the redcoats. John Peter Zenger, a printer, 1830, the growth of journals, newsletters, was tried for seditious libel after he criti- and newspapers was so great in Europe that cized the colonial governor. Stirred by a fundamentally new social phenomenon 52 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

came into being—the "news"-reading 26 When the Sun first appeared on the public. streets of New York the combined circulation of the eleven newspapers in the city The early decades of the nineteenth cen- was 26,500. By 1835, the Sun alone was tury saw two types of newspapers thriving. selling 15,000 copies a day at a penny The commercial press was about trade. The apiece, thanks to the new high-speed print- party press promoted a set of views plus the ing presses. Two penny press rivals, the candidates who adhered to them. A single Evening Transcript and the Herald quickly copy of a newspaper cost about six cents followed, with a total daily sale of the three and a subscription might be ten dollars a newspapers of 44,000. year, so dear that the average person did not To catch readers, they published a new see a copy of a newspaper and possibly kind of information, the unimportant but might not have even been aware of the interesting item. The publishers did not existence of such a thing as a newspaper. quail at accusations of vulgarity and sensa- tionalism. Beneath that news item ap- The Penny Press peared another new kind of information, The penny press added a third type, a news- equally trivial by itself, but equally signifi- paper for the workingman. For a penny the cant when seen in its totality, namely the popular press competed not with the older advertisement that could be addressed to a type of newspapers, but rather with the mass audience. Mass communication small cakes and apples that sold on the made possible mass advertising that cre- streets for a penny. Copies of the New York ated the appetites leading to mass con- Sun were hawked on street corners as early sumption, which in its turn gave purpose as 1833. The effect on newspaper reader- to mass production. ship was immediate and astonishing. Be- (In the penny papers) Advertising, as well as tween 1830 and 1840 the number of daily sales, took on a more democratic cast... newspapers more than doubled and the advertising in the established journals, number of weeklies nearly doubled. The which heretofore had addressed the reader total circulation of daily newspapers^ rose only insofar as he was a businessman inter- fourfold. Population was also rising, but not ested in shipping and public sales or a lawyer nearly as fast. interested in legal notices, increasingly A penny or two brought news about peo- addressed the newspaper reader as a human 27 ple in unusual circumstances to masses of being with mortal needs. ordinary people who lacked a deep, abiding interest in either commerce or partisan Modern newspapers reflect all three types: politics, but were able to read and had a the commercial press, the partisan political curiosity to satisfy. Popular journalism de- press, and the popular press. lighted in scandal, crime, and other human interest news. Income came principally from the sale Reporting of individual copies and from advertising, The coming of the railroads and other im- not from the political party subsidies and provements in transportation expanded cir- subscription fees that sustained the existing culation. Better transport founded new party press. The penny press reached people towns and with them came local newspa- whom the schools equipped with an ability pers. Alongside the railroads ran the tele- to read, but did not endow with a burning graph wires, humming with fresh reports thirst for knowledge. The urban gentleman daily from distant places to towns up and regarded these popular newspapers with a down the line. contempt, possibly like that accorded to- For the most part, previously published day's supermarket tabloids, buying a copy information received from outside sources now and then to amuse his family. filled the columns of newspapers. Newspa- MASS MEDIA 53 pers printed old news stories and opinion The Birth of Objectivity articles from other newspapers sent Because a cooperative news agency existed through the mails in the system set up by to serve client newspapers and thrived by Benjamin Franklin for a free exchange of acquiring still more clients, it followed that newspapers among editors. Before the last the agency would try to please all its cus- half of the nineteenth century, news gath- tomers, or at least as many as possible, ering by reporters was little known. Then which covered a multitude of political lean- the telegraph came along, providing the ings on every conceivable issue. Pleasing as means for fresh reports from distant many customers as possible translated it- places. These reports whetted the public's self into transmitting facts that were col- appetite for more and still more news. ored as little as humanly possible by the News itself would increasingly come to agency reporter's point of view. Objective have value as a commodity instead of reporting, something rather new, was born. merely supplying the basis for a piece of In a profession that prided itself on the political partisanship. Like a bushel of oats brilliant essay, it took some effort of will to or a yard of silk, news had become a prod- hold facts high and opinion low. Yet, it had uct, and in a newspaper, ink upon paper, it to be done if full advantage were to be taken had the means to be packaged. of the transmission of news dispatches by Then as now, reports had more value electricity. when the reporter was at the scene of events, sending back dispatches based on The penny press wanted to appeal to every- personal observation and answers to ques- one's interest and thus, logically, it stood options posed to the important players of posed to anyone's 'special' interest—except each drama, even generals at a battlefield of course its own interests, which presum- or diplomats at a foreign court. The prac- ably corresponded to its expressed policy of tice of active investigation soon followed indifference.28 and so did a rise in the circulation of newspapers willing to pursue news actively. In Modern journalism school arguments over response—or in self-defense—organizations whether objectivity is ever possible can be from police to government to private busi- traced back to its emergence as a desirable ness learned a myriad of ways to cope with goal, a product of the news agency and the the reporter's questions, ways that ranged telegraph. The source of newspaper efforts from creating a public relations industry to to strive for objectivity lay in the argument these organizations actually improving propounded by John Milton that truth what they were doing. would win in an encounter with error; Cooperative news gathering began be- therefore all viewpoints should be allowed fore the advent of the telegraph, but these free expression. ventures were brief agreements; for example, to share the cost of a boat. By removing Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to the barrier of time for the transportation of argue freely according to conscience... So news, the telegraph extended each newspa- truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her per's reach to wherever the telegraph poles strength. Let her and falsehood grapple. ran, but rates were steep, which made co- Who ever knew truth put to the worse in a operation the only sensible means of col- free and open encounter. 29 lecting news. The decades following the diffusion of the telegraph saw the inde- Over a period that was measured not in pendent telegraph reporter try to establish a months, but in decades, most newspapers foothold, only to be overwhelmed by the taught themselves to follow the Associated news agency, notably the Associated Press Press's neutral, uninvolved reporting style, in the United States, Reuters in England, leaving opinion to the editorial page. Today, and Havas in France. considerable controversy continues over 54 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION whether objectivity can exist or is even By the 1870s, newspapers were buying desirable. boiler plate and ready prints from syndication services. The former were stereo mats (impressions ready for transfer to lead for Improvements in the the presses) of individual stories, columns, Composing Room or illustrations and the latter were mats of Technology never occurs uniformly across entire pages. Both cut down the space that an industry. While New York newspapers a publisher would have to fill with local were oiling up Hoe rotary presses, loading material. They also cut down the original, huge rolls of paper, and squeezing out ste- distinctive look of individual small newspa- reo mats, publishers in small towns across pers, creating a sameness that still exists. America were still inking one page of type Joseph Pulitzer, a Hungarian immi- at a time before laying a sheet of dampened grant, established the first newspaper art paper over it and turning a hand crank to department at the New York World in the roll type and paper under a platen that was 1880s. His generous use of pictures led to a lowered to meet it. After a few hours of this sharp increase in circulation. Etched line the publisher-editor-printer had, besides a engravings and halftones of actual photo- tired arm, enough copies of a four-page or graphs replaced the woodcuts for both eight-page newspaper for his circulation. news and advertising. Magazines began us- Mechanical limitations as late as the ing the modern illustrations sooner than early decades of the nineteenth century newspapers because the higher quality kept most newspapers to four small pages. magazine paper stock was kinder to photo- Editorial copy was crowded into narrow graphic reproduction. England had an illus- columns framed by vertical rules; ads were trated newspaper as old as photography printed want-ad style in agate type, illus- itself, but its pages were filled for decades trated at best with thumbnail woodcuts. with woodcuts, for there was no way to Although handbills bore larger woodcut il- reproduce a photograph in a newspaper. lustrations, newspapers seldom printed such large woodcuts. In 1820, the London Photographs in Newspapers Observer published a page of pictures, a rare effort. The problem was that the com- That problem was solved at the end of the bination of poor paper and poor ink made nineteenth century by the halftone proc- a botch of illustrations. Newspapers actu- ess, in which a photograph was itself pho- ally refused to accept illustrated advertis- tographed, this time through a glass scored ing, large type, or multiple columns long by a mesh of fine lines onto a coated zinc after improvements in printing processes plate. The plate was etched with acid to and engraving would have allowed such separate dark and light areas. The light modernization. Eventually, the desire for areas, eaten by the acid, did not capture the advertising revenue overcame that rather ink. Photography and printing were now pointless tradition. fully merged. The art of photojournalism The penny press was from its outset a soon followed. creature of the latest in printing technol- In a few short years, the newspaper was ogy. It could not have been born without totally changed. By the new century, Lino- the Fourdrinier machine that spun out a type machines replaced the handset type continuous web of paper or without Hoe's in the composing room, the back shop, of rotary press that could lay words of ink on large city newspapers while the typewriter that paper quickly and cheaply. It is un- replaced the reporter's pen in the front. likely that it could have grown as much as And on the reporter's desk, beside the type- it did without stereo mats that could free writer, stood a telephone. On a nearby up lead type and make multiple copies of a shelf, a camera may have rested. A quarter page for even faster production. of a century later, behind a door, a teletype chattered with distant news. MASS MEDIA 55

The late nineteenth century also saw the journalistic enterprises. Largely absent in the expansion of newspaper chains. Family- United States was a climate of political fear owned newspapers were sold to newspaper that could have impeded newspaper growth. corporations, and these sometimes became In the late nineteenth century, the ex- part of media empires that would in the tending of free, compulsory education, the course of a century encompass a variety of growth of free libraries and, with them, a print and electronic forms of communication rising rate of literacy stimulated newspa- preparing to ride the information highway. per and magazine sales, even if the readers In the decades after World War II, news- preferred simple fare. It may be as accurate papers switched over from letterpress to say that a growing literacy fueled the printing to offset lithography. Today, no growth of newspapers as to say that the major newspaper and hardly any small availability of cheap, unsophisticated newspaper still relies on hot lead. The sim- newspapers increased literacy. plicity, convenience, and lower costs of photocomposition are all too obvious. The penny papers.. .transformed the news- At first, paper tape chinking out of tele- paper from something to be borrowed or read at a club or library to a product one bought typesetters was used to carry text produced 30 by wire services and local reporters. These, for home consumption. too, have been consigned to the junk heap. Now computers send text to other computers. In the three decades from 1870 to 1900, the Technological advances during the nine- number of newspaper copies sold daily in- teenth century in printing presses, stereo- creased sixfold. The number of daily news- typing, typesetting, photography, and papers in the United States doubled, then lithography combined to change the daily doubled again. newspaper from a product that even It is not merely the gray columns of Gutenberg might not have found strange to news reports that have shaped attitudes a product not too dissimilar from what now toward political issues and personal stand- lands on front steps each morning. Other ards. Bylined viewpoints ranging from po- inventions have contributed to the modern litical columnists to Dear Abby have newspaper, importantly among them the affected public thinking. So have the telegraph and the telephone, which trans- choices of photographs and editorial page mitted news reports; early facsimile, which cartoons. So indeed have the comic strips, transmitted pictures; the railroad, the auto- from the conservative Orphan Annie to the mobile, and the airplane, which trans- liberal Doonesbury. ported newspapers themselves; the typewriter, the computer, and that vital aid Controlled Presses to transferring information, the electric Newspapers have been an information light bulb, which not only allowed newspa- pump for the world. They appeared in per staffers to work through the night, but South America and Asia during the eight- also gave readers an easier means of reading eenth century, and in Africa by the end of the newspaper after the day's work was done. the nineteenth century. Many of these would become powerful, important voices, Free Presses not only informing an ever more educated public increasingly hungry for news, but More than technology was responsible for influencing leaders of finance and govern- the flowering of the penny press, which ment, affecting the course of history. Tech- defined for the mid-nineteenth century the nology must always be part of the equation. spirit of the mass communication revolution. A new and expanding nation infused The method by which newspapers are with the fresh air of individualism and po- manufactured and distributed, for example, litical independence as a result of free mar- has always had profound implications for ket capitalism and Jacksonian democracy what might be called the moral condition of provided the spirit that underlay the new journalism. 56 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

... information media shape the realities of a report or comment on whatever its publish- society, they interact with the processes of ers, editors, and writers choose. Means of government, and provide the terms of the communication are regarded as an arm of relationship between governors and government just like the educational sys- governed, even (perhaps especially) in 31 tem or, for that matter, the ministry of totalitarian societies. agriculture. In countries with authoritarian governments, whether right wing, left wing, or sui generis, a different type of newspaper de- The adversary relationship between press veloped. These newspapers were—and and government, prized in democratic so- are—heavily political, expressing only the cieties, is anathema to a government that views of their governments. In controlled views the press as a means of guiding the societies, newspapers, along with radio, masses. News, per se, is not particularly television, magazines, and books, have al- important to a controlled press. How news ways been regarded as too important and is understood has always been of vital im- too potentially dangerous to be allowed to portance to suspicious rulers.

THE MUCKRAKERS Just as the penny press in the early and other muckrakers. Several magazines mid-nineteenth century reached out to a followed McClure's example as the public much broader audience than newspapers eagerly bought up copies. had ever commanded, a new type of popular Tarbell's series on John D. Rockefeller's magazine, fueled by the national advertising Standard Oil led to a federal investigation for mass-produced goods, broke tradition in and, ultimately, to a U.S. Supreme Court the late nineteenth century as the United ruling to break the oil monopoly. Laws States expanded from a rural, agrarian soci- regulating meat inspection, the railroads, ety to an industrial nation. In their pages, and over-the-counter medicine were initiated they carried something new. Today it goes by muckraking exposes in magazines, by the approving phrase, investigative jour- newspapers, and books. Following an article nalism. Then it was called raking muck. in McClure's Magazine, "Daughters of the Articles by the muckrakers appeared Poor," Congress passed the Mann Act, making regularly in popular magazines, awakening it a federal offense to transport a woman the nation to governmental corruption, the across state lines for immoral purposes. greed of industrialists, and the need for pure Congress extended low-cost mailing food laws and child labor laws. Newspapers, privileges to magazines in 1879, enabling limited in space and prey to community and entrepreneurs to revise or create magazines advertiser pressure, were inferior to in order to reach a mass audience largely magazines as a medium to carry the bypassed by existing periodicals. The last sensational messages of the muckrakers that decade of the remarkable century saw the many people, including small children, lived emergence of a strong cadre of national and toiled in misery while a few politicians magazines. In the 1890s, national advertising and industry leaders grew fat. Racial and the mass circulation newspaper also injustice, diseased meat coming out of became firmly established on the American packinghouses, and insurance fraud on a scene, and so did the Associated Press. They national scale were exposed. An Irish spoke to people regardless of who they were immigrant, S.S. McClure, used his McClure's or where their parents came from. They Magazine during the first decade of this spoke to everyone as Americans. And from century to carry articles by Ida Tarbell, time to time the braver publications Lincoln Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker, and continued to rake muck. MASS MEDIA 57

Women Can Type

The battered typewriter that served us so to a social revolution with unimagined con- well for so many years now gathers dust in sequences. Arguably, nothing that was an office storeroom or the family attic. typed from the period of its introduction Where it once resided there now sits a in the last quarter of the nineteenth cen- computer, appearing much more modern tury to the present day was as significant and quite different except for the sort-of- as the fact of a woman sitting in front of a familiar keyboard. It is hard to image the typewriter. The medium was —and is—the old typewriter as part of any kind of social message. change, yet it was the catalyst of several significant changes in the way we live. The The Old Office typewriter led to the restructuring of the business office. It can be said to have begun The business office in the 1870s looked modern business communications. It made considerably different than it does today. spelling and grammar important, and it Lacking adequate illumination in the age sold dictionaries. before electricity, the dark wood helped to mask the accumulation of dirt and the smudge from kerosene lamps. Rolltop Helping to Bring Women Out desks were standard appointments. Cuspi- Much more significant, the typewriter dors graced the corners. There were no helped free women from financial depend- machines and, most likely, no females ex- ence on the men in their family, their fa- cept for the scrubwomen who toiled invis- thers, brothers, husbands, uncles, and in- ibly through the night. Businessmen and laws. It did much to bring them out of the male clerks wrote letters and filled ledgers home and into the office. Other factors with pens dipped into bottles of ink. Before were also at play. It has been argued that carbon paper became widely available, the demand for clerical labor, and not the they copied letters by dampening them typewriter, brought women into offices.32 with a wet cloth and pressing them against Gas lighting, which made the streets safer a blank sheet of paper. Office boys deliv- for women to take evening classes, also had ered the letters to other offices or to the a part in creating independence for post office. women. Whichever was the more signifi- The typewriter would one day relieve cant cause, the feminization of clerical la- the dreary work of writing everything by bor roiled the waters of the late nineteenth hand. It would also replace illegible hand- century, and still roils the waters as human- writing. But because it was frustrating to kind prepares to enter the twenty-first cen- find young men willing to study for low- tury. The invention and spread of paid typing careers, young women were labor-saving household appliances such as finally able to break the barrier of women refrigerators and washing machines contin- working in offices. The arrival of the fe- ued what the typewriter began. The type- male office worker helped to change the writer was present at the start of the rest. Out went the cuspidors. Out went the women's movement that unlocked the door dark wood paneling that hid the dirt. of advancement to half the population. The door is far from being fully opened, even in When the first wave of female typists hit the the United States, but the lock has been business office in the 1890s, the cuspidor manufacturers read the sign of doom. They broken. were right. More important, the uniform The diffusion through the world of com- ranks of fashionable lady typists made merce of the typewriter, requiring a de- possible a revolution in the garment indus- pendable supply of operators who at first try. What she wore, every farmer's daughter were themselves known as typewriters, led wanted to wear, for the typist was a popular figure of enterprise and skill. She was a 58 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

style-maker who was also eager to follow it down fast enough. Ideas sprang from styles. As much as the typewriter, the typist other ideas as inventors read or heard brought into business a new dimension of through the improving communications the uniform, the homogeneous, and the con- network about attempts to build a machine tinuous that has made the typewriter indis- that would impress letter type directly on pensable to every aspect of mechanical industry.33 paper. Many inventors tried their hand at it, but either the designs were bad or the workmanship was. None of their inven- Inventing a Writing tions worked well. Machine A Frenchman in 1833 patented a writing In 1714, an English engineer, Henry Mill, machine in which the paper remained sta- received the first patent for a machine that tionary while the machinery moved, an impressed letters one after another on a idea ahead of its time, one that IBM would sheet of paper, although there is no record revive more than a century later with the that he ever built the machine. More than type ball. A few years later, another a half century later several people actually Frenchman invented a writing machine built crude writing machines. Among them that resembled a piano, followed by a Rus- were an Austrian, a Swiss, a Frenchman, sian invention that looked like the old fash- and an Italian. ioned drier fitted over the head of a A noble impetus lay behind the creation customer getting a permanent wave. of these early machines: embossing letters on paper so the blind could read through The Sholes Machine their fingertips. Development of functions useful to the business world—like compos- The 52nd writing machine to be patented ing speed or ease of operation—were was different. Inventor Christopher Sholes, largely ignored for a century. The ma- a Milwaukee printer and editor, is credited chine's use as a business device was fully as the father of the modern typewriter, al- appreciated only after it could outrace a though several friends assisted him in producing the first working typewriter in 1867. pen that cost a penny. Pressure to produce a more efficient Their idea was to cut a type face on the side writing machine came partly from the of a short bar that could strike a piece of rapid extension of telegraph lines, a symbol paper much like a piano hammer hitting a of the quickening pace of the Industrial string. The piece of paper was pressed Revolution. While a good telegrapher could against a glass plate with a sheet of carbon send a message at a fast rate of speed and paper behind it, with each key striking up- could understand an incoming Morse Code ward from behind to make the impression. A clockwork mechanism pushed the paper message just as quickly, he couldn't write along. Sholes called his machine a typewriter. Before they were done, he and his friends fabricated some fifty different models of the type-writer. By 1873, the machine that the Sholes group continued to improve began to look like the modern typewriter. It had a keyboard of four rows with the letters, numbers, and punctuation in nearly the same arrangement that exists today. A tin black case covered the machinery. The paper wrapped around a cylindrical carriage that moved back and forth. The principal difference from more modern typewriters was Figure 3.2 This 1857 typewriter was called that the type bars hit upward against the a literary piano. bottom of the roller inside the machine; MASS MEDIA 59 hence, the operator could not see the print- Now typewriter sales boomed. Type- ing point and could not be sure of what was writing in the 1880s reached out first to being typed until three or four lines later. Europe and then to the rest of the world. Western Union ordered so many ma- China and Japan lagged behind because of chines that Sholes and his backers turned the difficulty of building a typewriter with to the Remington company, which manu- perhaps 10,000 characters suitable for their factured firearms, sewing machines, and languages. farm tools, all products requiring finely The typewriter continued to improve machined components. Remington me- incrementally. Remington designed a key chanics improved the Sholes design, placed shift for upper and lower case. John T. the typewriter on a sewing machine stand, Underwood developed a typewriter with a and adapted the foot treadle for a carriage front-strike design, so the typist could see return. Among those who became fasci- the printing point. In 1906, the Royal Type- nated with the typewriter was Mark Twain, writer Company produced its first type- whose Tom Sawyer became the first novel writer, which was superior to anything on ever typed. the market. Its print strike area was totally For the next 25 years, the typists them- visible. By the time of World War I, about selves were called type writers, just as the one hundred typewriter companies had machines were. Because the future of the been started. typewriter (the machine) seemed bleak Other tools and business machines fol- and wages of typists were overly modest, lowed the typewriter into the office: carbon not many young men were interested in paper, inked ribbons, stencils, the dictating embarking on this career. machine, the mimeograph, adding machines, accounting machines, envelope ad- Women Mean Business dressing machines, check writing machines, and postal meters. Rather than an oddity, In 1881, a branch of the YWCA in New York the ability to clearly communicate on pa- City came up with the novel idea of teach- per through typing became the standard for ing eight young women to type for the business. Schools to teach typing opened, purpose of entering the business world. public high schools offered typing classes, Some criticism was expressed of such a and contests were held for the fastest typ- bold step, for it meant that women would ist. By 1941, the record on a standard man- be required to work all day near men to ual typewriter was a machine-gun 142 whom they were not related. None of the words a minute. eight backed away from the rigors of a six- It was inevitable that the typewriter's month typing course. All were promptly versatility would be combined with the hired to work in business offices. telegraph's speed at sending messages to This new technology, the writing ma- distant places. The practical result in the chine, opened an employment floodgate. It 1920s was the teletypewriter, so familiar to offered higher wages than other jobs open generations of journalists. Although the to women and pleasanter working condi- facsimile machine and the computer tions. It was one of the few types of employ- printer hooked to a wide-band data line or ment for women requiring literacy. a modem have set new standards, the ubiq- Women poured into offices across the land. uitous teletype can still be found through- They became not only typists, but stenog- out the world, not only in newsrooms, but raphers and secretaries, two careers lim- in government offices, police stations, ited to men. Some women, seeing that they commercial banks, brokerage houses, ship- could make even more money with their ping agencies, and weather departments. newfound typing skills as entrepreneurs, went into business for themselves as public typist-stenographers; their presence en- QWERTY couraged the twin concepts of women and The subject of the typewriter should not be machines in the business office. left without mention of the familiar arrange- 60 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION ment of its inefficient keyboard. Typewrit- posite directions. Further, this keyboard ers and the computer keyboards that fol- arrangement favors the left hand although lowed use what is called the QWERTY most people are right handed; for example, arrangement of letters and numbers, the frequently used a must be struck by the named for the letters on the left side of the weakest finger, the left pinky, while the third row of keys. Many of the earlier key- seldom used; lies directly under the strong boards were set up in alphabetical order to right forefinger. facilitate learning. Before the invention of Today, fast electric typewriters and elec- the shift key, separate keys were needed for tronic computer keyboards obviate any ar- capital letters. rangement that slows typing speed. More Inventor Christopher Sholes and his sensible organizations have been pro- brother designed their keyboard to slow the posed, notably the Dvorak keyboard, but arrival at the printing point of frequently the public, accustomed to the existing lay- used letter pairs. In 1873, the type bars out, seems to be stuck with it. pivoted upward and easily jammed. The QWERTY keyboard was arranged so that the bars holding the letters that often turn The typewriter may be on its way out as a up in combinations (such as ie, ti, th) or significant tool of communication, but in a appear frequently (such as the, of, or, and) number of meaningful ways its legacy will would come to the printing point from op- remain.

"If Anyone Desires..."

If ever a means of communication existed Before advertising, which is mostly a that enabled multitudes of people to send means of moving mass produced goods, the an infinite number of messages by a variety uniqueness of an item was a distinct selling of means to even greater multitudes of point, as exemplified by the cartoonish dis- other people, it has been advertising. may of a woman who discovered that an- Among those messages are advertisements other woman was wearing the same hat. promoting the quality of candidates for po- Now, several generations later, her great litical office and the delights or perils of the granddaughter and great grandson won't be controversial issues before the society. caught dead in jeans or sneakers that don't Anyone who doubts its egalitarian thrust carry the brand name all their friends wear. should imagine the opposite of what exists Advertisers talk of brand loyalty. in free and open societies. Imagine a soci- The advertisement has displaced the ety in which very few people are allowed sales agent, but the ad is more than a to advertise to a selected few a highly re- helper. stricted number of goods and services, certainly not including candidates competing The primary argument of the salesman was for office or the political issues of the day. personal and private: this hat is perfect for you (singular) _ The primary argument of the advertisement was public and general: Creating Demand this hat is perfect for you (plural)... The ad- The Industrial Revolution, which brought vertisement succeeded when it discovered, an unimagined variety of goods to the defined, and persuaded a new community of working classes, needed more than mass consumers.34 production and mass distribution. The next step in the chain, mass marketing, required The drummer with a battered case of wares advertising not only to announce the avail- represented a human element in the rela- ability of goods, but to convince prospec- tionship of buyer and seller that dissolved tive buyers to part with their money. with the centrifugal force of the advertise- Advertising had to create demand. ment. In the early nineteenth century, ad- MASS MEDIA 61 vertising lacked a human face. Instead, ag- tomers to the door. The growth of mercan- ate lines of single column type explained tilism during the Middle Ages changed that what the prospective buyer needed to attitude. Notices called siquis were posted know. After the stereotyping process in public places, the term coming from the brought in display ads, some advertise- Latin si quis ("if anyone") because so many ments supplied a human dimension with began "If anyone knows..." or "If anyone sketches of happy consumers or the desires..." friendly Betty Crocker and Aunt Jemima. Ra- Shortly after the invention of movable dio added a voice and television added a type in Europe in the mid-fifteenth cen- face plus a voice plus movement so the tury, printed notices began to appear. News customer, shorn of direct communication, sheets of the sixteenth century sometimes had a reference group, however distant or carried advertising, such as an ad for a book fictitious. extolling the medicinal virtues of a mysterious herb. By the seventeenth century, Origins of Advertising tradesmen distributed handbills with not only printed words, but woodcut illustra- As the old saying puts it, the more things tions, hand lettering, and fancy borders. change the more they stay the same. The A French Journal of Public Notices, a me- first advertising was oral, delivered in an- dium for want ads, was published in 1612; cient times by barkers in the marketplace now called Les Petites Afjiches {Little No- shouting the wares of merchants. Some of tices), it is still published as a carrier of want the latest advertising is similarly oral. Just ads and legal notices. It holds the distinc- tune in television at night to watch and hear tion of being the world's oldest, continuous barkers shouting the wares of automobile periodical. In England, a series of advertis- dealers. ing newspapers called the City Mercury Outdoor advertising can be traced to were distributed free. posted notices on papyrus in ancient Egypt Printed advertising at this time was for runaway slaves. Instead of something often for the sale of books (printers, after for sale, notices of runaway slaves and all, printed not only the ads, but the books), bond servants, with rewards offered, may auctions, houses for rent, spices for sale, have been the first written advertising. and other merchandise just arrivedby ship, Such notices were posted during all the plus rewards for runaway horses or run- centuries of slavery for the logical reason away apprentices. Groceries at the con- that these valuable pieces of property did sumer level, clothing, or household goods not enjoy their life's condition, and pos- were generally not things to be advertised sessed both the brains and legs to do some- in print, although near miraculous cures thing about it. might be. Requests for the return of lost Testimony to the antiquity of advertis- articles were posted then as now. ing were the public crier in ancient Greece, shouting his wares to a nonliterate public in an oral age, and the sandwich man who The Word Is "Advertising" carried his picture message on the front The word advertisement began to show up and back of his shirt, possibly an invention in the latter half of the seventeenth cen- in Carthage. Archaeologists at the ruins of tury, replacing advices, which had replaced Pompeii unearthed walls that may have the older siquis. The word advertisement been controlled by an early version of an appears in the Bible and in the plays of ad agency, filled with notices of theatrical Shakespeare in the sense of warning or performances, sports events, and contests notification. of gladiators. From Roman signposts to eighteenth Few references exist to advertising dur- century English bill postings, the outdoor ing the Dark Ages, when literacy was re- sign carried announcements of wants and garded of little worth; in fact, to advertise a offering, and identified places of business. product might bring bandits as well as cus- The first commercial billboard, known in 62 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Britain as a hoarding, is credited (if that is By the close of the nineteenth century, the appropriate term) to a London clothing the magazine advertisement had become a merchant in 1740. principal national vehicle for the distribu- The Industrial Revolution of the nine- tion of the standardized goods. Selling the teenth century led to a sharp increase in public on the bicycle as an ideal form of advertising as manufacturers sought out- transportation was the first national ad lets for the goods produced by their facto- campaign. Its success led to advertising for ries. Town criers had become less active, a new form of transportation, the automo- but now advertising bills were posted on bile. The magazine publisher was now as walls everywhere, sometimes pasted up in much concerned with consumer groups as the dead of night before police or property with editorial content. owners could stop them. No lamppost was safe. The sandwich man was back, side- walks were stenciled, and billboards went The Advertising Agency up, for it became essential to use the tools Another new facet of advertising in the late of communication to market the goods nineteenth century was the advertising coming out of the factories. agency, an American phenomenon which spread to Europe and then around the Mass production and distribution cannot be world. The agency concept began earlier in completely controlled, however, without the century in France, where newspaper control of a third area of the economy: publishers regarded the acceptance of ads demand and consumption...The mechanism directly from advertisers as beneath their for communicating information to a national dignity. Instead, they sold spate in bulk to audience of consumers developed with the first truly mass medium: power-driven, contractors who retailed the space to those multiple-rotary printing and mass mailing by with goods to sell. Something like this con- rail.35 cept was later adopted by American agencies. In the United States, the first version The Civil War ended the practice by many of the ad agency was the independent en- American newspapers of placing advertis- trepreneur or newsdealer who, as a side- ing on the front page. War news was too line, accepted ads for newspapers. Except significant to be consigned to inside pages. for brokering space, the first agencies of- After the war the news-filled front page, its fered no service. columns led by multiple-deck headlines, The next step taken by these space bro- remained. Simply, it increased circulation. ker agencies was to offer lower rates to For a time one or two front-page columns advertisers of nationally sold goods who continued to contain ads, but in most news- agreed to buy space in dozens or hundreds papers, these eventually were relegated to of newspapers for each ad. The agency the inside. Elsewhere in the world, front pointed out that by setting up a page of ads page advertising still continues, but the only once, a savings could be passed along practice in the United States is sharply cur- to the advertiser. Agency owners empha- tailed. sized their own knowledge of the media By the mid-nineteenth century, adver- they dealt with, especially the actual circu- tisers had found a new means of distribut- lation, a figure that was not likely to agree ing their circulars—the postal system, with the publisher's inflated numbers. supported by that new revenue device, the Some magazine publishers refused ad- postage stamp. This direct mail allowed vertising; others accepted it reluctantly. advertisers to use large display type and Most resented the intrusion of questions woodcut illustrations, both still barred from about their circulation figures. When one most newspapers until the end of the nine- advertising agent, George Rowell, asked teenth century. Printers of circulars were the executives at Harper's Weekly about not slow to take advantage of their oppor- their circulation, they responded by reject- tunity. ing his advertising. MASS MEDIA 63

As time went on, agents offered other As for patent medicines, it is question- activities such as copy writing and cam- able if any good beyond wealth for the paign planning until the full-service adver- purveyors and security for new periodicals tising agency so well known today was in came out of advertising for the vast number place. Lord & Thomas, N.W. Ayer & Son, of fake nostrums that promised to grow and the J. Walter Thompson Company hair or cure any and all of the ills known to were among the pioneer agencies that of- humankind. The claims went unchal- fered more than just what the advertiser lenged until federal government agencies requested. Among the largest advertisers were empowered to demand truth in adver- in this period were Sears, Roebuck; Quaker tising. A few newspapers acted inde- Oats; Eastman Kodak; H.L. Heinz; and the pendently to ban the worst of the medical National Biscuit Company, all giants of in- quackery. A major effort at proscribing dustry today. such advertising followed a decision by The A sharp rise in the number and circula- Ladies' Home Journal in 1892 to print no tion of magazines aided a phenomenal more medical advertising of any kind. The growth of advertising during the late 19th Journal's editor, Edward W. Bok, took to and early 20th centuries. Halftone engrav- printing chemical analyses of some of the ing was a boon to advertisers. Many prod- more widely advertised preparations. A ucts, identified in the public's mind by shocked public learned that many of the trademarks, were usually outline figures cures were laced with alcohol, cocaine, or until the halftone photograph breathed life morphine. Hundreds of thousands of moth- into them. ers had been quieting their teething babies with a widely advertised soothing syrup Advertising got into high gear only at the end containing morphine. The Federal Food of the last century, with the invention of and Drugs Act, passed in 1906, was a rem- photoengraving. Ads and pictures then edy for the quack ads. became interchangeable and have continued so... For both the pictorial ad or the picture story provide large quantities of instant Brand Names information and instant humans, such as are necessary for keeping abreast in our kind of There are people who can remember when culture.36 few goods came pre-wrapped. Pickles and soap flakes came out of barrels. The drug- gist decanted soft-drink syrup and perfume Catalogs and Patent from large bottles. Brand names, if they Medicines existed at all, hardly mattered until massive The direct-mail catalog provided another national advertising campaigns made means of advertising goods. Montgomery household words of such products as Gold Ward & Co. in 1872 issued the first mail- Medal flour, Pillsbury flour, Kellogg's corn- order catalog that was larger than a leaflet. flakes, American Tobacco, Diamond The Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog and oth- matches, Borden and Carnation condensed ers that followed were eagerly awaited in milk, Campbell Soup, Heinz 57 foods, rural hamlets and hollows where they Quaker Oats, Wrigley's gum, Proctor and brought touches of comfort and civilization Gamble soap, and Kodak film.37 When to lives that had little enough of these. They Campbell Soup paid for its first large scale have become an important part of Amer- ad campaign, the company secretary re- ica's collective memory. portedly said to the treasurer, "Well, we've Chances on lotteries and patent medi- kissed that money goodbye!"38 cines were among items offered for sale, The National Biscuit Company, which which helped to give advertising a reputa- began to advertise in 1898, created a small tion for fraud, yet they did some good. Yale revolution in food packaging by emphasiz- and Harvard, for example, owed construc- ing through advertising the cleanliness, tion of some of their buildings to widely freshness, and convenience of crackers advertised lotteries. wrapped in wax paper inside a cardboard 64 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION box. In a short time, the campaign led to rhymes that had appeared in English peri- the removal of the familiar grocery store odicals a century earlier. cracker barrel, around which, according to American lore, small town folks would Radio Advertising gather. Open barrels and bins were re- Radio became an advertising medium in placed by cans and cardboard. Grocers 1922. That alone led to an explosive growth stopped scooping unlabeled butter from in the radio industry, but the idea of broad- tubs. Soap was papered and branded with a casting commercials took a little selling. colored label. Even farm families rode to Broadcasters worried about how the gov- town for wrapped and sealed food. Maga- ernment, which licensed them, would feel zines did well by all this. about what Herbert Hoover, then Secretary Philadelphia dry goods merchant John of Commerce, referred to as being Wanamaker advertised fixed prices for his "drowned in advertising chatter."39 Broad- buttons and linens at a time when store- casters and advertisers also worried about keepers charged whatever they thought a ads that went out over the airwaves (or customer would pay. He hired John Pow- "ether") without anyone having any idea ers, the first notable copywriter, to write about who was getting the message and the ads. As business doubled, other mer- what effect it was having, or whether any- chants took notice. one at all was paying attention. A comforting answer came when a commercial for More Advertising Tools Mineralava cosmetics offered a free photo Outdoor advertising prospered. Rows of of actress Marion Davies, who had spoken cards above the windows of streetcars, about "How I Make Up for the Movies." buses, and subway trains fixed the atten- Hundreds of requests poured in from lis- tion of riders. No industrial city could be teners. free of billboards, nor does evidence appear Albert Lasker, an important figure in the that any city wanted to. The first electrical advertising industry during the first half of sign went up in 1891 along Broadway, soon the twentieth century, led his agency, Lord known as The Great White Way when the & Thomas, heavily into radio. His agency flashing lights of the huge Times Square was responsible for many of the early radio advertising signs became a symbol not only shows including the most popular of all, of New York, but of America itself. Neon Amos 'n' Andy. The 1920s saw the start of tubes came along in 1923 to display mes- the rapid growth of radio as a means of free sages in colored lights. home entertainment, the only cost—after The advertising industry readily the initial purchase of a radio set—being adapted to the new behavioral science of having to hear such advertising as the jin- psychology early in the twentieth century. gle. To a population suffering the economic Making salesmanship scientific had great effects of the Depression, that was no cost appeal and no lack of success when the art at all. Prices were not mentioned in radio of selling combined with psychology and ads until 1932. Catchy tunes like "Pepsi statistics as marketing research. Cola hits the spot, twelve Ml ounces, that's The number of advertisers expanded as a lot..." spun around in people's heads as the nation grew. So did the volume of ad- often as any song on the "Hit Parade." Jin- vertising and total ad budgets. Between gles even appeared in outdoor advertise- 1939 and 1956, the number of national ad- ments, such as the famous Burma Shave vertisers tripled and the number of brands signs that motorists read, line after line, as they sold through ads nearly quadrupled. they sped along the American highways. Advertising introduced both the memorable slogan, such as Kodak's "You press the Televising Advertising button. We do the rest," and the radio jingle, Jingles typified an effort to be creative, to which followed the tradition of advertising make an ad something more than the noti- MASS MEDIA 65 fication that goods were for sale. Advertis- Critics of advertising have argued that it ers recognized, before most of the rest of has made society materialistic and greedy, society did, that the public is likely to re- despoiling life by equating happiness with member something enjoyable. That helps the ownership of things, leaving people per- to explain why people who have seen the manently dissatisfied with what they have same commercial twenty times sit en- and always wanting more. Researchers es- tranced to watch it for the twenty-first time. timate that the average American sees or It is also why a child who runs off when the hears an ad every three minutes that he or program is on will come running back for she is awake, 500 advertisements a day. the commercial. More thought, energy, ef- An unintended consequence of unre- fort, and cold cash go into television commer- stricted advertising has been the unpleas- cials today than into television programs. ant message overload that we feel when advertisers seek to convince us that we must own or do what we know is not in our Setting Standards best interests, or that we really need what Within the advertising industry itself, fre- we have hitherto been unaware of. It has quent efforts were made to establish ethical been argued that ads that rain on us in print standards. In the late nineteenth century, and broadcasting have led us foolishly to John E. Powers, who became publisher of deplete the money we might have other- The Nation, campaigned to improve adver- wise saved for old age, and that has led to tising copy. He said, "A good bargain in the old-age insurance of Social Security and advertising, i.e., a low rate, is always of less pension funds.41 account than to say the right things to the right people in an acceptable way."40 The Agate Club, formed in Chicago in 1894, brought advertising industry people If all commentators on this subject can together to consider common concerns. agree about anything, it is that advertising Similar clubs were put together in other is a tool of communication whose impact cities, leading eventually to national and on society cannot be ignored, not when international organizations. New York adveitisers in all media in the United States State was the first to pass a law to block alone spend upwards of $100 billion dollars dishonest advertising. a year.

Solving Postal Problems

Postage rates between England and the were few and overland routes were difficult colonies were high, limiting communica- to traverse, it was not unusual for news of tion. Colonists rightly regarded them as one colony to arrive at another by way of a another form of taxation, avoided paying London newspaper and a ship from England. them whenever they could, and included During this period, newspapers that postal charges in their rallying cry, "No were located in towns with regular deliv- taxation without representation." What fol- ery of news by mail, especially from lowed was revolution and a new nation. abroad, had higher reputations than news- In colonial days, the timeliness of news papers without such direct access to often depended upon the speed of ocean- mailed news. The average newspaper was going ships. Editors of the first newspapers a meager thing by today's standards. The in North America had to wait an average of front page carried news from Europe about two months for news from England. The politics and wars, copied from newspapers fastest ships were packet boats, designed to arriving from England. The remaining carry mail, that might also carry a few news columns were filled with items cop- passengers and light cargo. Because roads ied from other colonial newspapers, plus 66 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION the contents of some letters that readers stop mailing newspapers because a sub- had received and offered to the editor for scriber died or moved away. There were reprinting, and perhaps an item or two of postal riders who, for delivering the news- gossip along with any genuine local news. papers, demanded exorbitant rates from If that were lacking, poetry and, where subscribers and pocketed the money. Rid- possible, advertising filled the space. As ers earned no government salary. Their pre-Revolutionary War politics heated up, income came from what recipients would the published letters became increasingly pay for letters and newspapers, a system political, signed by a pseudonym from Ro- that continued well after the postage stamp man politics, like Cato, Cicero, or Brutus. required the sender to pay for letters. Not Benjamin Franklin, a printer and pub- until 1863 did Congress vote pay for postal lisher, was a postmaster as well, a position carriers and no charge for city delivery. he used to introduce changes that produced Until then, those who did not want to pay the first surplus in the colonial postal serv- for their mail asked the postmaster to hold ice. He established a simple accounting it at the post office. If senders paid for their system for postmasters, investigated letters, the price covered only delivery to a abuses by post riders, shortened routes post office, not to someone's home. where he could, eliminated mail transport Franklin's policies eliminated most of by ferry where possible, established these problems, provided for the free ex- charges for newspapers where they had change of newspapers among editors, and been carried free, and did whatever else he assigned postmasters to collect newspaper could to put the postal system on a paying subscription fees. By these policies, the basis. The Crown dismissed him for his American colonial post office moved ahead revolutionary activities in 1774. A year of the postal policies in England. later the Continental Congress asked A publisher might get his newspapers Franklin to set up a separate postal system, delivered if he offered a bribe, but a better the best way to get word to colonists who plan presented itself. Why not become a wanted independence. America's first im- postmaster? Publishers pulled strings to be portant scientist, first important inventor, appointed postmasters, a position that pre- first important literary figure, founder of sented a sure way to get their newspapers the first circulating library, first hospital, delivered and incidentally make life diffi- and first volunteer fire company, founder cult for rival publishers. Some postmaster- of the academy that became the University publishers were mailing their own of Pennsylvania, and an architect of the newspapers without postage. Others used American political system, Ben Franklin the office to put rival publishers out of was also the first postmaster general of the business.42 United States. George Washington is re- Among the advantages for publishers in puted to have said, concerning the first U.S. becoming postmasters was franking their ambassador to France, "We haven't heard own mail; that is, sending it free under from Benjamin Franklin in Paris this year. their signature. Postal law did not specifi- We should write him a letter." cally address the matter of franking newspapers, but it did permit postmasters to Postmasters and Publishers frank their business mail, which they often The mail service was set up to carry letters, interpreted liberally as including corre- not newspapers. The law had no provision spondence relating to their newspapers for sending newspapers by mail, so no rates and indeed the newspapers themselves. had been fixed. A postmaster could charge They also received news dispatches before whatever he wanted for adding newspa- their rivals did. Appointment as postmaster pers. Even a postmaster had to depend on also handed publishers the opportunity to the riders who actually delivered the mail. collect fees, although small towns did not Publishers were unable to collect from dis- provide enough postal revenue to afford tant subscribers or even to learn when to full salary for its postmaster, and it con- MASS MEDIA 67 ferred the status of being a representative teenth century. Congress ended the frank- of the government. ing benefit to newspapers in 1875, but Conversely, whatever government was cheap second-class mailing rates continue. in power encouraged the postmasters they Before the creation of such news services appointed to start newspapers. And why as the Associated Press the exchange of not? The postmastership was most likely a newspapers was the only regular means of political plum, so the government knew moving information great distances as where the postmaster's sympathies lay. well as to the nooks and crannies of the The postal service managed the news both country served by small newspapers. Non- by impeding the delivery of out-of-favor local news being the staple of most news- publications and by giving postal advan- papers, and many newspapers being quite tages to publications that the authorities partisan, their editors looked for news sto- wished to promote. Postmasters used their ries and commentaries, particularly from offices to increase the circulation of their Washington, that supported their party's own and their party's newspapers. cause. At the same time, the Washington Politicized relationships continued after and New York partisan press clipped pieces the United States came into being. Presi- from the country press that supported their dents appointed postmasters general of views. As the Associated Press grew in the their own political party, and these men in later half of the nineteenth century, this turn appointed publishers of the same practice diminished. party to local postmasterships, all part of the great political game of scratch-my- Transporting the Mail back-and-I'll-scratch-yours. How long it took news to be disseminated in the late eighteenth century may be Postal Services for judged by the length of time it took for the Newspapers Declaration of Independence to be publish- The two institutions, press and post, grew ed by newspapers in various cities. Ap- hand-in-hand, each stimulating and shap- proved on July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia, it ing the other. Policies set up then still have was printed in a Philadelphia newspaper effect today. In 1820, for example, the post- four days later. It took five days to appear master general told local postmasters to in a Baltimore newspaper, six days for New encourage subscribers to take local publica- York, 11 days to a Hartford newspaper, 14 tions instead of distant city newspapers. days to Boston, 18 days to Watertown, Mas- That led editors to increase the amount of sachusetts. The text of the Declaration no local news, a commodity that the distant doubt reached some of these cities a few big city newspapers could not match. Until days earlier, but the editors waited until this change, most country newspapers their next scheduled issues to publish it. mimicked the city press in focusing on The battle of New Orleans was fought six national, international, and state capitol weeks after the signing of the treaty that news, ignoring local events. To this day, local ended the War of 1812. While it had no news remains a staple of all newspapers, effect on the peace treaty, the battle of New especially those in smaller communities. Orleans considerably enhanced the reputa- The post office provided many services tion of General Andrew Jackson. One can for the press: fast transport of news dis- only speculate on how the engine of history patches, newspaper delivery, the selling of might have veered if the news of the peace subscriptions by the letter carriers, cheap treaty had arrived immediately. postal rates, free delivery within a county, The means of conveyance obviously free exchange of newspapers among edi- limited newspaper circulation because tors, and even exchange arrangements newspapers added weight to the postman's with foreign publishers. The free exchange load. Where roads were available, four- of newspapers among editors was espe- wheel stagewagons or coaches carried the cially helpful in the first half of the nine- mail. Postal couriers accepted the added 68 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION weight of newspapers only unwillingly, so they piled up at loading points. Sometimes bags of newspapers were dropped off at a stage office to make room for a passenger plus baggage. As for magazines, postmasters had the authority to exclude them from delivery if facilities were inadequate. Editors and readers pressed for more coaches, a vehicle that came into general use after 1785, when Congress encouraged the post office to extend its service as fast A year after the Civil War started, the tele- as possible. The building of post roads graph spanned the continent and the Pony through the wilderness brought the stage- Express vanished. The telegraph replaced coaches that brought the newspapers. The it as the conduit of time-sensitive mail be- first post roads ran along a north-south axis, tween the interior and San Francisco for paralleling the eastern coast. Then, post those willing to pay the heavy charges. roads were stretched from the east coast "Intelligence" could now cross from Califor- cities to cities being built in the west. Fur- nia to Missouri and points east in minutes. ther growth came with post roads directly Letters from loved ones, however, still took connecting the cities and towns of the west. weeks to travel from coast to coast via Nica- Where post road building lagged, newspa- ragua or Panama and by stage. pers were scarce. As for newspapers and magazines, the Senator John Calhoun in 1817 exhorted westward expansion of the railroad solved Congress to "bind the republic together most of the problems of irregular and un- with a perfect system of roads and canals... sure news dissemination. Trains could It is thus that a citizen of the West will read carry large quantities of bulky publications the news of Boston still moist from the with considerable speed. press. The mail and the press are the Speculators thrived on early information. nerves of the body politic."43 The messenger who arrived first with news that led to a rise or fall in cotton prices The account of the beginnings and develop- promised large profits for his quick-witted ment of the American postal service must employer. When the post office failed to de- always be read like a romance. No one can liver the information in an advantageous learn of the lone footman or postrider fol- way, private express companies came for- lowing the trails through the wilderness, ward. These companies, as competitive with across the mountain and plains, of the "pony the public mails as Federal Express is today, express," or the Overland Mails to the far- were an important factor in information de- flung settlements without feeling the thrill of the pioneer spirit, and a lasting respect for livery until the telegraph arrived. Along with the men and women of those trying times.44 these services were news expresses put together by groups of publishers to gather and transmit news dispatches. During the U.S. The famed western Pony Express, which war with Mexico, several major northeastern lasted only 18 months, carried condensed dailies shared the costs of horseback riders, digests of news in both directions. Because fast boats, railroads, and telegraph lines to of costs ranging from $1 to $5 per half ounce, beat the U.S. mail. few personal letters were sent. Instead, business correspondence and news dispatches filled the rider's pouch. Only one International Agreement Pony Express rider was killed on duty, al- If postal regulations within each nation though a few were seriously wounded. An were confusing, the problem was com- advertisement in newspapers for riders read: pounded and compounded again between countries. Each nation had its own set of MASS MEDIA 69 rules, its own rate and weight scales, even dled by another in transit was placed in a its own suspicions of mail from other na- dependent position. All nations, strong or tions, although cooperation between na- weak, welcomed the transit fees. tions was generally willing. At an international meeting in Berne, Switzerland in 1874, the Universal Postal A letter to England (from the U.S.) cost Union was born. There would be a single twenty-four cents if it weighed not more than rate for foreign mail, each nation would one-half ounce and forty-eight cents keep the money from its sale of stamps, but between one-half ounce and one ounce. To would deliver foreign mail free, nations Greece it cost fifty-seven cents if it was under one-half ounce and went by a British ship via could no longer act arbitrarily, and disputes Southampton. The whole fee could then also would be settled by arbitration. As a result be prepaid. If, however, the letter went by of the treaty, rates dropped, service im- American ship to Bremen and thence proved, and mail handling stopped being overland, the sender could prepay twenty part of international scheming for power. cents to the U.S. Post Office and the rest The International Bureau of the UPU was would be collected from the receiver. The housed in Berne, where it remains. total would add up to more than fifty-seven cents if the letter weighed more than a quarter of an ounce.45 Like the postage stamp, the international Nations signed bilateral postal treaties. postal agreement became part of the mass Strong nations tried to become transit communication revolution. The Universal points not only for the postage income, but Postal Union also gave the world a lesson for the potential of exerting political pres- in how nations benefit when they act in sure, since a nation whose mail was han- concert for a peaceful goal.

Photography

Photography is the most visible and per- During the sixteenth century in Italy, the haps the most dominant element of the camera obscura—still a room—aided draft- present Information Age. Less than two ing and painting. To brighten and sharpen centuries old, it has become so much a part the image, artists placed a lens over the oflife that it may be difficult to imagine our pinhole. To preserve the image, they traced society without it. it on a sheet of paper. The problem with a room in a house is that you can see only what is opposite the Ancient Roots Its technology has ancient roots. Imagine a sunny street in an old city. Imagine a house with a dark room. Imagine a tiny hole in the wall facing the street. People walk past the hole. If you sit inside the room and look at the wall opposite the hole, you might see an image of those people upside down. Because the world is full of dark rooms with holes in the walls, this phenomenon has been known for centuries. Aristotle mentioned it in the fourth century B.C. The Arab scholar Alhazen described it at some length in the eleventh century. Later, so did Leonardo da Vinci. The start of photogra- Figure 3.3 Egyptians used shears to cut phy was the camera obscura, from the Latin silhouettes. People were always camera (room) and obscura (dark). drawn in profile. 70 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

outdoors. The reason for this, some believed, had to do with the air itself or with the heat of the sun. They were mistaken. It was neither air nor heat. The reason for the change was light. A German scientist, Jo- hann Schulze, noticed that a bottle filled with a certain silver compound turned vio- let black on the side exposed to sunshine. To test his theory that light, not heat, was responsible for the change, he cut the shape of some letters out of a piece of dark paper. Schulze covered a bottle of the silver compound with the paper and put it in the Figure 3.4 The camera obscura was the first sunlight. None of the silver showed except means of recording an image the parts with the cut-out letters. In a little exactly. The user traced it on while the blackened image of the cut out paper. letters appeared in the silver. Thomas Wedgewood, whose family room. If the room were portable, you could manufactured the famous pottery, man- take it to any location. By the seventeenth aged to make some photographic contact century, portable rooms were built, usually prints by placing a leaf from a tree on glass a kind of tent. When the users—mostly against chemically treated paper, which he painters and landscape architects—figured then exposed to light. To show the photo- out that they did not actually have to stand graphs to visitors he was compelled to re- inside the room to get their image, the sort to such stratagems as displaying them camera obscura shrank to the size of a box only for brief moments by dim candlelight. carried in the arms, the predecessor of our Even this procedure could be used for just own cameras.46 Each had a peephole, a a limited time before the whole picture lens, and sometimes a mirror, plus a pane turned black. of glass on which a thin sheet of paper In 1827, exactly one century after could rest for tracing an image. Schulze's publication of his discovery, and An even smaller portable device, the following a decade of experimenting with camera lucida, consisted of a glass prism various chemicals, a French inventor, suspended by a brass rod over a piece of Joseph Niepce, used a camera obscura to paper. Looking through the prism, the art- produce the world's first true photograph, ist could trace an image of a scene or a face the courtyard outside his window. It was on the paper. The tracing still required a lot etched on a coated pewter plate. His expo- of handwork but, aside from the impres- sure time was eight hours, so in the photo- sions of artists, no other way existed to graph the sun seemed to be shining on both reproduce an image. sides of a rooftop.

The Chemical Basis of Daguerre and Talbot Photography On a trip to Paris, Niepce met Louis Da- Chemical discoveries eventually provided guerre, a painter and theatrical producer, the way to satisfy the deep wish to capture who was also trying to capture a camera reality as it existed, drawn not with an image. They eventually became partners. ordinary pencil but with what came to be After Niepce's death, Daguerre went on to called the "pencil of nature." For thousands improve the process, and in 1837 he proof years, people saw that colors can change duced a photograph of surprising quality, a outdoors. Vegetation turns green. A shirt's still life with tones of light and shadow. The color fades in the sunshine. It had been photo, on a copper plate coated with silver, known that certain salts of silver darkened was exposed to iodine fumes, creating a MASS MEDIA 71 layer of light sensitive silver iodide. Da- guerre named his result after himself, a daguerreotype. The exposed plate was the final picture. There was no negative. While Daguerre was experimenting in France, amateur English scientist William Fox Talbot, frustrated by the difficulties of drawing with the camera lucida, achieved some success in taking contact photographs by laying such objects as a leaf, a feather, and a piece of lace directly on sheets of translucent paper that had been treated with silver chloride. This method created a negative image, the dark and light areas reversed. The translucent paper allowed Fox Talbot to make any number of contact positives, something that Daguerre could not do. Fox Talbot was soon taking pictures of buildings, a choice of subject dictated by the need for a great deal of light. Only after years of chemical and optical improvements in photography, was he able to take pictures of people, whom he posed stiffly with orders not to move because his pictures required long exposure. Both Daguerre, the French artist, and Fox Talbot, the wealthy English botanist, had been working independently and were unknown to each other, yet they were producing similar pictures with similar chemicals and equipment. One difference was that the quality of Daguerre's work was far superior. Another was that Fox Talbot could make duplicate positive images from his negatives. Figure 3.5 A "photogenic drawing" of a leaf The problem of the image darkening by William Fox Talbot in 1839. each time it was viewed in a lighted room Translucent paper allowed was solved in 1839 by treating the exposed, copies to be made. (Courtesy developed image with sodium thiosulfate International Museum of (still used today, commonly called hypo) Photography at George Eastman followed by washing with water. Its discov- House.) erer, Sir John Herschel, a well-known En- glish scientist and a friend of Fox Talbot, also devised the words photography to re- shrank. New chemicals made the plates place Fox Talbot's phrase photogenic draw- more light sensitive, thereby reducing ex- ing, and positive and negative to replace the posure time. A portrait lens designed by terms reversed copy and re-reversed copy. Josef Petzval in Austria cut the time Improvements spread quickly to the needed to hold still for a pose to about 30 growing numbers of amateur photogra- seconds. One of the earliest American ex- phers. In the year 1847, it was estimated perimenters was the artist Samuel Morse, that half a million photographic plates were who would soon become famous for a dif- used in Paris alone. As smaller cameras ferent means of communication, the tele- were built, the size of photographic plates graph. 72 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Photographs could be taken not only and a shorter exposure time than anything outdoors in the sunlight, but inside in the previously available. It made possible mul- newly created portrait studios that opened tiple prints from one plate, unavailable everywhere. The photographers, known as with daguerreotype. On the other hand, the daguerreotypists, did a brisk trade and they process proved complicated and untidy. took business away from painters. Photographs had to be exposed on a wet By the 1850 s, the cost of having a photo- plate and developed immediately or the graph taken had dropped enough to make emulsion would dry and the picture would it available to the common man. Family not appear. Chemicals had to be applied in pictures were popular, especially pictures fairly rapid succession in darkness. of children, partly because of their high That meant that a photographer on the mortality rate. Many children died of epi- road carried a darkroom along. To take a demics like measles that today are usually picture by the wet-plate process, the pho- under control. One advertising line was: tographer coated a glass plate with collo- "Secure the shadow 'ere the substance dion, a clear, thick, sticky liquid that had fade." Photographers in the mid-nineteenth found an application as a surgical dressing. century advertised their readiness to take Next, the plate was coated with a layer of pictures of the dead in their coffins. light sensitive silver iodide. The plate was then inserted immediately into a camera so Anyone who knows what the worth of fam- a photograph could be taken. After expo- ily affection is among the lower classes, and sure, the glass plate, still wet, was devel- who has seen the array of little portraits oped, fixed, and washed on the spot. stuck over a labourer's fireplace... the boy that has 'gone to Canada', the 'girl out at service', the little one with the golden hair Photographing the World that sleeps under the daisies, the old grand- Realizing that they had in their hands a new father in the country—will perhaps feel with way to record history, travelers could me that... the sixpenny photograph is doing more for the poor than all the philanthropists hardly wait to haul their heavy cameras and in the world.47 darkroom equipment to distant corners of the world. In 1854, an album of photographs of ancient Egyptian monuments Wet-Plate Photography was published, the first time that people Frederick Archer's introduction in 1851 of the could own such images. Combined in wet-plate photographic process replaced sheets and bound in books, these were ac- both the daguerreotype and Fox Talbot's tual photographs. The printing of photos on "talbotype." It provided greater sensitivity regular book pages along with text would

Figure 3.6 Wet-plate photographers carried their darkrooms wherever they went because chemicals had to be applied quickly.

MASS MEDIA 73 have to wait until the art of photoengraving the grim pictures of the aftermath ofbattles advanced sufficiently toward the end of the in the American Civil War. A well-known nineteenth century, after which newspa- New York portrait photographer, Mathew pers and magazines blossomed with photo- Brady, hired other photographers to join graphs. In the meantime, the public could him at some risk to their lives traveling to view photographs sewn together with the battlefields with their clumsy, clatter- printed pages at the book bindery. Travel ing wagons housing their wet-plate gear. By photographs were featured in popular lan- the end of the Civil War, they had taken tern slide shows. more than seven thousand photographs of It was still a complicated, awkward, and battlefields and encampments, soldiers liv- messy business. Photographers needed ing and soldiers dead, officers and men, wagons to haul around hundreds of pounds weapons and equipment. Their photo- of bottled chemicals, plus the glass plates, graphs revealed war stripped of its glory—a dishes, measures, funnels, and a water pail, brutal, wearying misery, no matter how to say nothing of the heavy camera, lenses, noble its purpose. Brady himself nearly and tripod.48 died in the battle of Bull Run. Other pho- They traveled in an age of colonization, tographers followed Brady's lead to record warfare in distant climes, and curiosity in the scars of battle. the home country about national adven- After the war, a number of photogra- tures abroad. Roger Fenton traveled with phers headed West to continue what in fellow Englishman James Robertson and a only a few years had become a tradition of darkroom in a covered wagon to the Cri- visual documentary. Lugging 300 to 400 mean War in 1855. Felice Beato, an Italian, pounds of wet-plate equipment and chemi- and Robertson recorded the aftermath of cals on the backs of mules, they left to an uprising against the British in India. posterity a permanent record of the Ameri- Beato went to China to take pictures of the can Indian, of great vistas without a trace Opium Wars, then on to Japan, newly of human habitation, of the coming of the opened to the outside world and of great railroads, of the miners, the settlers, and fascination to outsiders. In 1858, the first the cowboys. William Henry Jackson's pho- aerial photograph was taken from a hot air tographs taken in 1871 helped in the politi- balloon. cal effort to establish Yellowstone as the For the first time in history, people safe first national park. This may have been the at home saw a little of what went on in a first time that photography influenced so- war. They would soon see much more in cial change. It would not be the last.

Figure 3.7 Photographers provided a kind of journalism. Felice Beato took pictures of the British and French invasions of China during the Opium Wars, 1860. 74 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

The Muckrakers' Photos the Depression of the 1930s, Dorothea Journalists began to recognize photogra- Lange, Walker Evans, and Ben Shahn car- phy as a means not only to present infor- ried on that tradition. From the wellspring mation, but to stir emotion. Jacob Riis, a of feeling for the downtrodden and anger Danish immigrant hired as a New York City at social injustice, sprang the social docu- police reporter, was determined to reveal mentary motion picture, notably in Great the humanity of the poor that the better-off Britain and the United States, but increas- ignored. Riis used both words and pictures ingly a rewarding expression throughout to expose conditions in the slums. He was the world. one of the first to recognize that photographs could help to bring about social Photoengraving change. Riis went about his personal mis- Some documentary photographs found sion even when his primitive flash equip- their way into picture magazines. The most ment panicked a roomful of sleepers or outstanding of these magazines, Life, was actually set fire to a house. Once he set first published in 1936, but the picture press himself on fire with his flash powder, a itself started much earlier. In fact, it is just recent invention that for the first time per- about as old as photography itself. The mitted photographs to be taken of what had weekly Illustrated London News began to hitherto been concealed by darkness. The publish in 1842 with wood engravings, usu- flashbulb would not be invented until 1925, ally carved from artists' sketches on a but flash powder sitting on a pan could light wooden block. Few newspapers could re- up a room. Sometimes it did so in more produce images. ways than one! Picture engravers were closer to wood- Riis' books, How the Other Half Lives and workers than to modern photo engravers. Children of the Poor, became an important In the early years, they carved drawings part of the effort known as muckraking, and daguerreotype photographs as wood dredging up awful conditions for the public engravings. Daguerreotypes, as already gaze. The insult of being called muckrakers noted, were single images. Real publication was a muddied badge that the reformers of photographs would not be possible with- wore proudly. out the advancement of a technology that Among Riis' successors, sociologist Le- could take an ordinary photograph and wis Hine recorded the miserable lives of convert it into a picture with halftones, or immigrants who were pouring out of gray tones that held ink and could be Europe into Ellis Island. From there they printed on the same page as type. Photoen- went to the fetid homes and the sweatshops graving started in England, but results were where they barely eked out enough money poor until 1878 when Frederick Ives at to put bread on the table. In 1908, Hine was Cornell University created a halftone proc- hired as an investigator by the National ess that broke a photograph into tiny dots Child Labor Committee. Hine said, "I that could pick up ink, giving the appear- wanted to show the things that had to be ance of continuous tones from light to dark. corrected." He focused especially on chil- The half-tone brought words and pictures dren sent to work in food processing plants, together, leading to one of the great ad- factories, and mines. He uncovered them vances in the history of mass communica- at every turn. His photos appeared in maga- tion: photojournalism. zines, books, slide shows for lectures, and Photographs could now be printed, but traveling exhibits. Their publication was they would not become common in news- instrumental in passing child labor laws papers until the quality of newsprint—the that took the children out of the mines and paper itself—improved toward the end of factories, and into schools.49 the nineteenth century. However, photo- Riis and Hine were among the early graphs could be seen in the pages of weekly social documentary photographers. During journals and magazines. The first newspaper MASS MEDIA 75

Figure 3.8 Sociologist Lewis Hine took pictures of children denied the chance to go to school, forced to work from morning to night. Here they are shelling peas. photograph, entitled Shanty-Town, ap- the chemical generation of electricity. By peared in the New York Daily Graphic on the twentieth century, scientists had ex- March 4, 1880. By the end of the century, tended their research to include the prop- photographs were regularly printed in erties of light in what is known as newspapers and magazines. photoconductivity. Related research was be- Innovations continued as technology ing done in television. opened opportunities for science photogra- Trained as both a physicist and a patent phy. Wilhelm Roentgen discovered X-rays attorney, Chester Carlson continued the in 1895. X-ray photos followed a year later. trail of experiments with the specific goal of finding abetter means than carbon paper to copy documents. Working mostly in the The Copier kitchen of his Queens, New York, apart- Although it reached the public in the mid- ment during the Depression with the assis- dle of the twentieth century, the office cop- tance of a German refugee scientist, he ier belongs to this list of informational produced his first fixed image after three innovations, one more tool of communica- years of experimenting. He called his in- tion that provides what Daniel J. Boorstin vention xerography, which is Greek for dry has called "the repeatability of experience," writing. His breakthrough combined India which is a significant element in democra- ink, a handkerchief, wax paper, a light tizing society.50 bulb, sulfur, mossy powder, a microscope Ancient Greeks experimented with glass slide, and a small metal plate. Carlson static electricity by rubbing amber with silk took his invention to one major corporation to attract bits of hair. Systematic observa- after another, but each showed what he tions began in the nineteenth century with termed "enthusiastic lack of interest." The 76 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Figure 3.9 Inventor Chester Carlson examines a prototype of the Xerox copier. He worked on xerography for 15 years before selling a copier. (Courtesy Xerox Corporation.)

small company that eventually manufactured the Xerox sold its first model in 1950, a copier that used plain paper. The success An important new step was about to be of the Xerox 914 (referring to copies up to taken, perhaps the most important of all to 9 x 14 inches) was sensational. Within six most people. It would be the ownership of years, 65,000 copiers had been sold. Today, an inexpensive, easy-to-use camera. As the some 20 companies worldwide sell more twentieth century dawned, ordinary peo- than $50 billion of copiers and supplies ple could take pleasure in holding cameras annually. in their own hands. The laser printer, the facsimile machine, and the light pen, which transmits information along a beam of light, depend upon some of the same principles of photo- electricity.

Looking Ahead By the end of the nineteenth century, photography had changed from a few curious experiments to a significant means for recording events. Pictures appeared in newspapers and magazines. Photography as art was starting to reach the public. Photo- graphs of loved ones were placed atop tables and in purses and pockets. Scientists in several fields were using cameras to un- Figure 3.10 Harper's Weekly engraving, cover mysteries. 1870, of a portrait studio. Wood or metal engravings were needed until the halftone process was invented. (Courtesy State Historical Society of Wisconsin.) MASS MEDIA 77

Current News

The telegraph changed the way that infor- This new technology also altered the mation moved through society. Previously way news was gathered and distributed. limited to a minuscule bit of news at the Unlike the horse-based transportation it re- distance a human voice could shout, the placed, the train carried as many newspa- speed of a fast horse, or the flash of a mirror pers, magazines, catalogs, and books as in the sun, complex messages carried by readers wanted. The telegraph became the wire traveled thousands of miles in less heart of a new institution, the news gather- time than a horse could be saddled. The ing cooperative, that helped to foster a telegraph was a new scientific communica- change in just what news was and how it tions medium, although the most learned was delivered to mass audiences in the minds of the early nineteenth century did penny press that emerged during the nine- not fully understand just what electricity teenth century.51 The telegraph helped was or how it worked. The telegraph, the shift the emphasis in newspapers from pas- first practical use of electricity, uncoupled sionate opinion to dispassionate reports of communication from transportation. To events, gave small town newspapers a bet- communicate, it was no longer necessary ter chance to compete against large dailies, to carry the message. freed these small newspapers from dependence upon the big city newspapers, and altered the way news stories were writ- Newspapers Change ten. For small town newspapers, the ability The dot-and-dash reports humming on the to get the same news as big city rivals was wire went a long way toward removing the stimulating and pointed to cooperative impediment of distance as a factor in deter- news.52 In the growth and strengthening of mining what news is. As a result of this smaller newspapers, the telegraph gave a invention, newspapers would never be the clear example of how the diffusion of a tool same. Driven from the news columns by of communication created more informa- economic factors, opinions would take ref- tion producers, because it was no longer uge on the editorial page. With information necessary to read a large city newspaper to available on a national scale, weather fore- acquire fresh news from beyond the com- casts took on a value that The Farmer's munity. Almanac never provided. In the ability to Rumor even had it that Butch Cassidy inform its customers, the small town paper and the Sundance Kid fled to South Amer- would draw closer to the big city press. In ica around the turn of the century because our own day, the communication satellite the telegraph made their business of rob- has done for television some of what the bery too risky. telegraph did for the newspaper, and the shakeout has not been completed. The telegraph jolted the national econ- Ancient Signals omy. Before the log poles were erected The word telegraph comes from the Greek, parallel to the single railroad tracks that meaning to write at a distance. Efforts of spanned most of the nation, a train had to people to communicate over distance with- wait on a siding, its engineer unsure of out physical transportation of the informa- when the "8:45" would actually pass by. tion go back at least to Homer's Iliad, when When the telegraph communicated that in- beacon fires heralded the coming of ships. formation, more trains could run. That Athenians used signal fires to warn of a brought more goods, lowered freight costs, Spartan attack. Roman fires warned of pi- and spurred business. Industry now could rate ships. Julius Caesar followed a Persian receive sales orders from far-flung field practice of stationing soldiers with leather offices and maintain contact with them on lungs on platforms to shout messages back a daily basis. and forth. The Romans and later the Moors 78 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

used the heliograph, a mirror of gleaming metal that flashed in the sunlight. In the sixteenth century, beacon fires gave the English fleet the message that the Spanish Armada was nearing. American Indians sent smoke signals. Incas had a system of messengers each of whom ran about a mile at top speed to the next messenger; this relay system enabled a message to travel at the rate of about 150 miles per day across the Inca kingdom. No one figured out how to beat the Inca system until the nineteenth century. The problem with all these devices was that they were limited to the simplest kind of prearranged message, such as "The enemy is coming." More complicated ways of signaling or more complex devices were needed to pass more information from point to point. The semaphore, a visual telegraph, depended upon the positioning of pairs of torches or flags to represent an Figure 3.11 An experimental telegraph assortment of messages or individual let- made from a picture frame, ters. In the nineteenth century, informa- some clock wheels, and bits of tion passed with surprising swiftness metal and wood. between French cities connected by semaphore towers. A line-of-sight system was hills and plains were soon to be stitched planned from Maine all the way to New together by the threads of railroad tracks. Orleans. Even before he secured a position as a professor of art in a New York univer- The First Telegraphs sity, Morse began his experiments, assisted by Alfred Vail, who is sometimes identified Two Englishmen, Charles Wheatstone and as the true inventor of telegraphic hard- William Cooke, built a working telegraph ware. that was installed on the Great Western In 1838, Morse sent a message down two Railway in England in 1843, but the greatest miles of wire in New Jersey, then repeated fame and credit has gone to Samuel F.B. his feat in Philadelphia and again in Wash- Morse. While a student at Yale, Morse ington, D.C. before President Martin Van learned about the properties of electricity. Buren, his cabinet and a congressional His interest in an electrical telegraph began committee. Several of the dignitaries in 1832 aboard ship. Morse was returning showed interest, but others expressed to America following three years in Europe doubt and ridicule, to Morse's frustration trying to make a living as an artist. During because he asked the government to fi- a dinner conversation with other passen- nance a test line between Baltimore and gers about electromagnetism, Morse real- Washington. Five more years were to pass ized that electrical current could be used as before Morse received any of the govern- the basis for a telegraph. He remarked to ment support he desperately wanted. other passengers, "I see no reason why Morse's contraption was odd enough to intelligence might not be instantaneously be laughed at. His original receiving equip- transmitted by electricity to any dis- 53 ment consisted of a pen attached to one end tance." of a pivoted arm, with a magnet pulling at The world was certainly ready, and par- a piece of iron attached to the arm. A ticularly the United States, whose endless windup clockwork motor drew a paper tape MASS MEDIA 79 under the pen, which marked the tape ac- tension of the telegraph lines was hap- cording to the current flowing through the hazard, disconnected. By the end of 1847, electromagnet. Morse and Vail continued lines had reached Cincinnati, Louisville, to improve the device. Eventually, Vail in- and St. Louis. Until the wires were con- vented a system that used a click key at the nected, a message from the East Coast retransmitter, and a receiver that indented a quired six days of travel by special pattern of dots and dashes on a moving messenger, steamboat, and coach express paper tape. Because the instrument made to reach St. Louis. The completion of the enough noise so the operator could hear line to San Francisco in October 1861 put the message, the paper tape was aban- the overland Pony Express between St. doned. Joseph, Missouri, and San Francisco out of business almost overnight, for it could do no better between "St. Joe" and Sacra- "What Hath God Wrought?" mento, California than an eight-day trip in In 1843, Congress appropriated $30,000 for summer, ten days in winter. an experimental line between Baltimore and Washington. When the Whig convention, meeting in Baltimore the following Western Union Takes the year, chose its presidential candidate, Vail Lead carried the information by train to the end Competition among telegraph companies of the telegraph wire at Annapolis Junction was fierce. By the start of the Civil War, six and sent it on by key to Morse at the other companies, each dominating a region of the terminal in the Capitol. Astonished Wash- United States, formed a cartel to crush ington residents learned of the party's smaller rivals. The war proved ruinous for nominee an hour before reporters on the companies whose lines ran north to south. train arrived to confirm the news. It was the After the war three companies remained, first public demonstration of the telegraph, and in 1866 one of them, Western Union, and the first electrically transmitted news bought out its two rivals to become the first dispatch. Although the newspapers in of America's business monopolies. Washington and Baltimore paid scant atten- Both the Blue and Gray armies used the tion at first, they quickly came around telegraph lines extensively, but the South when a nominee for vice president used the was hampered by a lack of wire and sup- telegraph to decline the nomination. The plies. In Grant's final campaign, wires radi- carrier pigeon had met its match. ated from his headquarters to every salient The line to Baltimore was completed on point, enabling him to coordinate troop May 24, 1844. A formal message was sent movements across a wide front.54 to garner some publicity for the new inven- News of the assassination of Abraham tion, a quotation from the book of Num- Lincoln was transmitted instantaneously bers: "What hath God wrought?" Morse, by telegraph across the nation, but lacking who was deeply pious, held a mystical be- a cable, the news took 12 days to cross the lief that God had chosen him to improve Atlantic. communication on Earth. Telegraph wires and railroad tracks Morse and his backers were disap- spread across the face of the nation in sym- pointed when Congress chose not to buy biotic harmony, each benefiting the other. the patent rights. Development Of the tele- The railroad provided business for the graph in the United States, unlike most of humming wires, enough business to cut the rest of the world, would be private. As telegraph costs. The telegraph provided the a result, great fortunes would be made. vital information on which rail transporta- However, Vail would die in poverty. Not so tion depended, the nerve trail alongside the Morse, although he had lean years as he railroad spine. With long stretches of single tried to secure government financing. track, engineers had little warning of a New companies quickly formed to go train highballing in the opposite direction. into the business of telegraphy. Their ex- Collisions were a constant threat until the 80 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION telegraph permitted a dependable switch- they represented—limited in content and ing control system. The paired growth of distribution. News reports were hard to telegraph and railroad aided another come by. Newspapers were often published means of communication, the mail system, by printers, who gathered their own news, which needed dependable transportation. then filled their columns with stories cop- U.S. stamps went on sale in 1847, three ied from newspapers printed by other pub- years after Morse's company began string- lishers. ing wire. That was also the year the first News gathering from distant points was practical printing telegraph was put to time consuming, linked as it was to the work, its advocates promising that the de- slow modes of transportation. Like any vice would eliminate operator errors. One message, first the news had to be reduced message, "See the judge at once and get to writing. Then, the written report had to excused. I cannot send a man in your be put on a steamer, carriage, horse, or place," was delivered as, "See the judge at train, carried on foot, or, more likely, a once and get executed. I can send a man in combination of these to get to the printing your place."55 house. News from the European continent With information now moving from city or from the interior of the United States to city at lightning speed, prices of goods could be weeks old before it was set in type. became more uniform, a function of na- With the telegraph the time that news tional supply and demand instead of local from New York took to be published in New conditions. Thanks to both the railroad and Orleans dropped from more than ten days the telegraph, prices declined. to one day. A New York Herald write/ .said In Europe, a cable laid under the English space itself seemed to have been "annihi- Channel tied England to France in 1851. lated." Not only did metropolitan newspa- Others soon were in operation connecting pers present news more quickly, but the England to Ireland, and Denmark to Swe- smaller, rural newspapers for the first time den. Then Europe and Africa were linked could bring national news to their readers by a cable across the Mediterranean Sea. In before the city papers arrived in the mail. 1866, after several failures, the first trans- Big city editors did not stand up and cheer atlantic cable was laid between England for the level playing field the telegraph and Canada by the Great Eastern, which provided. The manager of the London was five times the size of any other ship Times wished that it had never been in- afloat, the world's largest ship.56 Cables vented.57 reached Australia in 1902 and Shanghai, China, in 1906. Now, especially for trade When telegraph news became widely avail- and politics, the world's most powerful na- able, cities in the interior of the country tions linked themselves in a web of instant could compete on the same footing with information. The web would not eliminate eastern cities. Equal access to news encouraged the growth of dozens of new provincial misunderstandings or wars no matter how 58 much it was thickened by additional dailies. strands, but it could be said that these first under-the-sea cables created a sea change Changes in newsgathering soon followed. in how peoples dealt with each other. Before the telegraph, small-scale, temporary cooperative arrangements were put together to take advantage of specific trans- Its Role in Transmitting portation systems, such as horse expresses News between two major cities or small boats The telegraph found other uses besides that met arriving ships and then sped infor- sending business information. Its ability to mation to port. Or carrier pigeons winged transmit news dispatches transformed the past seagulls to carry the latest cotton entire newspaper industry. The first quar- prices. ter of the nineteenth century had found Most national and international news newspapers—and the mass communication had reached publishers by mail through the MASS MEDIA 81 postage-free exchange of newspapers among News Agencies editors. With the coming of the telegraph Charles Havas began a European news some stories were wired from the field to a service headquartered in Paris in 1833 us- local newspaper. Then, this newspaper ing the mails and carrier pigeons. His cor- was exchanged by mail with others, ena- respondents in other capitals scoured local bling editors in towns not yet served by newspapers for items that Havas offered telegraph to print the information. the French press. To remain solvent, he Information itself was changed by the swapped subscriptions to his news service technology. Telegraph companies charged for advertising space in newspapers. One of by the word, as much as 50 cents for 10 Havas's employees, a German, Bernard words between New York and Boston, so Wolff, formed a competing agency. So did news writing was sharply truncated. Two another former German employee of years after Morse invented his telegraph, Havas, Paul Reuter, who had developed an the New York Tribune began a column of interest in telegraphy from its inception. telegraph bulletins. Competitive newspa- Reuter realized that a gap existed between pers at times chose to share a single corre- national telegraph lines built by Germany spondent. Speed of newsgathering became and France. He sensed the opportunity for more important, but to cut growing costs, a news transmitting service across the gap. speed was achieved at the sacrifice of story Reuter filled the gap in 1849 with carrier detail. To economize, reporters attempted pigeons. When a telegraph connection was to shorten their stories by coding news completed, Reuter moved to England, dispatches. This produced expert coders where, after some years of disappointment, and decoders, but it also produced blun- he was able to organize a news and com- ders, and led to retaliatory tactics by the mercial information service by telegraph, telegraph companies, such as counting carrier pigeon, and rail. This laid the foun- every three letters as one word. Editors dation of one of the world's great news told correspondents to summarize the agencies, Reuters. In 1869, the three agen- news on the wire and send the details by cies, now based in France, Germany, and mail. England, rather than compete sharply, divided world news coverage among them- Insofar as the invention and spread of the selves, a cartel that survived until the rise telegraph provided the crucial catalyst and of the Third Reich. means for regular cooperative news After World War II the Havas agency, a gathering, it supplied the technological un- derpinning of the modern press; that is, it supporter of the Vichy government, col- transformed the newspaper from a personal lapsed. Agence France Presse, the present journal and party organ into primarily a dis- French news service, arose from the wreck- seminator of news.59 age. The Wolff Agency thrived until it, too, collapsed along with the Third Reich. Of 60 Sent by the clicking keys, reports of events the three, Reuter alone survived. became standardized, less opinionated, The Mexican War of 1846-48 increased and of more interest to the broader political the American public's appetite for news. At spectrum of readers. News stories arrived the outbreak of the war, a mere 130 miles quicker and won a broader array of readers, of wire existed, reaching only as far south but lost some of their bite as they rid them- as Richmond, Virginia. A combination of selves of their bile. It was the beginning of the Pony Express and the infant telegraph the efforts by news wire services to produce system regularly beat the government objective reporting. The new mass dailies, mails between New Orleans and New York. the penny press, now sold not just opinions This express system was so efficient that and essays, but reliable, relatively uncol- President James Polk learned of the Ameri- ored facts upon which readers could base can victory at Vera Cruz from the publisher decisions. of the Baltimore Sun. 82 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

With the penny press spreading newspa- In a historical sense, the computer is no per sales to a huge new customer base never more than an instantaneous telegraph with a before attracted to newspapers, the demand prodigious memory, and all the communi- for news added urgency to the spread of the cations inventions in between have simply been elaborations on the telegraph's original wires. The telegraph made possible coop- 63 work. erative news gathering on a regular basis, but the relationship between the established newspapers and the telegraph companies was often stormy. In 1848, Changes in Service motivated by the telegraph's speed in send- Telegraph technology changed step by step. ing news, and only four years after its in- Thomas Edison invented a duplex device vention, six fiercely competitive New York so messages could flow in opposite direc- dailies formed what was to become the tions at the same time along a single wire. Associated Press.61 In addition to the tele- He followed this with a quadruplex device graph, they also used carrier pigeons. Bird so two messages could flow one way while seed was cheaper than paying by the word. two others came the opposite way, all at the Serving a growing clientele with a vari- same time. He invented the phonograph ety of political viewpoints, the Associated while trying to improve the telegraph. In Press sought to keep its customers con- the same way, Alexander Graham Bell in- tented by writing in a manner that would vented the telephone. not show a bias. A neutral, dispassionate As the business grew it became obvious view of events was something new in that the slowest part of message transmis- American journalism, but the AP's effort to sion was the Western Union boy on a bicy- be impartial continued. Eventually, objec- cle who pedaled around town delivering tivity set the tone for most news reporting. telegrams. Direct private lines called tie- So did the replacement of the old, chrono- lines were installed between businesses logical storytelling manner of reporting by and Western Union offices. The teleprinter the newer inverted pyramid style, in which was put into service for newspapers, busi- the most important facts are presented ness, and government, so typing skill was first, followed by other facts in descending all that was needed to send messages that order of importance. It is not fully clear were printed out on a strip of paper one whether this change was due to the unreli- half-inch wide. ability of telegraph lines, which could fail A few years later came the teletype, a in the midst of a transmission, or a continu- keyboard printer that could print news sto- ation of a writing style introduced by Abra- ries on fanfold sheets of paper at the rate of ham Lincoln's no nonsense Secretary of 10 characters per second. Today, wire serv- War Edwin Stanton, who censored tele- ice computer printers send reams of news graph dispatches.62 The style survived the electronically for storage in newspaper Civil War and continues today. computers, entirely eliminating paper. In relaying the news, time was no longer Telequote and Quotron machines on bro- a measure of distance. By uncoupling infor- kers' desks give instant access to stock mar- mation from transportation, the telegraph ket prices. E-mail, fax machines, and changed the way information was formu- telephones give the telegraph more than lated, and it changed the way people con- enough competition, but it has not become ceived of and used that information. The an anachronism. After 150 years, the tele- telegraph also fostered changes in society graph, not yet a museum piece, remains a through new ways of doing business and convenient way to transfer funds. At one through new businesses. For the masses, the time, it was the means by which the armed telegraph served as a catalyst in the forma- forces announced a death. Today, it is tion of the first true mass communication likely to carry Mother's Day greetings or a medium in history—the penny press. singing birthday message. MASS MEDIA 83

Even if its best days are behind it, the telegraph's place in history is assured. When it was new, Henry David Thoreau, no advocate of industrial progress, wrote, "We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas, but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate." As it turned out, Maine and Texas had much to say to one another, and so did everyone else. Trade in perishable food could be undertaken with Figure 3.12 A Western Union teletype, more certainty when communication as- 1959. Newspapers used them to certained market demand. The telegraph supply stories to wire services also evened out the wide variation in the directly or by paper tape. prices of goods from city to city and brought (Courtesy Pavek Museum.) about standard time zones. The telegraph united the United States.

Voices on a Wire

Before the invention of the telephone, people holds, the telephone might be an intrusion could not talk to anyone they could not see. into an orderly home, but for the farmer's To communicate with a friend, a visit or a wife the telephone could be a godsend.64 letter were the appropriate choices, although Some subscribers regarded the tele- for the elderly, the ill, and the handicapped, phone as a status symbol not to be shared visiting was not always possible. As for let- by the lower classes, objecting to any wid- ters, it was estimated that the average person ening of access to the Bell system by such wrote only 17 letters a year. devices as coin-operated public telephones or telephone directories available to the Intruder and Rescuer general public. By expanding the limits of who may speak uninvited to whom, the To summon the fire department, someone telephone threatened the Victorian class had to gallop on a horse or run on foot. No structure. one called a doctor or a hospital or the Both rescuer and invader, the telephone police department. Business communica- has always performed a dual role. It both tion was by letter, messenger, or personal keeps others at bay and connects to them visit. Living alone posed a special danger, in its controlled way. particularly in a rural area. And mines, Alexander Graham Bell did not change uncertain places at the best of times, al- all this by himself. Like other communica- lowed no easy way to communicate with tion technologies, the telephone was not a the surface when something went wrong new idea of a single person. If a couple of below. Construction upward was also re- kids can tie a string between two tin cans stricted by a lack of communication. Sky- and roughly understand each other, adults scrapers waited for the telephone. can do it better. Lovers' telephones using In sum, life was narrower without the boxes or cans connected by a taut wire, telephone, slower and more limited, which could carry the sound of a voice 100 yards, was not always a bad state of affairs al- the length of a football field. though it could be lonesome, especially for To sell its service, the Bell System had to the large rural segment of the population. convince people that they needed a tele- For staid middle-class Victorian house- 84 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION phone for business. Doctors and business owners also acquired telephones at home. With the decision to expand into the general residential market, Bell advertised widely to create an image of the telephone's efficiency, emergency aid, and sociability. The modern slogan, "Reach out and touch someone," had its antecedents in "Call the folks now!," "Friendship's path often follows the trail of the telephone wire," and "No girl wants to be a wall- flower." The telephone would alter courtship patterns and lift hopes for romance. In Washington, the inventor of some equipment for the telegraph, Elisha Gray, went to the Patent Office to file a caveat for a telephone, a warning that he had an invention well under way and had the right to be notified if anyone else asked for a patent on the same device. Gray's caveat said he had invented "the art of transmitting vocal sounds or conversations telegraphically through an electric current." The date was February 14, 1876, St. Valen- tine's Day. By coincidence, that was the same day a patent application for an "improvement in Telegraphy" was filed by an Figure 3.13 Bell's first telephone was both a attorney for Bell, a 29-year-old Scottish- transmitter and a receiver. born professor of vocal physiology at Bos- human voice "telegraphically" by wire if he ton University who ran a school to train could vary an electrical current exactly as teachers of the deaf. Bell's application de- air pressure varies when words are spoken. scribed what was then Bell's yet unsuccess- 65 Bell, the teacher of speech, knew that the ful method of transmitting sounds. Both density of air varies with the movement of Gray, a 41-year-old inventor with many sound through it. His goal was to build a electrical patents, and Bell had been work- device that would make current vary. Bell, ing separately on a "harmonic telegraph," whose mother and his soon-to-be wife were using different tones or frequencies for deaf, modeled the telephone after the hu- sending several telegraph messages at the man ear. same time over the same wire. Bell won the On March 10, 1876, Bell said to his assis- lengthy court battles that followed, and that tant from an adjoining room, "Mr. Watson, have followed so many communication income here. I want you." And the telephone ventions. It became the Bell Telephone was born. Company, not the Gray Company. In 1876, Philadelphia held an exposition to commemorate the centennial of the "Mr. Watson, come here. I signing of the Declaration of Inde- want you." pendence. Bell exhibited his telephone there, but he was ignored until one visitor, For a telegraph message, the current flows Dom Pedro II, the emperor of Brazil, and is broken, again and again. To transmit walked by, and recognized Bell as a teacher a voice, a continuous current must be modi- of the deaf who had given a lecture in fied. Bell, assisted by young Thomas Wat- Boston that Dom Pedro attended. Bell dem- son, eventually was able to verify an old onstrated his device to an astonished Dom idea he had that he could transmit the Pedro, who reportedly exclaimed, "My MASS MEDIA 85

God, it talks!" His excitement made Bell's I fancy the descriptions we get of its use in "toy"—as some dismissed it—a sensation of America are a little exaggerated, though the exposition.66 there are conditions in America which ne- Several inventors and scientists came up cessitate the use of such instruments more than here. Here we have a superabundance with improvements, and so did Bell and his of messengers, errand boys, and things of assistant, Watson. The original box tele- that kind.68 phone with a megaphone used for both speaking and listening was replaced by a The Scottish physicist James Clerk Max- hand telephone with a separate transmitter well, whose theory of invisible waves even- and receiver, so the user did not have to tually led to the invention of radio, wag his head between speaking and listen- dismissed Bell's apparatus, remarking that ing. A bell-shaped mouthpiece concen- it could have been "put together by an trated the voice, and a metal disk replaced amateur."69 Bell offered to sell his invention the skin diaphragm. Copper wire replaced to Western Union and was turned down. iron wire, so the user no longer had to shout The telephone business in each city was quite so loudly. local when telegraph wires spanned the Traveling to England on his honey- continent, but it was obvious that voice moon, Bell took along some telephone ap- communication by wire could bypass paratus. A pair of telephones that he skilled telegraph operators. The much big- presented to Queen Victoria were strung ger telegraph company, with thousands of between the apartments of the Princess of miles of telegraph wire already strung Wales and her children's nursery. As in the along poles, soon emerged as a competitor, United States, Bell's demonstrations of a based on Elisha Gray's pending patent and device that carried human voices was en- a carbon granule microphone transmitter joyable, but embarrassing to grown men developed by Thomas Edison, which pro- who were invited to step up to speak into duced much better sound than anything it, because this was regarded as just a play- Bell devised. Lessees of Bell telephones, thing, not something for a grown man to be tired of shouting to be heard, clamored for a associated with, certainly not a means of transmitter as good as Edison's. Bell would communication. Yet, in London, Bell made probably have been driven out of business this prophecy: if Emile Berliner, who also improved phonograph equipment, had not developed a It is conceivable that cables of telephone sensitive transmitter.70 Eventually, the wires could be laid under ground or sus- newly formed National Bell Telephone pended overhead, communicating by branch Company sued Western Union and, in an wires with private dwellings, country houses, historic agreement, Western Union agreed shops, manufacturers, etc., uniting them through the main cable with a central office to get out of the telephone business. where the wires could be connected as By 1878, New Haven, Connecticut, be- desired, establishing direct communication came the first city to have a commercial between any two places in the city. Not only telephone exchange, with a switchboard of so, but I believe that in the future, wires will eight lines and 21 telephones. Within two unite the head offices of the Telephone years of the awarding of Bell's patent, some Company in different cities, and a man in 10,000 Bell telephones were in use. A re- one part of the country may communicate search and development unit was created, by word of mouth with another in a distant 67 the forerunner of the Bell Laboratories, place. from which would come many of the developments in communication technology, in- Sir William Preece, chief engineer of the cluding information theory, motion picture British Post Office, responded with less en- sound, transistors, laser beams, optical fi- thusiasm. He told a committee of the bers, the communications satellite, and ad- House of Commons: vances in computers and television. 86 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Can the Lower Classes company it could. As AT&T spread its Use It? shadow, its single standard fell across the land. That would not change until a An early telephone advertisement tried to government-mandated breakup and tech- explain how the telephone worked: nology introduced diversity. "Oh! no, the "telephone wires are not hollow; the voice is transmitted hy waves of electric- The Telephone As an ity. Telephones are rented only to persons of Early Radio good breeding and refinement. A house- In a foreshadowing of radio entertainment, holder becomes morally responsible for its proper use by all members of his family. the telephone found employment in sev- There is nothing to be feared from your con- eral European nations as a transmitter of versation being overheard. Our subscribers live musical performances. Wealthy pa- are too well bred to listen to other people's trons paid to listen to operatic, theatrical, business."71 and concert performances picked up by microphones in theaters and fed along tele- At first, there were no phone numbers or phone wires to earphones. In her sitting directories, only a list of subscribers, usu- room, Queen Victoria could hear the opera ally grouped by what they sold or their coming from Covent Garden or the Royal professions. When the list of subscribers Theater in Drury Lane. In London, wealthy grew unwieldy, books were issued with hospital patients could receive piped-in telephone numbers. Callers complained plays and sermons. A few homes also about having to look up a number rather bought the service. In Paris, the Theatro- than telling the telephone operator whom phone Company set up coin operated they wanted. headsets at holiday resorts. Similar enter- The notion of the telephone as a public tainments were soon available in several utility was still years in the distance when American cities. Opportunities were also a Washington, D.C., hotel proprietor had to offered to listen to telephonic church serv- go to court to prevent the local telephone ices and to political speeches. A Canadian company from shutting off his service be- tavern owner was permitted to put a micro- cause he allowed guests to use the phone phone next to the judge presiding over a in the lobby. In Leicester, England, tele- much publicized murder trial. A wire car- phone officials rebuked a subscriber for ried the testimony to the tavern where pa- calling the fire brigade, noting that the fire trons could listen in on one of twenty was not on his property. An appeal to the earphones at 25 cents an hour. postmaster-general brought the ruling that The most innovative use of the telephone it was acceptable to use a telephone in the as a vehicle for mass communication was event of fires and riots. the Telefon Hirmondo in Budapest, Hun- Less than 10 years after the telephone gary, designed by a Hungarian engineer was invented, the American Telephone who had worked for Thomas Edison. From and Telegraph Company was chartered for 1893 until radio broadcasting replaced it, the purpose of connecting every city and this service gave a daily schedule of pro- town in the United States, Canada, and grams to thousands of subscribers, who Mexico, and by cable with the rest of the tuned in by picking up an earphone. This world. Theodore Vail, a distant relative of wired radio could also be heard in such Alfred Vail, Morse's assistant in inventing public places as hotels, hospitals, restau- the telegraph, rose in office to lead AT&T rants, and dentists' waiting rooms. The daily from a small company to a communica- fare offered news reports of various kinds, tions giant. Vail brought standardization music, a calendar of events around Buda- to the telephone industry from accounting pest, a children's concert on Thursday eve- procedures to the shape of the black tele- nings, and even commercials tucked in phone in every home. He saw to it that here and there, a full generation before it AT&T bought up every small telephone was tried in radio broadcasting.72 Although MASS MEDIA 87 articles were published widely about Tele- fon Hirmondo, the concept failed to spread much beyond Budapest with the curious exception of a brief venture in Newark, New Jersey, which went out of business in a few months. What was significant about Telefon Hir- mondo was that, using the available technology of the wired telephone, it was able, however barely, to tap into a latent public desire for information and entertainment on a regular basis piped into their homes and public places. Meeting that dormant desire fully would have to wait until other technology permitted wireless telegraphy to become broadcasting.

Telephone Operators In the phone instrument, engineers designed an earpiece that would be the basis of early loudspeakers. They were solving many other problems arising from the growing popularity of point-to-point communication. Heavy demand on a central switchboard by calls handled manually was eased when companies using several tele- Figure 3.14 The early headsets worn by phones added a private switchboard called telephone operators could a Private Branch Exchange, or PBX. Many weigh more than six pounds. are still in use. Large modern companies have now switched to a local area network or LAN to link their telephone systems or that of domestic servants. A contemporary computers, but the principle has not observer recalled: changed. The first telephone operators, in a carry- Before the great switchboard the girls seem over from the telegraph system, were teen- like weavers at some gigantic loom, the nu- age boys. However, after complaints of merous cords crossing and recrossing as if rowdiness crackled over the lines, New in the execution of some wondrous fabric. Indeed, a wondrous fabric of speech is here England Bell and the New York Telephone woven into the record of each day.73 Company managers got the idea of employing young ladies. There was still some Young women by now were also taking jobs question about whether it was decent for a as store clerks, where they had to come into young woman to take employment outside contact with the general public. Nursing the home, because it jeopardized her had only recently become a respectable chance for marriage, but the chance to profession, thanks to stories about Florence escape the family each day and to earn Nightingale and Clara Barton. money of her own to spend as she pleased The central switchboard solved the im- was a much greater lure, even though the mediate early problem of having to connect pay packet was light and the early headsets every telephone with every other tele- weighed more than six pounds. A wake-up phone, but the central switchboard re- service for customers requesting it was quired telephone operators, who were not among the duties of these hello girls, whose always attentive and might listen in. Kan- indeterminate social status approximated sas City undertaker Almon Strowger, who 88 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION convinced himself that another undertaker Into the Twentieth Century had bribed a telephone operator to tell call- Before the turn of the century, few long ers that Strowger's line was busy, invented distance calls were made. Distortion over what became the dial telephone and the long distance was alleviated by M.I. Pupin's automatic telephone exchange. They were invention in 1900 of the loading coil, Lee first put into operation in LaPorte, Indiana, de Forest's invention in 1906 of the three- in 1892. element vacuum tube, and H.D. Arnold's By the time the original Bell patents vacuum tube amplifier in 1914. The vac- expired in 1893, more than a quarter mil- uum tube was replaced in 1947 by the tran- lion telephones were hooked up in the sistor, an invention out of the Bell United States, a little less than four phones Telephone Laboratories. A few decades per 1,000 persons. By 1900, despite the later, transistors became part of micro- population increase, there were nearly 18 chips. telephones per 1,000 Americans. In many The wireless telephone, after successful towns, the first telephone was a public tests in 1915, began service as an aid to the phone in the railroad depot or drug store. U.S. Navy during World War I. American In some of the better establishments, a entry into World War I created a sudden clerk would place the call, collect the and massive need to improve communica- money, and direct the caller to a booth. In tion. Washington, D.C., was no longer a such elegant places as modern hotels, sleepy backwater city. For a short time in booths might have silk-curtained windows 1918, the U.S. government took control of and be mistaken for the equally elegant all telephone service. Expansion of tele- elevator, another recent invention. In phone service continued unabated. Data many countries today, governments oper- Phone business, by which regular phone ate such systems minus the silk curtains. circuits can transmit computer data at high William Gray constructed the first coin speed, began in 1958. deposit telephone in 1888. It went into a Despite doubts that people would pay Hartford, Connecticut, bank. Early auto- $75 for a three-minute phone call, regular matic pay phone booths had different radiotelephony service between the two methods for allowing their use. There were great financial centers, New York and Lon- few ways to get a coin back if the call was don, started in 1927 during the financial not completed. There was even a booth that boom years. The service was so popular locked the caller inside until a coin was that more circuits were needed.74 Radiote- deposited to unlock the door, but that con- lephony was quickly extended to the other cept was short-lived. major cities of Europe, and between Europe and Buenos Aires. At the same time, cables snaked across mountain ranges and ocean floors. The first transatlantic telephone cable was laid in 1956. The Pacific Link fiber optic cable went into service between California and Japan in 1989. The size of a garden hose, it could carry 40,000 phone calls at a time compared to less than 1,000 for the two copper cables then in service. Today, communication satellites also carry thousands of calls. The clarity of overseas calls has improved so markedly that users frequently say the Figure 3.15 Typical in the 1880s, as many other party "sounds next door." There is no as 250 wires on a telephone way to tell if the call is bouncing off a pole, bowed by ice in the satellite transponder or traveling across the winter. floor of an ocean. MASS MEDIA 89

The telephone company set up a tele- In addition to sending voices along a wire, typewriter exchange service, or TWX for telephone lines sent printed words and pic- short, sometimes known as telex or twix. tures. Printing via wire was originally Subscribers, who have teletype machines in known as the printing telegraph, then as the their offices, were listed in a separate direc- teletypewriter, then as the teletype as im- tory. Although telex is being replaced by provements were made. Its primary use newer technologies like facsimile and elec- has been the sending of news by wire serv- tronic mail, telex networks still exist ices like the Associated Press and Reuter. around the world. In some countries, they The technology is similar to that of a tele- remain the surest way to get a message graph, except that instead of dots and through, which is the point, after all. One dashes, electrical impulses represent let- way or another, the world had come to rely ters, numbers, and symbols. on Mr. Bell's "toy."

Signals in the Air

Imagine typical users of radio over the span telegraphy andbecame wireless telephony. of nearly a century. In 1905, the Marconi Each period led into the next. Each had its operator at a shore station picks up dots and own technology, purpose, economic under- dashes from a ship out at sea. A decade later pinning, sound. Wireless telegraphy, like the hobbyist strains to hear, over a hand- the telegraph, was all dots and dashes, with built "crystal-and-catswhisker" set, the call messages going from one point to another. letters of a distant station. Two decades Wireless telephony, like the telephone, was later the family gathers in the evening voices, with messages from one point to around the console in the parlor in the another. Their primary usage was and is midst of the Depression, staring at the or- business communication, such as ship-to- ange glow of the dial as they listen to Jack shore. Broadcasting, whose purpose is in- Benny go down to his vault. (It never did formation and entertainment, carries seem as funny on television.) More years voices, music, and all other sounds, going pass, and the same family is standing close from one point to many points. to the shortwave radio in the kitchen, trying to understand a crackling voice talking of war. A generation later, a motorist catches Some of Radio's Societal news on the hour while racing down the Effects new Interstate. Today, a jogger withdraws In every country, broadcasting has exerted from the world around her by tuning into a push-pull on its citizens, both a centripe- country music on a Walkman. tal and a centrifugal force. The centripetal These represent different ways of re- force, uniting the nation, results from a ceiving a radio signal. Each formed part of conscious effort to exert government lead- the social revolution that radio created. ership, spread national culture, and share The effects of radio are quite independent information. The use of a common lan- of its programming. To those who have never guage and a national accent in place of studied media, this fact is quite as baffling as regional dialects also tends to hold a people literacy is to natives, who say, "Why do you together. On the other hand, radio pulls write? Can't you remember?"75 people apart not only by offering a variety of stations but by doing what every medium The history of radio went through two dis- does that displaces direct with mediated tinct periods of social use, point-to-point communication. The announcer's conver- communication and broadcasting. Point-to- sational tone regards the audience as one point communication began as wireless person and speaks to each person alone in 90 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION his or her private world. The announcer In France, Edouard Branly designed a sometimes creates an aura of intimate con- coherer, a glass tube filled with iron filings. versation, ignoring the truth that it is one-way An electric current sent through the air mediated communication, not conversation caused the filings to pack together, or co- at all. Listeners don't seem to care. here, around metal rods at the ends of the As a source of information, radio has tube. This completed a circuit so that elec- been universally powerful, although in tricity passed through the glass tube. Eng- many nations today radio remains strictly lish physicist Oliver Lodge improved the under government control. Unlike the coherer by figuring out how to tune the United States, where the government is transmitter and receiver to the same fre- forbidden by law to broadcast to its own quency. In 1894, Lodge went further with citizens (stations voluntarily broadcast a demonstration that sent a Morse code presidential addresses), many govern- message through the air more than half the ments use broadcasts precisely for the pur- length of a football field, but the coherer pose of communicating with their own was still a crude device incapable of recog- citizenry. However, the United States, nizing anything but short and long bursts along with a number of other nations, of energy.78 beams radio propaganda beyond its borders. The Voice of America broadcasts in Marconi dozens of languages. Radio Liberty, Radio Free Europe, and Radio Marti targeted, re- Maxwell, Hertz, Branly, and Lodge were spectively, the former Soviet Union, its scientists, not businessmen, but experi- East European satellites, and Cuba. ments began in several countries to make something practical out of the published experiments. Guglielmo Marconi, son of a Origins of Radio well-to-do Italian landowner and his Irish In the early part of the nineteenth century, wife, a member of the Jameson Whiskey the period of great discoveries about the family, would prove to be a very sharp nature of electricity, English scientist Mi- businessman as he followed Hertz's trail. chael Faraday and American scientist The teenaged Marconi was entranced with Joseph Henry published reports of their the idea that radio experiments might be inquiries into the connection between elec- taken out of the lab and into a money-making tricity and magnetism. Telegraph engi- business. By good luck, Auguste Righi, a neers, as they labored to solve problems, well-known physics professor, was a neigh- added information. A Scottish physicist, bor to the Marconis, and agreed to offer James Clerk Maxwell, went beyond what guidance to the boy.77 was known about electromagnetism with a Studying and experimenting on the fam- far reaching theory of invisible waves. Al- ily estate, Marconi began by repeating though he did not try to prove his theory of Hertz's transmission of a few yards. In electromagnetic fields, others did. In 1887, 1894, the same year that Lodge gave his a German physicist, Heinrich Hertz, sup- demonstration, Marconi was able to open ported Maxwell's theory through experi- and close a relay to send a current through ments that sent electrical current through a coherer to sound a buzzer 30 feet away. the air in the form of waves. Even before Moving outdoors, he figured that he could Hertz reported his findings, Thomas increase the range by elevating the signal. Edison had briefly experimented with After constructing an antenna, Marconi "leakage" that spread out in all directions was able to receive the buzzer's sound from telegraph wires and magnetized iron more than two miles away on the other side located some distance away. He tried to of a hill. According to the tale, one day by harness these electrical "leaks" as a means accident he left part of his antenna on the of wireless communication from a moving ground while he held part in the air. To train, but failed to produce more than a Marconi's surprise, the signal was greatly random jumble of signals. improved. Marconi continued to design MASS MEDIA 91 new antennae by trial and error. He was Telegraph Company of America. It would soon able to send Morse Code dots and eventually become the Radio Corporation dashes for miles across the hills around his of America. One year later, without ques- home. tion, Marconi was able to transmit mes- It was an era when instantaneous com- sages across the ocean. munications were limited by where telegraph and telephone wires ran, when ships Competition at sea had no way to receive information from the outside world and no way to signal The company tried to monopolize wireless for help if they were in distress. Marconi's telegraphy by ordering its coastal stations mother realized the business possibilities and ship operators to refuse communica- in being able to send telegraph messages tion with any non-Marconi operators ex- without wires, especially ship-to-ship and cept in emergencies, a business maneuver ship-to-shore. She applied to the Italian that raised international awareness of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, which power inherent in wireless communica- turned the invention down. They saw no tions and the dangers presented by a wire- value in it. less monopoly. Germany, equipping its Annie Jameson Marconi now turned to navy with its own system, became so in- her wealthy and politically well-connected censed over the Marconi company's sharp relatives. She and her son traveled with his practices that it summoned the Great Pow- equipment to England, where Marconi ers to a conference in Berlin in 1903, out of gave a demonstration across nine miles for which came the world's first international telephone and telegraph officials of the agreement on radio. Still, it was not until British Post Office. This time, demonstrat- 1908 that international coastal stations ing wireless to the nation with the world's were opened to all transmissions. greatest navy, he found interest for a new Other inventors and scientists, seeing communication system with ships at sea. the potential for making a fortune, busily The British official who had sneered at developed their own systems and applied Alexander Graham Bell's telephone, Wil- for patents whenever they designed an im- liam Preece, now chief engineer of the proved piece of equipment. In addition to British Post Office, tried to buy out Mar- the Germans, inventions were coming coni's invention on behalf of his govern- from, among others, Oliver Lodge in Eng- ment, but the young inventor, backed by land, and Reginald Fessenden, Lee de For- his Jameson relatives and some solid pat- est, John Stone, and E. Howard Armstrong ents, refused. Instead, in 1897 they incor- in the United States. Over the years, they porated the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Co., Ltd. and started selling radio equipment to the British army and navy. For commercial shippers, the company provided not only equipment but radio operators aboard ships and at shore stations. Marconi had taken wireless communication out of the laboratory into the world of commerce. In 1901, Marconi and his assistants reported that they had transmitted the three dots of the Morse Code letter "S" faintly across the Atlantic Ocean from Cornwall, England to Newfoundland in Canada. Not Figure 3.16 A spark transmitter, 1912. everyone believed him, but the press ate it Radios using Morse Code 78 signaled between ships and up. Shortly thereafter, he formed an shore stations. (Courtesy Pavek American subsidiary, the Marconi Wireless Museum.) 92 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION battled each other in the marketplace and enough to rescue everyone, had shut down in the courts, exhausting their time, and gone to bed. The disaster led Congress money, and energy. to modify the 1910 law to require tighter In 1904, radio went into battle. In the controls aboard ships. A few weeks later it Russo-Japanese war, both sides used wire- passed the Radio Act of 1912, giving priority less equipment, but not of equal quality to distress signals and requiring that a radio and apparently not with equal compe- station be licensed before it could transmit. tence. Wireless telegraphy may have However, the Commerce Department helped the Japanese navy to sink most of could not refuse to issue a license if the the imperial Russian fleet. The Japanese applicant passed a competency exam. This navy was equipped with wireless. The Rus- early attempt to bring some order to wire- sian fleet apparently had shut down its less led to chaos a dozen years later, for no radio transmission before the battle. Rus- one dreamed of the explosive growth that sia's "great white fleet," having sailed half- commercial broadcasting would bring to way around the world, was approaching its radio. The battle would go on until Con- destination when the Japanese fleet, gress passed the Radio Act of 1927. alerted by radio, sprang a trap.79 At the The Radio Act of 1912 did not limit the battle of Tsushima Strait, the Japanese number of amateur broadcasters. In 1913, sunk nearly the entire Russian fleet, suffer- there were 322 licenses for amateur sta- ing almost no casualties itself, perhaps the tions. In 1917, there were 13,581 plus thou- most one-sided naval victory in history. sands of amateurs who broadcast without a Effectively, the war was over. license. Far more amateurs broadcast than The navies of the world's major powers commercial operators. They used spark were equipping their fleets and shore facili- transmitters to send Morse Code. ties with wireless telegraphy. In the United Meanwhile, other nations put radio States, radio's military possibilities ex- firmly under government control, along panded in 1911 with the first air-to-ground with telegraph and telephone services. transmission. During World War I, air- Only the United States among major na- planes equipped with radio were used as tions would permit the development of all artillery spotters, signaling in Morse Code. three means of communication as private The Navy had been interested in wireless enterprises subject only to a minimum of communication from the beginning for ob- government regulation. vious reasons, but some U.S. Navy ship commanders were not keen to embrace Voice radio technology because it weakened the absolute control that a ship's captain com- If the main commercial use of radio around mands at sea. the time of World War I was to assist shipping, the business of radio was largely the business of manufacturing wireless equip- The Titanic ment for ships, shore stations, and military After radio operators on two stricken mer- communication, and leasing communica- chant ships managed to save the lives of tion services to the shipping industry and their shipmates, Congress in 1910 passed a the government. law requiring most passenger ships to carry During this period, a number of scien- radio equipment, but the law did not re- tists set about the task of breaking the voice quire operators to be on duty around the free of the telephone cables that held it. clock. Two years later, the "unsinkable" John Ambrose Fleming was curious about ocean liner Titanic on its maiden voyage hit the so-called "Edison effect" that Thomas an iceberg and went down with 1,522 pas- Edison had discovered in his efforts to im- sengers and crew. (Marconi himself was prove telegraph transmission. Twenty booked for the voyage, but other plans years after Edison reported it, Fleming de- forced him to cancel.)80 The radio operator cided to pick up the trail, designing a two- on a ship only nineteen miles away, close element vacuum tube or diode, a wire MASS MEDIA 93 filament and a metal plate housed in a little telegraph messages, but still it must have glass bulb. When the filament was heated, startled them to hear a voice at Christmas an electric current, alternating between a reciting a biblical passage. Fessenden also positive and negative charge, flowed into sang, played the violin, and broadcast pho- the filament, but only a stream of negative nograph music. electrons flowed from the filament to the This was broadcasting, a word that de- plate. This was the first electronic device. scribed what a farmer did when he threw The alternating current of a radio wave handfuls of seed across the ground. Soon turned into direct current that a receiving the word wireless was replaced by radio, unit could detect. The Fleming valve al- based on the idea that rays of electromag- lowed speech carried on radio waves to be netic waves were being spread out from a heard, or detected, in earphones. transmitter. In 1908, De Forest went to the American inventor Lee De Forest added top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, where he a third element between the filament and broadcast opera music that was faintly the plate, a piece of wire bent into a zigzag heard 550 miles away. From a transmitter grid to catch as many electrons as possible in Virginia, AT&T sent a wireless tele- as they flowed from the filament to the phone signal in 1915 that was simultane- plate. His audion tube not only detected ously picked up in both Paris and Pearl radio waves, but regulated the flow of elec- Harbor. trons and amplified them. The volume of De Forest decided to use wireless tele- sound could now be controlled. Another phony to deliver music and speech into American inventor, E. Howard Armstrong, people's homes. He told a New York Times figured out a way for the audion tube to reporter, "I look forward to the day when function as an oscillator to transmit radio opera may be brought into every home. waves as well as receive them. Someday the news and even advertising As patent applications flew with every will be sent out over the wireless tele- discovery, the race was on to be the first to phone."81 In 1915, long before commercial send speech through the air. Reginald Fes- broadcasting began, De Forest broadcast senden, a native Canadian who had once music and an occasional news or sports worked in Thomas Edison's laboratory, was report, and he manufactured equipment to convinced that Marconi's intermittent tune to these broadcasts. He used his broad- transmission could be replaced by a con- casts to advertise his equipment. tinuous wave transmitter and receiver bringing speech and music through the air. Fessenden won the race with a high fre- Hobbyists Tune In quency alternator that he designed in col- Sending signals was one problem, listening laboration with a Swedish immigrant, was another. At first, the only way to detect E.F.W. Alexanderson, a General Electric incoming radio signals was the coherer, a engineer. The huge alternator, looking like laboratory device of no use to people who a power plant generator, threw signals wanted to hear sounds. The vacuum tube across continents and oceans much better was an improvement, but it was not for the than Marconi's spark transmitters. average person's purse. One vacuum tube From his laboratory at Brant Rock, Mas- easily cost a week's wages. sachusetts, Fessenden was the first to pub- After German scientist Ferdinand Braun licly send a human voice over a radio discovered that certain crystals transmit- frequency. It was on Christmas Eve in ted electricity in one direction only, inven- 1906. Except for some reporters and a few tors fashioned a new type of radio receiver, amateurs, his audience could not have con- sometimes known as a crystal-and-cat- sisted of more than a few amazed Marconi whisker detector. A crystal of quartz or ga- operators on duty at their posts on ships lena, by admitting electricity in only one and at shore stations. Fessenden had in- direction, could detect radio waves in the formed them a few days earlier by radio- air if the crystal was touched with a fine 94 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION wire at a certain spot. Hobbyists captured 1912 by Armstrong while he was a Colum- the incoming signal with a tuning coil made bia University graduate student. He rede- from copper wire wrapped around a cylin- signed the audion tube so it took the drical Quaker Oats box, then fed into ear- current of electrons that flowed from the phones. Thousands of catwhisker receivers plate and sent it back around into the zigzag were built by radio amateurs who found grid. Round and round went the signal them easy to make and cheap. thousands of times a second, gathering A disadvantage was that the weak crystal strength each time. The feedback circuit detectors could not amplify radio signals. brought distant signals booming into the Hobbyists pressed their earphones tightly earphones. The spark transmitter that Mar- to their heads, straining to catch distant coni used and the alternator designed by radio stations. Their pleasure did not come Fessenden and Alexanderson were in- from radio programs, for programs scarcely stantly fit for a museum. When radio sets existed until the 1920s, but from picking with vacuum tubes went on sale, as radio up the call letters from a distant city. Hob- listening changed from a hobby to a means byists formed clubs that met by wireless. of entertainment, the crystal set was just as Most members were teenage boys and outdated. young men. U.S. Navy and commercial What of radio existed around the end of operators trying to transmit on the same World War I? wavelength complained that they could not get messages through because chil- 1. Ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore radiotele dren hogged the ether and would not graph and radiotelephone communica make way. Their pleas to the government tion, which was both a business- and to ban amateurs were stoutly resisted by the military matter. hobbyists. 2. Manufacturing equipment for this com The first radio stations were rooms full munication. of electric devices connected by wires run- 3. Spark transmitters for amateur stations. ning helter-skelter. They could transmit 4. Simple receivers, often homemade, for voice and music, but the sound fidelity left hobbyists to tune into distant signals. plenty to be desired. Boosting the signal 5. Tinkering by a few inventors and engi awaited the development of amplifiers, neers. which were based on still other inventions, especially the feedback circuit invented in The early radio receivers were not friendly. They were large, clunky, temperamental metal boxes with lots of knobs, tubes, wires, and a large messy, smelly battery filled with acid, not unlike the storage battery in an automobile. The place for a radio set was in the basement or in the garage, for it was not fit to bring into the parlor and placed on a rug or a table. Until the dangerous batteries were replaced by radio sets that could be plugged into 110-volt AC current available in the wall in the late 1920s, the radio belonged in the garage. Receivers were expensive and tricky to operate, with as many as four separate tuning stages that Figure 3.17 A crystal-and-catwhisker radio, had to be matched to bring a faint signal 1922. A tiny wire was touched into earphones, and even then they would to the "sweet spot" on a galena not hold an incoming signal for long be- crystal to bring in a station. cause the signal wandered from one fre- (Courtesy Pavek Museum.) quency to another. MASS MEDIA 95

With earphones, only one person could listen at a time. The first loudspeakers were little more than earphones fixed at the small end of a horn. There were no pro- When the United States entered World War grams to listen to. I in 1917, the Navy took over the wireless Radio was not part of the daily life of the industry along with the telegraph, tele- average person. It may be that most people phone, and ocean cable systems. Because had never heard of it. Who could imagine the Navy sometimes wanted to send mes- that a vast market existed for radio? Radio sages to several ships at once without the receivers, a junky looking conglomeration risk of a reply, which might give away a of wires and metal, were not for ordinary ship's position, someone came up with the people in their homes, even though by then word broadcast to describe a message that the phonograph had been tamed to look went to several receivers without requiring like furniture and the piano had been a a response. It was a quiet start to perhaps piece of furniture for centuries. It took the most significant factor of twentieth cen- vision to see past what the radio was, and tury media, the explosive growth of one- to imagine what it might become. way communication.

Movies Are Born Steven Spielberg called them "the most Movies As a Communication powerful weapon in the world." All over the Medium world, the movies have left a lot of people A few matters about motion picture history with the sense that others enjoy better lives stand out: than they do, and that awareness has created in the minds of many a sure and some- • As with most tools of communication, no times terrible resolve to improve their own one person invented the motion picture. lives, no matter what it takes to do so. Motion picture technology evolved in a Motion pictures, the photography of series of small steps. Thomas Edison is movement, are the most important cul- often credited as its inventor, but he had tural phenomenon of this century, an in- less to do with its invention than some vention arguably exceeding the atom bomb others. in their political impact and certainly in • No indication has been found that any their cultural impact. If the world were one involved in its early growth had any deprived of the motion picture, life for concept of how important it would be most of us would be less knowledgeable come—a means of story telling that and less pleasant. would entertain, enthrall, and influence billions of people around the world. The American press is read only where En- • The public played an important part in glish is read; the American radio is heard what the movies became, for the movies only where English is comprehended; but are both an art and an industry. By ticket the American movie is an international car- purchases, the public influenced the rier which triumphs over differences in age course of their growth. or language, nationality or custom. Even the • Like all media, motion pictures have sub Sumatran native who cannot spell is able to stituted for direct contact with other peo grasp the meaning of pictures which move, ple. The time that is spent watching a and he can love, hate, or identify himself with 82 film is time away from other pursuits, those who appear in them... including direct activities with family and friends. • Films are information, a component of our information age. 96 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

• As the years have gone by, more and other two roots are projection, which had its more people are making movies at every origin in the magic lantern, and stills in level. Production and distribution are de motion, which began as toys that depended centralized as never before. The motion on what is called persistence of vision. Here, picture today not only contributes to the because it takes the eye and the brain a world trend toward democracy by its con fraction of a second to lose an image, a series tent, but by the fact that the making of of still pictures presented in quick succession movies exists in many hands. will appear as a single moving image. • Motion pictures have been a force for Railroad baron Leland Stanford, ex- knocking down barriers among races, re governor of California and founder of Stan- ligions, and nationalities. They help to ford University, wanted to settle a bet with turn our focus from local and parochial a friend on whether a trotting horse lifted matters to broader perspectives. all four hooves off the ground at the same • Motion pictures cannot be considered in time. He hired professional photographer isolation. Their impact on society has Eadweard Muybridge, who, after several been far too great. trials, set a row of twenty-four cameras along a racetrack. Strings that would trip No cultural force of such power can settle the camera shutters stretched across the in without opposition. Almost from the on- track. The result in 1878 was a series of set, motion picture makers had their ene- stills that, flipped in rapid succession, dis- mies. Middle class reformers, who attacked played the horse in motion. (Stanford won working class drinking, went after the nick- his bet; all four feet were off the ground.) elodeon. Representatives of the clergy 83 Muybridge continued his experiments managed to close some movie theaters. A by photographing the movements of a va- variety of city, state, and national censor- riety of animals. Exhibiting his work in ship boards took root. Today's rating system Paris in 1881 he met a physician, Etienne is Hollywood's self-censorship in a constant Jules Marey, who was doing research in hope of keeping outside censors away. such animal locomotion as the flapping of a bird's wings. That meeting led Marey to How Movies Began take an important step forward in the inven- Motion picture technology has three roots tion of motion pictures. Instead of using a that go back for centuries. The chemistry of lot of cameras, as Muybridge had done, film has its roots in still photography. The Marey built a single camera that could rap-

Figure 3.18 Photographer Eadweard Muybridge discovered that putting the successive photos in a pack and riffling them produced the effect of constant motion. (Courtesy International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House.) MASS MEDIA 97 idly shoot a series of pictures on a single there was magic! The viewer stared into a plate and did not require strings, which box to see the frames of film flicker by. would have interfered with the fluttering wings. Motion Picture Projection Yet, it was still not motion picture projec- Edison Orders an Invention tion. That would come soon enough, but not Soon inventors in several countries were at first in the United States. The inventive solving the mechanical difficulties stand- Dickson also built the Mutoscope peephole ing in the way of motion pictures. Among machine, with a series of cards that were them were William Friese-Greene in En- flipped by a handle, an advantage to boys gland and the brothers Louis and Auguste who could slow the action to a standstill Lumiere in France. In the United States, when Little Egypt performed her hootchy- Thomas Edison assigned assistant W.K.L. kootch dance. Dickson made the Dickson to build a motion picture system, Mutoscope different enough from his early based on the French photographic revolver, Kinetoscope to get around Edison's patent. built by Marey. Mutoscopes can occasionally still be found Edison originally thought of motion pic- in old-fashioned penny arcades. tures as just something to accompany the In France, the Lumiere brothers, Louis sound in his phonograph parlors. Working and Auguste, owners of a photographic in Edison's laboratory in New Jersey, with products manufacturing business, saw a strips of celluloid film manufactured by Kinetoscope on display in Paris and set George Eastman for his Kodak still camera, about to improve it. This they did with their Dickson in the years 1891 and 1892 in- Cinematographe, a combined camera, film vented the Kinetograph camera and the printer, and projector. Substituting a hand motor-driven Kinetoscope, which ran 50 crank for Edison's electric motor, the Lu- feet of film in about 30 seconds. Sprockets mieres reduced the machine's weight so guided the film's perforated edges past the they could carry it to any location where lens with a controlled, intermittent move- they wanted to film. Edison's bulky Kine- ment like the ticking second hand of a tograph required performers to appear in watch. Here was the peep show, one the studio. Where Edison's films gave the viewer at a time. view of a stage, the Lumiere films were like Dickson erected a studio building that a view through a window. In addition, the could be turned to take advantage of light Lumieres were able to project their films from the sun coming through a roof open- onto a screen for an audience, whereas ing. He began making movies, mostly Edison's Kinetoscope accommodated only trained animal acts, circus entertainers, one viewer at a time. and the like, each giving a brief perfor- Their first film, of workers leaving their mance in the studio. Workers referred to factory, shot in March 1895 was shown at a the studio building as the "Black Maria," special exhibit. On December 28, 1895, the because with its tar-paper covering it Lumieres projected the first motion pic- vaguely bore the shape of a police paddy tures before & paying audience in the base- wagon with that nickname. ment of a Paris cafe. For one franc apiece, In a short time, Kinetoscopes were being the audience saw a twenty-minute program shipped around the country as fast as they consisting of ten films, accompanied by a reached the end of Edison's assembly line. piano and some commentary by the Lu- They went into Kinetoscope parlors mod- miere's father. The only other sound was eled after Edison's successful phonograph the astonished gasps of the audience.84 In parlors, with the difference that admission no time at all, long lines formed outside the was not free. Customers paid 25 cents upon cafe to see the show. The movies were born! entering, which gave them tickets allowing One excited Parisian newspaper ex- them to peep into five machines. Start the ulted, "With this new invention, death will electric motor, gaze into the peep hole, and no longer be absolute, final. The people we 98 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION have seen on the screen will be with us, verted stores, restaurants, and dance-halls moving and alive after their deaths."85 Two to look like vaudeville houses, or they cor- months later, projected films were shown doned off a section of a parlor or penny in London. Two months after that, they arcade and placed wooden chairs in front appeared in New York. of a screen, which might be no more than a white wall or a bed sheet. At county fairs Projected Movies Come a tent would do. The Warner brothers borrowed chairs from a funeral parlor nearby. to America When the chairs were needed for a funeral, Their audiences were drawn not primarily movie patrons stood. from the wealthy or the middle class, but Projectors broke down to the accompa- mostly from the multitudes of the poor. niment of hoots and whistles from the tick- Music halls, which normally presented eted audience, but a bigger problem was vaudeville, were frequented mostly by the the poor quality of films. Audiences soon middle classes, but not all members of the tired of scratchy prints of dancers and ama- middle class went to theatrical amusement teur boxers. of any kind. A strong sense of what is referred to as middle class morality, based The Earliest Films on religious beliefs and on scruples set during the age of Queen Victoria kept many The history of motion pictures began with Americans out of all theaters. real life. The first known slide into fiction Poor people could not afford the price of arrived before the turn of the century, a admission to vaudeville shows, which were pretense by a Frenchman, Francis a succession of actors, singers, dancers, Doublier. He combined a series of actuality jugglers, and trained dogs. For entertain- shots—soldiers, a battleship, France's Pal- ment in the evening, the poor, except for a ace of Justice, and a tall, gray-haired special occasion, could afford not much man—and called it a film of the Dreyfus more than to go for walks. case, the famous political and military scandal that rocked France. And for $1.98 By the turn of the century, moving pictures worth of materials two Vitagraph photogra- had survived their infancy and outgrown phers at the height of the Spanish American their "novelty" stage. They were no longer a War created a cardboard version of the bat- plaything or a cheap novelty to be seen once tle of Santiago Bay. Using threads, they and abandoned... Moving pictures had not pulled ships through water one inch deep yet assembled their own audience, but they past the camera as pinches of gunpowder were beginning to draw on every other kind went off and a volunteer blew in cigarette of entertainment audience, accelerating the smoke from just out of camera range. promiscuous mixing of disparate social groupings that would come to characterize commercial amusements in the early twentieth century.86 The very first Lumiere and Edison films were actualities, scenes from real life: peo- Vaudeville hall, Kinetoscope, and pho- ple in a park, workers leaving a factory, a nograph parlor owners foresaw that cus- man playing a fiddle, a baby being fed, a tomers who so eagerly parted with their parade. In time, audiences tired of this. hard earned coins to look at moving pic- Motion pictures might have ended as just tures in a box might even more willingly another novelty. What made the difference spend those coins if the pictures were pro- was fiction. The documentary would come jected against a large screen. Lecturers who to be respected more than it would be illustrated their talks with slides realized watched. Producer Samuel Goldwyn is sup- that moving pictures could be a big attrac- posed to have said, "If you've got a message, tion. One way or another these entrepre- send it by Western Union." It is little won- neurs acquired projectors, buying them or der that Hollywood came to be known as assembling copies. In the cities, they con- the dream factory. MASS MEDIA 99

Notes 'grand narratives'. This view of the effect of the mass media seems to be the very con- 1 Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave (New York: trary of that taken by the philosopher William Morrow, 1980), 135. Theodor Adorno." Adorno and Max Hork- 2 R.M. Hartwell, "The Consequences of the heimer "predicted that radio (and later TV) Industrial Revolution in England for the would produce a general homogenization of Poor," in The Long Debate on Poverty (Publish society...Instead, what actually happened, in ed by The Institute of Economic Affairs. spite of the efforts of the monopolies and Printed: Old Woking, Surrey by Unwin Bros. major centers of capital, was that radio, tele- Ltd., 1972), 10 vision and newspapers became elements in a 3 Rhodes Boyson, "Industrialisation and the general explosion and proliferation of Life of the Lancashire Factory Worker," in Weltanschauungen, of world views." The Long Debate on Poverty, op. cit., 80. 19 Kenneth A. Lockridge, "Literacy in Early 4 Peter N. Stearns, The Industrial Revolution in America 1650-1800," in Literacy and Social World History (Boulder: Westview Press, Development in the West: A Reader, ed. 1993), 143. Harvey J. Graff (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni 5 Stearns, 59. versity Press, 1981), 183. 6 Stearns, 42. 20 Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution in Early 7 Letter dated 26 December 1795. In Mary-Lou Modern Europe, 259. Jennings and Charles Madge, eds., 21 For a full discussion of the role that printing Pandcemonium: 1660-1886. (New York: The played in the French Revolution, see Robert Free Press, 1985), 164. Darnton and Daniel Roche, eds., Revolution 8 Susan C. Karant-Nunn, "From Adventurers in Print: The Press in France 1775-1800 to Drones: The Saxon Silver Miners as an (Berkeley: University of California Press, Early Proletariat," in Thomas Safley and 1989). Leonard Rosenband, eds., The Workplace be 22 Peckham, Beyond the Tragic Vision (New fore the Factory: Artisans and Proletarians, York: George Braziller, 1962), 25-7. 1500-1800 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 23 Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin, The 1993), 85. Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing, 9 Stearns, 3. 1450-1800, trans. David Gerard (London: 10 Boyson, 79. Verso Editions, 1984), 39-40. 11 Leslie Clarkson, Death, Disease and Famine 24 Smith, "Technology and Control: the interac in Pre-industrial England (Dublin: Gill and tive dimensions of journalism," in Mass Com Macmillan, 1975), 1. munication and Society. James Curran, et. al., 12 Clarkson, 14. eds. (London: Edward Arnold, Ltd., 1977), 13 Clarkson, 174. 176. 14 Letter published in 1796. In Jennings, 107. 25 Febvre and Martin, 210-11. 15 Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Work 26 Alvin W. Gouldner, The Dialectic of Ideology ing Class in England, trans, and edited by and Technology (Oxford University Press, W.O. Henderson and W.H. Chaloner (Ox 1976), 92. ford: Oxford University Press, 1958), 24. 27 Michael Schudson, Discovering the News 16 Christopher Clark, "Social Structure and (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1978), 19. Manufacturing before the Factory: Rural 28 Theodore Glasser, "The Role of the Press New England 1750-1830," in Safley and and the Value of Journalism," Focus, Univer Rosenband, 17, 20. sity of Minnesota (Fall 1988), 8. 17 Alexis de Tocqueville, Journeys to England 29 John Milton, Aereopagitica and Wales, in Will and Ariel Durant, The Age 30 Schudson, 46. of Napoleon (New York: Simon & Schuster, 31 Anthony Smith, "Media Globalism in the Age 1939), 344. of Consumer Sovereignty," World Media, 18 For a discussion of this point, see Gianni Gannett Center Journal, 4:4 (Fall, 1990), 6-7. Vattimo, The Transparent Society, trans. 32 Margery W. Davies, "Women Clerical Work David Webb. (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins ers and the Typewriter: the Writing Ma University Press, 1992) 4 ff. He writes, "...the chine," in Cheris Kramarae, Technology and mass media play a decisive role in the birth Women's Voices: Keeping in Touch (New York: of a postmodern society...These Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1988), 29. means—newspapers, radio, television, what 33 Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: is now called telematics—have been decisive The Extensions of Man (New York: McGraw- in bringing about the dissolution of central- Hill Book Co., 1964), 259. ized perspectives, of what the French philosopher Jean-Francis Lyotard calls the 100 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

34 Daniel J. Boorstin, The Americans: The Demo 60 In the United States, it is known as Reuters, cratic Experience (New York: Random House, not Reuter, due to the erroneous title of a 1973) 145. popular Hollywood movie, The Man From 35 James R. Beniger, The Control Revolution Reuters. Life sometimes imitates art. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University 61 Oslin, 161. Press, 1986) 18. 62 David T.Z, Mindich, Edwin M. Stanton, the 36 McLuhan, 230. Inverted Pyramid, and Information Control. 37 Beniger, 269, 274. . University of South Carolina Journalism 38 Beniger, 277. Monograph, 1993, 24. 39 Edgar E. Willis and Henry B. Aldridge, Televi 63 Carolyn Marvin, When Old Technologies sion, Cable, and Radio (Englewood Cliffs: Were New (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Prentice-Hall, 1992) 128. 1988), 3. 40 Frank Presbrey, The History and Development 64 John Brooks, Telephone: The First Hundred of Advertising (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Years (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 94. Doran, 1929) 306. 65 Oslin, 217. 41 W.F. Ogborn and M.F. Nimkoff, Sociology 66 Oslin, 220. (Houghton-Mifflin, 1950) 546. 67 Marion May Dilts, The Telephone in a Chang 42 Carl H. Scheele, A Short History of the Mail ing World (New York: Longman's Green, Service. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1970. 1941), 10. 43 Richard K. Craille, ed., Speeches of John C. 68 Dilts, 11. Calhoun (New York, 1864), 190. 69 George Basalla, The Evolution of Technology 44 Joseph Stewart, in Alvin F. Harlow, Old Post Bags (New York: D. Appleton, 1938), xvi. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 45 Zilliacus, 14-15. 1988), 98. 46 G. Tansey and Horst de la Croix, Art 70 Oslin, 227. Through the Ages (New York: Harcourt Brace 71 Dilts, 15. Jovanovich, 1986). 72 Beniger, 285. 47 MacMillan Magazine, September 1871, 73 Sylvester Baxter, "The Telephone Girl," The quoted in Gus Macdonald, Camera: A Victo Outlook, 26 May 1906, 235. rian Eyewitness (London: Bastford, 1979), 5. 74 Oslin, 281. 48 Boorstin, 398. 75 McLuhan, 305. 49 Richard Hofstadter, The Progressive Move 76 Stephen N. Raymer, "Fessenden Revisted," ment, 1900-1915 (New York: Simon & Schus Pavek Museum of Broadcasting Newsletter, ter, 1963). vol. 4.4, (1993), 5. 50 Boorstin, 371. 77 Susan J. Douglas, Inventing American Broad 51 Edward Cornish, "The Coming of an Informa casting, 1899-1922 (Baltimore: The Johns Hop tion Society," The Futurist, (April 1981): 14. kins University Press, 1987), 15. 52 Edwin Emery and Michael Emery, The Press 78 Douglas, 56-58. and America, 5th ed. (Englewood Cliffs: 79 The Russo-Japanese War (Tokyo: Sekai- Prentice-Hall, 1984), 164. Bunkei Publishing Co., 1971), 30. 53 George P. Oslin, The Story of Telecommunica 80 Douglas, 228. tions (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 81 New York Times, 14 February 1909, 1. 1992), 16. 82 Rosten, Hollywood, the Movie Colony and the 54 Oslin, 127. Movie Makers (New York: Harcourt Brace & 55 Oslin, 71. Co., 1941), 7-12. 56 Beniger, 253. 83 Miriam Hansen, Babel and Babylon: Spectator- 57 Francis Williams, Transmitting World News. ship in American Silent Film (Cambridge: UNESCO, 1953: 19. Harvard University Press, 1991), 63. 58 Sloan, William, James Stovall and James 84 Harry M. Geldud, The Birth of the Talkies: Startt, The Media in America (Worthington, From Edison to Jolson (Bloomington: Indiana OH: Publishing Horizons, 1989), 204. University Press, 1975), 28. 59 Daniel J. Czitrom, Media and the American 85 David Shipman, The Story of Cinema (Engle Mind (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North wood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1982) 18. Carolina Press, 1982), 18. 86 David Nasaw, Going Out: The Rise and Fall of Public Amusements (New York: Basic Books, 1993), 152-53.

The Fourth Revolution Entertainment

Public Recreation

The good old days never were that good, mer vacations was taking hold beyond the except for a lucky few. To lift the veil of families of the rich. nostalgia from what actually existed reveals The poverty of the teeming masses in not only a harsh and uncertain life for most, slums and tenements has been well docu- but a public morality not much different mented. Less has been said about public from our own except in degree of permis- recreation. For those crowded into the siveness. The penny presses of the Ameri- dwellings lining the mean streets of cities, can Victorian era filled their pages with going out anywhere made life endurable. scandal. The working class had cheap, Early in this century, electric lamps lit all bawdy entertainment in vaudeville houses night on street corners and multi-colored and the even more raucous concert sa- lights illuminating stores and cafes bright- loons. The sinful pleasures of the wealthy ened and helped make safe the streets that sometimes revealed themselves as they do had been kept in shadow by dim gas light- today, but otherwise the rich publicly ing. The pleasure of an evening stroll, no showed their mettle by attending operas, longer much in evidence in American mid- plays, balls, and private dinners, again just dle and upper class neighborhoods, can as they do today. still be seen in poorer sections of our cities The Industrial Revolution in nineteenth and especially in Third World cities, where century America shifted population from life lacks the amenities of the average villages and towns to cities, where paid American home, and where escape from work was to be found. Miserable as they the humdrum, overcrowding, or loneli- often were, non-farm wages rose during the ness can be found only beyond the front last quarter of the century while the cost of door. living actually declined. Average working hours dropped slightly. It was not unusual The lighting of the lights signaled that the for workers to have Saturday afternoon off workday was over and the time for play at as well as all day Sunday. The idea of sum- hand... 101 102 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Electrification made going out at night night to spend a nickel or two amid blazing not only safer and more exciting but easier lights and cheerful crowds. A penny could and cheaper than ever before. The dyna- go into a machine testing your skill or your mos and generators that lit the street lamps strength. You could listen to a penny's also powered the trolleys that tied together worth of phonograph music. You could put the city and its neighborhoods.... a penny in to crank a Mutoscope and see On downtown streets, something new motion pictures or, better yet, sit in a room called department stores were built. with your friends and neighbors for a nickel to share the experience of watching a pro- In connecting the city's business and resi- gram of movies projected against a wall. In dential districts, the electric streetcars fos- Not So Long Ago, Lloyd Morris wrote: tered the growth—and the transformation— of "downtown" into a central shopping and 1 entertainment district. In the slums of the great Eastern and Middle Western cities there were herded vast For centuries, local fairs and religious fes- immigrant populations. Largely unfamiliar tivals had brought people together for with the English language, they could not shared amusements. Now national exposi- read the newspapers, magazines or books. tions and a series of world's fairs, starting But the living pictures communicated their meanings directly and eloquently. To enjoy in the United States with the Centennial them, no command of a new language was Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, enjoyed essential. They made illiteracy, and igno- a thriving business. They began as centers rance of American customs, seem less of information about the new world of in- shameful; they broke down a painful sense dustry, but soon became primarily places of isolation and ostracism. Dwellers in tene- of recreation. Parks were constructed for ments, workers in sweatshops, could escape the recently introduced game of baseball the drabness of their environment for a little while, at a price within their means. In the and for such amusement centers as New penny arcades, moving pictures took deep York's Coney Island, just a nickel subway root, both as an agency for information and ride away on the BMT for millions of New as a cheap form of entertainment for the Yorkers. masses. In the small rural communities to which they were taken by traveling showmen, they met equally responsive audi- Money from the Poor ences. A broad popular foundation was being The early income from projected films did laid for a major industry, as well as a social not come from music halls, although instrument of incalculable power.2 throughout the country these theaters catering to middle and some upper class pa- As the Industrial Revolution gained trons began alternating their vaudeville strength, it gave rise not only to mass infor- acts with films. Money was drawn from the mation, but to mass entertainment. Thanks pockets of the poor in the cities, many of to assembly lines and new technology, peo- whom lived in crowded slums and worked ple could afford to buy cameras to take in unheated, badly lit, unventilated, and pictures of each other and their annual often dangerous factories, long hours for vacations. They put Victrolas in their par- meager wages. Or they worked at home lors. They bought novels and magazines. In doing subcontracted piecework for even the new century, they went each week to meaner wages. the picture show. A few went from nickelo- The poor certainly had little money to deon to nickelodeon. An entertainment in- spend on entertainment, let alone dress up dustry grew to feed a discovered public to go to a theater. But if you earned a dollar hunger for packaged pleasure, the world's a day, you might be willing on a Saturday fourth information revolution. ENTERTAINMENT 103

Entertaining Newspapers

It is easier to take the measure of the news- That staple of the modern newspaper, the paper as a medium for conveying informa- Sunday funnies, was added when improve- tion if we recognize that it has not been ments in color printing led William Ran- around forever, and that it continues to dolph Hearst to bring out a comic strip evolve. Great grandpa would hardly recog- supplement in 1896. Color comics began nize this morning's Chronicle. Anyone who when it was decided to add yellow ink deplores the loss of newspaper readers to regularly to an outlandish skirt worn by a television ought to consider that newspa- little boy in one strip, Hogan's Alley. The pers were themselves deplored at one time immediate popularity of this addition led to for a similar reason. In 1910, sociologist the character becoming known as The Yel- Max Weber asked: low Kid. More than that, the kind of sensational news featured in newspapers owned What is the effect of newspapers on the kind by Hearst and Pulitzer was pinned with the of reading habits of modern man? On this all appellation, yellow journalism. The un- kinds of theories have been constructed. pleasant, insulting phrase stuck long after There was also the argument that the book is 3 the comic strip stopped running. As for being replaced by the newspaper. color comics themselves, in time all the Sunday comics were printed in a variety of Not all newspaper readers and certainly not bold colors. Comic books followed on the all television viewers have deep concern magazine racks. about reports of events significant to our Pulitzer's New York World at two cents, lives, those reports sometimes identified as built a daily circulation of 1.5 million, the "real news." The newspaper shares with nation's first mass circulation newspaper. television an audience segment not much Unlike most newspapers of its day, the given to "real news." These newspaper World was politically and socially liberal. It readers barely glance at the front page lead was filled with spicy news reports (head- headline before turning their attention to lines like "Little Lotta's Lovers" and "Bap- entertainment, their exclusive interest, tized in Blood"4), sports coverage, and which is happily met by pages full of comic circulation-raising stunts such as sending strips, horoscopes, puzzles, Dear Abby, reporter "Nellie Bly" (her real name was and, if one places professional and intercol- Elizabeth Cochrane) into an insane asylum legiate sports properly in the category of as a patient to expose its awful conditions, entertainment, the scores. Add the televi- and in 1889 sending her around the world sion logs, the movie listings, the grocery cou- by ship, train, horse, and sampan to beat pons, and the insert section with the sales at fictional Phineas Fogg's trip Around the the mall. For this readership, the newspaper World in Eighty Days. Nearly a million read- is a bargain, delivered at the doorstep. As for ers entered a contest to guess how long it the "real news" itself, serious matters in most would take her. Nellie Bly did it in 72 days. local newspapers are placed alongside generous helpings of gossip, scandal, and police blotter extract. Local newspapers would not survive on a total diet of serious news. The The sensational tabloid (a word derived public, wanting entertainment, drove the from a small, easy to swallow dose of medi- content then, as now. cine) appeared in London in the early years of the twentieth century, its news for the common man packaged in a format that Adding Color could be read comfortably on a streetcar. By the late nineteenth century, spots of Tabloids, like the New York Daily News, color appeared now and again amid the took advantage of the city's switch from black-and-white columns of newsprint. horse-drawn buses to electrified trolleys 104 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION and subways. Strap-hangers were able to and added more pictures. News stories, too, read a newspaper held in one hand. To were more entertaining and, in some cases, accommodate them on the jouncing ride, more sensational. Tabloid defined both the publishers shrank broadsheets to tabloid size and the content of newspapers. It still size, made headlines and body type larger, does.

Magazines for the Fragmented Public

The magazine has set the pace for the VCR, Modeled after those in England, the first postwar radio, and cable television in what American magazines, published by Ben- it has done for its users: it has given them, jamin Franklin and rival Philadelphia more precisely than in the past, what they printer Andrew Bradford, appeared in have wanted. And by doing this, it has 1741. Most of these early magazines lasted fragmented them. A handful of general infor just a few issues due to insufficient terest magazines still reach millions of funds to survive a start-up period, inade- readers, but thousands of specialty maga- quate distribution facilities, and poor print- zines each reach just thousands of readers; ing equipment. Unlike newspapers, no for example, the trade magazine Pizza and postal service provisions were made for Pasta and the consumer magazine Living magazines, which not only meant higher With Teenagers. The corner VCR shop also costs, but in some instances left them un- fragments its customers when it rents just delivered because of cargo regarded as what is wanted on Saturday night to a cus- more important. tomer who once went to the now shuttered At least one desperate Massachusetts downtown Bijou, which offered no choice publisher repeatedly offered to accept sub- of fare at all. Radio stations and cable tele- scription payment in wood, cheese, pork, vision channels offer more and more corn, or other produce. choices. All in all, information receivers use The editor requests all those who are more media, but they share fewer media indebted to him for Newspapers and Maga- experiences with people they know. The zines, to make payment. —Butter will be global village looks more like the Tower of received for small sums, if brought within a Babel. Among regularly scheduled mass few days.5 media, none are so fragmented as magazines. Part of the problem that magazine publishers faced lay in a paucity of advertising and a consequent heavy dependence upon cir- English and Colonial culation receipts. Another problem was the Beginnings price of an annual subscription. It would In early eighteenth century England, the have cost a farm laborer four or five days magazine was born out of the newspaper, pay during the years before the American just as the first newspapers were born a Revolution, and more afterward. Maga- century earlier out of the newsletter and zines were not for the poor. the pamphlet. The outspoken publisher of the first weekly periodical, The Review The American newspaper was a workman, was, at the time of publication, either still sweaty, busy, and shirt-sleeved; the Ameri- inside or just out of Newgate prison. He can magazine was a gentleman, serious, sen- was Daniel Defoe, not yet the author of timental, and sedate.6 Robinson Crusoe. The Review was soon followed by The Tatler and The Spectator, Early American magazines, issued weekly, filled with brilliant essays that are still read monthly, or quarterly, were about the size today. of The Reader's Digest today, consisting of ENTERTAINMENT 105 about 64 pages usually printed on a stiff, weeklies, quarterly reviews, special maga- rough, rag-based paper in the size of type zines for women, religious periodicals, and found today in classified ads. The few illus- magazines that focused on a particular re- trations they contained were likely to be gion of the country. Many of the Sunday woodcuts, although the wealthier maga- newspapers were not really Sunday edi- zines afforded an occasional steel or copper tions of daily newspapers, but were basi- engraving, especially if the publisher was cally separate magazines. The Sunday himself an engraver. A single engraving supplements of modern big city dailies, plate might have cost a publisher as much notably those of The New York Times, con- as the entire literary content of an issue. tinue that tradition. Although the American magazines imi- The first magazine with a mass market tated their European, particularly their was also the first magazine to use woodcut British counterparts, the New World lacked illustrations extensively. The Penny Maga- many elements necessary to put out a zine of the Society for the Diffusion of Use- magazine of quality, notably competent ful Knowledge was published in England artists and dependable presses. As a result, from 1832 to 1845. It was written for artisans what went out of the publisher's door was and laborers who were literate, and its goal often crudely fashioned. was to improve their minds and behavior. Of the women's magazines, the most famous, Godey's Lady's Book, was published Plagiarism Was Common in the United States by a man, Louis A. Also lacking was much original writing. An Godey, whose attitude toward women was early American magazine owed more to the one of gallantry untouched by the begin- editor's scissors than to anyone's pen. Ap- nings of a movement toward equality for propriated were the entire contents of pam- what was then referred to as the fair sex. Its phlets, segments of books, newspaper editor for 41 years was Sara Jocelyn Hale. articles, verse, essays, and fiction lifted Its circulation reached 150,000, extraordi- from other magazines, especially English nary for the period. The Lady's Book's mix- magazines. Plagiarism was not only com- ture of short stories, poems, articles, and mon and legal two centuries ago, but was advice on important topics was scrupu- expected, for reprinting was a way to spread lously edited to avoid the slightest appear- information. The most significant essays ance of indelicacy. Nevertheless, its pages, and literature of the era sooner or later as pure as the driven snow, afforded found their way into the pages of American women with literary talent the opportunity magazines. Through much of its history, to be published. Among them was Harriet the magazine brought literature to readers Beecher Stowe, who would later write Uncle who could not afford the expense of books. Tom's Cabin. Male contributors included In fact, book publishers hesitated to publish Emerson, Longfellow, Holmes, Haw- an author who had not already won public thorne, and Poe, a stellar list of American recognition through magazines. The mate- writers. Eventually, the Lady's Book fell be- rial was not copyrighted and, in most cases, hind others in popularity, was absorbed by was not credited to the original source. By another magazine which itself was merged the nineteenth century, however, peri- into a third magazine, Argosy. This pattern odicals were printing the works of writers, of failures and mergers became an all too known as magazinists, who wrote primarily familiar part of the history of the American for this medium. magazine. The expansion of the new United States By 1900, at least 50 national magazines in the early nineteenth century was boasted circulations above 100,000, rang- matched by an expansion in the number of ing from relatively costly quality monthly American periodicals of all kinds. At the periodicals like Century and Harper's, ad- time the penny press was introduced, there dressed to a well-educated readership, to were general monthly magazines, literary low-cost weeklies filled with sentimental 106 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION romance fiction and, thanks to new tech- to include specific consumer groups. Profit nology, lots of pictures. in the face of rising production costs came from high volume, especially among read- The Nickel Magazines ers who fit a certain profile appealing to advertisers. Publisher Frank Munsey increased the cir- There were even instances in the twen- culation of his popular-taste magazines by tieth century where a magazine purged its selling them for less than their production circulation list of older subscribers because costs, as little as five or ten cents a copy, it was assumed they spent less on what was making his profits from increased advertis- advertised. The pleasure of reading some ing rates. In so doing, he tapped an even magazines was to be rationed. larger market of readers that had largely been ignored. Low-priced magazines changed the focus of publishers. Originally, their primary at- How curious it was that this medium that, tention had been on editorial copy. With of all media, best defined the meaning of substantial advertising support coming in, communication choice, denied choice to the focus did not shift so much as it widened anyone.

THE NOVEL In the eighteenth century, a new literary stories was one of their most desired features. form emerged in England and spread to Purists may sniff at what they term trash, but Europe and the United States. The novel, a it certainly sells. product of middle-class sensibilities and mo- Continuous web papermaking machines rality, put fictional characters through a com- and large cylinder presses plus lower quality plex of events within a recognizable social paper allowed weekly newspapers in the setting. The key element in an English novel 1840s to print novels cheaply, first by serial- was the gain or loss of social status, a topic izing them and then by printing entire novels that preyed on the minds of the middle class in newspaper format. The printing technol- readers. From its beginnings until the twen- ogy and new binding methods, with cloth tieth century, the novel was typically domi- covers in place of leather, also reduced the nated by class consciousness. Themes that prices of hard-cover books. These changes put raised social problems or personal foibles books into the hands of people who otherwise resonated with readers. could not afford them. Popular fiction writers like Charles Dick- In 1875, the dime novel was born in a Chi- ens serialized their novels in weekly newspa- cago publishing house, Donnelley, Lloyd & Co. pers and magazines before they appeared Other publishers quickly followed. Printed on between hard covers. To keep the readers rough paper with a brightly illustrated cover, buying magazines, writers ended chapters on dime novels were soonbeing turned out at the a note of suspense. At home, families read rate of one a day, and obviously were snapped these serialized novels aloud as a form of up just as fast. Longer novels sold for 15 to 20 entertainment. cents, but plenty were available for 10 cents. Along the way came the discovery of a The novels were issued with the imprint of a public appetite for novels that were easy to series or library just like the paperback west- read, did not tax the brain, and were filled erns, detective stories, and romance novels of with action, adventure, and romance. Charac- today, which are direct descendants of the ters, absolutely evil or purely good, were simi- dime novel. lar from book to book. Outcomes were As usual, technologies changed. Tastes did predictable. The very predictability of the not. ENTERTAINMENT 107

Entertainment on a Plate

Every nation, every tribe has made its own also what we hear at the movies and in music. Their melodies, their songs, the mu- television news reports. sical instruments they have fashioned lie at More than a century ago the phono- the very root of their culture. That the graph, in McLuhan's phrase, broke down music comes from the soul of the people the walls of the music hall.8 The phono- has mattered more than brilliant perform- graph was the first means to bring non- ance. Friends, family, and neighbors enter- print professional entertainment into the tain one another oblivious to ragged singing home, an entertainment machine that, like and uncertain fingering. the piano, was destined to be encased as a Today, the technology that brings the piece of furniture to civilize it for the par- genius of Mozart and the latest pop song lor. A generation later another entertain- pouring into our ears has deformed the ment machine, the radio, would follow it universal characteristic of playing the mu- there, also disguised as furniture. Another sic that we make ourselves. Unlike the time generation would introduce still another, of our great grandparents, the custom of the television set. These machines of steel, singing or reading to one another is more plastic, and glass bring into the home en- the exception than the rule. Why try to tertainment created somewhere else. harmonize when the Supremes do it so When stereo reached a peak of popularity, much better and we can hear them with people who could afford the most expen- such clarity? We do not pause to consider sive pieces preferred their equipment to that an unintended consequence of listen- look like the machines they were. Less ing to Barbra Streisand instead of our sister expensive stereo systems were combined is the loss of a bit of family closeness. A as furniture items. century ago someone remarked: The Start of Recorded Music The home wears a vanishing aspect. Public amusements increase in splendor and fre- In 1807, an Englishman, Thomas Young, quency, but private joys grow rare and diffi- picked up sound vibrations with a stylus cult, and even the capacity for them seems that traced their amplitude on a smoke- to be withering.7 blackened cylinder. A Frenchman, Leon Scott, went one step further in 1857 with a Even so, few among us would choose that phonautograph that captured vocal sounds way of life when we have available music with the same type of stylus apparatus. of a quality beyond imagining a century French poet and inventor Charles Cros de- ago. Admittedly, the old-fashioned pleas- signed, but did not build, a voice-reproduc- ures have not been totally abandoned. Bat- ing device. Cros envisioned a machine that tered pianos and guitars are still around. would reproduce conversation visibly so The karaoke and the electronic keyboard the deaf could read it. In the same year, are plugged in at parties. 1877, that Cros, too poor to afford a pat- Along with its sister invention, the tele- ent, left his idea in a two-page document phone, the phonograph—for the first time in a sealed envelope at the Academie des since humans began to speak—extended Sciences in Paris, an American, Thomas the sound of the voice beyond the distance Edison, actually built a machine.9 It is of someone could shout. Now there could be at least passing interest that the two inven- preserved not only a famous person's tors, Cros and Edison, designed a voice thoughts as written, but the flavor of per- recording machine one year after two other sonality in the style and nuance of speech. inventors, Alexander Graham Bell and Voices and actions important in the history Elisha Gray, designed (and patented on the of the twentieth century were captured on same day) a voice transmitting machine. disk and tape. Recorded sound is, of course, 108 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Edison, interested in speeding up the concluded that a talking machine could aid rate of information transfer of telegraph dictation. It could record books for the messages, got the idea for recording sound blind. There could be coin-in-the-slot pho- as he listened to the irregular whine of a nographs.13 He imagined a talking doll, telegraph disk revolving at high speed.10 He toys, and music boxes. The phonograph was using an apparatus he had invented for could preserve the last words of dying fam- recording dots and dashes, which included ily members. Also, people who did not own a revolving disk on which he put a piece of one of Alexander Graham Bell's new tele- paper covered with paraffin wax. One day phones could record a message in their he noticed that when the disk revolved at a own voice, then take it to a telephone trans- certain speed it sounded a musical note. As mitting station. More presciently, he fore- an experiment, he put a fresh piece of saw it as a record keeper, a preserver of paper in the machine and as it was going speech, and as a source of music, although, through, he shouted, "Whooooo." When he growing deaf, the inventor did not at first sent the paper back through, he faintly think the public would be much interested heard his own voice. Edison himself de- in recorded music. scribed what happened next: By this time, Alexander Graham Bell and his associates had produced a better talking I had built a toy which included a funnel machine, which they called the Grapho- (and a diaphragm)... A string... was con- phone. The competition was intense as nected to a little cardboard figure of a man Edison during 1887 and 1888 took out 33 sawing wood. When someone sang "Mary patents for improvements to his phono- had a little lamb" into the funnel, the little 14 man started sawing. I thus reached the con- graph. clusion that if I could find a way of recording Edison also created a new type of micro- the movements of the diaphragm I could phone to change air vibration into electri- make the recorder reproduce the original cal vibration. A cylinder phonograph movements imparted to the diaphragm by converted the vibrations into scratches as a the person singing, and thus reproduce the permanent record, but at this point the human voice.11 phonograph was a technology in search of something commercially worthwhile to do. Edison kept at it. His first test was of the The next year, 1878, two stenographers words, "Mary had a little lamb. Its fleece to the Supreme Court agreed that the pho- was white as snow." Those are the first nograph could be used as a dictating tool. words ever recorded. They got a license from Edison to sell the gadget in Maryland and the District of Co- lumbia. However, its limitation of a half Nothing Ever Like It minute of scratchy sound rendered it use- Edison improved the phonograph and gave less as a business tool. Lecturers who took some demonstrations but, recognizing the phonographs on lyceum circuits were commercial limitations of tinfoil recording equally disappointed once the novelty with its scratching and hissing that made wore off for audiences. The stenographers the recording all but inaudible, he set it named their new company the Columbia aside to work on another invention, the Phonograph Company. It would eventually electric light, which he invented two years mutate into CBS, the Columbia Broadcast- later.12 In granting Edison a patent in 1877 ing System. for a speaking machine, the U.S. Patent Something more exciting awaited the Office found no previous evidence of any- phonograph as the centenary of the French thing resembling his invention, an unusual Revolution was celebrated in Paris with a situation in patent history. great exhibition. Gustav Eiffel's tower sym- The development of hard wax-covered bolized progress and technology. Edison cylinders rekindled Edison's interest a dec- crossed the Atlantic with his best inven- ade later. After studying the market, he tions, including the electric light and the ENTERTAINMENT 109 telephone, to which he had contributed a selling a cylinder player for the home at great deal. For the phonograph, he set up about $20, but his biggest market remained listening booths. It caused a sensation: the phonograph parlor, Columbia advertised machines for home recording with the- The public queued eagerly at the listening slogan, "That Baby's Voice in a Columbia booths. The phonographs stood on tables, Record." Like audio tape and video tape with an attendant to change the cylinders, today, the home recording feature proved and rubber tubes with earpieces led to lis- attractive, but not nearly so much as the tening booths around each table. People chance to play recordings of popular pro- awaiting their turn looked in astonishment at listeners' faces, unable to explain the rapt fessional performers. The practice of lis- expressions and sudden outbursts of mirth.15 tening to canned music in preference to home-made had begun. Emile Berliner, who had invented a mi- Phonograph Parlors crophone and contributed to Bell's tele- The first significant cash rewards came phone apparatus, added three innovations. from nickel-in-the-slot and penny-in-the- For a better recording medium, he substi- slot automatic phonograph parlors that tuted a coating of fat for wax, side-to-side sprang up in stores all over the nation. That tracking instead of up and down "hill and set in motion the first demand for phono- dale" tracking, and the most important, re- graph recordings. Marching band music cording on a disk instead of a cylinder. But was the most popular. Patrons also parted the flat zinc disk that he produced was not with their nickels to hear singers, whistlers, to be sold to the public. Rather it was used instrument soloists, and talking records, like a waffle iron, as a master to stamp out including dialect humor. The first phono- records in flat circles. Easy to manufacture, graph parlors, well lit and decorated with records would be sold cheap. Berliner, the potted palms and rugs on the floor, invited immigrant son of a German, Jewish Talmu- passersby with free admission. The current dic scholar, had found a way to make selections were listed. Entire families or Edison's brilliant invention available to young women need suffer no embarrass-, everyone. ment by entering a phonograph parlor. Couples shared listening tubes. Having found a use, development of the The Phonograph as technology proceeded. Tinfoil produced Furniture poor sound. Bell and his associates devel- To improve his screechy hand-cranked ma- oped wax-coated cylinders that gave better chine, Berliner took it to the New Jersey sound, although still a long way from the machine shop of Eldridge Johnson, who high fidelity today's audiophile has come to became so fascinated with it that he got into expect. Bell also added a speed governor to the business himself, founding the Victor the machine, so that the cylinder turned at Talking Machine Company. Johnson de- a constant speed regardless of the cranking scribed how he got into the business: speed. Listening tubes gave way to horns, with those for lecture halls measuring sev- During the model-making days of the busi- eral feet in diameter at the mouth. Edison ness one of the very early types of talking provided hundreds of improvements, pat- machines was brought to the shop for alterations. The little instrument was badly enting everything as he and his assistants designed. It sounded much like a partially- introduced them and, as usual, ready to sue 16 educated parrot with a sore throat and a cold over any infringements. in the head, but the little wheezy instrument Bell's American Graphophone Company caught my attention and held it fast and prospered in the home market with a sim- hard. I became interested in it as I have ple cylinder phonograph that sold for $10. never been interested before in anything.17 At the turn of the century, Edison was 110 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

where he died without ever having listened to a recording.

Dancing and Jazz About the time of the first World War, the recordings, especially from Victor and Co- lumbia, helped to create a new social phenomenon, the dance craze. It was the day of the one-step, the turkey trot, and the tango. It was also the start of jazz. At the same time, a little concern was felt about the accelerated pace of national and cultural development.18 For some people, things were changing much too fast. Meanwhile, Edison kept manufacturing and selling cylinders by the millions until the Depression of the 1930s. Yielding to popular demand, his company turned out flat records as well. For the most part, he Figure 4.1 A Victor phonograph stayed away from opera and the classics. manufactured early in the Edison sold what he called cracker barrel twentieth century. (Courtesy music for the enjoyment of common folks. Pavek Museum.) Yet, his recordings boasted superior quality, thanks in part to the plastic his cylin- Years of legal battles ensued over patent ders were made of and thanks in part to his infringements. Johnson won in the courts. diamond-tip styluses, which were better He had already drastically improved the than the metal tip and wooden tip styluses sound performance of the machine. Now used on disks. Volume from speakers was his company began to build the mechanism controlled physically by a handle that into a cabinet. From its introduction in 1906, pushed a cotton ball into the throat of a the Victrola made sound recording less of a speaker or by closing the doors in front of novelty and more of an instrument of social the speaker. Despite having become deaf, use. By this time, someone got the idea of Edison continued his interest in talking putting music on both sides of the record. machines until shortly before he died at 84. In London, a shabby artist turned up at The highly profitable recorded music in- the Gramophone company office. It seems dustry attracted a lot of competitors in he had painted a picture of his terrier, Europe and America. The Pathe brothers, Nipper, listening to an Edison company Charles and Emile, made a fortune manu- machine, but nobody would buy the pic- facturing phonographs and records, but ture. The artist, Francis Barraud, actually they are more famous for their contribu- painted Nipper from a photograph; the dog tions to cinematography. Gianni Bettini of had died four years earlier. Barraud offered Italy and Henri Lioret of France manufac- the picture to the Gramophone Company. tured both the machines and the record- The office manager liked it, so a deal was ings. Lioret built them inside dolls just as struck. The artist painted out the Edison Edison had envisioned and long before the cylinder phonograph and painted in a flat- first little girl would hug a Chatty Cathy. record Gramophone machine. The result is Imaginations soared to novelties beyond "His Master's Voice," probably the most talking dolls, whose success awaited the reproduced advertising picture of all time. microchip, and coin-operated phono- The artist earned a decent living painting graphs, forerunner of the jukebox. Inex- copies of his original picture. Abrass monu- pensive toy phonographs enjoyed a spate ment was erected to the dog in the town of popularity. ENTERTAINMENT 111

Phonographs were hidden in fake cameras, stacks of books, lamp shades, hat boxes, and even a Buddha with a phonograph concealed in his belly, all hiding the machine. The Graphophone, the Ronephone, and the Ediphone were early dictating machines. The Phonopostal produced recordings for mailing like postcards. The Pathegraphe was an audio-visual device for learning foreign languages. The Tempophon and the Peter Pan Clock were talking clocks, an obvious predecessor of the radio alarm Figure 4.2 A 1934 Wurlitzer jukebox offered clock. Augustus Stroh, a German living in ten selections. (Courtesy Pavek London, attached a phonograph diaphragm Museum.) and horn to a violin in place of its wooden case to produce what people called a phono- companion, a background to conversation, fiddle, a turn-of-the-century version of the and the rhythm for a dance. amplified electric guitar. Muzak's soothing tones accompanied us while shopping, riding elevators, and working. It has been appreciated, ignored, or High Fidelity derided by people who felt trapped and By 1920, vacuum tubes were amplifying forced to listen. Muzak staff members rear- voices in public address systems and were ranged popular songs to eliminate any pas- beginning to find applications in the re- sages that might attract attention, leaving corded sound industry. The application of only a neutral, pastel environment that is electronics to the sound system trans- more soothing than silence, which can be formed sound technology from a mechani- perceived as hostile and threatening. Cows cal scratchiness to high fidelity. Electrical reportedly gave more milk and chickens engineers at AT&T's Bell Labs and General laid more eggs when soothed by music. Electric turned their attention to the design And, of course, credit cards danced out of of microphone and loudspeaker, recording wallets. and playback stylus, pre-amp, and amplifier. Where the feeble force of a stylus moved a diaphragm that made the sound, Although we no longer hear our own music now the stylus movement created a feeble as often as we did, the music is of our own current that was amplified clearly and choosing. For hundreds of years, human- cleanly. A strong current moved the dia- kind dreamed of capturing and then releas- phragm in the loudspeaker so the master's ing, the human voice, but no technical means voice could be reproduced loudly enough of doing so existed. It was not until the nine- to damage Nipper's hearing. Stereo, devel- teenth century that the dream came true. oped by Bell Labs in 1933, was demon- No longer would the direction of music be strated to the public in 1940 through the limited to the choices of wealthy patrons of soundtrack of Walt Disney's Fantasia. the arts. By buying the records it fancied, The "Automatic Phonograph Parlor" was the mass public would decide the direction reborn with the jukebox in the 1930s. By that music took. Without the phonograph 1940, a quarter of a million neon-lit juke- record, jazz would not have sent its notes boxes were in bars and restaurants. People across America and then around the world. were still willing to pay a nickel to hear a Nor would swing, nor rock 'n' roll, nor tune, but recorded music was taking on a country, nor rap. The phonograph brought new role where it was less the center of democracy to music. It is the real meaning attention. The jukebox song was a drinking of going gold or platinum. 112 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Portable Recording

People have grown painfully aware of fel- Is the user of the Walkman more considerate low citizens who insist on sharing their than the master of the "monster box"? Each musical tastes with passersby by carrying moves in a portable acoustical bubble, and boom boxes or playing car stereos at vol- while the effect of the miniaturized unit is umes considerably louder than personal less political than the box (certainly an important distinction), each of the users listening requires. By doing so, the radio displays some attempted mastery of his or owner commits an aggression, an errant her own movable turf.19 knight with noise as his (seemingly always "his") weapon. The owner is identified not Moving down the street the earphoned in- by heraldry, but by choice of music. His dividual hears none of our community of intent is not simply a challenge, for this sound. There isn't the slightest need to particular music lover while irritating the interact with anyone as long as the portable unappreciative invites a friendly response tape recorder is there. from those who share his musical tastes. Unheard music in someone else's Walk- The video world abhors face-to-face interac- man may also annoy us if we want commu- tion. It asks only to interact with the ma- nication with the listener who prefers the chine. Just walk down Main Street. Look at music to communion with anyone, includ- the numbers of people with earphones lis- ing us. We have all seen someone jogging, tening to their own music, oblivious to the walking, or skating down the street while world about them. The proliferation of the shutting out the world with a Walkman. Sony Walkman and similar sound devices is strikingly symbolic. Look at the faces. They are blank. With earphones on, the individual closes out all outside stimuli. He is his own captive audience.20

The Story of Audiotape The two technologies that are most commonly used to record sound—the phonograph and audiotape—have similar fundamental characteristics of recording and reproducing sound. The way each has been developed for consumer use, however, gives them markedly different appeal for the home user. Phonograph records and CDs have been marketed only as a store- house of sound. Audiotape's recording capabilities, plus the portability of its recording apparatus, have rendered it a much more versatile tool. The story of audiotape began in 1888 when Oberlin Smith published a theory that information could be stored by mag- netizing iron particles. He noted that when a magnet was moved under iron filings scattered across apiece of paper, the filings rearranged themselves into arcs. Smith held that the same result would occur with Figure 4.3 A jogger listening to recorded music is now a familiar sight. even smaller particles, and that if there ENTERTAINMENT 113

were some way to fix the particles firmly, instead of steel. The audio quality was far the magnetic impulses that were put into better. Editing was as simple as a snip by a them could be extracted. pair of scissors and the slapping on of a bit Ten years later, a Danish inventor, Val- of adhesive tape. demar Poulsen, figured out how to extract U.S. Army Major John Mullin, a Signal that stored magnetic information using Corps engineer who discovered a Magneto- steel wire wound on a brass drum. Poulsen phon at a Frankfurt radio station, brought thought of his Telegraphone as a voice re- audiotape recording to the United States. cording device to be used in a telephone Singer Bing Crosby, who didn't like to do answering machine or an office dictation live broadcasts, asked Mullin to tape device, and for recording and playing back Crosby's radio shows for later playback. music in the home. The Telegraphone won Mullin would later become one of the engi- the Grand Prix at the Paris Exposition of neers who invented videotape recording as 1900, but Poulsen's company, lacking the a means of storing and time-shifting televi- funds that would open the door to enter- sion programs. Both audiotape and vide- tainment, eventually went broke. otape changed broadcasting. It would Little in magnetic recording happened never be the same again. until 1928, when a German, Fritz Pfleumer, built a successful prototype of a tape re- A Tool for Journalists corder. The chemical firm I.G. Farben's BASF division manufactured plastic-base Radio journalists loved audiotape. It ex- audiotape. It still does. panded what they could put into their news reports. Listeners could now hear what reporters heard—the sounds of everything Germans Move Ahead from artillery to crickets, from politicians By the end of World War II, Magnetophon to babies. The portable recorder and mi- audio tape recorders delivered better sound crophone went wherever the reporter quality than many phonograph records. went. Adolf Hitler's speeches recorded on audio Recorded music was on phonograph re- tape, distributed on high-quality phone cords, but the superior sound of audio tape lines, and played over radio stations in dif- changed that. What began in radio stations ferent parts of Germany confused Allied soon spread to the home. People who could short-wave listeners who could not figure afford it wanted their own tape players and out how the Fuehrer could get around so music libraries on tape. At first, the players fast. Later, as they heard music with excel- were all reel-to-reel, but a consumer market lent fidelity from the Berlin Philharmonic and other orchestras in the middle of the night, they realized that the Germans had moved far ahead in sound recording.21 On the Allied side of the war, steel bands and steel wire were the available magnetic recording media. Editing of steel bands had to be accomplished with a soldering torch. Steel wire used in the field could be tied in a square knot and heated with the tip of a lighted cigarette to fuse the ends. By 1943, portable wire recorders were in the hands of radio journalists, but their audio quality left a lot to be desired G.I.s pushing into Germany found radio Figure 4.4 One of the two Magnetophon stations equipped with something that ap- recorders that Mullin brought to parently no one on the Allied side had been the United States. (Courtesy aware of, recorders using magnetic tape Pavek Museum.) 114 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION existed for portable record players that DAT, or digital audio tape, could copy would be as convenient as portable radios. compact discs without losing audio quality. The endless loop cartridge player, first 4- This prospect angered and frightened the channel, later 8-channel, met the demand. music industry, which feared wholesale pi- Tape unwinding from the center of a coil racy of recordings. Music industry spokes- moved past the audio heads to the outside men lobbied in Washington for federal of the coil. The much simpler cassette soon legislation to force Japanese manufactur- took over the market. ers of digital audio tape players to modify The Sony Walkman, the first widely these machines to prevent illegal copying. used personal stereo, appeared in 1981, a The manufacturers resisted; the copying lightweight, portable, battery operated de- feature was, after all, one reason why peo- vice with a headphone. The portable prod- ple bought such machines. A royalty ar- uct line has expanded to encompass not rangement was negotiated instead. only cassette tape players but radios, com- Digital compact cassettes (DCC) and the pact disc players, and even television. By Minidisc (MD) were later additions to the creating a private space, an acoustic envi- range of hardware/software audio equip- ronment that shuts out the sounds and ment. The DCC player took both analog even the sights around them, the users and digital cassettes and could be hooked reject interpersonal communication and to a television set to display the words of appear at times to risk safety.22 About 100 the songs. The Minidisc player had the million personal stereos have been sold. advantage of recording and erasing signals. Meanwhile, audiotaped books have been As for which system provided the best fi- available for years on loan like library delity, each had its proponents. Obviously, books through organizations for the blind. not all these new formats could survive. A market for car drivers has been tapped with a range of abridged books on tape sold through video stores, groceries, gas sta- If the personal Walkman and its clones tions, and stop-and-shops. seem to be the antithesis of mass communication, they are not, for the hallmark of mass communication exists in the one-way New Formats transferal of information from a distant By the mid-1990s, several digital formats of source to the audience. The jogger, alone on audiotape and compact disks competed for a rural road, listening over headphones, is public favor. part of a mass.

Broadcasting

World War I was over. The U.S. Navy still Among those experimenting with radio controlled radio, its means for point-to- was Frank Conrad, a Westinghouse Corpo- point communication. But civilian radio ration engineer who had manufactured amateurs were interested in something portable equipment for the Signal Corps. else. From the Navy had come the word From the garage of his home in Pittsburgh, broadcasting. The amateurs pressured the he spoke to other amateurs and broadcast government to abandon its restrictions on music by placing his microphone next to a radio and force the Navy to return stations Victrola. Conrad asked for postcards from to private ownership. Thousands of ama- anyone who could hear him. To his sur- teurs had answered the country's call to use prise, listeners wrote in to request tunes. their skills as radio operators for the Army So many wrote, in fact, that Conrad tried to and the Navy. Now, they wanted to start oblige by transmitting the broadcasts ac- new stations, and many were eager to use cording to a schedule. He added sports the new continuous wave technology to scores and some singing and instrument broadcast voice and music. playing by his children. A Pittsburgh news- ENTERTAINMENT 115

went on the air with the call letters KDKA on November 2, 1920. The date was chosen so that the first broadcast could be of the returns of the Harding-Cox presidential election. A few thousand people tuned in. By 1923, broadcasting had an audience of more than two million people served by more than 500 stations. A half-million sets in 1923 were followed by two million in 1925. By 1926, one house in six had a radio.

Isolating Listeners Listeners were also eagerly buying into the separation from others that a home with a radio afforded. Appreciative writers of letters to radio stations and magazine articles spoke of the pleasure of sitting in comfort at home alone or just with a family member to hear a concert or a talk.23 When loudspeakers replaced earphones the social structure of radio took another step by making listening to distant information and entertainment as normal and natural as Figure 4.5 "The Bedtime Story," an RCA family conversation around the dinner ta- publicity photo, 1922, for a ble. A writer in 1923 was delighted: one-tube radio without a loudspeaker or an amplifier. How easy it is to close the eyes and imagine (Courtesy Pavek Museum.) the other listeners in little back rooms, in kitchens, dining-rooms, sitting-rooms, attics; in garages, offices, cabins, engine-rooms, paper printed a story about his concerts bungalows, cottages, mansions, hotels, and his audience swelled. A record store apartments; one here, two there, a little owner agreed to lend him some phono- company around a table away off yonder...24 graph records in return for mentioning the name of the store on the air. The owner Corporations now saw radio as a money soon discovered that the records Conrad spinner, but no one controlled all the inven- played were in more demand than any tions needed. General Electric, Westing- others. In a few other places, experimental house, RCA, and the American Telephone broadcasts were going out, but in Pitts- Company battled each other for the rights burgh something unique happened. After to broadcast, to manufacture radio sets, and Home's Department Store advertised wire- to manufacture broadcasting and signaling less sets for sale so people could listen to equipment. Compromise came in cross- Conrad's broadcasts, his employer, West- licensing agreements for companies to use inghouse, decided to manufacture inex- each other's patents. pensive radio receivers. A major In most countries of the world, where corporation had finally recognized that a radio was strictly controlled and the only market existed beyond point-to-point trans- stations allowed were government stations, mission. development was orderly and sensible, but To win customers, Westinghouse fol- rigid. That was not the situation in the lowed Conrad's lead by providing a regular United States, where radio stations popped program schedule. It also erected a trans- up like mushrooms. mitter at the Westinghouse factory, which 116 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Figure 4.6 An ad by one of the hundreds of manufacturers of radio sets during the 1920s. (Courtesy Pavek Museum.)

High school students formed radio clubs Most of the stations were low powered around their own stations. University engi- "coffee pots" with little range. No one could neering departments built experimental have dreamed that the curiosity of wireless stations and professors lectured on them. and vacuum tubes in the corner, leading Preachers set up transmitters; evangelist over the years to AM, FM, and TV licenses, Aimee Semple McPherson had a loyal, one day would be worth more than the even fanatic following. A newspaper pub- entire department store or newspaper. lisher might create a station to attract subscribers by reading aloud stories from each The Radio Act of 1927 day's edition. A department store owner hoped that a farmer who heard a broadcast In the years following World War I, all sta- might buy a shirt the next time he came to tions shared the same frequency, with a town. The shirts were not advertised. Noth- second frequency for crop and weather re- ing was. ports, a workable arrangement for ships, where sender and receiver talk only for a short time, say what they have to say, and then go silent. A broadcast station, however, might never be silent. As radio stations drowned each other out by 1922, it became plain that something better was needed. The government made more frequencies available, but new stations appeared even faster. The frustrating babble worsened as some broadcasters increased their power output, others shifted to new frequencies or new transmitters, and poor equipment sent signals wandering. The government responded to pleas Figure 4.7 A Holmes-Jordan radio with from radio station owners for regulation by three tuning stages, 1925. Three calling four conferences, but these were types of batteries were needed, stormy affairs, with station owners wanting including a lead acid car-type battery. Acid burns in carpets to limit competition, small stations dis- were common. (Courtesy Pavek trustful of the large corporation stations, Museum.) radio amateurs opposing any limits on their ENTERTAINMENT 117 freedom, and not everyone quite sure how a radio station, which depended on a gov- to finance the radio industry. Reluctantly, ernment license, to sell a product. They the government and industry inched to- worried at first that toothpaste might be too ward regulation, but with the intention of intimate a product to advertise. Prices were expanding broadcasting, not limiting or not mentioned. Many listeners were of- censoring it, as one might expect when fended by the entire idea of using radio to government seeks to regulate. Finally, sell goods, and there was talk of passing a Congress passed the Radio Act of 1927, law to prohibit commercials. No other broadening it in the Communication Act of country permitted them. AT&T held fast. 1934, which was the basic broadcasting law Soon other advertisers signed up. Despite until it was modified by the Telecommuni- objections by AT&T that it had exclusive cation Reform Act of 1996. Yet its basic rights to offer this service, other radio sta- principles continue. tions, sniffing dollars, jumped in. Across At its heart is the belief that the airwaves the country, a trickle of advertisers became belong to the public. Licenses are granted a flood. Radio now had the answer to the only to qualified persons who agree to op- question of where the money would come erate in the public interest, and the govern- from. ment has the power to regulate broadcasting, but the role of censor is for- As a medium for those who hoped to control bidden, at least in theory. However, the mass behavior, radio offered numerous power to issue licenses—through the Fed- advantages over print media. Like graphics eral Communications Commission since but unlike the printed word, radio could in- 1934—is, in effect, the power to determine fluence illiterates (6 percent of U.S. adults in who will get a loud voice, and accusations 1920) and preliterate children, so that Ipana have persisted that government authority toothpaste, for example, could make its radio 25 pitch for "the one in the red and yellow has been used to this purpose. tube." Unlike newspaper and magazine ads, radio commercials could not be skipped Commercials over—they interrupted desired programming and could follow listeners from room to As for who would pay for all this radio room... Not only could one listen to radio broadcasting, by the mid-1920s the answer while engaged in other activities, including came loud and clear. AT&T, in the business reading, one could continue to listen long of renting its equipment to people who after becoming too tired to do anything want to communicate with other people, else—so that broadcasting promised (or saw the radio studio as a kind of telephone threatened) to fill every waking moment of booth. In 1922, its New York station, WEAF, the day.27 was made available for what it called toll broadcasting, an experiment in letting any While AT&T saw radio broadcasting as a member of the public use its station like a kind of one-way telephone service, RCA telephone booth to make a telephone call (Radio Corporation of America), General to everyone at once. AT&T sold blocks of Electric, and Westinghouse saw broadcast- time to advertisers, starting with a real es- ing as a service to create public demand for tate company, the Queensboro Corpora- the radio sets that they manufactured. Put tion, which paid $50 for ten minutes to tell another way, AT&T and Western Electric, listeners about the joys of living in the known as the telephone group, concentrated apartments they offered for sale in the on the senders of messages, later called Long Island countryside. That $50 invest- sponsors. The other companies, known as ment brought in $127,000 in orders.26 Ad- the radio group, concentrated on the receiv- vertising on radio was born. ers of messages, the audience. What finally Commercials began carefully. Tele- emerged was a combination of the two ap- phone company officials were afraid that proaches, one leading to commercials, the the government might get angry about using other to programming. What we hear and 118 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION see on radio and television today is the transmit the same program. This led at first result. to informal temporary networks, but in 1926 RCA created two permanent net- Broadcasting Policy in works, the Red, which today is NBC radio, and the Blue, which eventually became Other Countries ABC. A year later, the CBS network was put Broadcasting in America followed competi- together. The Mutual Broadcasting System, tive market principles to capture the largest started in 1934, became a national network, possible audience. Educational broadcast- and regional networks were formed in New ing, there from the beginning, continued to England, the Midwest, and the Far West. be a poor relative of commercial broadcast- The biggest advantage of networks was ing, dependent on donations to survive at a higher quality of programs than any sta- all. By 1939, it had been all but squeezed tion could manage. Money from commer- out by commercial interests. Britain, on the cials broadcast nationwide paid for the other hand, established the government- writers, actors, musicians, announcers, run British Broadcasting Corporation, journalists, producers, engineers, and oth- which programmed what those who were ers who put together the dramas, comedies, in charge believed listeners needed to hear variety shows, children's shows, and news and should hear. It was—and still is—finan- programs that made the radio in the parlor cially supported by annual license fees on the favorite place for the family to gather television sets. Starting in the mid-1950s, in the evening. In the 1920s, advertisers the BBC permitted an independent com- identified their products in the names of mercial service, ITV, to operate under strict the programs themselves, garnering extra regulation. Many nations followed the Brit- publicity when newspaper logs listed such ish model. programs as "The Eveready Hour" advertis- Besides commercials and license fees, a ing batteries, and "The A&P Gypsies" ad- third method evolved for supporting a na- vertising the grocery chain. tional broadcasting system: direct govern- In the home, radio sets were powered by ment funding. In authoritarian nations, batteries until 1926. It was inevitable that radio and television stations got funds from radios would also go into cars. A battery direct grants, which kept the broadcasters eliminator for cars was developed in 1930. firmly attached to the purse strings in the Cars and radio have been together ever hands of the government leaders. since. Car owners who could afford it had custom-made AC-powered radio sets in- 28 Networks stalled. At first, each U.S. radio station transmitted only its own programs, but the advantages of broadcasting the same program over sev- Technology had brought radios into the par- eral stations were obvious by 1922. Net- lor. Commercials provided an economic working would provide cheaper operating base. Networks added a programming base. costs for broadcasters, give advertisers a The Federal Radio Commission, later the larger audience, offer better programs to Federal Communications Commission, listeners who lived far from large cities, and added controls. One more element would limit effective competition. A broadcast be supplied for the start of the golden age of speech by the president of the United States radio, spanning approximately 1930 to demanded the largest possible audience. In 1950, when millions of people decided to 1922, telephone company engineers ex- stay home instead of going out. It would be perimented with hooking up stations to called the Depression. ENTERTAINMENT 119

Owning Cameras

Tens of millions of us all over the world own scope's vistas of faraway places, so real that cameras, and with them, we create memo- you could imagine yourself at the pyramids ries. Changing technology has consistently or the Taj Mahal, provided pleasure, infor- enabled more of us to afford to participate mation, and escape for decades. in the making and acquiring of photographs From the beginning, photographers fret- of better and better quality. From the time ted about the length of time it took to ex- of its invention, photography was more pose a picture. At first, people could not be than a means of information. It was a captured on film at all. When exposure source of deep personal pleasure. time shortened, the subjects had to hold still, the number of seconds decreasing as the technology improved. Because the Technical Improvements early cameras lacked shutters, the photog- It had also become a medium for artistic rapher simply took the lens cap off for the expression. Alfred Stieglitz and Edward number of seconds required to expose the Steichen built reputations rivaling painters plate. As film improved, inventors formu- who used brush and palette. Henri Cartier- lated better ideas for exposing the film for Bresson, Ansel Adams, and Edward Weston shorter and shorter time periods. The de- followed them. Stieglitz led a movement mand for stop-action pictures pushed the named the Photo Secession devoted to the inventors of optical and mechanical ^equip- idea of photography as an art form and a ment and photochemistry to bring to the means of personal expression. He exhibited marketplace such new products as the focal photographs in his New York gallery and plane shutter, located between the lens and founded Camera Work, a magazine for fine the film. photographic art. More than anyone, he As long as glass plates served as the saw photography as a form of art and he recording medium base, cameras would re- raised it to a new level. main bulky. The wet-plate process gave The stereo camera, its lenses spaced as far way by 1878 to a gelatin silver bromide apart as human eyes, produced the stereo- dry-plate process that provided even graph, a picture pair that, viewed through greater sensitivity. It freed the photogra- a stereoscope, gave a three-dimensional pher from carrying a darkroom wherever view. Old stereoscopes and pictures can he went. Cameras small enough to hold in still be found in antique shops. The stereo- the hand removed the requirement of a

Figure 4.8 Three U.S. soldiers during the Korean War. Photos like this do much to shape attitudes toward distant events. (Courtesy U.S. Army.) 120 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Figure 4.9 A stereograph gives a three-dimensional view. A Union Army surgeon with a soldier's body. (Courtesy State Historical Society of Wisconsin.) tripod. But the glass plates themselves had Taking a series of pictures without re- limitations. They were heavy and fragile. loading, the first Kodak cameras featured a They required special chemicals and spe- fixed focus lens with one speed and a fixed cial handling. These difficulties led to a aperture. Owners returned the camera to search for a substitute material, something the company with the film still in it. The lightweight, but flexible enough to be rolled camera was mailed back to them reloaded around a spool, yet tough and transparent. and ready to go, accompaniedby the packet Inventors turned to nitrocellulose, the of pictures snapped by the owner. The source of collodion, an important chemical price for a typical Kodak model was $25 in glass plate photography. Simply put, including a roll of 100 pictures, plus $10 for they threw away the glass and, as a film developing and mounting the exposed pic- base, kept a version of the sticky stuff that tures and putting in a fresh roll. Eastman's stuck to the glass. slogan was, "You Press the Button, We Do the Rest." The photographer did not need to understand any chemistry. For the first The Kodak time, anyone could take a picture. Millions George Eastman marketed rolls of light- soon did. Camera clubs sprang up every- sensitive celluloid—film—similar to the where. kind that we buy today. The word film now The hobby of photography, not just the joined the buzz about photography. East- price of a single photograph, was becom- man put the new film in a basic camera ing more affordable for average people, which he called a Kodak. The name had no although $25 was still a lot of money in meaning. Eastman chose the five-letter those days. Eastman would soon manufac- word because it sounded simple and wasn't ture models that brought the price down as easy to imitate. low as one dollar. Eastman said his cam- By the end of the nineteenth century, eras brought photography "within the some 50 different types of cameras were reach of every human being who desires manufactured. The Kodak offered camera to preserve a record of what he sees." owners simplicity, reducing the usual ten When Eastman's Brownie camera sold for or more operations needed for an exposure $1 with a six-exposure roll of film that cost to just three: pull the cord, turn the key, 15 cents, photography was truly available press the button. for "the man in the street." Eastman had ENTERTAINMENT 121

of the lens. Like so many inventions, the camera itself grew more complicated in order to make its operation more simple. Back in the days of the daguerreotype and wet-plate photography, the camera was little more than a box with a lens, but getting pictures took training, practice, and skill. By contrast, the Japanese cameras were crammed with microcircuitry and intricate mechanical and optical parts, but anyone could press a button. Eastman's old advertising slogan, "You Press the Button, We Do the Rest," could hardly be truer for the automated single-lens reflex camera controlled by computer chips and infrared sensors. The filmless camera arrived in the early Figure 4.10 The Brownie was built for 1980s. The Sony Mavica CCD camera re- children, but adults liked its corded images onto a small digital disc that, price and simplicity. (Courtesy International Museum of without chemical processing, could be Photography at George Eastman transmitted over ordinary telephone lines House.) or by satellite. Another device, the photo CD player, used photographs encoded digi- designed the Brownie for children, but tally on compact discs. The photographs adults used it, too. Pictures that could be could be displayed in color on a home tele- taken easily came to be known by the way vision set, accompanied by any functions that hunters described shooting a rifle from the owner wished to add, such as pans and the hip without aiming: a snapshot. zooms, skip selection, audio narration or music, text, and graphics. Kodak and Japanese camera and film More Improvements manufacturers joined to introduce the Ad- By the turn of the century, experiments vanced Photo System in 1996. Moving even were being done with color film and color more buttons inside, it featured drop-in, filters. Eastman-Kodak's Kodachrome color no-threading film canisters. Users could film was invented in 1935. The year 1947 choose standard or wide framing for each brought another major invention, Edwin shot, and on the back of a print could iden- Land's Polaroid camera process that al- tify the date, location, and subject. The film lowed quick film development and printing conveyed the instructions to the processing inside the camera. The back of the camera equipment to compensate for poor lighting. carried separate negative and positive film rolls. The act of pulling the film out of the camera sent it between two rollers that Pictures that Lie broke small pods of developing gel, spread- Digital imaging converted images into dots ing them evenly across the film surface. that could be moved or removed. Elec- One minute later the positive print was tronic changes eliminated any evidence of ready to be peeled away. The instant print tampering. Customers came to the shops of process was available in color by 1963, fol- expert digital imagers with beloved old pho- lowed in 1972 by the Polaroid SX-70, which tographs that had seen better days. The combined the negative and positive mate- experts scanned the photos into a com- rials in a single unit, thanks to fourteen puter, cleaned up the damaged areas, and separate coatings. reproduced them as photographs. Other re- From Japan came the point-and-shoot, quests have included taking unidentified automatic-everything camera. The focus people out of a photograph; adding missing adjusted instantly to whatever was in front relatives to a family reunion; bringing grand- 122 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Figure 4.11 In 1996, Kodak introduced cameras for the Advanced Photo System that carried instructions to photo finishing equipment. (Reprinted with permission from Eastman Kodak Company.) mother, mother, and daughter together for a three-generation portrait, closing gaps in a photograph of relatives to make the scene cozier, or eliminating braces on teeth before the orthodontist could. A divorced Figure 4.12 Photojournalism can convey woman popped her ex-husband's image out powerful emotions, but the of a family portrait. And a boy named Brian strongest pictures bring a public got a poster of himself perched atop a movie outcry such as attended this picture of the execution of Ruth marquee advertising the Monty Python Judd. The photographer strapped movie, The Life of Brian. a tiny camera to his ankle. The old adage that the camera never lies can have few remaining adherents. Mod- ern photography can certainly lie. In the framing of a National Geographic cover in 1920s, a few newspaper editors combined 1982. An expert explained: pictures into composographs, which brought images of people from different photo- With the new technology we can enhance graphs together in close proximity. The colors or change them, eliminate details, add or delete figures, alter the composition and pictures were outright fakes, visual lies. lighting effects, combine any number of Publishers justified using them because images, and literally move mountains, or at they sold newspapers. At times, these dis- least the Eiffel Tower, as one magazine did to tortions had political value. Enough voters improve a cover design. TV Guide didn't even stop at decapitation—it placed Oprah were deceived during the McCarthy era of 29 the 1950s to defeat liberal Senator Millard Winfrey's head on Ann Margaret's body! Tydings for re-election after he was shown standing beside Communist leader Earl Holograms Browder, an event that never happened. Work continued on practical, affordable But the old manipulation of still pictures holography, a two-dimensional photo- was crude compared with digital imaging. graphic system that produces three-dimen- Computer software for digital retouching sional photographs using laser beams. A shifted the pyramids at Giza to improve the ENTERTAINMENT 123

message to a spaceship. If, one day, motion holography can be delivered to the home as television pictures, there is little doubt about its acceptance. To view a video hologram would be more like looking through a window at the street outside than like watching TV.

From its beginnings, photography has given people information, entertainment, and aesthetic pleasure. As a tool of journalism, photographs delivered information that words alone could not. The eyes of starving African children with flies hovering about helped launch cargo planes. The pained eyes of brutalized Bosnian women shook Western nations into action. The eyes of baby harp seals just Figure 4.13 About 1960 Wisconsin Senator before the fur hunter's club crashed down Alexander Wiley sent out this led to a halt to the slaughter. As a tool of composograph of three separate medicine, photography has helped to im- pictures as a Christmas card. prove our health. As a tool of science, it has (Courtesy State Historical transformed what is unknown to what is Society of Wisconsin.) known. At the same time, we have derived en- hologram can appear to extend deep into joyment from still pictures in mass media, the wall on which the picture is hanging or notably magazines, and from motion pic- it can seem to extend outward into a room tures. And if the first expensive tool of so viewers carefully walk around what is communication we purchase is not our not actually there. Holograms have a own camera, it will likely be the second or number of scientific uses. They can also be third. Photography also enables us to share found on magazine covers and on museum memories over a family photo album or walls. The first of the Star Wars films con- pause alone for a reflective moment in a tained a hologram appearance by "Princess busy day with a photo in a wallet. The Leia," the heroine, who delivered a "mailed" command "Smile!" carries a lot of meaning.

Movies Tell Stories

Movie audiences loved stories. France's Nickelodeons George Melies, who had run a magic show, Exhibitors strung a few of these brief films produced the first openly fiction films. together in random fashion as a program. Modern audiences enjoy A Trip to the Moon, In this way the nickelodeon began, its as a whimsical introduction to the history of name reflecting the price of admission. The space flight. Melies was among the first to first nickelodeon opened in Pittsburgh in stretch the film from less than one minute 1904. Within a year, 2,500 were operating, to an entire reel of 10 to 15 minutes length. selling 200,000 tickets a day by 1907. Nick- 124 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Figure 4.14 A movie theatre about 1920 advertising its spectacle. (Courtesy State Historical Society of Wisconsin.) elodeons popped up in every corner of the diversion after work, as well as an opportu- land, gaudy and brightly lit, sometimes nity to meet men.30 with a barker out front aided by a loud Nickelodeons brought in packs of "smudgy phonograph to fill up the house. 31 The nickel theaters attracted shoppers urchins," couples looking for a dark place with tired feet, office workers on their for their dates, and entire working class lunch hour, unaccompanied women for families including their squalling babies. whom a movie theater was a safe and gen- The cinema brought affordable entertain- erally respectable place to go. Victorian ment to the poor, who had neither the dis- middle class morality limited entertain- posable income nor the time for other paid ment for women. For them, the cinema had amusements, but only the white poor, for a particular appeal. blacks were usually barred from nickelodeons. More than any other entertainment form, the cinema opened up a space—a social Most of the early comedies borrowed their space as well as a perceptual experiential characters, if not their plots, from vaudeville horizon—in women's lives... Married women skits. As in vaudeville, ethnic and racial would drop into a movie theater on their parodies were prevalent, with dim-witted way home from a shopping trip, a pleasure Irish servants blowing themselves up trying indulged in just as much by women of the to light the stove or taking off their clothes more affluent classes. Schoolgirls fill the when asked to serve the salad "undressed"; theaters during much of the afternoon, unscrupulous Jewish merchants in full before returning to the folds of familial beards and long black coats cheating their discipline. And young working women customers, and blacks behaving like would find in the cinema an hour of children—cakewalking, grin- ENTERTAINMENT 125

ning, shooting craps, stealing chickens, and Opposite the barren school yard was the ar- eating watermelon...32 caded entrance to the Nickelodeon, finished in white stucco, with the ticket seller Customers sometimes packed in from throned in a chariot drawn by an elephant morning to night, one show after another, trimmed with red, white and blue lights... seven days a week. They streamed out of Here were groups of working girls—now one nickelodeon into another, beguiled by happy "summer girls"—because they had the barkers, the flashing lights, and the left the grime, ugliness, and dejection of their factories behind them, and were fresh- colorful posters outside until their endur- ened and revived by doing what they liked to ance or their pockets were drained. Be- do.34 tween shows, the nickelodeon owners sent their relatives up and down the aisle selling snacks and soda pop. In some theaters, the Fear of Revolutionary Ideas attendants squirted the air with a solution The wealthy classes did not frequent the to mask the foul air, which did nothing nickelodeons, but from their ranks came about the pestilential germs that city in- expressions of worry that uneducated spectors worried about. To keep up with workingmen and women were being fed demand for new movies, exhibitors revolutionary ideas. Suggestions were changed the bill daily, or even twice a day. made that the content of the nickelodeons be regulated, censored, or even sup- The nickels rattled down like hailstones as pressed. Some of these suggestions came workingmen and their families crowded into from saloon owners who were losing cus- the lobbies, overflowed in long patient lines tomers, managers of vaudeville houses, and on the street. Inside the program lasted from twenty minutes to an hour: a brief ministers who saw their congregations melodrama or chase; a comedy; a news sharply diminished. In time, the nickelode- picture or travel picture; a glimpse of ons would indeed be put out of business, dancers or acrobats. Between films the pro- but only by better quality theaters and bet- jectionist inserted "hand-colored" slides of ter shows. popular songs, the pianist pounded out the melodies, and the whole audience sang... As long as there was no alternative to the "Waltz Me Around Again, Willie."... Far too nickel theaters, customers were content to often, in the middle of a picture, the projec- squeeze themselves into darkened, airless tionist inserted a slide reading, "One Minute, storefronts to watch 15- to twenty-minute Please!" This indicated a break in the film, or 35 trouble with the machine. Everyone began shows with seven- or eight-minute features. stamping in unison. If the necessary repair required a little time, there were slides After about a decade, as the appeal of mo- advertising the stores of local tradesmen, and tion pictures expanded beyond the poorer announcing future programs. The audience, classes to be enthusiastically embraced by impatient for a renewal of illusion, whistled middle-class Americans, the nickelodeons, and shouted. Youngsters carrying trays piled the store fronts, the backs of the arcades, with peanuts, candy, popcorn and soda-pop and the circus tents gave way to theaters rushed up and down the aisles, crying their wares. Presently the machine resumed its built for movie watching, and later to a sputtering, and the screen came alive again. considerably grander architecture, movie There was a ripple of applause, a fluttering palaces. In summertime, the blessings of air sigh of contentment. Then silence, broken conditioning drew in patrons. by the crackling of peanut shells and As feature films took hold, it became popcorn, the whimpering of a frightened obvious that nickelodeons and small movie child. In the fetid darkness, tired men and theaters could no longer depend upon in- women forgot the hardships of poverty. For this was happiness. This was the Promised come from a rapid turnover of audiences Land.33 who came for a string of short films. The audiences liked the longer feature films. A writer of the times observed: 126 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

The solution was much larger theaters that A Market for Simple Stories could seat audiences of many hundreds or The movie-going public had enough prob- even several thousand. The first movie pal- lems of their own. They liked escape into ace, the Strand Theater on Broadway, fantasy. Reality in the form of actuality film opened its doors in 1914 and was an imme- 'was not what they entered the darkened diate success. It could seat almost 3,000 theater to see. Eventually, the public would patrons at a time. Once again, the public express its preference for color and sound, decided the direction that a medium of for these added even more pleasure to an communication would take. Within two evening of going out to the movies. And years, approximately 21,000 newly built or always, the actors. extensively remodeled theaters were completed. Downtown in large cities, the more Never in history has the public been so avid ornate motion picture showplaces featured for information about mortals who earn a orchestra pits, pipe organs, and plaster Byz- living by posturing... The sheer magnitude antine architecture. They were designed to of this adoration invites awe. Each day mil- attract middle class patrons who were be- lions of men, women, and children sit in the ginning to go to motion pictures, but would windowless temples of the screen to not enter dingy, crowded nickelodeons. commune with their vicarious friends and Film exchanges, instead of selling films lovers.36 to exhibitors, rented them. In time, as the industry matured, distribution centers and In 1903, director-photographer Edwin Por- chain owners would dominate the mom- ter made The Great Train Robbery, the first and-pop beginnings of film exhibition. memorable story film and the first to utilize Movie theater chains with hundreds of out- film editing to establish relationships. In lets either contracted with studios or had eight minutes, bandits hold up a mail train, the same corporate ownership, guarantee- a posse is formed, they chase after the ban- ing both a steady supply of product and dits, a shoot-out follows, and the bandits are dependable distribution. Warner Bros, wiped out. For the first time, too, the camera films opened in a Warner Bros, theater in moved with the action, indoors and out. every large city, Paramount films at a Para- Excited audiences lined up to get in and mount, MGM films at a Loew's theater. demanded more. Moviemakers listened.

Figure 4.15 The Great Train Robbery introduces cutting to advance the narrative. Film makers discovered that audiences loved stories. (Courtesy State Historical Society of Wisconsin.) ENTERTAINMENT 127

A lot of ticket buyers were poor and had cutting. When the screen comic hero's little formal education. Many immigrants automobile missed the oncoming locomo- were illiterate in the English language. Rea- tive by inches, the audience suspended be- sonably, they wanted to see what they lief and laughed. Sennett, the director, was could understand. The burlesque tradition, followed by silent film actors who took the particularly pratfall comedy, filled the bill comic art to yet greater heights. Harold nicely. So did simple stories of adventure Lloyd, Buster Keaton, and, above the rest, and romance that everyone could enjoy. Charlie Chaplin blended slapstick with pa- Literates in the audience read the subtitles thos. His meld of mirth, romance, and sad- to those sitting nearby. People willingly ness created one of the classic characters of plunked down their hard-earned coins for any age and culture, the little tramp, in visual comedy and stories. such films as The Kid, The Gold Rush, and Audiences sometimes wanted more City Lights. than excitement and romance. They wanted a chance to laugh. Fred Ott's Sneeze (1893), an early Edison film for the Kine- The Actors toscopes, began a long tradition of film As usual, the customers had something to comedy. Under the guiding hand of Mack say about what they were paying to see. Sennett, slapstick grew from its limited Audiences showed by their ticket pur- roots in burlesque to an art form. The Key- chases an attachment for certain actors and stone Kops' nonsensical appearance and actresses. The result was Hollywood's crea- incompetence allowed people to laugh at a tion of a star system early in the1 history of social institution that was anything but hu- the motion picture. Moviegoers, it turned morous. For immigrants from many coun- out, identified with the characters looming tries, regarding the policeman as a figure of so large on the screen. fun must have been strange indeed. The first screen actors were people who ( In the slapstick comedies, danger was appeared in front of the camera only be- constant and hairbreadth escapes were cause they were not busy working behind common, but no one died and no one was it. Wives, friends, visitors took a turn. When even seriously hurt. Settings were realistic, stage actors began arriving at the new but the realism was exaggerated to absurd- movie studios to look for work, they were ity by fast-motion film, ridiculous props, given acting jobs, but not the publicity they split-second timing, and incongruous film expected, because studio owners were

Figure 4.16 Immigrants loved seeing the Keystone Kops. Where many of them came from, policemen were nothing to laugh at. (Courtesy State Historical Society of Wisconsin.) 128 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION afraid this would lead to demands for better Assembly Line Production pay. This situation soon changed. Theater The melodrama evolved into the romantic owners reported to producers that audi- drama with The Birth of a Nation (1915), a ences looked forward to seeing familiar feature film nearly three hours long. Direc- faces. Word raced through town that the tor D.W. Griffith's manipulation of long, actor or actress who had appeared in such- medium, and close-up shots, pacing, and and-such a role could be seen again at the optical effects, plus his choice of locations Bijou in a new motion picture. That meant and his attention to actors' movements set ticket sales. new standards for the motion picture. He In 1914, Charlie Chaplin was being paid insisted on close-ups of actors despite pro- $125 a week. By 1915, he was getting tests from studio executives that audiences $10,000 a week plus $150,000 for signing wanted to see the actors from head to toe the contract. By 1916, Mary Pickford was and would not accept "half an actor." Start- getting $10,000 a week plus half the profits ing with The Birth of a Nation film would of her pictures. For the business they have a visual language that the public brought in, they were worth every penny. would understand, a language to which it In the darkened movie houses, the fans would respond. Although a silent film, The could feel close to the famous actors who Birth of a Nation had the accompaniment of looked out at them in close-ups. For at least live music, anything from a 70-piece sym- a short time, the moviegoer could displace phony orchestra to a single piano playing a whatever existed in his or her life with musical score written for the film. mediated pleasure. That experience has never gone out of our lives. The new possibilities of the movie camera Moviegoers wanted formula films that (especially in the early days before sound) did not vary much from one comedy to the tempted movie makers to exploit the pecu- next, one cowboy western to the next. Most liar capacity of the movie screen to depict of all, they wanted happy endings. The what could not have been physically repre- popular melodrama easily made the transi- sented on the stage. The first great box-office success... was D.W. Griffith's Birth of a tion from stage to screen. The hero dashed Nation, which attracted millions by its ex- up at the last minute to save the tied-down pansive battle scenes, its torrential action, heroine from the oncoming train, then and its close-ups of the faces of leering vil- turned to thrash the villain. Film cuts kept lains and of dead soldiers. This was the first the pacing and mood, and fades kept the movie ever shown in the White House. After story line from scene to scene. It was cer- seeing it, President Wilson is said to have remarked, "It is like writing history with tainly better than raising and lowering a 37 lightning." stage curtain. Real locomotives and spinning circular lumber saws enhanced the The Birth of a Nation was also a racially sense of reality better than the cardboard biased movie, portraying blacks in cartoon- imitations of the stage. The melodrama and ish ways as vicious and inferior, while hold- outdoor filming were clearly made for each ing up as noble the white-sheeted Ku Klux other. Klan. It created considerable public anger, Adolph Zukor spent $35,000 to bring to including protest marches and complaints the United States in 1912 a film made in by prominent citizens, but this only in- France, Sarah Bernhardt's portrayal of creased its popularity at the box office. It Queen Elizabeth. He charged $1 a ticket, an was probably the first "must see" film. As unheard of price, and rented a major thea- for black movie patrons, their feelings were ter. Zukor, who created Paramount Pic- of little concern because they were not tures, has been called the father of the welcome in movie theaters. They were, in feature film. He once said, "The public is the South, either barred outright or directed never wrong." to balconies reserved for them, and in the ENTERTAINMENT 129

Figure 4.17 The Birth of a Nation electrified audiences because of its techniques, but also caused riots because of its bigotry. (Courtesy State Historical Society of Wisconsin.)

North unceremoniously escorted by ushers of art that had a shock value were prized, to seats in the balcony or near the side "decadent" or not. After World War» II, a walls.38 new tradition swept a revived French motion picture industry. Called New Wave, it Motion Pictures in Other rebelled against accepted morality and nor- Countries mal codes of behavior. With it grew the Sooner or later every large nation in the auteur tradition, which saw movies as the world and many small nations fashioned product of a single mind, that of the direc- their own cinema. Along with a national tor, rather than as a collaboration of the airline, the possession of a film industry talents of writers, actors, and dozens of became a point of national pride. others. While American motion picture produc- In Russia after the Bolshevik revolution tion was shifting to Hollywood and sur- of 1917, a Soviet film industry and the rounding communities in Southern world's first film school fostered Marxist California, other nations constructed their ideology. Recognizing the political power own film industries. Germany and Den- of mass communication, Lenin said, "The mark each claim the first motion picture cinema for us is the most important of the studio. World War I gave a boost to Holly- arts." To build support, so-called agitprop wood because almost all the European stu- trains fanned out across the countryside dios shut down. Among the wartime carrying propaganda lauding communist shortages was cellulose, the film base, also ideals. The film industry was led by such used to make explosives. Lacking their brilliant directors as Sergei Eisenstein own, Europeans began to import American whose theory of montage—the relationship films. After the war, their national produc- of one scene to another—has influenced tion resumed. many film makers. His Battleship Potemkin France, the early leader, fell behind in has been called the most important film building a strong postwar film industry, but ever made because it showed the broad led experiments into unusual forms of ex- possibilities of film editing based on pression, notably the avant-garde move- rhythm and the connecting of visual im- ment in film as well as in poetry, painting, ages. Meanwhile, radio sent the communist and music. Avant-garde art looked at the message across the vast reaches of the new world in new, symbolic ways. Expressions Soviet Union. In rural areas where few 130 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION radios existed, loudspeakers went up on attacks them in the woods later recall what poles in village squares. happened. Each version flatters the In Germany, a sturdy film industry grew speaker at the expense of the other two. A in the fifteen years following World War I, woodcutter who happened to be in the for- with films that were more psychological est relates a more objective, presumably than the lightweight American product. accurate tale of the event, which makes all They explored darker visions of the soul, three participants look bad. Critics list reflecting the despair of a once proud na- Rashomon among the great films of all time. tion bitter and defeated, when a barrelful India and China have also developed of money bought one loaf of bread. It was notable film industries. India produces said that the low point of the nation was the more films than Hollywood. From China in high point of its silent film. Here the tech- recent years have come award-winning niques of the moving camera expanded. films that combine epic action with consid- When the Nazis took power, some of Ger- erable emotional sensitivity. many's greatest directors, actors, and technicians escaped to Hollywood. The Nazi The Coining of Sound takeover transformed German cinema into Silent movie theaters were anything but a propaganda arm of the state. After World silent. The audience kept up a cheerful War II, a revived German film industry racket. Slides carried the message, "Please emphasized strong and unusual dramatic Do Not Stamp. The Floor May Cave In." themes. Some movie palaces boasted orchestras, or- In Britain, a social documentary tradi- gans, or sound effects machines like the tion grew during the Depression and World Noiseograph, the Dramagraph, and the War II that identified a host of problems Soundograph, whose keyboards sent out confronting their society and suggested glass crashing and horses galloping. Profes- governmental solutions. The British were sional actors interpreted the dialogue be- also able to enjoy a good laugh at them- hind the screen: selves. A string of postwar British films like Passport to Pimlico and Tight Little Island The systematic use of... live performers dur tapped a vein of gentle self-mocking hu- ing motion picture presentations began at mor. They drew appreciative audiences in least as early as 1897... and during the first the United States and the British Common- decade of the century a number of profes wealth. The Monty Python brand of humor sional actors companies were founded to evolved from earlier examples of dry Brit- provide such services to theaters on a regu lar basis _ In fact, then, the "silent film" is ish wit. a myth. It never existed. Furthermore, the Italy after World War II originated a term was rarely used prior to 1926—only school of neorealism, the exact opposite of afterwards.39 Hollywood glitter. Films like Open City, Shoeshine, and The Bicycle Thief had the The only real interest in sound films mate- gritty look of documentary as they chron- rialized from Warner Bros., when it was icled the bleak lives of poor people in dis- nearly bankrupt and desperate, although tress. Harry M. Warner reportedly asked, "Who Japan's film industry sparkled because the hell wants to hear actors talk?" As it of its directors. Akira Kurosawa is the direc- turned out, the public did. Using Vita- tor best known to Western audiences. His phone, a system that synchronized phono- Rashomon (1950), a costumed drama set in graph disc recordings with a film projector, Japan's long feudal era, is a classic that Warners in 1926 presented some sound someone will mention in ordinary conver- shorts and a silent film, Don Juan, to which sation to make the point that people who the studio added a music score, plus the go through the same experience may have clash of swords for a duel, but made no different memories of it. In the Rashomon effort to lip-sync words. A year later, story, a husband, a wife, and the bandit who Warner Bros, tried again with a silent fea- ENTERTAINMENT 131

while the more sensitive, intelligent audiences wanted silent films. Hollywood executives should have known better because talkies followed right behind broadcasting, which was spreading as fast as people could afford to buy radio sets.

The Coming of Color At first, a few films were hand painted, frame by frame, clearly an impractical solution. In another process, scenes were tinted; segments of black-and-white film were simply dipped into dye so scenes showing a lot of sky might be blue, scenes of a burning building might be tinted red. Figure 4.18 The Vitaphone camera that photographed The Jazz Singer, An improved method chemically toned the 1927, was encased in a darker areas and shadows, leaving the high- soundproof booth without air lighted areas clear. These attempts strove conditioning. to heighten the mood of the film rather than to add realism. ture film that had music accompaniment The first patent for a color process was and four singing or talking sequences. The issued in 1897, shortly after movies began. Jazz Singer starred Al Jolson, who belted out Several optical color processes used col- "Mammy" and, in the second reel, uttered ored filters or dyes, with less than spectacu- those prophetic words, "Wait a minute! Wait lar quality. Only Technicolor, invented by a minute, I tell ya! You ain't heard nothin' Herbert Kalmus, was successful, emerging yet." in 1922 as a two-tone process, but changing Hollywood executives wanted to leave over the years to a much better three-tone well enough alone and stay with silent film. process. The complicated method involved not only printing images on special film (Most producers) were annoyed with Warner with layers of emulsion, but shooting with for rocking the industrial boat. Box office special camera lenses that split the light was down slightly and competition from the beam, sending the split images through new sound entertainment of radio seemed different colored filters. Technicolor gradu- one possible cause, but it was by no means ally took over Hollywood films, although certain that the addition of recorded sound to most of its establishment did not seem to movies would bring larger audiences into the care about it one way or the other. theaters.40 The improvement in the Technicolor system Actually, ticket sales rose sharply and soon was unquestionably the most important talkies were pouring out of the Hollywood technical advance of the decade (of the studios. In 1929, Broadway Melody won the 1930s), but was regarded with almost total Academy Award for best picture. indifference by most people in the industry.41 Most studios and stars, notably Chaplin, preferred the silent screen with the dia- The public did care and, as usual, prevailed. logue printed on cards that appeared after Long lines for Gone With the Wind in 1939 the words were spoken, but the public should have convinced any doubters that again, by their ticket purchases, forced the the public loved romantic stories in lush switch to sound. In so doing, the public Technicolor. determined the direction that films would During the 1980s, when old black-and- take. Lines at the box offices swept aside white films were colorized for television, the argument that sound was for lowbrows 132 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Figure 4.19 Crowds greeting the opening of The Jazz Singer convinced the film industry that sound was here to stay. (Courtesy State Historical Society of Wisconsin.)

the establishment did come out firmly, this Garbo, Jeanette MacDonald, James Cag- time against color, arguing that computer- ney, Gary Cooper, Katherine Hepburn, generated colors ruined the directors' origi- Cary Grant, John Wayne, Bob Hope, Bing nal visions. Once again, the public seemed Crosby, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Berg- to prefer color. Once again, the public pre- man, Danny Kaye, Judy Garland, Fred As- vailed. To colorize a black-and-white film, taire, Marilyn Monroe, Errol Flynn, Bette technicians using computer graphics soft- Davis, Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, ware choose a color for each field in a frame. Frank Sinatra, Sophia Loren, Henry Fonda, For example, the technician might assign Audrey Hepburn, Marlon Brando, Goldie light blue for a woman's dress or a man's Hawn, Mel Gibson, Madonna, Clint East- shirt, neither knowing or worrying about wood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sean Con- what the original colors really were. nery, Harrison Ford, and Julia Roberts. Their names alone on a theater marquee were guaranteed to sell tickets. The Stars and Their Films The musicals from the 1930s onward The first movie fan magazine, Photoplay, were Hollywood at its brightest. If audi- appeared in 1910. When Motion Picture Story ences loved fantasies mixed with glitter, a year later asked readers to choose their the "dream factories" were only too happy favorite film stories, many of them re- to turn them out on the production lines. sponded with questions about their favorite Several studios produced musicals, but actors and actresses. none with such success as MGM, which had The star system was one of several ways a stable of gifted performers under con- in which the public determined the direc- tract. That the plots were usually absurd tion that movies would take. The love affair and always predictable only added to their between movie fans and the objects of their charm. The audiences wanted to escape adoration on the silver screen deepened into a singing, dancing, Technicolor fan- with the passing decades as the movie stu- tasy, and the studios gave them what they dios and actors themselves turned out to be wanted. expert at churning out publicity. The star If any type of Hollywood movie was system reached its zenith when the big even better known around the world than studios themselves reached their peaks in the musical, it was the western. Ever since the 1930s, '40s, and '50s. Decade after dec- The Great Train Robbery put movies firmly ade the top actors and actresses became on the track of narrative fiction, Hollywood household names: John Barrymore, Greta produced "horse operas" and created the ENTERTAINMENT 133

myth of the lone cowboy doing what was self-censorship code was too weak and that right, no matter what the odds. Westerns Hays himself was nothing more than an could be turned out cheaply and quickly, employee of the industry, led an attack that with familiar plots, pedestrian dialogue, he- went on for decades. roes in white hats, villains in black hats, The focus on sex and violence was soon and Indians who said little more than expanded to include political views. Barred "How!" and were shot off their horses on were disputes between labor and manage- cue, perpetuating the stereotype. Genera- ment, government or police corruption, tions of little boys, dreaming of becoming and injustice. Motion pictures were consid- cowboys, attacked the Indians. ered an improper vehicle for political con- As for historical epics, to put it simply, troversy. Films that failed to meet strict audiences loved them. Ticket buyers filled standards were blacklisted and boycotted. the theaters at premium prices for a big A number of states and cities set up censor- budget film with the biggest stars, the most ship boards to examine movies, but the lavish costumes, the grandest sets, and a standards varied from one board to an- cast of thousands. other. The Kansas board, for example, Action adventures are just as much a banned scenes of smoking or drinking and staple today as they were in the silent days limited kissing scenes to a few seconds. when immigrant populations could enjoy A series of United States Supreme Court films without knowing the language. They decisions from the 1950s to the 1970s on the require neither much thought nor language constitutionality of state laws about ob- competence. Karate movies from Hong scenity gave moviemakers more leeway. Kong play well to English-speaking audi- The import of foreign films and the rise of ences and Sylvester Stallone movies play television also influenced an ending to cen- well to Chinese-speaking audiences. It may sorship restrictions. Still pressured from all be unfortunate that violence travels well, sides, the motion picture industry decided but it does. that instead of a single standard for what should be seen and heard in the films, there Censorship should be audience controls based on age. In 1968, modeled on a system used in Brit- From the start of the fiction film, the forces ain, a self-censorship code was adopted that of order saw the potential for disorder and we know today by the G, PG, R, and X moved to contain it. The history of the designations. motion picture, not only in the United States but in most of the world, could be told in terms of the continuum from control Political Issues through moderate freedom, then extensive During the Depression, when economic freedom, to total abandonment of control, misery stalked the land, the public ex- a condition arguably not yet reached. pressed its preference for light comedy and Censorship of movies began in 1909 with adventure films that gave them escape the establishment in New York of the Na- from their dreary lives. For the most part, tional Board of Censorship of Motion Pic- audiences stayed away from sad and seri- tures, created by members of the industry ous films, so the Hollywood motion picture itself. In 1922, the industry set up what industry turned out few of them. The quar- became known as the Hays Office, named ter that paid for an average cinema admis- for its first president, Will Hays, to protect sion could have bought a pound of beef, a audiences from the indecent and violent. gallon and a half of gasoline, or enough A Production Code Administration en- postage stamps to mail eight letters with a forced a code of acceptable on-screen be- penny left over for a postcard. By 1939 an havior, but these guidelines were softened average of 85 million movie tickets were over the years as moviemakers challenged sold each week. the limits. Fundamentalist Protestant and During World War II, Hollywood aided Catholic leaders, arguing that Hollywood's the war effort with patriotic films. After the 134 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION war, a few producers summoned up their peted with the stars in the sky. By 1958, courage and, for the first time, the Holly- nearly one theater in every three was a wood film industry tackled social issues drive-in, even though they had to close for like racism and anti-Semitism with such half the year in the northern states. More films as Home of the Brave (1949), Pinky families had automobiles, gas was cheap, (1949), and Gentleman's Agreement (1947). and so was an evening at the drive-in, with The Lost Weekend (1945) dealt with alcohol- free admission for kids, and no problem ism, Brute Force (1947) with prison brutal- with bringing your own sandwiches, even ity, and The Snake Pit (1948) with horrid the whole dinner. You could talk. Instead of conditions in insane asylums. sharing a theater with strangers, you had a However, the Cold War that closely fol- family outing or an evening with friends, lowed World War II brought with it a "Red not unlike an evening with the television of Scare." Deep political divisions emerged in the period, except that the movies were Hollywood. Actors, writers, and directors better, or scarier, the screen was bigger, suspected of Communist leanings were plenty of acting or spectacle or singing and blacklisted and denied work. Following dancing filled the screen, the image was hearings by the House Un-American Ac- certainly a lot clearer than on a round, gray tivities Committee, a few went to jail. television tube, and the commercials, if Frightened studios put a temporary end to any, appeared between the movies. films that advocated social change. Escap- You didn't have to dress up or pay for ism was more popular and less trouble. parking or a baby sitter, no small considera- It took years, but eventually this pain tion in the baby-boom postwar years; the went away, though its scars persist to this same considerations that lead people to day. Social problems reappeared in movies, stay at home now to watch a rented vide- which were gradually becoming more otape. The drive-in's snack bar did a brisk frank than ever. At one time, such themes business. Some drive-ins provided play- as hostile race relations, homosexuality, grounds, laundromats, and even picnic spots police brutality, and political corruption and miniature golf courses. All provided a lay beyond the pale. No longer. Spike Lee hangout for teens away from their parents. won critical applause and lines at the box It was also the favored "make out" place. office with motion pictures like Do the Right The double feature was usual, the triple Thing (1988), which examine, with no feature not unknown. No "B" picture was so holds barred, black-white race relations. bad that it could not be found at some Today, nothing lies beyond the boundaries drive-in. Rising real estate values along of what moviemakers will examine. Movies with better choices on television eventu- compete nationally and internationally for ally shut down the "ozoner." Teenagers the audience's dollars, marks, and yen with found their escape from the family at the explicit sex and considerable violence. The new shopping center multiplex. The rest of audience obviously is willing to pay to see the family would do their eating, talking, all this and more, and the audience, as and baby minding in front of the VCR. usual, gets what it is willing to pay for. Enter Television The Drive-In Studio executives in the 1940s and '50s at Downtown movie palaces and neighbor- first tried to ignore television as just a fad, hood theaters shut down as television denying the new medium access to its ac- reached across the land in the postwar gen- tors, directors, scripts, studios, and film li- eration and middle class people in cities braries. Little by little, television chipped migrated outward to the suburbs, but one away at each of these barriers. None stand kind of movie theater thrived. In an era of today. With their heavy overhead and ex- suburban outdoor living, of gardening, pensive talent on contract, the big studios boating, and barbecuing, the drive-in thea- were losing millions of dollars. To protect ter was a natural. The movie stars com- themselves, they cut their staffs, ended ENTERTAINMENT 135

Figure 4.20 The postwar popularity of drive-in theaters foreshadowed the growth of videotape rentals. They shared many of the same advantages. (Courtesy National Archives.) contracts with their stars and other high priced talent, and began renting out their studio facilities to television production companies. This weakness allowed independent producers to step in, make smaller films, take artistic chances with new ap- Marshall McLuhan once observed that proaches to subject matter, and distribute each new medium uses as its content the their films to theaters that were no longer medium it displaces. With the arrival of in the tight grip of the major studios. Some television, moviegoers stayed home to of the films tested the limits that censors watch their favorites on their television would allow. A fresh breeze was blowing screens instead of going out to the neigh- through studios whose practices had be- borhood theater, but the content of much come stiff and stale. of television and almost all of rented vide- Despite fears about the new medium, otape is movies. To put it accurately, only television certainly has not killed the mo- the delivery media have changed. Taste is tion picture, nor has it killed the motion less receptive to change. picture theater although there have been changes. Gone are most of the ornate downtown picture palaces, the mom-and-pop The Distribution Schedule single neighborhood theaters, and the sub- It is a mistake to think of motion pictures urban drive-ins, replaced by the more effi- as an industry that begins with production cient, unadorned multi-room cinema and ends with distribution to motion pic- complexes in shopping malls, where they ture theaters. Considered that way, the old share parking spaces with supermarkets medium certainly suffered with the ad- and clothing shops. Here and there the land- vance of the new medium, television, just scape is being dotted by mega-multiplexes as the television industry suffered with the with 15 to 20 screens and a lobby reminis- popularity of the even newer medium, cent of the old movie palaces in an effort to videotape. Seen purely from the production make going to the movies a more enjoyable standpoint, however, the motion picture experience than simply watching a movie. medium has expanded. Around the world, Some of these mega-multiplexes offer IMAX more motion pictures are being made, both screens six stories high and some even pro- on film and on videotape, than ever before, vide love seats that may blur the distinction and they are being distributed through an between home and public recreation. increasing number of outlets to an increasing number of viewers. We "go to the movies" in different ways, using new hardware for the Hollywood software we love to watch. Nowadays we may travel no further than our comfortable 136 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION living room sofa, fortifying ourselves with home videos of their two-year-old son's a bowlful of freshly microwaved popcorn birthday party, and fathers videotape their before we tune in or pop in a promising daughter's wedding with enough pans and flick. zooms to make a sailor seasick. Then they In the software distribution pattern of the present (or inflict) the results to guests as 1990s, a feature motion picture usually after-dinner entertainment. starts its life in first-run mall theaters. From The technology that supported motion there the more popular films go to cheaper picture production during the decades of second-run discount theaters. A few the golden age of Hollywood required enor- months after their introduction, while the mous sums of money. Although that helped public still remembers the newspaper ads to concentrate, in just a few hands, the and reviews, films reach the videotape ability to make films (and still does in the stores for sales and rental, and cable pay- rarefied world of high budget film making), per-view. After that come HBO, Cinemax, more recent technology is pushing in the and other premium cable channels. Next, opposite direction—outward to many network television. Several years after they hands. Production and distribution of mo- are first issued, the films are syndicated to tion pictures both on film and, now, on local television stations and free cable videotape is broader than ever. channel super stations. Along the way there While big budget movies are still being is an extensive network of foreign distribu- turned out, so are movies of quite good qual- tion and such specialty outlets as airlines. ity that are shot on a shoestring. Computer- Four new technologies may further based technology is bringing within reach change motion picture delivery. Direct broad- of the average income the editing processes cast satellites, or DBS, beam films and other of desktop video with special effects, such as television programming directly into homes morphing, that only recently were limited from a single source, eliminating the need to machines costing hundreds of thousands for either local television stations or local of dollars. Production facilities to shoot and cable companies. Second, high definition edit video motion pictures are going into television, or HDTV, displays pictures and schools, offices, and businesses that once sound of a quality available only in first-run would not have considered doing such a movie theaters. Third, fiber optics may bring thing as making a movie.42 cable-to-home transmission of videotapes from a library of tapes as large as the stock of a video store. That would eliminate the present fetch-and-return rental system. Fourth, movie-length compact disks may sup- It is possible to find someone who has plant videotape with digital quality pictures never read a book or a magazine or a news- and sound. All four technologies are at paper. It would be much harder to find present either on the way or already here. someone who has never seen a film. All generations have stayed home to watch movies instead of visiting relatives and Making Movies Cheaply friends or going to dances, sports events, Home movies have been around at least club meetings, or bowling alleys, activities since 1923, when the Cine-Kodak film cam- that television to some extent displaces. era and the Kodascope projector went on Most movie theater tickets today are sold to sale. This, too, forms part of the story of young people going on dates or spending motion pictures. Today, in homes far from an evening out with friends, glad for the Hollywood, more movies are being made chance to leave the house where the older than ever before as a result of the availability generation is settling in to watch their movies of the easy-to-use, moderately priced video on television screens. As happened so camcorder, a combined television camera many times, new mass communication and tape recorder, introduced in 1984. Mil- technologies have had a significant impact lions are sold each year. Proud mothers take on the lives of ordinary people. ENTERTAINMENT 137

Notes 20 Richard Hollander, Video Democracy (Mt. Airy, MD: Lomond Publications, 1985), 132. 1 David Nasaw, Going Out: The Rise and Fall of 21 J.M. Fenster, "How Bing Crosby Brought You Public Amusements (New York: Basic Books, Audiotape," Invention and Technology (Fall 1993), 8-9. 1994): 58. 2 Lloyd Morris, Not So Long Ago (New York: 22 Rebecca Ann Lind, "You Can Take It With Random House, 1949), 29. You: Uses and Gratifications of the Personal 3 Speech to the German Sociological Associa Stereo." Unpublished M.A. thesis, University tion, 1910, in Hanno Hardt, Social Theories of of Minnesota, 1989: 1. the Press: Early German and American Perspec 23 Susan J. Douglas, Inventing American Broad tives (Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1979). casting, 1899-1922 (Baltimore: The Johns Hop 4 Edwin Emery and Michael Emery, The Press kins University Press, 1987), 308. and America: An Interpretative History of the 24 Orange E. McMeans, "The Great Audience In Mass Media, fifth ed. (Englewood Cliffs: Pren vincible," Scribner's Magazine, April 1923, 411. tice-Hall, 1984), 259. 25 Ithiel de Sola Pool, Technologies of Freedom 5 Worcester Magazine, III, 181 (first week, July (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1787). 1983), 122. 6 Carl Bode, "Popular Magazines," in Norman 26 Erik Barnouw, The Sponsor (New York: Cantor and Michael Werthman, The History Oxford University Press, 1978), 16. of Popular Culture (New York: Macmillan, 27 R. Beniger, The Control Revolution (Cam 1968), 485. bridge: Harvard University Press, 1986), 367. 7 Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: 28 Oslin, 283. The Extensions of Man (New York: McGraw- 29 Arthur Goldsmith, "Reinventing the Image," Hill Book Co., 1964), 283. Popular Photography, 97:3 (March 1990): 49. 8 Harry M. Geldud, The Birth of the Talkies: 30 Miriam Hansen, Babel and Babylon: Spectator- From Edison to Jolson (Bloomington: Indiana ship in American Silent Film (Cambridge: University Press, 1975), 5. Harvard University Press, 1991), 117. 9 Dyer, Frank and Thomas Martin, Edison, His 31 Barton Currie, "The Nickel Madness," Harper's Life and Inventions (New York: Harper & Weekly, 24 August 1907, 1247. Bros., 1929), 206-07. 32 Nasaw, 167. 10 Daniel Marty, An Illustrated History of Phono graphs (New York: Dorset Press, 1981), 18. 33 Morris, 34-35. 11 George P. Oslin, The Story of Telecommunica 34 Simon Patten, Product and Climax (New tions (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press,* York: B.W. Huebsch, 1909), 18-19. 1992), 227. 35 Nasaw, 186. 12 Marty, 55. 36 Leo Rosten, Hollywood, the Movie Colony and 13 Geldud, 13. the Movie Makers. (Harcourt Brace & Co., 14 Marty, 71. 1941), 7-12. 37 Daniel J. Boorstin, The Image, or What Hap 15 Marty, 22. pened to the American Dream (New York: 16 B.L. Aldridge, The Victor Talking Machine Atheneum, 1961), 127-128. Company (Camden, NJ: RCA Sales Corp., 38 Nasaw, 236-37. 1964), 118. 39 Raymond Fielding, "The Technological Ante 17 Carolyn Marvin, When Old Technologies Were cedents of the Coming of Sound: An Intro New (New York: Oxford University Press, duction," in E.W. Cameron (ed), Sound and 1988), 203. the Cinema (New York: Redgrave Publishing 18 Victor "Red Seal" records and performances Co., 1980), 5. by Enrico Caruso and other European opera 40 Ellis, Jack C, A History of Film, 2nd ed. stars gave American record buyers a taste of (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1985), 152. European culture that was generally unavail 41 David Shipman, The Story of Cinema (Engle able except to the wealthy. wood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1982), 389. 19 Gary Gumpert, Talking Tombstones and Other 42 See, for example, David Biedny, "Movie Tales of the Media Age (New York: Oxford Magic," MacUser, August 1993, 92ff. University Press, 1987), 91.

The Fifth Revolution The

Toolshed

Home

The Communication Toolshed

Electricity had hardly emerged from the mation and, especially, for the entertain- laboratories when the realization dawned ment. Radio, which had its "golden age" at that here was a way to move information the same time as the movies, came directly without locomotion. At first, what was into our homes. The age was anything but transmitted were dots and dashes that com- golden for most people, for it brought the bined into words, and they did not flow Depression and World War II. Until the directly into our homes. The next step, the United States tooled up for war, the nation telephone, brought even better communi- had mass unemployment, bread lines, cation without transportation—the com- soup kitchens, padlocked factories and munication of sound—yet this audible stores, and families evicted from their communication was generally limited to homes, their furniture carried out to the information, not the complete range of de- street. For people with little money, radio sirable communication, which must in- programs were a godsend, free entertain- clude entertainment. Entertainment by ment. The years with radio, followed after sound first arrived at the home the way 1948 by commercial television, saw homes printed matter carrying information did, in increasingly functioning like places where physical form. It was the phonograph rec- people used communication more than ord. Roughly about the same time, as both they did anything else. information and entertainment, the published photograph arrived. They joined printing in the form of the book, the maga- What Makes a House zine, the newspaper, and home delivery a Home? mail in the steady process of making the The uncomplaining companions who home a communication toolshed. could wake us up and put us to sleep, radio Next, although it was a tremendous ad- and television, followed us from room to vance in so many other ways, the motion room, kept us company no matter what picture took a small step back in requiring else we did, and were there for us when we people to leave their homes for the infor- were too tired to think. Radio even stayed

138 THE TOOLSHED HOME 139 with us when we went outside for a drive, No reference to conversation can be found a walk, or a jog. Cable TV pumped its many in the ad, only communion with various selections into the home as it was inexora- media. Television had become the true re- bly changed into a communication tool- ality, the desired reality. Who has not tele- shed, the place that functions for storing phoned or visited a friend, even after a long and using tools of communication more separation, to find the television set on and than for any other purpose. no desire by the host to turn it off? The The computer and the modem that visitor feels like an intruder who has inter- reached the Internet, the communications rupted what really matters. What television satellite dish, E-mail, facsimile, and the station or network has not been besieged humble answering machine all contributed by furious telephone calls when a news to furnishing the toolshed with the appur- bulletin interrupts a soap opera? tenances to make dwelling there a more Here is another ad, this one from Radio attractive proposition than the uncon- Shack: nected home. Newspapers were tossed on the doorstep, magazines were stuffed in the Jim just had to have a new stereo system... mailbox along with catalogs, and books sat Dolby Pro Logic® Surround Sound, Great on shelves. If a home lacked even a few of Speakers... the whole nine yards. So I made these tools or if the tools were out of date, him a deal. If he gets his new stereo, then I get my new 486 PC with Windows, a CD- its occupants, pitied by friends, planned to 3 catch up. The tools of communication, not ROM, great software...The whole nine yards! "a heap o' livin'"1 were what really made a house a home in the second half of the Contacts Decrease twentieth century. The average American family spends more Two or three generations ago, new and more time and money on home enter- homes were built with front porches, a tainment.4 As we weave our communica- natural place to sit and swing, to sip iced tion cocoon around us, physical contact tea, to chat, and to greet the neighbors. with others decreases, replaced by a more Times changed. One generation ago the sedentary way of life. News stories about conversation pit was advertised as an ar- multiple cable channels resonate with an- rangement of living room furniture to form ticipation, for Oz lies at the end of the 500- a nook for a desirable activity, conversa- channel yellow brick road. We consumers tion. Times again changed. Here is a more look forward to ever more wonderful means recent newspaper ad for furniture, under of technology to bring content into our the heading "State-of-the-art surroundings homes that will pleasure our senses. We can for your state-of-the-art home theater": be entertained without being entertaining. The proportion of Americans who say Audio and video technology let you capture they socialize with neighbors more than the superb sound and picture quality of a once a year has declined. Memberships in real theater performance at home. Our Berk- organizations fell sharply after television line reclining chairs, sofas and loveseats are entered the home, and so did participation light years ahead of real theater seats. in civic associations and volunteer work. They're spacious, soft and can put you in ex- The number of bowlers increased by 10%, actly the most comfortable reclining posi- but membership in bowling leagues tion. (Yet they're quick to adjust when the dropped 40% between 1980 and 1993.5 movie has you on the edge of your seat.) Built-in drawers hold video tapes, books or When friends invite friends over to watch magazines and a pull-down table and drink television, the communion is with the holder holds your popcorn and pop. And screen. The whisper heard up and down Berkline's Touchmotion Wallaway mecha- every street when someone breaks the nism permits smooth, effortless reclining at silence is, "Ssh! I'm listening (watching, the touch of a button while furniture can stand reading)." The result is a growing isolation just 3 inches from the wall.2 from close, attentive interaction with 140 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION other people. In extreme examples, it is the ears plus a few ounces more fixed to a not difficult to ascertain a spreading social belt. The same thing happened to the incred- impairment. ible shrinking radio, no longer Grandpa's 12-tube Philco permanently rooted in the The technologies now available for the home parlor, and to the roaming cellphone, which give us many more options in choosing our first went from the home to the car and now lifestyles, but each exacts a price. There is a accompanies the person, guaranteeing that monetary price for hardware, software, and someone is "at home." Like using other electricity, and there is also a sacrifice of personal media, talking over the phone interpersonal contact. Think, for a moment, of the number of communication means that the wearer is less tuned to the technologies you may have in your home immediate environment. that eliminate the need for face-to-face interaction, or perhaps any contact with other .. .The same logic applies to the replacement people. Telephone answering machines, of vaudeville by the movies and now of electronic security devices, home shopping movies by the VCR. The new "virtual reality" services, and computerized electronic mail helmets that we will soon don to be entertained in total isolation are merely the are only a few of today's possible alternatives 8 to engaging in interpersonal communication.6 latest extension of this trend.

If the enticements of life can be found The French architect Le Corbusier de- within the home, there seems little reason scribed the modern home as a "machine to seek diversion outside, including visiting for living." Everything that plugs into or friends or family members so often. There sticks out of the wall forms pdrt of the seems less reason to take time even for idle machine, but we must distinguish between thought when diversions come so nicely the non-communication devices and those packaged. All we need each evening are the that bring us communication. The former, tools of communication, electronic or such as clothes washers, bread toasters, printed. In the communication toolshed and hot water pipes, keep us more comfort- home, we ponder the vital question, "What's able and presumably make us happier on tonight?" inside the machine home. The communication devices carry us mentally outside In earlier times, to see a performance was to the machine. It is a distinction with a dif- become part of a visible audience. At a ference. concert, in a church, at a ball game or a po- In place of human intimacy, emotional litical rally, the audience was half the fun. bonds have grown with the fantasy worlds What and whom you saw in the audience of the media. Fictional characters on soap was at least as interesting as and often hu- operas receive gifts upon the "birth" of a manly more important than what you saw 7 baby. Disturbed fans stalk actresses, some- on the stage. times with dreadful consequences. Violence on the screen is permission for imitative Extending the Toolshed violence in the street. Screen sex suffuses Home thought. The phenomenon is not totally Personal media extend the toolshed home new. The death of a Dickens character dur- beyond the outer walls. The difference being the weekly serialization of his novels tween a living room stereo system and a evoked floods of tears during the nineteenth Walkman has less to do with the difference century, but the reaction has reached un- between sitting and jogging than with precedented levels in the television age. bringing the toolshed to the great outdoors. At its most functional, the toolshed Great-grandma's pride, the handsome ve- home can be dysfunctional indeed. Jerzy neered Victrola in the parlor, in great- Kosinski offered an interesting flight of fancy in his character Chance the Gar- granddaughter's version, shrinks to a 9 couple of ounces of plastic wrapped over dener, the protagonist of Being There, who has known few people in a blank lifetime, THE TOOLSHED HOME 141 but manages well enough by constructing with others, an increased amount of soli- a fictional social reality from endless hours tary behavior, reduced physical activity, of television. Chance gets along day by day, overeating, an indulgence in snack foods, but he does not understand. He has been and dependence upon non-human stimuli. socialized not by human contact, but by In a word, alienation. television.10 He is an exaggeration, but per- Youthful dependence upon television, haps not by much. It used to be said of some Nintendo-type computer games, and re- people that they "lived through books." It corded music delivered either through ra- can certainly be said of others today that dio or CD has become a national scandal. they "live through television." Life, more Children ages 4 to 6 were asked in a survey, than occasionally, imitates art. "Which do you like better, TV or your daddy?" "TV," said 54%.12 Each of us likes to think of himself as being And from a study of television viewing: rational and autonomous. Our ideas seem to be peculiarly our own. It is hard for us to One subject was reading a book as the TV realize how little of our information comes came on. As soon as she looked up, her from direct experience with the physical en- brain waves slowed significantly. Within thirty seconds, she was in a predominantly vironment, and how much of it comes, only 13 indirectly, from other people and the mass alpha state—relaxed, passive, unfocused. media. Our complex communication systems enable us to overcome the time and More on the alpha state trance: space limitations that confined our ancestors, but they leave us with a greater de- Grazing is the well-known activity of sitting pendence on others for shaping our ideas in front of the TV in an alpha trance, eyes about how things are in the world. While be- wide open, with information, good or bad, coming aware of places and events far from flowing in. The networks used to point with the direct experience of our daily lives, we pride to the fact that viewers who tuned in have given up much of our capacity to con- at 7 EM. were most likely to watch the entire firm what we think we know.11 evening without bothering to change the channel.14 Problems with Heavy The convergence of the tools of mass com- Media Usage munication in the home—the toolshed "What did you watch?" is a frequently home—and in the toolshed office seems to asked question. "How much of your day accelerate each passing year with a rapidity was spent watching?" is not asked. In the that shows no sign of diminishing. Like the pre-television days, time spent watching universe itself, the ever expanding infor- moving images on a screen was typically mation industry continues to create new confined for children to Saturday morn- forms as it widens, inventing new informa- ings and for their parents to one evening a tion and entertainment products, for which week at the movies. When a suggestion is the public's appetite appears insatiable. offered to limit viewing, a predictable re- Where once a conversation pit was pointed sponse is, "I didn't buy my TV set to turn out with pride to visitors, homes boast it off." For parents concerned about over- multi-media centers chock-full of commu- use of computer games, a program called nication gear: computer, television, radio, "Time Out" can be set to control the daily telephone, fax, answering machine, vide- hours a child—identified by a password—is ocassette recorder, and more. As active allowed to spend at the screen. A program- members of the Information Age, we like mable timer called "TV allowance" limits being tuned in to media. television watching. "No" means "No," at least when the electronic device says so. Heavy use of media leads to conditions We will not, of course, give up our modern we often associate with unhappiness, such tools of communication. The television set as a lack of emotional and physical contact will stay where it is. When, in one of those 142 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION publicized surrenders of television watch- worth noting that Don Quixote went mad ing for a few weeks, people were asked what reading books. We learned this, of course, it felt like to live day after day without TV, in reading a book. one honest participant bleakly concluded The world's fifth information revolution that it was like "a death in the family."15 He takes place in the communication tool- said this in a television documentary. It is sheds we call home.

Home Mail Delivery

We ought to think of the postal service the biles available in every corner of the United way we think of radio or television. Each is States, it may be difficult to imagine how an organic combination of machines and isolated farmers and rural residents were a human beings that brings information and century ago. Almost their only links to the entertainment to our homes. To function, outside world trickled in from letters and each has required international agree- newspapers that arrived in the mail. ments, national standards, and some level of government supervision. Each depends Free Home Delivery on communication technologies, the least obvious being the postal service's depend- Before the American Civil War, city resi- ence on paper. dents walked to the nearest post office to Above all, each has had an impact on pick up or mail letters and parcels. In 1863, humankind beyond calculation. If the the assistant postmaster in Cleveland, world had never known any one of these Joseph Briggs, conceived the idea of free methods of communication, our daily lives home delivery because he "was appalled at would be much different and, arguably, the sight of anxious wives, children, and inferior. Differences exist, to be sure, such relatives waiting in long lines at the local post office for letters from soldiers off fight- as the personal, point-to-point communica- 16 tion that only the postal service now pro- ing the Civil War." An immediate success, vides, and the physical reality of the the service quickly spread through cities of machine in the living room, which only the North. By 1890, 454 American cities and radio and television provide, or the begin- towns had free home delivery. Also in the nings of postal service in the dawn of his- postman's bag were newspapers and maga- tory compared to this century's broadcast zines, thanks to the 1879 Postal Act, which industry. lowered their mailing costs. From 1885 un- If the postal service is government run, til World War I, this second class matter was why so is broadcasting in most countries. If carried for one penny a pound. most of radio and television in the United Free rural delivery began in 1896. For States is commercial and competitive, why farmers, the nearest post office might have so are Federal Express and United Parcel been a day's travel away. Consequently, Service. The biggest stretch of imagination mail pickup was delayed for days or weeks may be in thinking of the friendly uni- until it could be part of a journey to town formed letter carrier with a sack on the for groceries and hardware. The post office shoulder and mail in hand in terms of a itself was likely to be located in the general device, but obviously the carrier is only the store. most visible tip of a huge international When a weekly trip to the village post office communications aggregation. was the farmer's only way of receiving mail, An even closer analogy than broadcast- it was pointless for him to subscribe to a ing can be drawn between the postal ser- daily newspaper and periodically receive an vice and the telephone, the telegraph, or armful of stale news. Then his needs were the communication satellite. Today, with best served by the country weeklies.17 telephones, radio, television, and automo- THE TOOLSHED HOME 143

Figure 5.1 Rural mail boxes lined up beside a Minnesota road.

The Post Office eased this isolation with Parcels, Catalogs, and Rural Free Delivery (RFD) starting in 1896 Junk Mail as an experiment in West Virginia. The new service was so welcome that after a few These efforts were followed by parcel post, months one farmer commented that it started in 1913, a politically explosive issue would take away part of his life to give it up. that brought the federal government into However, RFD did not come without the competition with private express services. social cost of displacement that has accom- Parcel post was a huge boon to farm fami- panied so many tools of communication. lies in providing a variety of useful prod- The farmer could now communicate with ucts and material comforts by mail order, the world, but at the price of reducing some but it did not achieve a promised goal of of the old face-to-face contacts that were helping farmers to ship their produce to part of the trip to town to pick up the mail. market, "farm-to-table" through the mails. Rural Free Delivery added further impetus Instead, coupled with catalogs, parcel post to expand the American network of roads doomed the businesses of many country and bridges. The horse-drawn postal storekeepers. Once again, a new tool of wagon gave way to the automobile. The communication displaced something worth tunnel-shaped rural letter box with its red keeping. Like Rural Free Delivery, parcel flag went up on fences and posts along post was a form of mediated communica- every dirt road in place of lard buckets and tion that exerted a centrifugal force that soap boxes. Circulation of daily newspa- pulled people living in the country away from part of their local community. The pers skyrocketed. general store, which once thrived, survives mostly as a part of American folklore. There were no Indians to fight along the A more enduring means of mass com- rural routes and no Pony Express riders to munication by post has been direct ("junk") race across the prairies. Mostly there were mail, which enables advertisers and others only muddy country roads and eager farmers, with a message to reach the public in their cranks, politicians, and fourth-class postmas- homes at rates below the cost of ordinary ters to provide what drama there was. And yet the establishment of the farmers' first class mail. Mailings can be huge, for free delivery service was not without its epic the fat catalogs mailed to millions of house- proportions. More money was spent, more holds by Montgomery Ward and by Sears men employed, and more paperwork done and Roebuck were a principal means of to lay out the rural delivery system than to shopping, thanks to Rural Free Delivery. establish any single extension of the postal The 540-page catalog mailed out by Mont- service.18 gomery Ward in 1887 listed 24,000 items for 144 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION sale. Unhappy local merchants put pressure on their newspapers to fight the "Mail Order Trust" by refusing their newspaper ads.

The triumph of mail order, and its new literature, brought visions of new ways of living which were a triumph of a larger over a smaller community. It was a victory of the market over the marketplace. And it spelled the defeat of the salesman by advertising. In a word, it was a defeat of the seen, the nearby, the familiar by the everywhere 19 Figure 5.3 A modern Post Office optical community. character reader automatically identifies the numbers in a ZIP Changes code. With the passing years, the amount of mail per household grew and so did the number began in 1911, with permanent service in of households. Mail trains and even some 1918. Charles Lindbergh, an airmail pilot buses were equipped as rolling post offices; who flew between Springfield, Illinois, and clerks sorted as they traveled. But depen- St. Louis, took time out in 1927 to fly solo dence on railroads to move mail steadily across the Atlantic. declined and dependence on airplanes in- Mail was metered after 1920. ZIP (Zon- creased. The first experimental mail flights ing Improvement Plan) codes were introduced in 1963 and ZIP-plus-4 and bar codes in 1983, the year that federal government subsidies ended. In 1970, the Postal Reform Act made the U.S. Postal Service an independent establishment and the cabinet post of Postmaster General was abolished. The postal emblem changed from a post rider to the nation's symbol, the eagle. A variety of computerized machines, including automatic optical character address readers, replaced handling done by a postal employee standing in front of a sorting bin or a row of gray sacks. Coin-operated stamp vending machines and office metering machines became familiar sights. In 1988, a government brochure, "Understanding AIDS," was sent to 107 million addresses. In 1990, approximately the same number of census forms were mailed. By 1996, close to 600 million pieces of mail were handled daily.

Figure 5.2 Air mail pick up and delivery in Despite all the newer means of communi- 1944. The mail container rests cation, nothing matched the sheer volume on the ground between two poles. that traveled by mail. THE TOOLSHED HOME 145

New Uses for Phones

The telephone has become the hallmark of images, and reams of data from on-line the modern world. In 1995, seven million databases vastly increased the traffic, but American families had additional tele- were manageable with such improvements phone lines installed in their homes for as fiber optics and better memory chips. personal calls, business calls, fax transmis- Thousands of inventions have improved sions in and out, e-mail in and out, and time the telephone system, among them the co- spent on the Internet. A telecommunica- axial cable, the means to transmit com- tions analyst predicted that by the year puter data, the introduction in 1963 of the 2000 half of the 97 million households in Touch Tone, the conversion from analog to the United States would have two or more digital signals to improve clarity, microphone lines.20 wave, satellite communication, and fiber By the early 1970s, computers and their optics. The Pacific Link fiber optic cable, terminals were swapping information over laid in 1989, could carry 40,000 phone calls telephone cables. In subsequent decades at a time. Integrated Services Digital Net- transmissions of electronic mail, images on work (ISDN), a technology of the '90s, con- the World Wide Web, bit-mapped facsimile verted analog to digital signals for more efficient transmission of telephone calls, fax, computer, and video. In a variation from the highway metaphor, someone described the modern telephone system as an entire farm irrigation system, compared to the "garden hose" of a single telephone line.

Telephone Company Reorganizations A utility so central to the functioning of a nation could not escape government attention. Whereas telephone systems in most nations are as controlled as highway sys- Figure 5.4 Fiber optic wires as thin as tems, AT&T grew as a private enterprise human hairs carry large amounts regulated with a light touch. Its virtual na- of data digitally in the form of tional monopoly, established when it light pulses. bought up smaller telephone companies, was shaken in 1968 by the FCC's Carter- phone Decision, which for the first time allowed equipment not manufactured by AT&T's Western Electric subsidiary to tie into the telephone network. Two years later, the FCC's MCI Decision set up competition in the long distance market. An antitrust suit ended with the breakup in 1983 of AT&T into seven regional operating companies, plus AT&T as a long distance carrier now in competition with other carriers. The consent decree that broke the Bell system into the national AT&T and regional Baby Bells was followed in 1991 by Figure 5.5 Fiber optic lines in a permission for these regional telephone telecommunications center. companies to offer informational services 146 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION over their own lines. MCI, GTE, and Sprint fax machines connected to acoustic cou- joined the mix of telephone companies plers can now dial into the cellular tele- competing to provide service. Because of phone network from automobiles. their economic strength, telephone compa- When mobile satellite service is realized, nies organized to transmit specialized a portable phone call could be placed be- news, sports, and stock market reports, tween any two spots on earth; the technology electronic Yellow Pages, and a variety of is reported to be already in place, awaiting information and services. only international regulatory agreements.22 The Telecommunication Reform Act of The ultimate goal is to allow any two peo- 1996 led national telephone companies and ple anywhere on Earth with pocket phones the seven regional companies to compete to talk to one another with the clarity that for much of each other's businesses and to will attend digital communication. compete with cable companies for the de- The convenience of cellular telephones livery of information and entertainment led to a rush of sales that was diminished, into homes. The Baby Bells, with their ex- but by no means stopped by rumors, perience and facilities, held joint venture started in 1993, that the emitted radio and merger talks with such information waves from cellular phone antennas held providers as cable companies, movie stu- alongside the ear for long periods were dios, and newspaper chains. Copper tele- causing brain cancer. phone lines were being pulled up so fiber Pagers, another personal communica- optic lines could be laid along trunk lines tion device, developed by Motorola, used a and into homes. radio network to download written infor- The telephone companies were shifting mation. Pagers received and stored as many from a primary reliance on POTS (Plain Old as 15 written messages of 120 alphanu- Telephone Service), once universally visible meric characters each. Parents gave them in the AT&T-supplied black telephone. For as a birthday present to a teenage daughter decades, the policy was that if you wanted or son as a means of keeping in touch. The telephone service you took what the tele- teenagers use them as a link to friends. phone company offered, and you had. bet- Some owners gave out their beeper number ter not try to fool around with or add in order to keep home numbers private. anything to Bell equipment. The only per- missible telephones were those that the Pocket Phones company provided. According to one story told years ago, a housewife was refused The newest type of personal phone service, permission to put a crocheted cover around known as PCS (personal communication her telephone directory. service) is digital, using frequencies auc- tioned off in 1995 by the Federal Communi- cations Commission. Because it is digital, Cellular Phones voice quality is superior to the mostly ana- After World War II, mobile telephone service log cellular transmission. The PCS tele- began commercially. Phone calls made phone itself is small enough to fit into a shirt within a radius of 50 miles of an antenna pocket. could be placed through an operator; callers All mobile telephones are an extension spoke by depressing a button on the handset, of the toolshed home. A telephone call is like a CB (citizen's band) radio.21 In addi- directed toward a phone at a fixed location tion, people bought Walkie-Talkies for com- where, the caller hopes, a specific person munication over short distances. A gener- will be present. A daughter phoning her ation later came cellular automobile tele- mother, for example, is actually calling her phones hooked by electronic transmission to mother's telephone in the expectation that cells, low-powered receiver-transmitters scat- her mother will be nearby. The cellular tered throughout cities, connected to the telephone, or cellphone, introduced in 1983, telephone system through switching cen- took a step toward letting the daughter ters. For people who must drive, portable reach her mother more directly. THE TOOLSHED HOME 147

The pocket phones come within inches Successes in early marketing tests have of Dick Tracy's wrist radio, life imitating been reported, with the marketing aimed art. In 1996 a combination telephone- not at business users, but at families and computer that fit into a pocket was sending lovers separated by distances. The advan- and receiving faxes and e-mail, and hooked tage of face-to-face communication be- into the Internet. tween distant cities without the need to Pocket phone calls have been received travel could not be denied.23 or initiated not only in such expected places as the middle of a traffic jam or the A Variety of Uses edge of a swimming pool, but in such unlikely places as restaurant tables, public Companies with products to sell or surveys rest rooms, public buses, even while a teen- to take use 800 and 900 numbers to do so. age owner is skateboarding down the Telemarketing, the organized selling by tele- street. Backpacks have rung in the middle phone, has grown into a large if annoying of class. Some schools ban them and also business. There is also a general awareness ban beepers because they are not only dis- of the mini-industry of chat and "adult" ruptive, but they are a favorite tool of drug lines for which per-minute fees are levied. dealers. The pocket phone has quickly As for the 800 numbers, they became so gone from novelty to necessity. Except by popular that no room was left. AT&T added Superman fans, few tears were shed for the a new bank: 888. passing of the telephone booth. In a world of electronic gadgetry, the humble answering machine tends to be overlooked, yet it is among the most em- The New Picturephones powering of communication devices. Its In 1924, the Bell Laboratories in New Jer- most obvious use is to free the telephone sey, one of the nation's best communica- owner from the need to remain at home to tion research facilities, transmitted pictures receive messages. The answering machine over telephone wires. Despite public ex- also gives a measure of protection against citement when a prototype of the Picture- the annoyance of the telemarketing solici- phone was introduced at the 1964 World's tor, the overly insistent acquaintance or Fair, the fuzzy pictures were a commercial relative, and the obscene caller. An im- failure. The Picturephone was exhibited in provement on the answering machine, Disneyland and world's fairs, but did not EVM or electronic voice messaging, is the catch on with the public because of high voice mail system operated by the local operating costs, poor pictures, and some telephone company, a corporation, or an real doubts about who would want to see or outside business service. Features include be seen by someone on the telephone. allowing a caller to leave a recorded mes- There were wry comments about mothers sage for someone who is on the phone at telephoning their daughters and clucking the time. in disapproval of the disheveled state of the Local telephone companies offer other daughter's hair and apartment. new features to customers. A kind of tele- A generation later, with improved tech- phone peephole, Caller ID guards the cus- nology and a new name—video teleconfer- tomer's privacy by identifying the caller's encing—the picture telephone returned phone number or, alternatively, by identi- with every prospect of success. The size fying the caller as someone who chooses and price of equipment had shrunk, and not to reveal his number. Peripheral com- high speed data lines that once cost as puterized attachments add the caller's much as $1,000 an hour were trimmed to name, address, and any facts to a database. close in on the cost of a long distance call. A person answering the phone can imme- With lower costs and the success of busi- diately greet the caller by name. To dis- ness teleconferencing, the renamed video- courage persistent or obscene callers, phone appeared to be making a comeback. incoming calls can be automatically logged. 148 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Call forwarding, call waiting, and custom gram, also with mistakes, automatically ringing, each available for a few dollars a translated text files between English and month, are other options. Telephone own- Japanese. Much more accurate and less ers can also decide whether to attach a fax expensive Japanese text file programs re- or a computer modem on the line or acquired some human intervention, such as quire a separate line. choosing among meanings for words with To cite other examples of new telephone the same Japanese hiragana spellings. usage, a caller could by telephone acquire a diet plan based on information punched Reach Out Without onto Touchtone telephone buttons. The Chicago Reader was among newspapers Touching that offered a wide variety of telephone- The telephone has become a way to do based services, such as classified personals business, to arrange a meeting or break a and classified apartment listings, informa- date, to express anger, to reveal secrets, to tion about where musical bands are play- apologize, to whisper sweet nothings, or ing, with snippets of band music pouring just to pass the time with someone who has out of the telephone earpiece; movie infor- nothing else to do either. It extends conver- mation including dialogue from the pre- sation to unseen people, but at a cost to the views of coming attractions, and restaurant deeper interaction of face-to-face commu- listings with the option of being transferred nication. On the other hand, some people to a restaurant to learn the specials of the appreciate the instrument's ability to main- day and to make reservations. All the caller tain contacts without personal meetings. needed was a Touchtone phone. Plainly, the telephone allowed you to talk Further out, Japanese and British re- to Aunt Ethel, whom you cannot visit just searchers were working on automatic now, but if you talk to Aunt Ethel over the translation telephones: two people speak- phone, you do not have to visit. ing different languages to each other and the phone doing the translating. Despite test demonstrations, a workable system The telephone slogan, "Reach out and touch seemed years off. More progress has been someone," has not lost its appeal, although reported with print. CompuServe offered a it involves no touching at all. "Keep in worldwide forum that automatically trans- touch" means "write or telephone." As the lated, with a fair number of mistakes, writ- new millennium nears, mediated commu- ten on-line messages in English, French, nication remains more popular than ever. It and German. A Japanese software pro- is not touching.

"Free" Entertainment

Americans at home were glued to their week, there were favorite radio shows that radios in the 1930s and '40s as the networks listeners eagerly awaited. Radio had found a poured out a daily stream of programs from social role. Like the Victrola, the radio by the morning soaps through the children's now looked like a piece of furniture, with after school adventure programs, to the din- simpler tuning, less static, and no battery. ner time news analysts, and on to the prime The new radio plugged into the wall, the time dramas, comedies, quiz shows, and parlor wall. specials. During the Depression years, with Announcers were chosen for their lack 15 million Americans out of work, this of regional accents. The broadcasting in- "free" entertainment was all that many peo- dustry didn't plan it that way, but by em- ple could afford. Radio sets could be bought phasizing a standard American speech for as little as $15. On every night of the pattern, radio helped the national effort to THE TOOLSHED HOME 149 bring all Americans together, a function eloquence flowed through the patterned heretofore largely relegated to the schools. cloths covering the speakers of the consoles Radio and the movies heated the fire under in the parlors and the table models in the what was called the American melting pot. kitchens of America's homes. Radio had Yet, not everyone agreed that the network found a political role. Hitler recognized the system was a totally wonderful arrange- force of oral communication in Mein ment, for to a certain extent the network Kampf: system, dominated by NBC and CBS, limited the ability of local stations to develop I know that one is able to win people far their own quality programming. Network more by the spoken than the written word. programs, targeted to national audiences, The greatest changes in the world have tended to ignore regional and local culture never been brought about by the goose quill. and issues. The power which set sliding the great avalanches of a political and religious nature The American Federation of Musicians was from the beginning of time, the magic certainly did not want recorded music, and force of the spoken word. James Petrillo's union had become a powerful force in the broadcast industry.24 Most of radio was live, with few recordings, Cultural Influence which were called electrical transcriptions. With everything from Sunday morning Radio did not turn extensively to recorded church services to symphony orchestras music until the disk jockey craze in the and "Your Hit Parade," radio also played a mid-1950s. Until the early 1950s, sound was strong cultural role in American society. recorded on phonograph records, and be- During the "golden age" of radio, approxi- cause recording equipment was bulky, it mately the decades of the 1930s and 1940s, seldom left the studio. Audiotape would programs were available for almost every change all that and break down the walls of taste, from the cerebral Information Please the radio newsroom. to the clownish It Pays to be Ignorant. There were soap operas in the morning, adven- Political Broadcasts ture shows for kids just before the supper hour, and a prime time schedule of sit- President Franklin Roosevelt, opposed by coms, dramas, and variety shows. Just as most newspaper publishers, bypassed movie stars became household names, so them by using radio to bring his policies did Eddie Cantor, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, directly before the voters. His unprece- and, after World War II, Arthur Godrey. dented four terms were evidence of his The programming structure and fixed success and, not incidentally, the efficacy schedule of half-hour and one-hour blocks of a microphone in the possession of a was similar to today's network television masterful orator who understood the inti- scheduling, not like today's loose radio pro- mate nature of radio. Secretary of Labor gramming. Frances Perkins recalled: A demonstration of the emotional power of broadcasting came on the evening of As he talked his head would nod and his hands would move in simple, natural, com- October 30, 1938, when Orson Welles' Mer- fortable gestures. His face would smile and cury Theater presented H.G. Wells' novel light up as though he were actually sitting War of the Worlds in a manner that con- on the front porch or in the parlor with vinced many of the estimated audience of them.25 six million that Martians had invaded the earth and were slaughtering everyone with When the war clouds gathered and burst death rays; a few listeners ran into the over Europe and Asia first, and then over streets screaming that the world was com- America, radio brought the voices of Euro- ing to an end. In the same year, the CBS pean leaders into American homes. Adolf World News Roundup made radio a serious Hitler's stridency and Winston Churchill's news medium. 150 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Improving the Sound Radio programming in the TV age E. Howard Armstrong, who invented the sounded more personal than it did before feedback circuit and other improvements television, as local stations loosened the to the radio signal, invented FM radio in rigid program scheduling that networks 1933. The president of RCA, David Sarnoff, once dominated. Realizing that the valu- recognized its potential but saw FM as a able evening hours, prime time, was lost to hindrance to RCA's development of televi- television, radio stations focused on drive sion. Sarnoff managed to block the diffu- time, the morning and afternoon hours sion of FM radio until years after the end of when most listeners were on their way to World War II. Frustrated by this and other and from work. Underlying the new television-era radio setbacks, Armstrong committed suicide. Audio engineers, who labored success- programming was the concept of narrow- fully to improve the quality of sound in casting and technological advances. Each broadcasting and recorded music, shook up station, instead of reaching for the greatest the industry that built the home receivers. possible audience by trying to program for It was no longer enough to buy something everyone, sought niche markets by identi- that delivered a dependable sound. An im- fying themselves with a unique sound that portant segment of the public became would distinguish them from their com- audiophiles who compared equipment petitors. That sound derived not only from specifications for tuners, turntables, pre- the type of music they played, but from the amps, and loudspeakers placed in exactly patter of the disk jockeys, the items chosen the right spots in the family living room. for the newscasts, and the types p£ com- The decades of the 1950s and 1960s saw mercials. A station that advertised pimple a diffusion of technology that included FM, ointment for teenagers would not be likely stereophonic transmission, high fidelity to advertise false teeth cleansers, play clas- audio tape and records, tape cassettes that sical music, or employ solemn announcers. permitted automation, and the invention of Merchants used radio to channel the youth the transistor, which not only improved the culture into a youth market. reliability of radio station equipment, but Record sales soared as musical tastes more importantly led to the vast new mar- sharply splintered radio stations in large ket of listeners to portable and automobile cities, seeking audiences based on generational, ethnic, or regional distinctions. radios. Twirling the dial brought in rock and roll, jazz, MOR (middle-of-the-road), country western, mariachi, rhythm and blues, clas- Radio Reinvents Itself sical, big band, and on and on. Some urban With the rapid spread of television, radio stations became all-news or all-talk. broadcasting seemed on a one-way road to The radio networks, losing audiences to ruin. Station and network assets fled their own television networks, abandoned eagerly to the new medium, taking staff, most programming except news. Joining a talent, and energy with it. In the home, the shift to narrowcasting, ABC Radio divided old Philco console was moved out of the itself in the 1970s into four information parlor to make way for the RCA round- networks, later into seven. CBS, NBC, and screen 7-inch television set. Yet, radio sur- Mutual also split up like amoebae, each vived. Today there are far more radio with its own life. stations than at the start of television broad- The '90s saw a new kind of network via casting. By 1992, with 11,338 radio stations syndication, an explosion of political talk and 576 million radios in use—5.6 radio sets led by the bombastic, conservative Rush for every household on average—and ra- Limbaugh. Striving for market share or giv- dios in 19 of every 20 cars in the United ing expression to their own prejudices, States alone, on average Americans listen some stations brought in talk show hosts who to the radio 3 hours 20 minutes a day.26 tested the edges of what could be said on the THE TOOLSHED HOME 151 air. Howard Stern's gutter language earned are creating a number of national radio him a national following and even support stations that send signals directly to home as a candidate for governor of New York. or car.27 In the mid-'90s, approximately two million cable radio subscribers each paid about $10 a month for their choice of all- Citizen's Band music or all-talk formats. Satellite-fed digi- The FCC, in response to pressure from ham tal audio broadcasting (DAB), which may in radio operators, set aside frequencies for a future replace AM and FM with CD-quality citizen's radio service. The CBers, who op- sound, would sharply increase the number erate on the citizen's band, at their peak of radio stations because less bandwidth numbered in the millions. Most famous of and less power is needed for digital trans- all CB operators were truck drivers who mission while keeping all the quality of the revealed to other drivers that "Smokies" sound source.29 Distance would no longer were parked behind a billboard waiting to imply static and loss of quality. The signal pounce on the unwary. A lot of CB rigs are could also be fed through cable lines. gathering dust today, replaced by cell- Except for satellite feeds, the networks, phones. and shortwave broadcasts, radio is local. Besides CB bands, a number of other The appearance of radio channels on the services use radio frequencies. Among them World Wide Web promises to change that. are police and fire communications, air Because Web sites do not require F.C.C control, radio astronomy, mobile operator- approval and occupy no space in the elec- assisted telephone service (now largely tromagnetic spectrum, the number of sta- supplanted by cellular telephone), and tions is potentially unlimited except by heeper paging systems. Cordless tele- commercial considerations. phones are actually transmitter-receiver stations that tie into telephone lines. In remote corners of America, radio has The Benefits of found a more personal role. In some of the Broadcasting hills and hollows, beside woods and lakes, For many people, a radio voice or music listeners depend on radio not only for en- was the first sound heard in the morning, tertainment, but for the personal informa- the last at night. Radio accompanied the tion that telephones convey in cities. day's activities: drive, jog, work, eat, study, Owners of the radio stations respond by play. For those listeners who preferred the offering a free message exchange. The constant din of broadcasting to quiet reflec- Jones family informs the Smith family of tion, radio could short-circuit any thinking the time they'll arrive. The pastor an- at all. Lee DeForest, self-styled "father of nounces the topic of next Sunday's ser- radio," was proud of his "child": mon. Mention is made of a pot luck dinner. Everyone tunes in, for the radio is the Radio has kept the wanderer home at nights, community link. it has brightened the gloom of separation and shortened the long hours of loneliness. It is a comforting companion to the shut-in; it Looking in Radio's soothes the pain of the suffering. It brings Crystal Ball counsel to the housewife, information to the farmer, entertainment and gaiety to the Another change catching attention is AM 28 young. On silent wings it flies to the stereo radio. The future promises more forgotten corners where mails are uncertain diversity in radio just as in other tools of and few, where the cheer of kindly voices communication, a continuing chopping up comes only through the head-phones, where 30 of the audience. Direct broadcast satellites music is never heard... 152 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

7. Aids in correct pronunciation, espe cially foreign words. Enthralled with its inanimate friend, radio, 8. Another agency for recreation and the public has grown less likely to socialize entertainment. with neighbors while at the same time find- 9. The enjoyment of music popular ing out more about the world in which we ized greatly. live. Like so much else, radio has been both servant and our master. In 1932, when radio 10. Entertainment of invalids, blind, broadcasting was barely a dozen years old, partly deaf, frontiersmen, etc. a list was compiled of no less than 150 11. Interest in sports increased, it is gen effects on society of wireless communica- erally admitted. 31 tion. Here are a few of them: 12. Entertainment on trains, ships, and automobiles. 1. Homogeneity of people increased because of like stimuli. 13. Broadcasting has aided adult educa tion. 2. Regional differences in culture be come less pronounced. 14. Health movement encouraged through broadcast of health talks. 3. The penetration of the musical and artistic city culture into villages and country. 15. Broadcasting has been used to fur ther some reform movements. 4. Distinctions between social classes and economic groups lessened. 16. Wider education of farmers on agri cultural methods. 5. Illiterates find a new world opened to them. 17. Discouragement, it is said, of preach ers of lesser abilities. 6. Standardization of diction and dis couragement of dialects.

Pictures in the Parlor

The average American television set is on gone further than all of these in affecting for 7 hours 45 minutes a day. City streets how we spend our hours and our money, are deserted each evening. Drive along any how we relate to others, and what we talk avenue in the United States or any other about and think about. In our toolshed industrialized nation and you will see the homes, television is the most visible tool. bluish glow from television sets in dark- As an oral version of a written culture, ened rooms of house after house. How television is positioned to deliver both oral mass communication separates people has and written cultures. As an oral culture, it never been more obvious. has the advantage of reaching audiences Probably more than school, church, who prefer to hear and see activity pas- community, and maybe even family, tele- sively instead of the more active experi- vision has become a national educator and ence of reading. It can also call upon the standard setter, even though no responsi- breadth of written culture, with its infinite ble person either inside or outside the tele- resources. vision industry ever said this is a desirable It is short-sighted and pointless to criti- state of affairs. The telegraph, telephone, cize television because it is not print, yet motion picture, radio, and the post office that is the gist of many of the complaints. each radically changed the way we get in- Marshall McLuhan regarded the movies, formation and entertainment. In short, radio, and television as classrooms without much of the way we live. Television has walls.32 THE TOOLSHED HOME 153

Literate man is not only numb and vague in been what seems to be mass hypnotism on the presence of film or photo, but he intensi- such a scale. Even the circuses of ancient fies his ineptness by a defensive arrogance Rome and the medieval Crusades did not and condescension to "pop kulch" and "mass compare. entertainment." It was in this spirit of bulldog opacity that the scholastic philosophers failed Television is cheap and readily avail- to meet the challenge of the printed book in able. It requires little energy, intelligence, the sixteenth century. 33 or education to enjoy it. For one or another of these reasons, it is most popular with the poor, the uneducated, children, and the Time Spent Watching elderly. Someone said that society's most powerless received television as a consola- According to Nielsen Media Research, the 37 average adult man watches television 3 tion prize. hours 44 minutes a day and the average A color television set sat in 98% of all woman 4 hours 25 minutes a day. Mothers American homes in the 1990s. More homes use it as a babysitter. The average American have TV sets than bathtubs or telephones, preschool child watches more than 27 and far more homes than are on newspaper hours of television weekly.34 For the elderly delivery routes. For a dedicated few, small it can be life, as a visit to any nursing home TVs are plugged into car cigarette lighters attests. Teens watch an average of 2 hours and strapped onto wrists. Even smaller TVs 43 minutes of television daily. By 18, the fit into wraparound eyeglasses, projecting average American child will have spent an image floating about ten feet in front of about 25,000 hours doing this.35 your nose. Has any society been held in thrall by a sin- Television is different because it encom- gle passive activity for nearly one half of its passes all forms of discourse. No one goes to waking life? Has any technological instru- a movie to find out about government policy ment every exerted such immense influence or the latest scientific advances. No one over how we think and act? Many view buys a record to find out the baseball scores television as a fatal attraction, a sort of or the weather or the latest murder. No one cultural death wish. It stands accused of turns on radio anymore for soap operas or a weakening our social institutions, driving up presidential address (if a television set is at our crime rate, attenuating our attention hand). But everyone goes to television for spans distorting our perceptions of reality all these things and more, which is why television resonates so powerfully and illusion, eroding our regional distinc- 38 tions in speech and dress, usurping the throughout the culture. games of childhood, encouraging illiteracy, pregnancy and even obesity in adolescents Research has shown that many people, al- and reducing all it touches—politics, educa- though they have favorite programs, watch tion, economics, religion—to 525 lines of television as a form of relaxation, no matter phosphor-dot frivolousness.36 what is on. It has been said that if nothing else were available, viewers would watch Time alone is evidence that broadcasting test patterns! As a result, network executive affects lives. Four hours is, after all, one Paul Klein proposed the L. O.P.—Least Objec- sixth of a day; if extended over years, it tionable Program—-policy, by which pro- represents a substantial portion of a life- grammers would develop not what viewers time spent in front of the tube. Subtract the wanted to watch, but what they least ob- hours spent sleeping, and the percentages jected to, based on the assumption that shoot up. Subtract the hours spent sleeping many viewers scan the offerings until they or working, and the percentage of time with find something they can tolerate. Viewers television reaches astonishing, alarming do not watch programs. They watch televi- heights. Never in human history has there sion. 154 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

The Scientific Roots of tube so it glowed when struck by the cath- Television ode rays. The television set in the home today uses a cathode ray tube with mag- Television means seeing at a distance. Its netic deflection that paints the television roots reach back at least to 1817, when picture on the face of the tube. Swedish scientist Jon Berzelius discovered German science student Paul Nipkow that selenium, a sulfur-like chemical ele- may have been the first to scan a scene ment that is a byproduct of copper refining, optically point by point fast enough to conducted electricity, depending upon reach the human eye's persistence of vi- how much light shone upon it. In 1873, an sion, the basis of television. In 1884, he Irish telegraph operator, Joseph May, by transmitted a still picture in an experiment exposing a selenium resistor to light, sent a using a rotating disk with a spiral of holes signal across the ocean on the Atlantic tele- that broke the image into segments of vary- graph cable. Two years later, American ening light intensity that struck a selenium gineer Philip Carey proposed a means of plate and as a result could be transmitted television using a camera containing an with varying electrical current. Another array of selenium cells, each wired to alight rotating disk with spiral holes recon- bulb in a matching array in a receiver. All structed the image. Here was the start of this happened before Marconi sent the first true television. It was, however, mechani- radio signal, even before Alexander Gra- cal not electronic scanning, a blind alley ham Bell patented his telephone. that some inventors followed until the In 1842, on a different track, Scottish 1930s. Technical problems were overcome, inventor Alexander Bain demonstrated a one by one, at a time when the excitement device with brushes that made an electrical of communication inventions was in the contact as they passed over raised metal air: the typewriter, the telephone, the mo- letters, sending a current over a wire to tion picture, the phonograph, radio, all de- another set of brushes that recorded an veloped to a usable level within a few years impression of those metal letters on sensi- of each other. Rapid strides were being tized paper. Five years later, the Italian made at the same time in photography and Abbe Caselli managed to send drawings printing. Television's day was still a few from Amiens to Paris by wire. The result years off, but only a few. was crude, but visible. Seeing at a distance now meant seeing by electricity. English, Italian, German, French, Russian, and Electronic Television American inventors improved the means Efforts to perfect a mechanical system of transmitting a picture from one place to based upon the Nipkow disk continued, another. Their efforts led to such inven- especially in England by John Logie Baird. tions as modern wirephoto transmission, His results were so poor that there was no fax machines, and to the flashing lights that chance of commercial success, although he spelled out news headlines on New York's stubbornly continued to try to improve me- Times Square. chanical systems almost until World War II. On still another track, English scientist Alternating between mechanical and elec- Michael Faraday in 1830 sent an electric tronic systems, the British Broadcasting current through a vacuum in a glass bottle. Corporation started the world's first regular Improving on this experiment, Sir William television service in 1936. Very soon after, Crookes in 1878 built a bottle that sent rays German engineers began a limited elec- of electrons from its cathode, or negative tronic television service. By this time, ex- terminal, to its anode, or positive terminal. periments in the United States were well Another Englishman, Sir J.J. Thomson along. shifted the direction of the stream of elec- By 1907 a Russian scientist, Boris Rosing, trons with a magnet. A German scientist, had designed an electronic system of wire- Karl Braun, in 1897 added a fluorescent less transmission using a cathode ray tube. coating to the inner face of the Crookes Because of the turmoil in the years leading THE TOOLSHED HOME 155 up to the Russian Revolution, Rosing, who disappeared during the revolution, was unable to develop television beyond the laboratory, but two young men familiar with his work continued along the path. Vladimir Zworykin had been Rosing's assistant. Philo Farnsworth, an Idaho teenager, never came within a continent of Rosing, but read about his work in a popular science magazine. And unknown to Rosing in Russia, an English scientist, A.A. Campbell Swinton, was following the same electronic path, which started still other scientists to work on television in their laboratories. When he was still a high school student, Farnsworth described his idea of electronic television to his chemistry teacher. En- couraged, he began experimenting. By the time he was 19, supported by some Califor- nia investors, Farnsworth acquired the first of many patents and was able to demon- strate a crude image dissector, the heart of his electronic system. The sensitivity of the Figure 5.6 Felix the Cat was used in image remained rough compared with the experimental telecasts. device that Zworykin, who came as an immigrant to the United States, was constructing at Westinghouse. In 1923, he gave a able to transmit a black-and-white still television demonstration using a camera photo from Washington to New York in tube to transmit a still image to the face of 1927 and color photos in 192 9 of a bunch of a cathode ray tube. The invention of televi- red roses, a green and red watermelon, and sion is often dated from Zworykin's 1923 the red, white and blue American flag. But demonstration. Steady improvement re- these were images of poor quality, done by sulted in the first commercially practical mechanical scanning that depended upon television pick-up tube, Zworykin's icono- hundreds of wires connected to the face of scope. Zworykin went to a fellow Russian the receiving tube, not unlike a huge plate immigrant, RCA's David Sarnoff, and con- of spaghetti. Nevertheless, any color televi- vinced him of the potential of electronic sion was a leap forward. AT&T also devel- television. Sarnoff pulled together a re- oped the coaxial cable and microwave search team from Westinghouse, General transmission, both essential to modern Electric, and RCA under Zworykin to de- television. velop a commercial television system. As From England Baird transmitted a was true with radio, no one company held barely discernible still picture across the all the important patents; cross-licensing Atlantic Ocean in 1928, the year that an agreements were needed to combine the experimental General Electric station in best inventions into a single system. Schenectady, New York, started telecasting In 1925, an American inventor, Charles programs three times a week, mostly to Francis Jenkins, sent the image of moving engineers with mechanical scanners. NBC, windmills to a receiver five miles away, the the radio network owned by RCA, had its first transmission of a moving object. own experimental television station in AT&T, the telephone company, was also New York. It eventually became WNBC- experimenting. In 1926, a Bell Telephone TV. CBS also had an experimental station Labs team under Herbert Ives was sending in New York, which is now WCBS-TV. a motion picture around the lab. AT&T was Throughout the 1930s and 1940s at these 156 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION and other research stations, engineers im- NBC and CBS each received a license to proved the television signals and the re- begin commercial broadcasting from their ceivers. The number of scanning lines, experimental stations in New York City. which determine picture detail, grew from Among the difficulties they confronted in 120 to the present 525. There was no ques- these pre-air conditioning days were hot tion that the future belonged to electronic lights that raised studio temperatures well television. Mechanical television, with its past 100 degrees. Sweating delegates to the moving parts, was a blind alley. 1940 Republican convention in Philadel- phia asked that the NBC telecast be turned off. No delegate to a modern convention The Public Is Introduced to would dream of making such a request, Television when conventions are organized for maxi- At first, it wasn't clear where the market for mum television coverage. Another diffi- television lay. Movies were shown in thea- culty was convincing the public to buy ters, so perhaps television would replace television sets, big, bulky pieces of furni- film there. Dr. Allen DuMont thought the ture with small screens that presented poor future lay with television in the home. His black-and-white pictures when they had DuMont Laboratories began selling the first anything to show at all. A set cost nearly as all-electronic television sets to the public in much as a new car. NBC and CBS created a 1938. Columnist E.B. White wrote: limited program schedule for the New York area, but aside from television executives I believe television is going to be the test of and engineers who had sets placed free in the modern world and that in this new their homes, plus a small number of rich opportunity to see beyond the range of our people who, Depression or not, seemed vision, we shall discover either a new and oblivious to the price, there was no home unbearable disturbance of the general market. In the years before World War II, peace, or a saving radiance in the sky. We shall stand or fall by television—of that I am television sets went mostly into bars as a quite sure.39 way to attract patrons who wanted to see baseball and football games. Far-sighted radio industry leaders, with The Federal Communications Commis- David Sarnoff in the lead, recognized the sion had hardly begun to issue television potential popularity of adding pictures to licenses when war intervened, freezing tele- radio broadcasting. The general American vision development, just as World War I public first saw television in 1939 at the had frozen radio development. Research RCA Pavilion in the New York World's Fair, and production were needed for the war whose theme was "The World of Tomorrow": effort, creating radar systems and other electronic devices. During World War II, Each day, from a primitive studio at Radio only six experimental stations broadcast City, RCA beams to the fairgrounds a vintage programs occasionally to no more than cartoon ("Donald's Cousin Gus") or a 10,000 sets in the country. However, news- travelogue ("Jasper National Park, Washing- papers and magazines carried stories about ton - Shrine of Patriotism") or a culinary les- television's promise. When the war ended son (usually a simple salad), since the heat the pent-up demand for TV was ready to in the studio is almost enough to roast a explode. Broadcasters wanted licenses, cook... Yet to many among the millions of manufacturers wanted to build TV sets and fairgoers who come to gape (at the New York World's Fair in 1939), the video image broadcasting equipment, and the public that lingers longest isn't anything on the wanted to be entertained by pictures in screen; it is the sight of the set itself. A their parlors. Commercial television was clunky, all-wooden set housing a glass making such an impression that factory rectangle exactly five inches high. A mini- production of sets went from 6,000 in 1946 ature looking glass.40 to 1,160,000 in 1948. The number of sets in THE TOOLSHED HOME 157 use rose from 5,000 in 1946 to nearly one 1,200 communities. Color television stand- million in 1948 to almost 10 million in 1950, ards were finally agreed upon in 1953. By typically with 7-inch or 10-inch round 1954, more than 350 stations, VHF and screens. UHF, were on the air. VHF channels proved to be a financial The Fight Over Standards bonanza from the start. British media baron Lord Thomson once said: "A license to A battle between RCA and CBS over color broadcast is a license to print money." UHF standards kept television in a monochrome stations fared less well because most of the world. Because of the decision to restrict early television sets lacked UHF dials. station allocations to the VHF (very-high Even after the FCC in 1964 required televi- frequency) band, channels 2 to 13, bitter sion set manufacturers to add UHF dials, and extended quarrels arose for licenses. It they did not require the precisely tuned seemed that everyone wanted these scarce click dials used for VHF stations. Viewers and valuable licenses, especially radio sta- avoided the UHF stations, advertisers tion owners and newspaper publishers. Un- would not spend money where there was able to resolve the problems of who would no audience, and networks had little wish get the limited space in the VHF spectrum, to affiliate where few viewers or advertis- and aware that it had not allowed enough ers went, which meant that UHF stations separation to prevent interference, the FCC could not get network programs. Not until halted the licensing of television stations. the coming of cable did many UHF stations It reworked the national television spec- operate profitably. trum allocation plan to provide for more The FCC decided to let television de- local television stations in U.S. communi- velop according to pre-war standards, un- ties. The freeze on new stations was to last like European countries, which waited from 1948 to 1952, but television technol- until better standards came along in the ogy did not wait. By 1951, coaxial cables and postwar years. The result has been that the microwave signals sent network programs American television standard, called NTSC coast to coast. The FCC also opened up the (for the National Television System Com- UHF (ultra-high frequency) band, channels mittee that developed it), is not quite as 14 to 69, to answer the demand of appli- good as the European PAL and SECAM cants who wanted their own television sta- systems of 625 lines. Japan, Canada, and tions; it assigned channels to more than the other nations of the western hemisphere adopted the American NTSC system of a picture made up of 525 lines that are refreshed 60 times a second, interlac- ing the even-numbered lines and the odd- numbered lines alternately, 30 frames per second. European nations were divided between two other systems, each with more lines and better picture quality than the American system. France's SECAM system was chosen by the Soviet Union, China, and the nations of Eastern Europe. Germany's PAL system was chosen by Britain and most countries of western Europe. Other countries of the world selected one of the three systems for cultural and political reasons or because of a compatible electric grid. A former British colony might select the PAL system because of the ready avail- Figure 5.7 Portable TV set, 1948, had a ability of British programs. 3V2-inch screen. 158 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

HDTV countries the government owned and man- In the '90s, a new system emerged, high aged all these services. definition television. HDTV presented a cin- Pressure from educators led to the as- ema screen-like 16 x 9 width-to-height ra- signment of a relatively few, poorly funded tio instead of the standard television 4x3 educational radio stations and, later, televi- ratio, plus at least twice the number of sion stations. Dissatisfaction over this state scanning lines of NTSC pictures, and there- of affairs led to many painful adjustments fore at least twice the sharpness. Both the and no end of legal and political wrangling pictures, carrying at least ten times as to reach the present situation in the United much color information, and the compact States of a non-profit, partly government- disc-quality sound, encoded for transmis- funded public television network, the Pub- sion by digital sampling, had much more lic Broadcasting System, plus two public clarity than existing television. radio networks, National Public Radio and In addition to home delivery of televi- Public Radio International. sion programs, another possibility for HDTV may be as a replacement to film Programming distribution. Movies arrive in theaters the way they have for decades, as cans of film In the 1920s, neighbors gathered around carted from place to place. Instead, vision- the first radio on the block. As television aries imagined a theater without film or sets were sold across the nation during the tape. An HDTV signal would be sent by late 1940s and '50s, people without sets satellite in scrambled form to theaters would crowd into a neighbor's home or where audiences are waiting; in short, a stand in front of radio shop window dis- superior version of HBO for theaters. This plays to watch the antics of Milton Berle would permit the distribution of motion and Sid Caesar, or the glum-faced Ed Sulli- pictures with small potential audiences in van introducing bright young talent, in- each city but a sizable, cumulative audi- cluding Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, the ence. Beatles, and Elvis Presley, plus any number A reasonable question might be: why of folk singers and trained dog acts. Part of bother with theaters? Why not just make the excitement for viewers was that the tapes available for viewing at home on entertainment was live, happening right VCRs? Experience has shown that going then out in Hollywood or New York while out to a movie, seeing it on a large screen the whole country watched! Vaudeville, while surrounded by other people, is a so- killed by the movies, was reborn on a grand cial event that sitting at home does not stage. equal. However, the comforts of the tool- In time, television and movies would go shed home have repeatedly outweighed together like ham and eggs, but not at first. such considerations for most people. Major studios saw television as a threat to the motion picture industry, not as an additional distribution channel. Indeed, con- The Commercial Basis sidering the financial links between the Television developed as a private busi- studios and the theater chains, television ness in the United States, unlike most was a threat. Those links weakened in a other countries, a legacy from the mid- 1948 U.S. Supreme Court decision, U.S. v. nineteenth century when the Congress re- Paramount, breaking the vertically inte- fused the opportunity to take over Morse's grated structure of the studios and the young telegraph service. Bell's telephone movie theaters. grew as a private venture, and about twenty It was only a matter of time before the years after that, so did Marconi's point-to- networks, hungry for material to fill their point wireless radio service. After another available hours and cash rich, would get quarter century, privately owned, govern- movies to show their rapidly expanding ment regulated wireless radio had ex- audiences. Among the first to arrive were panded into broadcasting, whereas in other B-grade westerns, the cheaply made horse THE TOOLSHED HOME 159 operas that kids watched on Saturday L. A. Law, which Bochco also produced, and mornings. Cowboy actors Gene Autry and the hospital drama, ER. Social issues were Hopalong Cassidy, who owned the televi- again featured. sion rights to their dozens of films, made Other changes saw kidding between the considerable fortunes. Walt Disney signed heroes become a staple of dialogue, and the a deal with ABC to start a weekly one-hour villains' crimes become more violent and series in 1954. One by one the other studios more sex-related. The decade in which an opened their film libraries. After movies adventure show was made could be became available in sufficient numbers guessed with reasonable accuracy by its sex and after videotape revolutionized televi- and violence content. As early as the 1960s, sion production, the live dramas that were the National Association for Better Broad- the centerpiece of the so-called Golden Age casting estimated that the average child of Television of the 1950s yielded to pro- was likely, between the ages of 5 and 15, to grams that could be shot anywhere, edited, see more than 13,000 people destroyed vio- and kept on a shelf. lently, identifying not only guns but fire, rape, poison, acid, spiders, snakes, croco- Settings and Plots diles, pitchforks, knives, time bombs, live steam, poison gas, hypodermic needles, Formula Hollywood Western movies on tele- and an assortment of blunt instruments. vision were followed by made-for-television That the powerful images of violence have western series that kept the same formula affected both children and adults and have of good guys and bad guys shooting it out pushed some disturbed teenagers and in the frontier town. Unlike the best of the adults into mimicking the violent acts Hollywood studio westerns, the characters should by now be beyond dispute. Yet, for lacked depth and the plots were cookie- a significant segment of society, including cutter. Viewers eventually tired of western large numbers of children and teenagers, settings, but not of two-dimensional adven- the powerful images of television still pro- tures. Out went the cowboys of Bonanza. In vide a moral compass, sometimes the came the secret agents of Mission Impossi- dominant moral compass. ble and / Spy, a series that made history Fred Friendly wryly commented, "Com- when a black actor, Bill Cosby, was chosen mercial television makes so much money to play one of the two heroes. Private eyes, doing its worst, it can't afford to do its best." cops, and doctors followed one another on Under the Telecommunication Reform Act the tube. of 1996, television manufacturers were in- The basic plots did not change much, but stalling a v-chip in each set so parents could character changes reflected and sometimes block out violent and sexual programs. Net- led social attitudes. For example, the seri- works, cable channels, and independent ous and pure old-time cowboys were re- producers, faced with government and placed by world-weary private detectives public pressure, reluctantly agreed to come with personality flaws. The lone hero be- up with a rating system that would be the came the leading member of a team that software for the v-chip. included a black or a woman, sometimes both. If a black cop was not a member of the team that went after the villains, the Soap Operas growling, middle-aged superior would be Soap operas, the popular afternoon melo- black. Steven Bochco's Hill Street Blues, pep- drama series that were staples of radio for pered with the gritty realism of the South decades, moved effortlessly from radio into Bronx and a variety of social concerns, television. Radio had its Stella Dallas, Ma provided a television-watching home for Perkins, and The Guiding Light. Television liberals during the Reagan era. Its rich char- carried on with All My Children, Days of Our acterization and seamless flow back and Lives, and—no surprise —The Guiding Light. forth among several plot lines set a style for Except for newscasts, they have been the a number of shows that followed it, notably most enduring of all broadcast fare, while 160 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION even the most popular adventure shows, Cheers and Roseanne in the 1980s, the sitcoms dramas, and situation comedies exhausted went on to Friends, Seinfeld, and Married themselves after several years. Soap operas With Children in the 1990s. The most notice- keep bubbling. Although their primary able change of the passing decades is the audience is housewives, their appeal ex- celebration of sexuality and crude behavior. tends to the work place, retirement homes, The situation comedy has proven to be an and college campuses. Over the decades, ideal vehicle for social issues. The pro- social messages were introduced, but the tective balloon of escape entertainment biggest change is in the amount of sex both was punctured by All in the Family in the talked about and shown. Soaps have come 1970s. The central character was made a a long way from radio's The Romance of figure of fun for his empty expressions of Helen Trent, when the announcer daily bigotry toward anyone unlike himself. All asked the audience whether a woman over in the Family, unabashedly liberal, was will- the age of 35 could still find romance. ing to raise contemporary issues like abor- With huge, faithful audiences, the plots tion and homosexuality. Other sitcoms have required little change from formulas followed in opening up controversial sub- that worked so well on both radio and tele- jects that once were ignoredby broadcasting. vision. With ensemble casts, each soap opera carries several plots along simultaneously What Is for Children? from day to day. Unlike nearly all movies and ordinary dramatic programs, a soap Children's programs changed considerably. opera offers no happy ending followed by Radio had offered 15-minute adventure pro- a fade-out. If one painful romantic problem grams weekdays before the supper" hour seems to be resolved, others are not, and and Saturday morning programs like Let's the "nice" characters do not always get their Pretend, which encouraged imagination hearts' desires. The real message has al- and the reading of books. Television re- ways been: stay tuned. placed these at first with live programming Soaps proved such a television draw that such as Howdy Doody and Kukla, Fran and they moved into evening prime time as Ollie, and filmed adventures like The Lone well, with long-running shows like Dallas, Ranger and Lassie, but over the years these Dynasty, and Knots Landing, which had gave way to animated cartoons in half-hour strong appeal to working class audiences; blocks on weekday afternoons and particu- thirty-something and L.A. Law, which at- larly Saturday mornings, where one tracted the upscale "yuppies"; and Beverly cheaply made cartoon adventure followed Hills 90210, which appealed to teenagers. another. Some of these were shameless ad- Prime-time soap operas like Dallas traveled vertisements for toys. Advertisers filled the well to foreign countries, where they were air with other commercials for sugared ce- in competition with Mexican and Brazilian reals, candy, and toys of dubious quality. telenovellas, soap operas that usually ran for The general level of programming for chil- several months. dren became a national scandal. Reformers besieged Congress and the Federal Com- munications Commission. On PBS, Sesame The Sitcoms Street and Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood offered The half-hour prime-time radio comedy a reason for pride. show moved to television as the half-hour An effort to mandate a Family Viewing situation comedy. Each week stock charac- Hour, the first hour of prime time, failed to ters bumbled predictably through new survive a court challenge. Despite broadcast- dilemmas to the audience's delight. Begin- ers' promises to retain it voluntarily, with ning with The Honeymooners and I Love programs like The Waltons and The Brady Lucy, and going to The Beverly Hillbillies in Bunch, the Family Viewing Hour gradually the 1960s, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, dissolved into standard evening fare. M*A*S*H, and Happy Days in the 1970s, Edward R. Murrow once said: THE TOOLSHED HOME 161

This instrument can teach. It can illuminate. ment. A studio audience asked questions Yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so and gave opinions. Viewers were some- only to the extent that humans are de- times invited to telephone more questions termined to use it to those ends. Otherwise, it 41 and opinions to add to the stew. Hosts such is merely wires and lights in a box. as Donahue, Geraldo, and Oprah became household names; in fact, a single first At this writing, the highest ratings in the name was enough to identify them in- history of the Public Broadcasting System stantly to the public. The daily procession were earned by the eleven-hour documen- of tabloid topics led to an angry reaction, tary series, The Civil War, presented in one- with demands in Congress that television hour and two-hour prime time blocks, a should clean its skirts. combination of old photographs and com- Dozens of other types of programs filled mentary by historians. Yet, to all but a rela- the air, from Sunday morning church ser- tive handful of producers, television was vices to televangelists badgering the public still wires and lights in a box. Neil Postman for donations, from political interviews to put it this way: travelogues, plus prime-time specials on Television does not extend or amplify literate every conceivable subject, including the culture. It attacks it. If television is a annual Emmy awards for the best in televi- continuation of anything, it is of a tradition sion. Sooner or later, somewhere on the begun by the telegraph and photograph in dial, something was available for everyone. the mid-nineteenth century, not by the Considering television's enormous appe- printing press in the fifteenth.42 tite for programming, it was a feat simply to fill all the available hours. One television executive put it this way: "Hell, there isn't Talk Shows and even enough mediocrity to go around." "Infotainment" Because they produced high ratings, the Paying for Programming television industry stood its ground against criticism of violence and sex. One or the The principal ways to pay for broadcasting other could be found in abundance on any are: day of the week somewhere on the sched- 1. Government allocations. Totalitarian ule. Violence was a staple of the popular governments prefer this method, which genre called "infotainment." Hard Copy and makes broadcasting a department of govern America's Most Wantedhad the look of news ment, and its employees dependent upon programming and counted former televi- those in power. sion journalists among its staff members. Many viewers could not tell the difference, 2. Viewer and listener license fees. for it was not always clear, especially when This method supported the B.B.C., Japan's a ratings month seduced local television NHK, and Scandinavian state broadcast or station newsrooms to forget that they were ganizations, among others. Critics regard supposed to be holding the ethical high this user fee as a regressive tax, penalizing ground. poor people, who are charged as much as Heavy criticism was leveled against af- the rich, but supporters consider it the best ternoon talk shows because of frequently way to fund broadcasting. lurid sex content. Hosts introduced guests 3. Advertising. The American system to discuss a topic, often deviant behavior, is criticized for its materialism, for pushing the stranger the better. Guests openly dis- people to buy what they do not need, for its cussed matters that, a few years before, blatant selling to children, and for injecting many people did not know even existed, let commercials inappropriately into the mid alone were fit for exposure to millions of dle of programs and news reports. How viewers who apparently sat at home in rapt ever, it has proven durable and popular. attention shaking their heads in amaze- Most of the nations that once rejected 162 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

broadcast advertising have accepted it commercial networks battled over a thin- either on state television channels or on ning share of the total audience. separate commercial channels. European public television networks, complacent and overstaffed, suffered far worse than America's big three networks. Advertisers remained convinced of the ef- Wracked by commercial competition, ca- ficacy of spending tens or even hundreds ble, satellite, and videotape rentals, Italy's of thousands of dollars for a few seconds of triple-headed RAI, Spain's RTVE, and Ger- commercial time. Many viewers enjoy many's ARD and ZDF faced financial watching a favorite commercial so often ruin.44 State-run Asian television networks that they can recite every word. Like popu- were also hurting as viewer choices in- lar songs and children's favorite movies, creased. In France, Russia, Eastern Europe, some commercials seem never to grow and Mexico, among other nations, state stale. Children in particular enjoy watching owned stations were being sold to private commercials. interests. Meanwhile, the Federal Communica- The child is right in not regarding commer- tions Commission approved low power tele- cials as interruptions. For the only time any- vision (LPTV) technology for limited-area one smiles on TV is in commercials. The rest of life, in news broadcasts and soap service. Approximately half the stations operas, is presented as so horrible that the were in remote rural areas not well served only way to get through life is to buy this by existing television stations. More than product: then you'll smile. Aesop never one-third appealed to such special and wrote a clearer fable.43 varied audiences as tourists, students, Hispanics, and children. Many urban LPTVs concentrated on either religion or The Decline of Broadcasting shopping. As cable choices expanded, the audience for the Big Three American networks shrank from more than 90 percent of the In two generations, television broadcasting total television audience to about 60 per- had been born as a lusty baby, had for cent. It did not totally wither, but the de- decades exceeded every prediction about cline sent a shock through the networks, its health, and, as the end of the century which never considered that their cumula- approached, showed definite signs of mid- tive audiences could go down. Each net- dle age. It was not ready by any means to work was taken over by a larger corporation: lie down and curl up its toes, but it was CBS by Westinghouse, NBC by General looking nervously at its numerous off- Electric, and ABC by Disney. They reduced spring, the variety of cable channels, direct their news staffs and reached out for other broadcast satellite services, packaged en- media businesses. The old captive audi- tertainment on tape and CD, and the poten- ence was gone because of the new commu- tial of Internet video. To no one's surprise, nication technologies. The American the kids looked just like Dad.

Tragedy in the Parlor

A Minneapolis television station took note viewer's world was normal, consisting of of viewer complaints that television news driving to work and shopping safely, pass- did not reflect "my world."45 The viewers ing the day uneventfully, enjoying dinner were correct. As they were constituted, amid kitchen aromas, and sleeping peace- television newscasts not only did not, but fully. In contrast, television news reported could not, reflect a viewer's world for at the out-of-the-ordinary. While people least three reasons. First, an average avoided accidents and violence in their THE TOOLSHED HOME 163 own lives, television news showed pictures know only through television news. And, if of it. Walter Cronkite once remarked that it is not shown, instead of just told, in a the cat stuck in the tree was news, not the newscast it may as well not have happened. hundreds of cats safely on the ground. Tele- vision news cameras were aimed at the As the places of public assembly continued "cats in the trees." News had become one to diminish, and people began to divide their more televised spectator sport. Viewers time almost exclusively between home and watched arrests, fires, weeping victims, ec- work, television news would become for many the most important link to the larger static sweepstakes winners, and politicians. world.46 Life itself had become a spectacle, not something to participate in, but to watch. Second, television newscasts, as a part of Radio News broadcasting, sought the widest possible News by broadcast began not long after audiences, which required a dispersal of broadcasting itself began. Newscasts in focus; the wider the spread, the less that most countries reflected government su- anyone's "world" could be attended to. pervision of broadcasting. In the United Third, the centrifugal effect of all media, States, radio stations reported local news as including television news, took people part of their commercial presentations. away from their world. Travel lecturer Lowell Thomas, whose re- The narrower audience focus of the ports brought Lawrence of Arabia to public growing numbers of neighborhood cable attention, began the first American net- newscasts and newscasts from specialty work radio newscasts in 1930 for NBC channels such as the Christian Broadcast- Trouble soon emerged as newspapers, frus- ing Network and MTV were more likely to trated by radio's economic gains while they please their audiences in this regard. The sustained losses during the Depression, trade-off of gaining greater focus on the forced the Associated Press and other wire viewer's world at the expense of giving up news agencies to deny regular service to part of the audience does not thrill televi- stations and networks. sion stations. Unwilling to accept the meager diet of By their choice of news coverage, televi- news that the newspapers offered as a com- sion journalists help to determine what in promise, radio broadcasters developed town and what in the world demands our their own information channels. The attention. The phenomenon is known as "Press-Radio War" ended in 1935 with a agenda setting. For example, the famines in newspaper rout. CBS and NBC continued to Ethiopia and Somalia were widely reported build strong news departments with staff in heart scalding pictures of stick thin men, and stringers across the United States and women, and children, flies buzzing about in Europe. their eyes. Reaching American viewers in Radio's advantage in immediacy was off- their comfortable homes the stories led to set by its lack of depth, a limitation im- a massive outpouring of aid and, in fact, posed by the nature of the broadcast military intervention in Somalia. Yet, in medium, whose goal is to keep the atten- nearby Sudan, people were also starving in tion of a large audience. A newspaper edi- an equally brutal civil war at the same time, tor may let a story run for many but because the Sudanese government paragraphs, knowing that an uninterested sharply restricted journalists, few televi- reader can move on to the next story sion pictures reached viewers, and there merely by shifting his gaze. A radio listener was no outpouring of help. Similar misery must wait for one news item to run its in Mozambique and Angola went largely course before hearing the next. unphotographed and unreported, and con- Instead of simply describing an event, sequently largely unaided. audio technology allowed radio to bring an What many people know of what is hap- audience of millions to the event itself, pening outside their community, they everything from sports to political conven- 164 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION tions. Baseball, football, boxing, and horse fered no more visual treat than that. It was racing broadcasts enthralled millions of just a radio newscast with a camera. fans. Modern newscasts developed step-by- The most famous of radio reporters, step from those inauspicious beginnings. Edward R, Murrow, used the medium bril- The "talking heads" and the fluffy pictures liantly during the German aerial bombard- came together slowly over the years, as ment of London in World War II. Night after imaginative producers devised ways to en- night from the rooftop above his studio, liven and illustrate newscasts using still Murrow's microphone picked up the pictures, maps, charts, and rear projection sounds of anti-aircraft fire as Murrow to position the pictures over the shoulder painted word pictures of the bombing. of the newscaster. Newscasters became Across the Atlantic in a nation still at peace, aware of the camera, and eventually read listeners eagerly awaited his CBS Radio re- from cue cards, then prompters. Images ports, which helped to shift American sen- appeared first on cards and slides, later in timent from the isolationist wish to avoid electronic storage. Sets replaced bare ta- war to a feeling of wanting to come to the bles. On the set, the newscaster was even- aid of the beleaguered English populace. tually joined by live shots to reporters at At the same time that newsreel and remote locations. The newsreels were documentary cameras were poking into melded into the radio-style newscasts. Dou- the far corners of the world, radio reporters ble chaining mixed audio and video to tell a were generally confined to studio sound story, adding a separate sound track to film booths. This state of affairs would not scenes. In the field, television networks change until radio reporters during World opened news bureaus in distant countries, War II got their hands on the new portable and television stations opened bureaus in wire recorders. Tape recorders, a German nearby suburbs and towns. Network news- invention, were not available in the United casts were improved by newsfilm feeds States until after the war. upstream from affiliate stations using the same telephone lines that brought them Two Roots of Television network programs downstream. Bulky Hol- lywood studio 35-millimeter film cameras News were replaced by 16-millimeter film cam- News on television grew from two roots, eras, which gave way to video cameras and newsreels and radio newscasts. In its earli- videotape. est days, television separated the two. Tele- Starting in 1963 network and local news- vision newsreels, like the newsreels in casts expanded from 15 to 30 minutes each, movie theaters, dealt with such lightweight and changed from black and white to color. material as fashion shows and the appear- ENG, or electronic news gathering, arrived ances of movie stars at a benefit. The news- when CBS-TV News sent a video camera reels suffered the logistical problems of and a tape recorder to cover President Rich- getting a heavy 35 mm camera, the kind ard Nixon's trip to Moscow. For the televi- used to shoot Hollywood feature films, and sion news audience, ENG meant more all the gear that went with it, to the scene pictures at the scene of news events, more of an event, bringing the film to a process- coverage of late breaking news, and reports ing lab, and then distributing it either to of events as they were happening, fre- movie houses or television stations. As a quently the now familiar combination of a result, events were more likely to be cov- reporter live at the scene plus videotape of ered if they were conveniently located and earlier activities. if timeliness was not important. Based on videotape, ENG did away with The other root, radio news, lacked visual the time consuming process of developing interest. What was the point of watching film. A few years later, able to combine the bald spot on top of a man's head as he video cameras with portable transmitting hunched over a microphone to read a equipment that used microwave links, pho- script?47 Yet, early television newscasts of- tographers no longer had to drive back to THE TOOLSHED HOME 165 the station with their pictures, thereby sav- lowed, and made obscene gestures during ing even more time and permitting much important camera shots. Critics who more latitude in what news stories could be sniffed at the newscasts did not reckon with covered. In the 1980s, ENG was supplanted their growing popularity as television an- by satellite news gathering (SNG) which al- tennas sprouted from every roof. lowed reporters to send pictures and live Attitudes changed on November 22, reports back from remote corners of the 1963, the day of the assassination of John nation and the world instantly and often F. Kennedy. The murder of the President cheaply. under mysterious circumstances, followed As a result of the new technology, televi- by the murder of his alleged assailant, both sion stations depended less upon networks shown as they happened, led not to angry for news coverage outside their areas. New citizens taking to the streets, but to a citi- linkages developed among stations that did zenry glued to television sets to watch the not share the same network affiliation, but drama that unfolded over more than three were connected either because of station days. All programming, all commercials, ownership or because the stations had de- and all other news vanished. Television cided to join together to exchange video news pictures hypnotized viewers as night stories. Much as the telegraph encouraged and day the unfolding events were told and the formation of the Associated Press a shown over and over. Researchers reported century earlier, communication satellites, that, with the aid of television: lightweight cameras, and videotape recorders encouraged the formation of satel- People who on Friday exhibited emotional lite news gathering organizations; such as reactions that usually precede collective dis- CONUS and Worldwide Television News order appeared to have acquired after the fu- (WTN), which fed news stories to member neral a more realistic appraisal of the 48 assassination's implications for the future of stations. 50 News staffs put together not only several the country. daily newscasts, but interview programs, Far better than printed reports could later documentaries, and specials. Political con- relate, television news showed the strength ventions designed their schedules to catch and continuity of the American govern- the prime time audience. Election coverage ment in the orderly transition of power. It became a victim of its own efficiency and helped pull the nation together with unfor- popularity as a cry arose across the nation gettable images of the violent events in that the reporting and projection of results Dallas and the funeral in Washington. Dur- in eastern states affected the outcome in ing the nation's deep grief, television news western states. By combining journalism had its most shining hour. At one point, with computer technology and statistical more than nine out of every ten Americans probability, television news had the poten- were watching. The world watched, too, as tial to distort a presidential election. the news and pictures went by satellite to 600 million viewers in 23 countries.51 Kennedy Assassination Coverage The Civil Rights Movement When television news began, the best radio The capacity of television news to generate reporters wanted no part of it. Edward R. emotion surfaced frequently during the Murrow, whose Harvest of Shame shocked a coverage of the Civil Rights movement in complacent America, commented in 1958, the South. Nowhere was its impact more "Television's indifference outshines Nero clearly demonstrated. and his fiddle, or Chamberlain and his 49 umbrella." Newspaper reporters and still Coverage rose with the lunch counter sit-ins, photographers pulled camera cords out of the Freedom Rides into the Deep South, and wall sockets, refused to attend "press" con- other highly visible demonstrations de- ferences if television cameras were al- manding change. When Birmingham Police 166 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Commissioner "Bull" Connor used fire hoses Clark could be counted on to lose control at and dogs on civil rights marchers in 1963, the sight of marching blacks, with an audi- television news carried pictures of blacks ence of millions watching.53 being knocked off their feet by the water jets and being attacked by dogs to a shocked and Civil rights advocate Allard Lowenstein morally outraged nation. At least, in the North. Many stations in the South said it took police dogs in Birmingham to downplayed the unfolding drama, perhaps sell civil rights to Des Moines. President Kennedy said the televised attacks on limiting coverage to a short segment called 54 "News of Our Colored Folk."52 women and children made him "sick." National support, partly energized by all Viewers were caught up by the live cover- those gripping televised images, led to pas- age of the integration of Little Rock Central sage of the Civil Rights Act. High School under the protection of Na- These events had all occurred in the tional Guard troops, the lunch counter sit- South, yet many television stations in the ins, the bombing of Martin Luther King's southern states sharply limited what their home and a Birmingham church, the Free- viewers saw of the Civil Rights movement. dom Rides carrying cameramen among The anger that drove to passage of the Civil others on the buses heading south, the en- Rights Act may have puzzled some south- try of James Meredith into the University ern viewers. of Mississippi, Selma, Alabama, deputies The same television cameras that elic- swinging clubs and pointing cattle prods, ited sympathy for the plight of blacks in the and children in their Sunday-best clothes South showed very different images and marching off to be arrested. These and doz- created sharply different emotions when ens of other video images filled with vio- they reported the riots that flared in the lence shocked a nation that had placidly urban ghettos of California and the North, accepted the status quo of segregation. starting with Watts in 1965, followed by Scenes of mob hatred toward black children riots in Chicago, Cleveland, Newark, De- entering all-white schools following the troit, and Washington, D.C. Now television federal desegregation mandate stirred the showed blacks not as victims of violence, American conscience. So did the scenes of but as its instigators. Instead of "We shall civil rights marchers in Birmingham being overcome" viewers heard "Burn, baby, scattered by police dogs and high pressure burn." The response was white fear, a less- fire hoses. Martin Luther King knowingly ening of sympathy for black hardship, and organized demonstrations to gain maxi- an increased flight of the white middle mum television coverage, and found an class and its tax base from cities to safer unwitting ally in the brutal Birmingham Po- suburbs. Just as segregationist whites in lice Commissioner, Eugene ("Bull") Connor. the South had blamed television camera crews for inciting trouble by their pres- Most historians, political scientists, and jour- ence, so were those crews now being nalists agreed that without the television blamed for worsening the urban riots by cameras to show Police Commissioner "Bull" their presence. Television news was also Connor and his police dogs in Birmingham, faulted for displaying only the surface without the sight of Sheriff Jim Clark and events, but failing to examine their under- his posse using cattle prods and clubs on lying causes. blacks in Selma, there would have been no Civil Rights Act in 1964, no Voting Rights Act in 1965. The leaders of the movement Anti-War Demonstrations became masterful at manipulating television, conscious of the way certain im- Anti-government, anti-war demonstrations ages could be used to move the electorate. outside the Democratic convention in Chi- Martin Luther King specifically chose Selma cago in 1968 led to a confrontation that has as the place to kick off his voting rights been described as a riot by police out of campaign because he knew Sheriff control, beating innocent spectators. The THE TOOLSHED HOME 167 film of the events on the street, played and them. They joined platoons penetrating replayed on the networks, totally overshad- overgrown, dangerous trails, helicopters owed what was happening inside the con- strafing the treetops or rescuing the vention hall and created such an uproar wounded, and bombers on runs that made that the Hubert Humphrey campaign for the jungle explode. Day after day the film president was never able to recover. Chi- flowed out of Saigon and the battle zones. cago's Mayor Richard Daley, in the center Night after night it appeared on the net- of events, issued a complaint that has often work evening news, and so did the pictures been heard, even from television reporters of rising anti-war unrest on streets of themselves when their reports have been American cities. shoehorned into tight newscasts. The television coverage polarized the public. Many viewers who strongly sup- Regardless of how objective radio or TV ported the war found in the television pic- news editors wish to be, they cannot make a tures even more reason for their support, fair presentation, a fair evaluation of an im- but those who strongly opposed it were portant and complex issue in two or three being joined by members of that large ma- minutes... Where's the action? This is becoming nearly an obsession with some news jority of Americans with fairly neutral editors.55 opinions. Opponents in growing numbers took to the streets and to the airwaves demanding an end of American military "The Living Room War" involvement there. Gradually national sen- Vietnam was "the living room war,"56 when timent shifted against the Vietnam War. for the first time in history those who lived Television coverage was credited—or far from the scenes of conflict could see the blamed, depending on one's point of face of war in color, in moving images with view—with forcing the war to its end with- sound. Television brought the reality of war out the victory that Americans had come to evening after evening into American living expect of their wars. rooms, to the kitchen tables at dinner time, The bitter experience raised the ques- at bedside as citizens woke in the morning tion of whether in the television age any or tried to drowse off at night. Most of the democracy with full freedom of the press scenes were not ugly, but rather of routine would be able to fight a protracted war, military activity. Still, bringing them al- especially against an enemy that restricted most every night for years to the family the television that its people would be al- living room must have raised questions in lowed to see. Military leaders learned all many families about the need for American too well the lesson of television coverage of troops fighting a war so far away. The pur- Vietnam. In the British war with Argentina pose it served became less and less clear. in the Falklands and in subsequent U.S. As the war dragged on, pictures landed a mini-conflicts in Grenada and Panama, harder emotional punch. Seeing fresh journalists' access to combat and combat- young American faces arriving in Vietnam ants was restricted. During the Gulf War, and rows of body bags awaiting the return control was so extensive that television trip was clear evidence to viewers at home news seemed at times to be an extension of that the Vietnam War was not a John Wayne the military effort. At its conclusion, the movie. Images of pathetic villagers caught theater commander, General H. Norman in the midst of carnage, their huts set Schwarzkopf, with mordant humor, ablaze, gave impetus to the anti-war move- thanked the journalists whom he had mis- ment. led into reporting that American marines Reporters, sound technicians, and cam- were planning a seaborne invasion, so that eramen lugging 16 millimeter sound-and- Iraqi guns remained pointed seaward when picture film cameras on shoulder braces the real invasion came across the desert. were permitted to travel wherever in South Television newscasts made Schwarzkopf a Vietnam a military unit was willing to take popular hero, and the public, grateful that 168 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

American lives had been spared, re- The problems of the environment got a sponded gleefully to the news that he had share of television news attention, adding put one over on the journalists. to the movements to heal the earth. The best reporting of the brief Gulf War came from Peter Arnett of CNN, who re- (CBS newscaster Walter) Cronkite's interest mained in Baghdad. Technology by 1991 in the environment... almost certainly had advanced so far from the days of the helped create the climate for passage of the Vietnam War that it was common for a environmental legislation of the seventies... network to switch live from a military By what they ignored as well as what they emphasized, the editors of network news not headquarters in Saudi Arabia to Tel Aviv to only helped to shape the national agenda but Washington D.C. to Amman, Jordan. It all also to color the average citizen's notions of appeared so effortless. The viewing public reality.57 was transfixed by the technology of smart bombs and the television news technology that showed them, but did not show the Sometimes a Global Village bodies piling up. It played out like a video Marshall McLuhan's "global village" meta- game. phor came to life when television presented an event of interest and importance Not Newspaper Journalism that transcended national boundaries, languages, and cultures. Live coverage could Television news was not another version of attract an audience that could only be newspaper journalism, and could not be guessed at, at times upwards of half a bil- measured by a newspaper yardstick. It did lion souls. The Olympics were such an not match the detail of printed news. On event. So was the state funeral of an assas- the other hand, newspapers did not equal sinated leader of world stature, such as a the ability of television to generate emo- John Kennedy, Anwar Sadat, or Indira tion, which translated to involving viewers Gandhi. Here was communication technol- at a deeper level than newspapers nor- ogy in full strength, creating what Daniel mally could. The capacity to present pic- Dayan and Elihu Katz called a civil relig- tures and sound that impelled viewers to ion.58 Major media events interrupted rou- respond was demonstrated in the coverage tine as people took a holiday to gather in of many stories. front of a television set. Depending upon Among them were the Watergate story, the event, watching television can capture which was investigated by two or three some of the aura of attending church. If the national newspapers, but changed the na- family gathers to watch, the living room tion after television began reporting what radiates a family warmth it normally lacks. the newspapers were uncovering and how For a short time, the television set unites government officials were reacting. Presi- the family that it usually divides. dent Nixon might have survived the inves- tigations of the Washington Post and the The reverent tones of the ceremony, the New York Times if the television networks, dress and demeanor of those gathered in which broke little new ground themselves, front of the set, the sense of communion had not picked up the story and broadcast with the mass of viewers, are all reminis- it to tens of millions of living rooms. cent of holy days.59 The race to the moon owed much to television news reports and documentaries The public responded positively to interest- for engendering the excitement that sup- ing newscasts that were relatively cheap to ported the expensive space program. Per- produce, so broadcasters added more of haps one billion viewers in a worldwide them, from local newscasts at dawn with hookup saw live pictures of Neil Armstrong items of particular appeal to farmers and "Buzz" Aldrin walking on the face of the through network and local "cut-in" news moon. during the breakfast programs, local news- THE TOOLSHED HOME 169 casts at noon, afternoon, and early evening exalted feminism and other forms of sexual blocks of network and local news lasting up liberation. TV took us to Dallas and made to three hours, and finally to news atbedtime. John F. Kennedy into a national icon. It took In 1980, Ted Turner, a cable channel us to the moon. It awakened us to the horrors entrepreneur, added a 24-hour Cable News of war in Vietnam. It made a few hundred corpses on Beijing's Tiananmen Square Network, and two years later a second net- loom larger in the American mind than the work, CNN Headline News, of 30-minute many millions of deaths that occurred under newscasts around the clock. CNN also the rule of Chairman Mao Tse-tung. spread its services worldwide, so people in Television heavily determined which other countries who had never heard of the books and magazines we read, which cultural older established ABC, CBS, and NBC be- figures ascended to celebrity and wealth, and came faithful viewers of CNN. The BBC and which politicians prospered or collapsed. It others added world news services. In 1995, pilloried Joseph McCarthy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon. It made Ronald Reagan ABC and NBC announced plans for compet- 60 ing 24-hour news channels. Surfing across the most popular president of the era. the cable channels with a clicker also brought the viewer a financial news network, sports news, news breaks in chan- From our armchairs, the Gulf War was a nels heavily devoted to movies, and even diverting, bloodless exercise in technology, news reports prepared for music video a video game that others played while we watchers. were permitted to cheer at the play and the ascending score. How primitive the Viet- Television marched into America's living nam War, the world's first "living room war," rooms and took over for 50 years. First it was by comparison, with its images of faces transformed childhood into Howdy Doody full of pain, its dead, and its dying. Histori- time, adolescence into puberty rites with ans considering the gains and losses of Elvis Presley and the Beatles, and politics into news bites on the networks. Television television's ability to cover the Vietnam took us to Little Rock, Arkansas, and Bir- War may look back and conclude that the mingham, Alabama, blessing the civil rights television coverage was more significant movement for two decades. It cast infamy than who won or lost that war. If this notion on Orval Faubus and Bull Connor and beati- is startling, it may not seem so in another fied Martin Luther King, contributing heav- decade or two. ily to the passage of new laws against discrimination. For three decades television

Wiring the Toolshed

It was beyond imagining at the beginning Only in the early 1980s, after cable com- that these wires hanging from electric poles panies began distributing HBO and other and fence posts could harm the television new services via satellite, did cable actually broadcasting industry. Cable was originally begin narrowcasting, relaying a diversity of planned just to improve television recep- cultural services, entertainment, and infor- tion, and originally broadcasters welcomed mation. Narrowcasting became a fact of it as such. Yet, by 1996, about two-thirds of life. the homes in the United States were Cable was supposed to bring us together. hooked to a multi-channel cable or had In fact, the proliferation of channels has direct broadcast satellite or wireless serv- had the exact opposite effect as viewers ice, and network audiences had shrunk by select from an ever thicker menu. Televi- one-third. A cable executive compared ca- sion broadcasters find themselves forced to ble television to air conditioning, "You don't move away from the central tendencies of need it, but once you live with it you can't broadcasting to the market share philoso- live without it."61 phy of narrowcasting, segmenting the audi- 170 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION ence into more narrowly focused interests, as cable TV. Origination of programming the marketing approach that guided post- was not part of the business of cable com- war radio programming in the United panies, but as the medium evolved it devel- States. Cable channels have fractured along oped its own content. Cable grew from ethnic and generational lines just as radio being merely a rebroadcast service into an stations did in the 1960s. Much of the na- industry that provided many kinds of pro- tion may share such mainstream programs gramming services, in some places allow- as the Academy Awards, the Super Bowl, ing viewers to perform various tasks with the election returns, and one or two hit interactive cable services. programs, but then viewers go their sepa- As a way to bring entertainment and rate ways to their channels of choice. The information into the home by wire, cable flow is centrifugal, not centripetal. We do can be traced back to 1893, the wired radio not all want to share the culture of a global service of Telefon Hirmondo in Budapest, village or to seek out common values. Noth- a combination of radio programming and a ing expresses this more clearly than the telephone network. The first community breeding of cable channels. antenna, bringing a radio signal by wire to many outlets, may have been set up in Two Trojan Horses Dundee, Michigan, in 1923. By the time of World War II, such radio systems were Broadcasters who welcomed the fledgling common in the larger cities of the United industry because it brought them addi- States, as well as in England and parts of tional viewers changed their tune when continental Europe. cable, a Trojan horse in their midst, thinned As for television, a year after the BBC out their share of the audience and also began the first service in 1936, a wired mas- competed for advertising dollars. ter antenna television reception was avail- Years later cable system owners them- able to some wealthy apartment dwellers in selves would learn what it felt like to be London's West End. As the service spread, attacked by a technology they had once apartment house owners wanted one an- welcomed. For the cable industry, the Tro- tenna to serve all the apartments that con- jan horse was the communication satellite. tained TV sets, aware of the danger of The satellite transponder originally was re- allowing each tenant to climb to the roof to garded as an unmitigated boon to the cable install a separate aerial with wires snaking business. It indeed produced a financial across rooftops and down walls, not to bonanza by attracting huge urban audi- speak of the ugly sight of a forest of aerials ences with a variety of cable-delivered and the signal interference that could lead channels, but in the 1990s it loomed as to tenant "antenna wars." To solve the prob- cable's competitor because of direct broad- lem, a master antenna went up on the roof. cast satellite technology, which can bypass Television signals received by the antenna both local stations and cable systems to went directly to the TV receivers without deliver those same channels directly from amplification. However, as more receivers a source transmitter to the viewer. were hooked on, the shared signal weakened; amplification became necessary, one How Cable Began booster per station. Much of this activity The spectacular postwar growth of televi- took place in New York, but the next step sion in the United States was shadowed by was taken far from city pavements. Most the growth of cable reception, only a step innovations start in big cities and eventu- behind the local television station and its ally filter down to small communities, but network programs. cable television was a country mouse that By the end of 1947, the basis had been went to the city. laid for expanding master antenna television The industry began in 1948, shortly after (MATV) to community antenna television the beginning of postwar commercial tele- (CATV), and from CATV to what we know vision in the larger cities when people in THE TOOLSHED HOME 171

hilly rural areas wanted better reception or sensation among residents. Crowds outside any reception at all. Line-of-sight signals his store were so thick that the police had that were not totally blocked by hills dete- to clear the blocked street. The police chief riorated over distance. People were frus- became so fascinated with what was going trated that their town's location denied on that he went into the CATV business them the wonderful new entertainment himself. After Walson ran an extension to they were reading and hearing about. Lost a neighbor's home and one to his own sales frustrated appliance dealers even home, other neighbors begged for exten- more. sion wires to their homes. Walson offered The first systems were isolated. While to hook up any home in Mahanoy City that most television stations were connected to bought a television set from him. At first, networks via microwave links, community he refused to accept additional payments, antenna systems were not connected to but by the following year he was charging anything. By simply retransmitting station an installation fee of $100 plus $2 a month. signals, they brought in nothing but what the By 1950, 1,500 subscribers were hooked up nearest local stations were broadcasting. to his system, which he had switched from twin-lead wire to sheathed coaxial cable. He also asked for and received a franchise CATV Pioneers from town authorities. Exactly where CATV began is a matter of At about the same time, in Astoria, Ore- dispute. Several entrepreneurs, unaware gon, L.E. Parsons, a radio station operator they were cable pioneers, tried to solve a experimented with cable television partly, puzzling business problem: How do you he later said, because his wife wanted "pic- sell television sets in a town that can't pull tures with her radio." Mr. and Mrs. Parsons in television programs? had seen television demonstrated at a na- John Walson, a maintenance man for tional broadcasting convention. When Seat- the regional power company and part tle's first television station went on air in owner of an appliance store in Mahanoy 1948, Parsons was able to receive a fuzzy City, Pennsylvania, sold television sets picture in Astoria 125 miles away by when he could. He had to talk fast because mounting an antenna on the top of the local residents could barely receive Phila- eight-story Astor Hotel, located near his delphia's three network stations off the air. own apartment. Parsons may have been Reception in their homes was poor, motivated only by the wish to please his blocked by the surrounding hills. For dem- wife, but soon his home was packed with onstrations, Walson drove prospective buy- visitors. Excitement among Astoria resi- ers and television sets to the top of a nearby dents led Parsons into the cable business. mountain where he had erected an an- Like Walson on the other side of the nation, tenna. It was an uncomfortable way to sell Parsons extended the signal to nearby his goods, Walson recalled. "To prevent the homes. He received the signal on one chan- embarrassment of taking people up the nel and sent it out on another via coaxial mountain at night, I decided to run the cable to subscribers in the community, but cable down into the store."62 In June 1948, Parsons took a step that Walson had not Walson brought the signal into town by taken. He asked for and received permis- stringing army surplus twin-lead cable sion from the Seattle television station to from the mountaintop antenna to his store, retransmit their signal. Newspaper stories tacking it to trees, fence posts, and the about Parsons' experiment got the atten- eaves of houses along the way. The power tion of the Federal Communications Com- company gave him permission to hang the mission, which wrote to Parsons asking wire from some of their poles as well. When for more information, but took no formal he was done, Walson could display working action. sets in his store window. The sharp televi- Milton Jerrold Shapp got a lot of atten- sion pictures right there in town caused a tion at an electronics convention in 1949 172 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION with his master antenna both for apartment mitted the signals of television stations in houses and for dealers to use to demon- nearby large cities. strate television sets. His $500 investment in materials was the start of Jerrold Elec- tronics, a multi-million dollar cable equip- Originating Programming ment business. Martin Malarkey and his family owned sev- In Lansford, Pennsylvania in 1950 four eral music stores in the Pottsville, Pennsyl- radio and appliance retailers led by Robert vania, area. They were trying to sell Tarlton decided to go into the cable busi- television sets that were coming off the ness. Unlike previous ventures, this was RCA factory assembly lines, but sales planned from the start as a business whose around Pottsville were slow because of the profits would come from renting a cable dim, snowy over-the-air reception. To service. Jerrold Electronics designed the Pottsville, located 96 miles from the nearest system, leading from an 85-foot tower television station, RCA engineers came to erected on a hill to receive signals from the rescue when they offered to help Ma- Philadelphia transmitters 70 miles away. larkey test their television receiving equip- High gain receiving antennas amplified the ment in the town. A few weeks after the signals and retransmitted them via coaxial Lansford system was in operation, cable to homes in Lansford. The local Pottsville also had CATV, but something power and telephone companies gave per- different happened in Pottsville. Malarkey mission to string the coaxial cable on their owned a small television camera. In 1951, poles for $1.50 per pole per year. Custom- he used it to send out a live 30-minute ers paid an installation charge of $100 plus program, in cooperation with a local radio $3 a month. station, of interviews with politicians and These efforts won national publicity in local celebrities, including the winner of newspapers and magazines. Hundreds of the Soap Box Derby and his family. would-be operators drove to Lansford to Pottsville viewers were delighted. Local pick up ideas. Jerrold Electronics could origination was born. And by serving as not turn out equipment fast enough. The more than a community antenna that cable systems that these early business- picked up programs, "CATV" became "cable men went home to build came to be known TV." as community-antenna television systems Many small communities at this time (CATVs). They differed from the simple were too small to support a television sta- master antennas of apartment houses in tion. The fact that stations cost too much to three significant respects: build and run added to the continuing spread of cable. 1. A "head end" booster for each channel amplified signals to serve many homes. 2. Cables traversing streets required a com Cable's Early Growth munity right of way, which meant pay Cable system owners organized themselves ment to the utilities that owned the in 1951 as the National Community Televi- poles. Also required was a town's per sion Council, a forerunner of the National mission or, better still, a franchise for Cable Television Association, a trade group exclusive rights to lay the cables. not unlike the National Association of 3. It was a profit-making enterprise, with Broadcasters. In the years to come, it would income coming from user connections. grow into a powerful lobby for the cable industry. Like the Lansford system, early CATV sys- During the freeze on new television li- tems received broadcast television signals censes imposed by the Federal Communi- off the air and distributed them over coaxial cations Commission between 1948 and cable to subscribers' television receivers for 1952 as it struggled with policy questions, a monthly fee. These systems did not origi- only 108 television stations were on the air. nate programming. They merely retrans- Both commercial broadcasters and the gov- THE TOOLSHED HOME 173 ernment expected the CATV phenomenon the 1990s, met the Federal Communica- to die after the government ended the tions Commission long-standing encour- freeze, but cable continued to grow. Recep- agement of localism. tion improved when better amplifiers and The FCC was committed to encouraging other devices extended the range and local broadcasting. It faced a dilemma raised the quality of cable service. when the presence of a cable system in a The years following the end of the freeze community economically inhibited the in- saw a sharp increase in the number of troduction of a television station. While a television stations, which was more than television station could broadcast its single matched by the spread of cable systems. signal to everyone within its radius, a cable These were still mostly mom-and-pop op- system delivered many signals, but only to erations that gave little hint of the huge a restricted population, stringing its lines businesses that they would become inside to neighborhoods with a high enough popu- a generation. lation density to deliver a profit. Should the government support sending a single chan- 1952 1959 nel to everyone or many channels to only Television 108 510 part of the community? The FCC, wrestling stations with the policy question, was aware, too, Television 15 million 43 million that cable was the newer technology; to viewers attempt to limit it to protect an older indus- Cable 70 560 try ran counter to basic American enter- systems prise. Following the old admonition that "if Cable 14,000 550,000 you can't beat 'em, join 'em," television subscribers station owners invested in cable systems, a business obviously related to their own in- Cable systems now began penetrating dustry. Multi-media conglomerates in time areas that already received full network would own both television stations and ca- service by offering better reception of local ble systems as part of their communication signals and by importing signals from other empires. cities. To attract customers, some cable services originated service on unused channels. A typical offering was a feed City Franchises taken off a camera swiveling from a ther- Cities at first had greeted the arrival of mometer to a barometer to a clock. Another CATV with pleasure and charged nothing feed came from a camera focused on an AP or very little for a franchise. As the years teletype machine carrying a news service went by, the cities saw how profitable the for newspapers. More enterprising cable new business was, and began demanding owners added local coverage of the city compensation for the use of city streets. council and high school basketball games. Besides asking for a percentage of the in- Information programs and ads turned a come, cities asked for channels to be re- cable station into a television version of served for public schools and for public the neighborhood shopper newspaper. access, plus providing equipment and staff Public access stations mandated by con- for members of the public who wanted to tract with cities, also gave cable a commu- present a program or make a videotape. nity appearance. Beyond this, cable City councils learned what other cities had companies created their own local fare. A acquired in contracts, information that blossoming of neighborhood cable pro- proved useful in their own negotiations grams, including newscasts, which would with cable companies eager to gain a city become the fastest sprouting segment of franchise. In a number of instances, the all types of newscasts during the decade of cable companies agreed to generous terms 174 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION then, a few years later, went back to the offices of established media. Broadcasters bargaining table to alter them on the and theater owners feared that if STV was grounds that circumstances had changed. successful, a pay television network would As the decades passed, cable's role compete for their audiences. Theater own- changed. At first, isolated CATV systems ers worried with good cause that people were merely retransmission systems that would prefer to watch movies in their own provided clear television pictures to com- homes instead of going out to the movies. munities with poor reception. The industry The popularity of drive-in theaters should evolved into systems all over the nation, have been a clue, if one were needed, that including its largest cities, which provided people liked the liberated pleasures of local program origination services as well watching movies in home comfort. Waging as distant signal importation in addition to an aggressive campaign, opponents of the traditional CATV retransmission services. STV experiment succeeded in declaring pay television illegal in California, but by Pay-TV Without Cable then STV, harried by ruinous delays and challenges, had been run out of business. Zenith's Phonevision experiment in Sche- STV's failure had a discouraging effect on nectady, New York, began pay-TV without pay television's development for the next cable. It continued in Hartford, Connecti- ten years, but the industry's innovative cut. Phonevision broadcast three movies managers never forgot about it. daily via electronically scrambled images. When a subscriber telephoned the service to place an order, the station would activate an unscrambling device attached to the Twin County Cable of Allentown, Pennsyl- subscriber's set. Most of Phonevision's pro- vania, designed a converter that allowed grams consisted of old movies, plus a few both pay-per-view and regular pay cable live or filmed special events. service in 1971. As the FCC loosened cable One experiment, subscription televi- rules in the early 70s, the groundwork for sion, known as STV, depended on subscrib- cable's next step forward was being laid. ers paying $1 a week for regular programs It would put cable television firmly on plus extra billing for special programs. The one of the lanes of what someday would be STV experiment set off alarm bells in the called the Information Highway.

Videotape, a New Book

Videotape recorders are the fastest-selling theater. There is no need to dress up, or to domestic appliance in history. In the com- get dressed at all. In fact, we can be down- munication toolshed home, the movie fan right sloppy without worrying about what can schedule the day around it. The morn- friends will say or strangers will think. We ing newspaper's television log lists the can talk as loud as we like during the show- "must see" programs, which will be taped ing. We can stretch out on the sofa. We can for viewing later in the day by pre-setting talk to a pal on the phone or leaf through a the recorder. Once or twice a week, and magazine while the tape rolls. We can snack especially on the weekend, the movie fan on whatever we like, no matter how swings by the neighborhood video rental crunchy. We can stop the tape to go to the shop to pick up a film or two. kitchen or the bathroom. We can put the baby to bed and later check the crib. Stop Advantages of the Home VCR the movie, start it, back up, don't miss a syllable, and no baby-sitter, no driving, no It is more convenient to watch a motion parking fees. picture at home than to go to a movie THE TOOLSHED HOME 175

There is one thing that home viewing is that yielded convenience and control. The not. It is not an event. We recognize that VCR landed near the top of the ratings. going to a movie theater gives us a different Only the microwave oven was prized above experience than watching at home. Being the videocassette recorder. Interestingly, surrounded by lots of others who are shar- the VCR was not the most cherished device ing the moment, seeing the action on a big of the elderly, who preferred the automatic screen, and hearing the sound all around coffee maker, or the 18-25 group, who us adds to the sense of escapism that mov- voted for the answering machine.63 But the ies give us, a pleasure that still builds lines VCR always ranked among the top choices. at the box office. Nevertheless, it is not In the United States alone, more than four enough on a blustery evening to drive most billion cassette tape rentals were recorded people out of their communication tool- in 1995, generating a revenue of almost $11 shed homes. billion, plus nearly 700 million prerecorded The video store dazzles us with its vari- cassette sales, and VCRs could be found in ety. Instead of the limited choices of new 85% of American homes.64 The first vide- releases, we can opt for anything else, far otape recorders, large monochrome-only more choices on every shelf than all the consoles, were sold in 1956 to television theaters in town advertise, and the big stations for $50,000 each. Today, small stores are stuffed with shelf after shelf of VCRs showing far superior images in color movies. sell for $200. With videotape we can "time-shift" television programs so we can watch at our Trying to Record Television own convenience. Prime time is now whenever we like it. We can fast forward Attempts at recording television are nearly through commercials too, so that so-called as old as television itself. John Baird, who "free" television is really free for us, and it's led Britain down the blind alley of mechani- just too bad that our having this freedom is cal television in the 1920s and '30s, tried upsetting to the advertisers who paid to without success to record a picture signal provide those programs. As a result of the on phonograph records. American radio appeal of this easygoing lifestyle, we as a pioneer Lee deForest built an apparatus society leave the house less often, socialize that included a revolving wheel and nee- less. A pattern of alienation continues that dles that etched a moving film coated with began with our first purchase of a television silver. It too failed. Two Englishmen, R.V.L. set. Our pattern of life is marked by less Hartley and H.E. Ives, finally devised a way reading of books, a drop-off in church and to record a television image on film, but the lecture attendance, and fewer visits to quality of the kinescope left much to be friends and family. When adult friends or wished for. relatives drop by for an evening, we can fill The explosive growth of television in the the hours pleasantly with a rented movie. 1950s sharpened the demand for recorded When the friends of a son or daughter visit programs. Until wide-band telephone or the house, the social activity may be Nin- microwave links could be established for tendo accompanied by a minimum of con- live feeds, a blurry kinescope was the only versation as each participant is glued to the means by which a network program could game on the television screen. be played on a local station. We can keep our own library of movies, just like books, in our bookcase. Centuries The First Videotape ago a book was a precious possession that Machines only the rich could own. Now, of course, In 1951, engineers at Bing Crosby Enter- anyone can own a book. Today it is becom- prises gave a demonstration of a black-and- ing almost as easy to own a movie. white videotape recorder that used A Wall Street Journal poll found that one-inch tape running at 100 inches per Americans most desired those inventions second. At that rate, a reel of tape three feet 176 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION in diameter held about fifteen minutes of ity, delay live East Coast news and enter- video. Ten heads recorded video, plus an tainment broadcasts for three hours until eleventh head for audio and a twelfth head evening prime time, when most viewers for a control track to synchronize the record- reached their homes after work. A few ing with the tape speed. With all of that, the years later, sports fans watched defining picture had lots of problems. Crosby contin- moments on instant replay. No long down- ued to fund the research, driven not only field football run or "Hail Mary" pass, no by a sense of its business possibilities, but baseball centerfield homerun or double his wish to record his television programs play, no boxing championship knockout so he could play golf without being tied escaped the rewind button. down to live performances. By 1958, the networks were recording Two years later, RCA engineers fabri- video in color. A machine was built that cated their own recorder, which turned out was synchronized with a television signal not only black-and-white, but color pic- so a director could not only cut to tape, but tures. However, tape ran past the heads at could employ the familiar film editing tech- 360 inches per second, which is more than niques of the dissolve and wipe into and out 20 miles per hour. Neither machine proof tape. These two-inch reel-to-reel Ampex duced pictures of adequate quality for broad- and RCA machines (the size in inches re- cast. It was just not possible to produce a fers to the width of the tape) survived for a stable picture at such a high tape speed. generation before they were replaced by At the same time, a California electron- more compact and efficient one-inch reel- ics firm, Ampex, built a machine on a dif- to-reel helical scan machines and three- ferent principle. Instead of sending the quarter-inch cassette machines. tape racing past the recording head, Ampex While Ampex and RCA were manufac- engineers spun the recording head. Using turing two-inch, four-head video recorders, rotating instead of fixed video heads as a Japanese and American engineers were means of reducing tape speed, they suc- building the prototypes of today's helical ceeded in 1956 with a recorder the size of scan video recorders. Their picture quality two washing machines. Four video heads would remain inferior to quad machines for rotated at 14,400 revolutions per minute, another ten years, unsuitable for the broad- each head recording one part of a tape that cast industry, but the smaller, more user- was two inches wide. One of the engineers friendly helical scan machines, costing a on the project was Ray M. Dolby, who fraction of the price of larger machines, began work on audiotape just after he left quickly dominated the industrial and edu- high school and later grew famous for his cational markets. tape noise reduction process. The breakthrough company was named after the initials of its founder, Alexander M. Electronic News Gathering Poniatoff: A-M-P, plus E-X for excellence: An Ampex portable two-inch recorder that Ampex. Another company, 3M, worked could be worn as a backpack with consid- with Ampex to make high-quality record- erable effort was used by television net- ing tape. The quality of Ampex video re- works in 1968. In 1971, Sony introduced cordings was a tremendous improvement the U-matic three-quarter-inch cassette over fuzzy kinescope images. The broad- tape recorder. From now on, there would casters who saw the first demonstration, be no more physical handling of tape. It presented at a national convention, actu- put video cameras in the hands of televi- ally jumped to their feet to cheer and ap- sion news photographers in place of film plaud. The television industry responded cameras. It was an important step on the enthusiastically. It was the start of the way to electronic news gathering. As these video age. machines improved, television news de- Delighted stations on the West Coast partments switched totally from film to could now, without sacrificing picture qual- videotape because the tape needed no de- THE TOOLSHED HOME 177 velopingtime, was reusable, and was more discovery that people were eager to rent suited to the television medium than film. movies to watch at home. As the technology improved further, tele- Tape renting took off when business- vision news editors stopped cutting tape man Andre Blay made a deal to buy cas- with razor blades and began editing elec- sette production rights to fifty 20th Century tronically. Fox movies. Blay discovered that few cus- With broadcasting, educational, and in- tomers wanted to buy his tapes, but every- dustrial markets in hand, Japanese video one wanted to rent them. Rental shops companies turned their attention to the po- soon sprouted like corner groceries. In fact, tentially vast home market. Hobbyists had sometimes the corner grocery itself de- already shown the way. With slightly modi- voted a shelf to videotapes, making it sim- fied portable reel-to-reel machines, they ple to stop by after work to pick up the were taping television programs at home to fixings for the evening's dinner and enter- play again later. Some of these self-styled tainment. In time, these video shops would video freaks were actually building a library be joined by video supermarkets that dis- of movies, heretofore unheard of for ordi- played tens of thousands of titles in sec- nary folks. tions labeled new releases, comedy, adventure, mystery, science fiction, romance, children, family, inspirational, exercise, Going to the Movies travel, concert, foreign, classics, documen- at Home tary, and, in a separate room, adults only. Sony had considered the home market Music videos and games got their own sec- from the start. Recognizing that not only tions in some stores and so did how-to's on television stations, but viewers, ought to be everything from losing weight to cooking. able to time-shift programs, Sony president Jane Fonda's Workout was the first success- Akio Morita said, "People do not have to ful how-to tape. Larger cities had shops read a book when it's delivered. Why specializing in kung-fu movies, foreign should they have to see a TV program whan films, or even home-delivery of tapes plus it's delivered?"65 Sony introduced its half- a bag of microwave popcorn. inch Betamax machine in 1975. A year CBS tried and failed in the mid-'60s with later, rival Japanese companies, led by a film cartridge called EVR. Rival RCA had JVC, brought out VHS (Video Home Sys- no better luck in 1973 with its Selectavision tem) machines, a format incompatible with videotape system, using a type of motion Betamax. Sony lost the competition as VHS picture hologram. RCA later introduced an- gradually captured the home market. Vide- other Selectavision, this time a kind of pho- ocassette recorder sales soared with the nograph that played discs; a needle made

Figure 5.8 Vietnamese videos line the shelves of a grocery that caters to a Vietnamese population in St. Paul, Minnesota. 178 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

people. Tape was good enough. Besides, thanks to the head start that Betamax and VHS tape players had, more movies were available in this format. The slightly lower cost of discs did not matter either because most people chose to rent their movies. To add to the problems of videodiscs, Selec- tavision and DiscoVision were incompatible with each other and with a third format, high density discs. In the battle over competing disc and tape formats, VHS tapes emerged the clear winner. One by one, the other production lines shut down, although the late 1980s saw a resurgence of the laser videodisc. More threatening competition to videotape as a carrier of motion pictures came from DVD (Digital Video Disc), special CD players using digital compression techniques to place a feature film on a single 4.7-inch disc.

The Near Future

For both the video and the computer indus- Figure 5.9 A shopping cart full of children tries, the future of information storage and and videotapes rolls down aisles featuring thousands of titles in at least a dozen categories. physical contact with the disc. MCA and Philips countered with DiscoVision, a more expensive alternative that had the advantage of a laser beam that eliminated the wear and tear on videodiscs of physical contact. It had random access, freeze frame, and the capacity to store an entire encyclopedia on a single disc. The motion picture industry considered the videodisc a better way to bring a movie into the home, pointing out that the videodisc had a sharper picture image, stereo sound, and a lower cost. Best of all, the motion picture industry felt, the videodisc was playback only. No record button, so no free copying. Unfortunately for the videodisc, the public wanted to be able to record, not so much to copy rented films illegally as to record movies and television program favorites off the air while the owner was away, for later playback. Videodisc players could not do this. They did not match the flexibility of videocassette recorders for time-shifting. If Figure 5.10 Videotape gets equal billing tape could not quite equal laser discs for with deli and liquor at a image quality, that was alright with most neighborhood store. THE TOOLSHED HOME 179 retrieval may lie not with tape, but with tape player, a television set, and a portable such optical media as DVD, the videodisc, generator is not an uncommon sight in CD-ROM, and CD-I, which offer the advan- many parts of the Third World. Peoples tages of high density, random access, and living as far from urban centers as the no physical contact between the storage Kayapo of the Brazil rain forest and the medium and the pickup device. The ideal Inuit of northern Canada have been intro- is an erasable compact disc, capable not duced to video, and have themselves pro- only of recording, but of storing digital duced tapes to argue for political justice. audio, still and motion digital video, anima- Several Third World governments action, graphics, and text. tively promote videotape programs for Video stores face competition from the adult education. For example, the Village communication-without-transportation de- Video Network in several countries pro- livery system of 500 or so channels prom- vided an exchange for tapes on such sub- ised by a cable industry that hopes to feed jects as farming, nutrition, and population movies on demand through fiber optic ca- control. International groups give some vil- bles. To protect themselves, the video lages video cameras and training to pro- stores are considering reinventing them- duce their own films, which were later selves as entertainment centers filled with shown to other villages. interactive movies and games, and trusting Visual technology seems to be every- that the public, particularly the young, will where. Long distance buses in India enjoy wandering in close proximity to one equipped with VCRs help relieve the bore- another down aisles chock-full of movie dom. Many Indians refuse to ride buses tapes. without video shows. It was reported that As the videocassette industry matured, when one bus broke down for seven hours, prices dropped and more features were hardly a word of complaint was heard from added to the machines. VCR owners who the stranded passengers, who happily figured out the instructions for time-shift watched a movie twice. recording could go on vacation with the In electrified rural areas of the Philip- expectation that the fresh two-hour tape pines, the "betahan" does a lively business they loaded at slow speed would fill with among the poor. ("Betahan" is a combina- favorite shows. For owners confused by all tion of "Betamax" and "tindahan," meaning the buttons, a remote control keypad let "store.") In scenes reminiscent of the start them command their machines to tape a of the nickelodeons nearly a century ago, program by punching in a code number men, women, and children pay from one listed beside the program in newspapers to three pesos (roughly 4 to 12 cents) to sit and TV Guide. The date, time of day, and on benches or folding chairs to watch a channel number were taken care of auto- rented videotape. Betahan audiences are matically. more relaxed than those in movie theaters. The simplicity, flexibility, low cost, and They gossip, eat, socialize, and throw out high quality of tape technology created comments about what they are seeing. new worlds of visual production. In the They are more like an extended family final decade of this century, one hundred than an audience. Betahans began in vil- years after motion pictures were invented, lages and barangays (small communities) millions of users could "make a movie." when a family bought a personal videotape Video cameras even found their way into recorder. Neighbors dropped by and began elementary schools as a learning tool. contributing to the cost of tape rental and electricity. The Philippine government sends vans Spreading Worldwide with useful agricultural tapes to farm areas. Videotape has had wide impact every- To entice people to attend, they will adver- where on earth, including remote villages, tise an old film which they have brought where inexpensive tapes bring information along. Families gather to watch the adver- and entertainment. A truck carrying a video- tised film, then most members slip away, 180 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION leaving the family heads to watch the agri- after five days of turmoil, a happy buyer cultural training tapes. walked out of the store with the first VCR, called the local TV station and declared, The Persian Gulf was the first Third 67 World region to experience the video revo- "Victory! The Panasonic is in my hands!" lution. After the oil boom of the 1970s brought fortunes to many Gulf country Broadening the Video residents, Japanese-made VCRs poured in. Journalist Base In Saudi Arabia, estimates put the number of television homes with VCRs in 1985 at Still another result of video diffusion has 85 percent. Imported workers ship VCRs been a widening of video journalism capa- back to their homes in Pakistan, Egypt, bility. The anti-government riots in Thai- Syria, and elsewhere. As prices for VCRs land in 1992, during which soldiers fired drop, the number of VCRs rise sharply even directly into crowds of peaceful demonstra- in the poorest countries. Just as in the more tors, were never shown on Thai television developed nations, videotapes compete news, but were seen in other parts of the with moving picture theaters. While movie world. Videotapes taken from American watching has grown, formal movie going news programs, brought secretly to Bang- has suffered. kok, reportedly commenced to be the most Developing countries have video clubs popular rental item in videotape stores. and traveling videotape shows. Bus drivers The taping of the Rodney King beating going to remote areas deliver a few fresh by Los Angeles police was just one example tapes and take back the old ones. Hospitals, of how ordinary citizens made a difference, hotels, and restaurants feature videotaped not only in news coverage, but "in the entertainment. Video movies highlight course of events. The King tape, shot from wedding receptions and birthday parties. an apartment window, played again and The Malaysian minister of information again on television, fueled the African- commented that housewives returned American anger behind the Los Angeles from shopping with fish and vegetables riots. The riots in their turn were taped, under one arm, cassettes under the othar. fueling white and Asian-American resent- ment. The potential for a "video vigilan- In most Arab countries, women generally do tism" by "visualantes" has not gone not go to movie theaters. Because of the unnoticed, with its effects not only on jour- rapid spread of VCRs, Arab women are nalism, but on law enforcement itself. among the fastest-growing group of movie Some television stations invited camera watchers. After the Israeli army invaded owners to contact them if they had shot Lebanon, the first ship to arrive at the Leba- tape suitable for a newscast. nese port of Sidon was loaded with videocassette recorders. The city had suffered heavy damage in the fighting, people were desper- Video Piracy ately in need of cement, housing materials, Hooking two VCRs together, a video pirate and other staples, but what came steaming could make a hundred copies of a current into the port were VCRs from Japan. First 66 movie. That happened in many parts of the things first. world. Video piracy was rampant every- Here is a 1990 story from Moscow reported where. A vast underground network fed millions of illegal copies of videotape mov- by the Associated Press: ies throughout the world. Tapes of new Hundreds of people clamoring to buy im- films turned up in shops from Cairo to ported VCRs surrounded stores in a Soviet Singapore, sometimes within days of their city for five days, and some even staged a release in first-run American movie thea- hunger strike and protests demanding the ters. Pirated videotape movies were even chance to buy the devices.. .The newspaper shown on television stations, whose own- Sovietskaya Rossiya described the incident in ers argued that they could not afford the Yaroslavl as a "video uprising."... Finally, dollars charged for Western programming. THE TOOLSHED HOME 181

The national film industries of a number In formerly communist countries, rigid po- of countries have been battered both by the litical censorship created appetites only pirating of their own films and by the influx VCRs could help satisfy. Clandestine VCR of cheap illegal copies of Western films. tapes hastened the end of those repressive Viewers who prefer American films were regimes... VCRs help make up for often inadequate watching them instead of programs ap- Third World television schedules and poor proved by their governments. Indonesian program quality. Few individuals in such officials complained that fewer people countries can afford to buy a VCR outright, watched their newscasts because they but rentals, club purchases, and group view- would rather watch entertainment pro- ing in bars, coffee houses, and even on buses grams on their VCRs. resolve cost problems. In some cases heavy The broader questions of intellectual censorship encourages VCR growth—as in property and copyright protection contin- Saudi Arabia, where puritanical Moslem ued to bedevil bilateral relationships be- standards severely limit broadcast television. tween nations, nowhere more keenly than A worldwide underground market in VCRs and tapes defeats most government attempts to between China and the United States. Sino- limit sales and rentals.68 American relations in the mid-'90s, which festered over such issues as the status of Taiwan, the use of prison labor, and the The United States has been accused of prac- treatment of orphans, were not helped by ticing "cultural imperialism" by bringing American accusations that large and so- American culture and American values phisticated Chinese factories protected by into other countries. These nations cannot corrupt officials churned out illegal audio- counter American movies and television tapes, videotapes, CDs, and computer soft- programs with what they can produce ware with no regard for copyright. The themselves because they cannot afford to weight given to this issue in diplomacy of- make movies that are as attractive as the fered still another proof of the centrality of American product. The remedy of censor- communication technology in modern life. ship has been widely attempted, but with only limited effect. Such Western films as Gandhi (India), Sadat (Egypt), and Missing "Cultural Imperialism" (Chile) were banned in the countries where It may be expected that government offi- their stories unfold, but nevertheless have cials in many countries will not be pleased been widely seen there on tape. that their populations have easy access to non-approved information and culturally unacceptable values, among them consum- Video Production Diffusion erism. Among other problems, poor people Future historians may conclude that noth- who see richness beyond their grasp can ing about this communication revolution become even more dissatisfied with their has mattered more than that it has empow- own lot, and that is fuel for crime and even ered ordinary people. Among the specific revolution. changes that videotape has made is an ex- Western movies are seen privately pansion of the producer base. Limited just throughout much of the world where gov- a few years ago to television news photog- ernments limit such imports in their effort raphers, video cameras have been diffused to promote their own national cultures. as the Kodak Brownie once was. Among these Western films, pornography Television and movies stored on video- is sneaked into private homes in places tape may be deplored by educators as a where the government forbids such pro- waste of time and a poor substitute for grams. Pirated tapes of the latest movies books, but the fact is that the high school pop up everywhere. Videotape flows across library is now being called "the media the world in a floodtide that governments center." and the most powerful entertainment in- The camcorder has joined the still camera dustry corporations seem helpless to stop. as a means of preserving family memories. 182 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Videotape of what the children did on va- In video dating clubs, participants tell a cation may one day be sent to grandpar- video camera of their interests, their vir- ents, utilizing fiber optic pathways instead tues, and the type of person they would like of the mail service, a possibility raised by to meet. Their videotape is shown to pros- the Federal Communications Commission pects. in 1992 when it ruled that telephone com- A few people who knew they would soon panies may operate their lines to transmit die left a farewell videotape instead of a TV programs and related services to their farewell note for their loved ones. Someone customers. reportedly started a "talking tombstone" Today, both professionals and amateurs business, a video display screen and audio can produce a motion picture of technically recorder as part of a solar powered head- acceptable quality at a cost that would have stone.69 brought derision just a few years ago. The costs keep dropping and the quality rises, accompanied by improvements in ease of Words and pictures recorded on camcor- use and number of features. The phrase ders may replace personal letters. In high desktop video has found its way into the schools, the video yearbook joins the language next to desktop publishing. For a printed version. Even in some grade wide range of activities, software permits a schools, curious little fingers push the cam- microcomputer to replace much of the Hol- era buttons. lywood bag of editing tools, even special effects. Fades, dissolves, animation, sound "This is called a camcorder," she says: Can tracks, and optical effects are programmed you say cam-corder?" in off-the-shelf computer programs. Be- "Cam-corder," her pupils respond in sing- cause moving images can be turned into ing unison. strings of Is and Os, they can be com- "Good," she says. "And what do you think pressed, stored, decompressed, and altered 'camcorder' stands for? That's right. It's a off-line with nonlinear editing, catch-phrases video camera and a video recorder. Now, can of the digital video technology. you say 'battery pack'?" There seems to be no end to inventive "Battery pack," the students sing out in uses for videotape. A tape of swimming fish fascination. Their eyes are as wide as CBS' famous optical trademark. called "Video Aquarium" and the tapes of Welcome to TV 101... At North Star Pri- "Ocean Waves" and "Video Fireplace" have mary School in Minneapolis, where Sue been sold by the thousands. Krueger is a media specialist, and at other There is also videotape as matchmaker, schools in Minneapolis and St. Paul, teachers communication technology put into serv- are turning students on to video at an early ice for the introduction to suitable partners. age.70

Setting New Records

The post-World War II years saw not only him to stop by for a visit. What Freed saw the television set, but the stereo system was a store filled with white teenagers become furniture. With engineers perfect- dancing in the aisles to rhythm 'n' blues, ing every element of the recordings and the which was generally identified as "Negro home equipment, people sat in their tool- music." That visit convinced Freed to start shed homes to listen to sounds of concert a new show, which he called "Moon Dog hall quality. House." He called the music "rock 'n' roll." To accompany the new equipment, new It shook up the recording industry. Critics music came along. In 1951, the Cleveland accused Freed of corrupting a generation of record store owner who sponsored a show teenagers. The youngsters also responded by a radio disc jockey, Alan Freed, invited to recordings by Elvis Presley, who was THE TOOLSHED HOME 183 originally referred to as "the white boy who sang colored." His popularity through movies and the sale of records opened the way for black singers to extend their music into a mainstream community that had been closed to them. As for the white teenagers, they may have delighted as much in a new way to get out of that comfortable home and separate themselves from their parents' generation as in the new music itself. The power of recorded music to influence behavior became clear as early as World War I, when "Over There" and other Figure 5.12 At Musicland, customers can songs helped to stir feelings of American stand at listening stations to patriotism, just as "Lili Marlene" appeared sample different kinds of music to do for German patriotism. During World before they decide to buy. War II, recorded songs such as "The White Cliffs of Dover" and "Coming in on a Wing pregnancy, abusive parents, and broken and a Prayer" did the same. homes. Rap music, part of the African- "We Are the World" sold four million American culture, was accused of demean- copies in six weeks. Its impact went beyond ing women and spreading hate against big business when the profits of $50 million whites in general and Jews and police in in the six months following its release went particular. Suggestions were made that rec- to "USA for Africa," paying for an outpour- ords be labeled dangerous, like cigarette ing of food and medicine for regions of East packages. Africa suffering under a terrible drought. Emotionally effective media can breed controversy, and recorded music receives Radio and Recording its share. Because recorded music is so tied When program producer Herbert Morrison up with home and children, people feel of WLS, Chicago, traveled to Lakehurst, vulnerable and violated at hearing lyrics New Jersey in 1937 to describe the arrival of they regard as obscene. Allegations were the German dirigible Hindenberg, an engi- made that rock 'n' roll lyrics led to drugs, neer went along. The recording they made sexual promiscuity, violence, teen suicide, as the Hindenberg burst into flames remains one of the most dramatic in radio history. NBC lifted a ban on recordings to play it several times over the network. A Pathe newsreel photographer was present as well; the combined sound and pictures are frequently presented in historical programs. During radio's golden years, the Ameri- can Federation of Musicians was able to enforce a ban of broadcast recordings to protect musicians' jobs. A permanent breakthrough in this ban came in 1946, when ABC brought Bing Crosby over from NBC by promising to allow him to record Figure 5.11 We may have more types of his programs. music available today than most With the coming of television, radio people knew songs before needed a new format to survive. Recorded recorded music. Retail chains music provided a way for radio stations not like Musicland introduce people only to survive, but to thrive. The number to different musical genres. of radio stations has doubled and redoubled 184 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION since the arrival of television. Recorded fidelity provided an unprecedented oppor- music spun by disk jockeys at local stations tunity to enjoy music.72 became the primary source of program- A Hungarian-born engineer working for ming by the late 1950s. The joining of radio CBS, Peter Goldmark, came up with a re- and recording made sweet music for both placement for the clay-and-shellac 78 rpm industries. record with its five minutes of playing time. In 1948, his LP ("long playing") re- The large segment of the public that had cord, made of plastic, thinner, lighter, with bought phonographs provided a ready mar- more grooves, played with a finer needle ket for a radio broadcasting service and gave and, at a slower 33 1/3 rpm, provided 23 radio broadcasters a preconditioned minutes of music per side with better audio audience. The network of retail stores estab- quality and longer wear. Goldmark further lished to sell phonographs and records was improved audio quality with sapphire- available to perform the same function for tipped needles, condenser microphones in- radios. At first, radio broadcasting was considered to be a competitor of the record instead of ribbon mikes, and turntables dustry. In time, however, the industries without rumble. As the sound of music im- developed a symbiotic relationship. Radio proved, record sales soared, matched by needed records as a source of programming, growth in the phonograph and audio com- and records needed radio for sales ponents industry. promotion.71 RCA responded to the LP with the small 45 rpm that played one song to a side. Made of cheap, unbreakable, and colored plastic, High Fidelity the 45s were a hit with the postwar teen High fidelity, meaning the faithful reproduc- generation and were a significant factor in tion of music, was begun in the 1930s when the growth of rock 'n' roll. The "record circuits incorporating "negative feedback" wars" set an example of large corporations became available. A small market for qual- attempting to define turf through technol- ity loudspeakers had stemmed from Holly- ogy—a situation repeated a generation wood's interest in good movie theater later between Sony and its rivals in the acoustics dating back almost to the intro- Betamax-VHS war, the HDTV war, and sev- duction of sound film. But during the De- eral others. pression, engineers at CBS and AT&T's Bell In the 1980s and 1990s video games cut Labs reversed the view held by major pho- into the music business, but music videos, nograph and radio manufacturers that notably MTV, and digital technology hardly any home market existed for precise brought it back as people began to replace sound. In the decades that followed, James their record collections with CDs. Lansing, Henry Kloss, Paul Klipsch, and By this time, the large recording compa- Rudolph Bozak designed speakers for nies were part of media conglomerates. audiophiles, founding such famous compa- Their names notwithstanding, most of the nies as KLH, Advent, JBL, Altec Lansing, largest were foreign owned. In the middle Bozak, and Klipschorn. Other inventors of the 1990s, CBS Records was owned by and engineers, many of them Japanese, Sony. MCA was owned by another Japa- perfected other components of high fidelity nese communication equipment manufac- and stereo recording and playback from turer, Matsushita. RCA Records was a low mass pickup heads and tone arms subsidiary of Bertelsmann of Germany, through improved turntables, receivers, and PolyGram by Philips of Holland. Capi- and amplifiers to Dolby noise reduction for tol was owned by an English-American con- audio tapes and the laser reading of com- sortium. Only Warner Music among the pact discs. For those without the means or largest firms was totally American owned. opportunity to hear world-class orchestras Innovations in consumer sound record- in major halls, let alone invite prominent ing have had mixed results. Quadraphonic performers into their homes to play, high sound systems and recordings—the logical THE TOOLSHED HOME 185 successor to stereo—never caught on. Digi- play an album without interruption. As tal audio tape (DAT), introduced in 1987, compensation for lost revenue, Congress failed to catch on with the public despite its approved a one percent tax on blank audio ability to record music with perfect fidelity. tapes, which was passed on to music writ- The compact disc (CD) fared better. The ers, performing talent, and publishers. optical pickup system of compact disc players, using a laser that read microscopic pits on records without the physical contact and accompanying wear of a stylus head, won Other formats had not caught on with the widespread acceptance with sound superior public by the mid '90s. The digital compact to conventional audio cassette recordings. cassette (DCC) and the Mini-Disc were not The CD suffered the disadvantage (from the compatible with anything else or with each consumer's perspective) that the home user other. The DCC was being marketed in could not record on the disc, which pleased boom boxes and as a replacement for ana- music producers who estimated that home log tape recorders in home stereo sys- dubbing already drained one-fifth of their tems.73 The 2.5-inch Mini-Disc had the sales. However, recordable CDs were on the advantage lacking in the CD of being both way. Computer CDs, used for encyclopedias, recordable and insensitive to shocks, which could also play music CDs. Some FM stations pointed to use both as a portable unit and a catered to the home dubbers who recorded player in cars, two extensions of the com- on audiotape by announcing that they would munication toolshed home.

WE STILL HAVE BOOKS "I think I'll curl up tonight with a book" ever could afford new books. In the half cen- promises pleasure without contact with other tury since then, billions of copies have been people. The book exemplifies the withdrawal sold, many of them reprints of hardcover and isolation that accompany the adoption of books. Other novels and non-fiction see life many of the tools of communication. While only in this cheaply printed and glued edition illiterate people acquire information by direct with brightly colored, glazed covers in drug communication with others. The reader stores, bus depots, and supermarkets. Public separates from other people and cuts off all libraries now feature racks of the familiar senses but sight. It could be argued that a kind paperbacks. of communication may exist between the Between 1950 and 1990, the number of reader and an author, but it is mediated in the books in print grew nearly tenfold, from way that a phonograph record and a film are, 85,000 to almost 800,000. One early study through distance and imaginative constructs. found that television viewing cut into the Book marketing took a leap forward in 1926 reading of escapist fiction, but not into books when the Book-of-the-Month Club began busi- or magazines with serious information.74 Part ness. Because of its success, competitors of the change is in how books look. sprang up to tap a booming new market despite the Depression. Book clubs catered to As knowledge has become more plentiful occupational groups, hobbyists, and ethnic and less permanent, we have witnessed minorities. the virtual disappearance of the solid old The dime novel of the nineteenth century durable leather binding, replaced at first found an echo in the paperback book of the by cloth and later by paper covers. The twentieth, another revolution in book buying book itself, like much of the information that began just before World War II. The dime it holds, has become more transient... novel with its predictable plots laid out on And the paperback revolution, by making rough paper between glossy covers remained inexpensive editions available everywhere, popular, although the price crept upward. For lessens the scarcity value of the book at 25 cents the paperback put a mass-produced precisely the very moment that the classical work of literature, a modern novel, increasingly rapid obsolescence of or non-fiction on a wide range of subjects into knowledge lessens its long term informa- the hands of millions of people who seldom if tional value. Continued 186 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

We Still Have Books (continued)

Director Steven Spielberg remarked at an asked, of course, is: can books' monopoly Academy Award ceremony, "In our romance of knowledge survive the challenge of the with technology, we've lost something: the new languages (other media)? The answer love of books." The sentiment, even if based is: no. What should be asked is: what can on a fallacy, is admirable. The audience appre- print do better than any other medium ciated it. In truth, books are part of the ro- and is that worth doing? mance of communication technology. The question must arise as to how well books, an Some large bookstores reinvented them- older technology, can survive against newer selves as quasi toolshed homes, with reading media. The answer seems to be that books are tables and coffee. Adding to the policy of "If doing fairly well, but could certainly do bet- you can't beat them, join them," plans were ter. Americans on average read only one book afoot to launch a cable channel to be called a year, but those Americans who do read are Booknet offering round-the-clock readings, willing to spend more for books, the number author profiles, interviews, news of the pub- of titles trends upwards, and the number of lishing industry, and book shopping services. stores selling books has been increasing. Me- Novelist E. L. Doctorow, one of its founders, dia conglomerates have purchased several said, "Booknet will combine the two most large book publishing houses. powerful communications tools ever in- Books remain influential because influen- vented—the printed book and the television tial people add to their store of knowledge image."77 from them and may take action from what Meanwhile, the bookmobile chugged along they learn. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring the rural back roads of the Information High- (1962) helped form the environmental move- way. Begun in 1905 and reaching a peak of ment and led to the banning of DDT and other 2,000 bookmobiles during the 1960s, this ves- pesticides that killed birds and wild animals tige of the automobile age has been declining and entered the human food supply. Betty in numbers due mainly to tight county budg- Friedan's The Feminine Mystique (1963) ener- ets. That about 1,000 bookmobiles, at last gized the feminist movement. count, are still there to serve readers who live far from public libraries says much about the The book itself was the first mechanical staying power of books. mass medium. What is really being THE TOOLSHED HOME 187

Notes 24 George Seltzer, Music Matters (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1989), 40. 1 From the poem "Home" by Edgar A. Guest. 25 Boorstin, 475. 2 Minneapolis Star Tribune, 14 August 1993, 26 1992 figures, Radio Advertising Bureau. sec. A3. Radio Marketing & Fact Book, 1993. 3 Newsweek, Nov. 1, 1993: 78. 27 B. Eric Rhoads, "Looking Back at Radio's 4 Up 10.2% between 1985 and 1990, according Future," Media Studies Journal, Columbia Uni to Veronis, Suhler & Assoc, Communications versity (Summer 1993): 18-19. Industry Forecast, June 1991: 13. 28 Michael Wusterhausen, "AM Stereo Radio,"

5 Robert D. Putnam, "Bowling Alone: Amer in Grant et.al., 121. ica's Declining Social Capital," Journal of 29 P. Lane Shannon, "Digital Audio Broadcast Democracy (January 1995): 65-78. ing," in Grant et.al., 111. 6 Jarice Hanson, Connections: Technologies of 30 Essay found in DeForest archives, reported Communication (New York: Harper Collins, in Stephen Greene, "Who Said Lee de Forest 1994), 241. Was the 'Father of Radio'?" Unpublished 7 Daniel J. Boorstin, The Americans: The Demo paper, 1991. cratic Experience (New York: Random House, 31 W.F. Ogborn and M.F. Nimkoff, Sociology 1973), 393. (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1950), 536-40. 8 Putnam, op. cit. 32 Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: 9 Jerzy Kosinski, Being There (New York: Har- The Extensions of Man (New York: McGraw- court Brace Jovanovich, 1970.) Hill Book Co., 1964), 283. 10 Ronald J. Faber and Thomas C. O'Guinn, 33 McLuhan, 195. "Expanding the View of Consumer Socializa 34 Brandon S. Centerwall, "Television and Vio tion," Research in Consumer Behavior, vol. 3, lent Crime," The Public Interest, (Sprihg 1988, 58. 1993): 61. 11 Jack M. McLeod and Steven R. Chaffee, "The 35 According to President Bill Clinton, Construction of Social Reality," in James T. Newsweek, 11 March 1996, 62. Tedesch, ed., The Social Influence Process 36 Newsweek, 17 October 1988, 84. (Chicago: Aldine Atherton Publishing, 1972), 37 Todd Gitlin, "Flat and Happy," Wilson Quar 50. terly (Autumn 1993): 48.

12 Jack Mingo, The Official Couch Potato Hand 38 Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: book: A Guide to Prolonged Television Viewing Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (Santa Barbara, CA: Capra Press, 1983), 28. (New York: Viking, 1985.), 92. 13 Research by Herbert Krugman. Reported in 39 E.B. White, Harpers Magazine, October 1938. Marshall McLuhan and Bruce Powers, The 40 Newsweek, 17 October 1988, 84. Global Village (New York: Oxford University 41 Address to Radio Television News Directors Press, 1989), 63. Association, 1 January 1952. 14 Stewart Brand, The Media Lab (New York: 42 Postman, 84. Viking, 1987), 43. 43 Edmund Carpenter, Explorations in Communi 15 "A Death in the Family" was made the title cation (Boston: Beacon Press, 1960), 165. of a documentary by WCCO-TV, Minneapo 44 The Economist, 13 February 1994, 12. lis, aired 3 December 1978. 45 WCCO-TV, 1994. 16 James H. Bruns, Mail on the Move (Polo, IL: Transportation Trails, 1992), 89. 46 Barbara Matusow, The Evening Stars (New 17 Boorstin, 135. York: Ballantine Books, 1984), 126. 47 Drew Pearson, who was sponsored by a hat 18 Wayne E. Fuller, RFD, The Changing Face of company, and Walter Winchell wore hats Rural America (Bloomington: Indiana Univer while they read their televised newscasts. sity Press, 1964), 36. 48 Peter Swearingen, "Satellite News Gather 19 Boorstin, 135. ing," in Grant, et al, 251-52. 20 Minneapolis Star Tribune, 26 December 49 J. Fred MacDonald, Blacks and White TV - 1995, sec. A12. Afro-Americans in Television since 1948 (Chi 21 John S. Reineke, "Cellular Telephones," in cago: Nelson-Hall Publishers, 1983), 89. Grant, August E., and Kenton T. Wilkinson, 50 William Mindak and Gerald Hursh, "Televi eds., Communication Technology Update, 1993- sion's function on the Assassination Week 1994 (Austin: Technology Futures, Inc., end," in The Kennedy Assassination and the 1993), 293. American Public, ed. by Bradley Greenberg 22 Carlos R. Leos, "Mobile Satellite Service," in and Edwin Parker (Palo Alto: Stanford Uni Grant et al, 305. versity Press, 1965), 141. 23 Kimberly Ann Vavrek, "Videophone," in Grant et al, 321-23. 188 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

51 Edward Bliss, Jr., Now the News: The History 66 Thomas L. Friedman, From Beirut to Jersu- of Broadcast Journalism (Columbia University alem (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Press, 1991), 340-41. 1989), 33. 52 Hodding Carter III, The Black American and 67 Associated Press, 8 January 1990. the Press (Orinda, CA: Ward Ritchie Press, 68 Sydney W. Head, Christopher H. Sterling, 1967), 41. and Lemuel B. Schofield, Broadcasting in 53 Matusow, 99. America: A Survey of Electronic Media, sev 54 Robert J. Donovan and Ray Scherer, Unsilent enth ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., Revolution: Television News and American Pub 1994), 561. lic Life (New York: Cambridge University 69 Gary Gumpert, Talking Tombstones and Other Press, 1992), 16-17. Tales of the Media Age (New York: Oxford 55 Robert MacNeil, The People Machine (New University Press, 1987), 5. York: Harper & Row, 1968), 92. 70 Minneapolis Star Tribune, 6 March 1989, sec. 56 Michael J. Arlen, The Living Room War (New IE. York: Viking Press, 1969). 71 Andrew F. Inglis, Behind the Tube (New 57 Matusow, 138, 304. York: Focal Press, 1990), 19-20. 58 Daniel Dayan and Elihu Katz, Media Events 72 David Lander, "Technology Makes Music," (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Invention and Technology, 6:1 (Spring/Sum 1992), 16. mer, 1990): 63. 59 Ibid. 73 Timothy J. Mellonig, "DCC and MD," in 60 George Gilder, Life After Television (Colum Grant, et al, 191-96. bus: Whittle Direct Books, 1990), 8-9. 74 Paterson, Magazines in the Twentieth Century 61 Lloyd Trufelman, Cable Television Advertis (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, ing Bureau. 1964), 54. 62 "Profile: Service Electric's Walson: One of 75 Alvin Toffler, Future Shock (New York: Ban the Grandfathers, at Least, of Cable Televi tam Books, 1971), 161-2. sion," BR, 27 May 1974, 75. 76 Edmund Carpenter and Marshall McLuhan, 63 The Wall Street Journal, 19 September 1989, Explorations in Communication: An Anthology sec. Bl. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1960.) 64 Alexander & Associates, Video Flash. 77 Minneapolis Star Tribune, 24 July 1993, sec. 65 James Lardner, Fast Forward (New York: IE. W.W. Norton, 1987), 68.

The Sixth Revolution

The

Highway

Heavy Traffic

The postmodernist thinker Mark Poster acquaintances who are nearer to us in their frames an interesting question, rhetorical interests. However, the acquisition of and unanswerable: knowledge is not a zero sum game. A person can be sensitive to the loss of rain forest in If I can speak directly or by electronic mail to Brazil and still pull weeds in the back yard. a friend in Paris while sitting in California, if McLuhan, the brilliant prophet of the I can witness political and cultural events as Information Age, his eye on the techno- they occur across the globe without leaving logical potential, figured that mass com- my home, if a database at a remote location munication technology could make the contains my profile and informs government human family one tribe again, but ne- agencies which make decisions that affect glected to ask whether the human family my life without any knowledge on my part of these events, if I can shop in my home by wanted to be one tribe. Apparently that is using my TV or computer, then where am I far from what we want, which is to enlist and who am I? In these circumstances I the tools of communication in discrete cannot consider myself centered in my ways for diverse purposes. The evidence rational, autonomous subjectivity or thus far seems to be that only occasion- bordered by a defined ego, but I am ally do we want to come together to share disrupted, subverted and dispersed across the same information and entertainment. social space.1 Inside the global village, if that is indeed where we reside who live during the In- At the end of a century filled with turmoil formation Age, we prefer to stay in our and change, we are no longer limited to own electronics-filled, print-filled, picture- where the wires run. There are clear signs filled, music-filled homes, our own commu- that they do not run through McLuhan's nication toolsheds, and go our separate ways. "global village," for the very technologies of Radio during its golden years, the dec- cable, television, and satellite that were ades of the 1930s and 1940s, acted to bring once regarded as elements to unite society Americans together as a nation, to speak a alienate us from those who are close to us even common language with a common accent while forming links that give us unseen so far as possible, to share moral values, 189 190 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION and to survive the Depression and World diversity of channels, of sources, of voices, War II. No longer. Radio has been balkan- of content, and of audience follows. More ized. So have the movies, whose tightly run producers transmit more material of studio system is a fading memory. So has greater variety to more receivers. This nec- television, now that cable channels have essarily happens over more channels be- undermined the three old networks. In a cause the volume of material, the pressure word, American culture is being niched by of competition, and the desires and needs the media that once pulled us toward each of the receivers cannot be accommodated other. The metaphor for what is happening by the existing channels. is "the Information Superhighway," or less grandly, "the Information Highway." There The choices are exhilarating, but also alien- may be better metaphors to express the ating. The basic principle is centrifugal: variety of possibilities, but we are probably market segmentation targets those qualities stuck with this one. that distinguish people from each other The Information Highway extends com- rather than emphasizing the things we have in common. It is the developed world's munication in three important areas: equivalent of the retribalization taking place in Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia.3 1. It provides new media and more communication options, which increase Diffusion has meant not more people re- our choices, and those choices separate us ceiving the same number of choices, but from family and community. ever more abundance and variety. 2. It is interactive, which gives users more control of the information and enter We can expect that there will be a great tainment being transmitted. Interactivity growth of specialized intellectual subcul- allows "upstream" requests for "down tures. There will be operas and opera news stream" data feeds. Interactivity also con available for opera lovers, microbiology in- nects people who will forever remain formation bases and exchanges available for unseen, unheard, disembodied writers to microbiologists. All of these will draw some one another via e-mail and bulletin boards. portion of people's time and attention away 3. It makes distant connections to per from the common concerns of the nation's sports, politics, heroes, and news... sonal activities. More than ever before, A society in which it becomes easy for people can work from home, learn from every small group to indulge its tastes will home, shop from home, and bring distant have more difficulty mobilizing unity.4 entertainment into the home, all of which has the potential for shaking up society What the nineteenth century Industrial much as the Industrial Revolution did, but Revolution massified, the Information in opposite directions. This has global im Highway demassifies. Massification was a plications as well as the potential to alter natural product of the Industrial Revolu- cities. tion. Demassification is just as natural a product of the post-industrial information Perhaps it is worth noting, in passing, a revolution. A glance at what is happening comparison with the Holy Roman Empire, to media industries, which are based on the which was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an various tools of communication, makes the empire. The Information Highway, Leo point. Bogart has noted, is not likely to be primar- Consider, for example, recorded music. ily about information, nor will it be a high- 2 For all the centuries of recorded time, only way. As for how super it will be, Bogart a limited range of music was available to withheld comment. each society, and almost all of it performed by members of the immediate community. Choices One century ago, when the notion was new As any means of communication diffuses that music could come in a package from through a free and open society, greater the store, that limitation began to fall away. THE HIGHWAY 191

Today, we have available to us in large tors. A new technology, radio on the In- record shops and catalogs a considerable ternet, holds the promise of a considerable variety of types of music. As for individual increase in the number of radio stations. selections, they are as plentiful as blades of Or, consider magazines. Two genera- grass. If it seems obvious in the economi- tions ago American magazine racks were cally advantaged and politically open West dominated by a few large-circulation week- that more users will lead to more music lies. Now, new specialty magazines focus choices, the logic would not be so obvious sharply on what readers want. It would be to every society. There are places where hard to identify any ethnic group, religion, more users mean only more units, not job, hobby, or sexual preference that lacks more variety, which represents a funda- at least one magazine, newspaper, or news mental difference between free and con- letter. The specialty magazines do what trolled societies. radio did after television arrived, and what Or, consider motion pictures. Once a cable is now doing. And with specialty pub- few major studios controlled the fabrica- lications has come specialty advertising. tion of this product. MGM, Warner Bros., The magazines regrouped their audiences Paramount, Columbia, 20th Century Fox, along dimensions of culture and interests. Universal, and a few others turned them out almost on an assembly line for distribu- Minority media of communication represent tion through fixed channels. A few other a centrifugal force in social organization nations had even more controlled produc- through their capacity to organize tion. Today, production companies are ev- differentiated speech communities and to confer national identity on groups and na- erywhere in the world, forming, dissolving, 6 tionalize their interests. and reforming. New communication technologies have created both new ways to As for newspapers, urban afternoon dailies make films and new distribution channels were clearly hurt by television, but subur- undreamed of during the heyday of the ban papers came along. With the aid of studio system. The non-U.S. market equals desktop publishing technology, so did other the U.S. market and is expected to domi- 5 forms of printed information, such as news- nate it before the decade ends. letters. To this mix should be added elec- Or, consider books. When production was limited to what monks copied or what tronic print, the text of news reports on the early printing methods could manage, Internet. there was relatively little variety. Well into the nineteenth century there were people Interactivity who said the only books necessary to read Most of what is written about it has been were the Bible and the Farmer's Almanac. limited to only one side of the Information Now, in libraries and bookstores unfettered Highway, the side that will carry the traffic by censorship, the problem is abundance, of information and entertainment from dis- what to keep on the crowded shelves and tribution points via satellite and microwave which of the new titles to choose from and optic strands to the millions upon mil- publishing houses pouring them out like lions of people at home and work. We read dozens of sorcerer's apprentices. less about the traffic going the other way, Radio broadcasting became narrowcast- from the home to the distant distribution ing, as stations targeted audiences seg- nodes, except that the optical lines will mented along age, ethnic, educational, and permit upstream requests for data and cultural lines. Since World War II the total movies. number of radio stations in the United Interactive cable offered the tantalizing States doubled and redoubled. Like the few vision of people voting from their homes or large-circulation general magazines that participating in a twenty-first century ver- went out of business, the three dominating sion of the New England town meeting. radio networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, American poet laureate Rita Dove imag- shrank to little more than news distribu- ined appearing in one classroom to talk 192 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION about poetry while children in scattered nuclear family home, parents and children classrooms watched, listened, and asked go their separate ways to their own sources questions.7 of communication. By 1993, 37% of Ameri- can children aged 9-11 had their own tele- With artful programming of telecomputers, vision sets, 49% of 12-13-year-olds, and you could spend a day interacting on the 54% of 14-15-year-olds.9 "Individual" has screen with Henry Kissinger, Kim Basinger, become "indi-video."10 Radios are flipped or Billy Graham. Celebrities could produce on loudly, earphones clamped firmly to and sell their own software or make them- young heads determined to ensure that selves available for two-way personal video communication. You could take a fully inter- other family members cannot encroach. active course in physics or computer science Noses poke deeply into magazines and with the world's most exciting professors, books, media that are more socially accept- who respond to your questions and let you able means of escaping other family mem- move at your own learning speed. You could bers than earphones. have a fully interactive workday without It is the unusual, even quaint American commuting to the office or run a global family that augments an evening meal with corporation without ever getting on a plane. spirited conversation on significant topics. You could watch your child play baseball A meal with television is more like it for at a high school across the country, view the two-thirds of all Americans. Supermarkets Super Bowl from any point in the stadium that you choose, or soar above the basket cooperate by setting aside a chilly section with Michael Jordan. You could fly an for "TV dinners." Garrison Keillor remarked airplane over the Alps or climb Mount on an evening at the home of friends in Everest—all on a powerful high resolution Denmark: display.8 ... suddenly I am struck by the fact that The possibilities have not been lost on mar- we've had an entire hour of dinner and con- keting specialists. It is not inconceivable versation, three adults and two teenage that a shopper at a computer terminal boys, and nobody has bolted from the table to go play soccer or watch television. could be asked to identify a product in Civilization is what we carry on over which the shopper is interested, answer lunch and dinner and, in America, where a questions formulated according to the family can go for weeks and never sit down shopper's responses, and walk away with a in one place at one time and say 25 words printout of information and advice. Com- or more, you sometimes wonder if mercial sites on the World Wide Web are conversation or stories will exist 20 years close to that now. from now or if we'll just network by E- mail.11

Separated by Through media, our personal community Communication has shifted from ties based on blood, mar- The chopped-up media mirror the chopped- riage, and neighborhood to networks of in- up family. Extended families under one terest groups whose members may be roof were the norm at a time when media faceless or voiceless, or just temporarily choices were limited. Where media choices one or the other as we speak on the phone, today are limited, such as in totalitarian send E-mail, or faxed notes, or find any regimes, many extended families are likely other convenient way to exchange mes- to be found. It is no accident that all totali- sages without having to look anyone in the tarian societies have glorified the tradi- face. Computer chat lines and bulletin tional family while rigidly controlling the boards grow like crabgrass. Pick up a popu- civil society. lar magazine to see how, for politicians as By contrast, broken families and single well as movie stars, the images filtered occupant apartments are the products of a through mass communication become the society full of choices. Inside the modern reality we prefer. Pick up an electronic magazine on CD-ROM or visit a hot World THE HIGHWAY 193

Wide Web site to acquire a sense of just how crete and steel highway and they are fast that reality shifts under our feet. changing our world. The highway passes We wander among communication through real cities, real countries, and real choices among radio stations, cable chan- continents. As riders cruise the electronic nels, and video selections, to say nothing highway for their jobs, their shopping, and of magazines and paperback books in their fun, what will happen to the real every mall, drugstore, and grocery. On the cities? Elite citizens of the new wired world front steps bloom the weeds of unwanted could use information technology to insu- throwaway newspapers. The mailbox is late themselves from the seething urban crammed with unasked for catalogs to be cores of cities. discarded. The future holds more choices. We are For centuries, cities were where diverse living in the midst of a fundamental shift in groups of people came together to interact. how people acquire information and enter- They were places of plurality and complex- tainment, and in what they choose to ac- ity. Today, the elites are detaching them- quire. selves from these physical places... The new technologies increasingly liberate them Media take us out of the here and now. from being tied to any one place.12 Long before television, Charles Dickens saw what the postman might bring with his Manuel Castells has predicted a world- bagful of mail. In Bleak House, Mrs. Jellyby wide social upheaval in which entire re- ignores her children so she can concentrate gions of the world, such as Africa, become her attention on improving the lot of the irrelevant to the information society. Af- people of Borrioboola-Gha on the left bank rica has the fewest phone lines, the lowest of the Niger River. Her children are dirty, call-completion rate, and the highest cost the house is a mess. Mrs. Jellyby sees noth- for international calls in the world. ing beyond the two hundred letters she At the opposite end of the Information receives daily regarding conditions in Af- Highway lies Denmark, with a population rica. And televised soap opera had not yet of 5 million and 99% literacy. In 1995, the been invented! government announced a plan to put all government offices, hospitals, doctors, Distant Connections pharmacies, businesses, schools, and re- Increasingly, the user interacts with the search institutions on-line within five machine to make distant connections, and years. Each Dane would be issued a num- that may work for work itself, as much of bered I.D. card. Public records would be the travel is expected to be over electronic readily available to everyone, a vision of an highways from places of employment to open, paperless society. toolshed homes. In a word, commuting, but In the media-rich West, databases prolif- doing so without walking through the front erated to the delight of people who had door. Those homes might be located in undreamed of amounts of information at more exciting cities than where a business their fingertips. An article in New Scientist has its headquarters or perhaps deep in the asked, "Who needs libraries now that the world's information is accessible through countryside, where the employee has 13 yielded to the age-old desire to own a piece computer networks?" of land and live with nature. The popula- The centrifugal force of mass communi- tion movement from the countryside into cation pulls us away from what is close at cities forced by the Industrial Age may yet hand, and that includes the ballot box. In be undone by the newest Information Age. the media-rich United States, with televi- The Information Highway that runs sion on election day filled with imploring through cyberspace is a road through a place reminders that the polls are still open, literally constructed out of bits of nothing. voter turnout remains embarrassingly low. Everything is virtual, not actual. Yet, these As a nation of spectators, we see elections electronic vapors are as real as any con- as just one more activity to watch. More 194 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION people watch national election returns on click. For anyone tired of long, cold win- television than vote. As for local elections ters, the Web was a daydreamer's delight. for mayor and for city initiatives, turnout is a matter for despair. That should come as no surprise; after all, most of us aban- Few outposts remain in the world where doned local community affairs long ago. communication does not reach. There are Small, personal bits of evidence have tales of Burmese mountain tribesmen hud- emerged on the Information Highway. Peo- dled to watch BBC television, and a guide ple who wanted to adopt a baby, stymied on the Zambezi River telling others in the locally, found a list of adoptable babies in canoe what he saw on The Simpsons.14 other countries on the World Wide Web. The world's sixth information revolu- They got details and a photograph at a mouse tion is the highway through cyberspace.

Computer at the Wheel

At the end of World War II, computers did Alvin Toffler called the computer not exist except for one or two hand-built monsters that filled a large room in a uni- ... a greater threat to the Second Wave family versity's department of engineering. A half- than all the abortion laws and gay rights century later they are at every hand, not movements and pornography in the world, only the familiar micro with a TV screen on for the nuclear family needs the mass- top and a keyboard in front, or the increas- production system to retain its dominance. ingly familiar laptop, but chips the size of a fingernail. They replace workers, help the A Tool of Communication handicapped, play noisy games, teach chil- Communication was certainly not an area dren, control machines, and on and on. It originally envisioned for computation de- becomes harder each day to think of an vices, yet the computer has become inte- area of human endeavor in which a com- gral for almost every sort of personal and puter is not involved. The ultimate fate of mass medium. At a large modern newspa- the computer seems to be to fade into the 15 per, computers assist the offset lithography background—to be everywhere. But like process all the way from the reporter's fin- all tools of communication, the computer gertips at the keyboard to stacks of newspa- also separates us from our immediate sur- pers sorted and counted, awaiting the roundings. delivery trucks. Beyond mere improve- For many years computer were thought to ment, such as aiding journalists in prepar- be a centralizing force—those in the upper ing their copy by means of word processing levels of a hierarchy could access up-to-date programs, the computer has created an up- files on millions of people and keep an heaval in entire communication industries. Orwellian eye on their domains. But since Inexpensive microcomputers and easy-to- the advent of personal computers and dis- learn desktop publishing software generates tributed networks like the Internet, we now output of a quality that only a skilled understand that the essential character of the computer is decentralizing... a threat to printer had been producing with bulky ma- dictators, who have to choose between keep- chinery. Feeling the economic pinch of ing their countries in the digital dark ages desktop publishing, printing firms have (and suffering dire economic consequences) adapted to the new technology by offering or liberating a technology that might printing and binding services that tie in dangerously open up the entire society. But with what desktop publishers do at home, the same dynamic confounds managers creating camera-ready pages designed with everywhere, as computers and networks amplify the powers of individuals and twist word processing, type fonts, graphics, photo, the corporate organizational charts into and page layout software, plus scanners spaghettilike tangles.16 and laser printers. Writers have discovered THE HIGHWAY 195 that publishing their own magazines and Charles Babbage, designed an "engine" to books is not beyond their reach. figure tables of numbers that were needed Through databases, journalists access in banking, navigation, surveying, mathe- published reports. But indiscriminate ac- matics, and the sciences. Babbage derived cess to files of information can violate pri- his notion of punch cards to feed numbers vacy, another change in our lives. To cite into his engine from their use in the weav- one example, after tax returns were placed ing industry, where cards forced threads in a national data bank, Internal Revenue into complex patterns on a loom. Service staff members were caught snoop- Decades later in the United States, Cen- ing into the returns of acquaintances, rela- sus Bureau employee Herman Hollerith tives, and celebrities. The troublesome invented machinery to calculate punch question of the information rich/informa- card data. The business he began became tion poor disparity has also surfaced: IBM. A half century later at the Bell Tele- phone Laboratories, engineer George Stibitz We already know that those without money built the world's first electric digital calcu- have less access to quality information than lator, a crude computer. And, at a demon- those with money, and we know that a poor stration in 1940, he hooked up a teletype student is four times less likely to have used keyboard machine to his computer through a computer than an affluent one. Will this unequal dissemination of information create an ordinary telephone line connecting New a social schism as wide as that between the Hampshire to New York; it was another ignorant peasants of yore and the literate first, telecommunications, the first tie-in of aristos who hoarded all the books?18 computers and telephone lines. In 1952, a Univac introduced the public Until the 1960s there was barely any aware- to a computer when it helped the CBS net- ness that a computer could be used to store work forecast an Eisenhower landslide on and transmit words. Its history was based the night of the presidential election, in- on the dream of a machine to calculate stead of the close results the experts ex- mathematical problems. pected. It was another first, a computer joining television for the communication of Until recently, there have been only three information to a mass audience, but the major developments in (the handling of significance of the union was ignored in the information): the invention of written (or excitement over the election. painted or carved) language, some five or six thousand years ago; that of simple arithmetic operations, using what would Desktop Publishing now be called a digital representation of Desktop publishing was preceded by word numbers, about a thousand years later; processing, which began in 1971 as an auto- and that of printing, about five hundred 19 matic typewriter with limited editing func- years ago... tions designed by a Chinese immigrant to the United States, Dr. An Wang. Xerox Corpo- ration researchers conceived of a graphics- How It All Began based computer that not only could be controlled by a mouse, but also displayed Mass communication was not a considera- typefaces on a screen and sent the dis- tion during most of the history of the com- played output to a laser printer, beginning puter, which can be traced to the ancient what would become known as WYSIWYG: abacus used across the Mediterranean civi- "What you see is what you get." The Post- lizations, Asia, and Africa as a calculating Script page description program, the device. Leonardo DaVinci drew a design for Hewlett-Packard low-cost laser printer, a computing machine, and two seventeenth and the introduction in 1984 of the Macin- century philosophers, Blaise Pascal and tosh computer brought to the public the Gottfried Leibniz, built working models. reality of desktop publishing, a term coined In the nineteenth century, a 20-year-old the following year by Paul Brainerd, devel- math student at Cambridge University, 196 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION oper of Pagemaker, which became the lead- duction of big and costly machinery a cen- ing page layout program. tury ago as part of the Industrial Revolution. The Information Age has added archives The newest communications revolution and databases on CDs, on hard and on has, in a sense, turned the clock back. Said floppy disks, both magnetic and optical me- one observer: dia. Nexis and Lexis are typical of more than 4,000 data bases available for retriev- What really excites me... is the idea that ing data. some monumental author whose work By themselves, computer and laser might otherwise be destined for obscurity will use desktop publishing to write a book printers, the principle equipment in desk- or pamphlet or newspaper that will have im- top publishing, have not created the first mense impact on our culture.20 opportunity for people of moderate means to publish. After all, typewriters and Even for those afflicted with writer's block, mimeograph machines have been around the evanescent screen may be a boon, for a long time. What computers and laser knowing that words lack the apparent per- printers provide is egalitarian, the means manence of the printed page. Word process- to offer an attractive and sometimes profes- ing also gives comfort to form letter writers. sional looking product. Tens of thousands of people now do what only a relatively few At first, for instance, there seemed to be a people could do in the past, which is to kind of social deception entailed in sending package their writing attractively without 50 people letters which, apart from tiny 'per- having to turn to others for help. In a real sonalized' alterations, were identical to the point that no one could be sure whether he sense, desktop publishing offers the possi- or she was the only recipient. We no longer bility of putting the ability to disseminate think that the loss of that traditional Guten- information into many hands. bergian distinction is a deception, or even Primary users have been businesses that that it is particularly bad manners. It is sim- once went to commercial printers to pro- ply an opportunity offered by the word proc- duce in-house magazines and brochures. essor which is ours by right if we have the They are no longer dependent on a technology.21 printer's schedules and promises, and are less worried about last minute changes. Schools, government offices, clubs, and Desktop publishing, still a young industry, organizations of every sort turn out innu- has already affected the way a lot of written merable newspapers, newsletters, maga- matter is created and distributed. Writers, zines, and flyers. Restaurants print menus, editors, publishers, librarians, and book theaters print programs, and students hand dealers have adapted to the new technol- in slick looking term papers. ogy, which holds the promise not only of In a historical sense, desktop publishing fundamental changes in the way that words is as old as the start of printing in Europe, reach readers, but in the diversity of what for Gutenberg and those who followed is available. As in every aspect of mass him a half millennium ago were printer- communication, more producers are deliv- publishers. So was Benjamin Franklin, for ering more content on a greater variety of that matter. Things changed with the intro- topics to an ever expanding audience. THE HIGHWAY 197

MAGAZINES TARGET THEIR READERS Despite growing competition from other me- Huge circulation magazines are still being dia, magazines continue to be a highly desir- published. Modern Maturity, the bimonthly able way for people to receive inform-ation sponsored magazine of the American Associa- and entertainment. A magazine industry tion of Retired Persons, prints more than 20 study reported that nearly nine out of ten million copies per issue. The newspaper Sun- American adults read an average of ten cop- day supplement Parade has a total print run ies a month. As might be expected, upscale of 36 million.22 Some large circulation maga- readers consumed more magazines, but zines do business in separate editions. The magazines—glossy, slick, packed with pic- Reader's Digest, founded in 1922, has dealt tures, art, and color—were also in the hands each year with an intricate distribution of people with little education and even illit- scheme because of the sheer size of its circu- erates. Travelers to foreign countries leafed lation. Each month the Digest has published through the pages of a magazine to look at some forty editions, including Braille, in pictures and pick at headlines and picture eighteen languages, and delivered about 30 captions even if they could not understand million copies around the world. The weekly the language. TV Guide has printed close to 15 million, but Magazines were the leading edge of the does so in many separate editions. centrifugal force, the trend to demassification The logistics of distribution are a major that separated people. The magazine indus- consideration of publishers of national news try showed the way for other media to seek magazines like Time and Newsweek, as well as targeted audiences for their printed and elec- of national newspapers. To provide home tronic products. Thousands of trade and spe- delivery either through special carriers or the cialty magazines concentrated on groups of postal system on Monday with information readers who abandoned popular periodicals that was written on Sunday, satellites send and daily newspapers, but hung onto sub- pages to regional printing plants, and from scriptions to those magazines that limited there magazines go by airplane and truck to their messages to identifiable occupations, local distribution points. Readers of large cir- interest areas, age groups, hobbies, religions, culation magazines were startled when they and organizations. first discovered that their names, addresses, Like general circulation magazines, radio and subscription data were imprinted on the was a victim of television's popularity follow- actual magazine covers instead of on paper ing World War II. Radio stations responded by labels. targeting specific audiences, as magazines do, Magazines have also come up with differ- although the local nature of radio restricts its ent answers to the question of generating capacity to narrow its audiences according to income from subscriptions versus sales at the their interests the way that magazines can. If checkout counter magazine racks. The more the new technology of radio on the Internet dependable subscriptions are usually sold at proves successful, the kind of narrow audi- a considerable discount from rack sales, but ence targeting that magazines accomplish advertisers like to reach single-copy buyers. maybe expected. As the number of available The New Yorker prefers subscriptions. Cosmo- cable television channels grows, a similar politan went the other way, reduced the cost narrowing is taking place. at the checkout counter and raised the price of a subscription. Circulation Leaders Offering huge However, most magazines exist on quite viewership numbers to advertisers who had small circulations, eking out a profit on a supported mass circulation magazines, combination of subscription revenue and ad- television was blamed for the demise of The vertising targeted for that fragment of the Saturday Evening Post, Life, Collier's, and Look, public interested in the particular topic. all of which had circulations of more than one Among them are the zines, self-published million. But more focused magazines thrived. magazines that are part of the world of the Their advertising rates were lower and their alternative press. Sometimes mimeographed, readers were more likely to respond to hundreds of zines reach out to anyone who specific ads. shares the views of the publisher/author, or

Continued 198 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Magazines Target Their Readers (continued) who is willing to be convinced. Zines exist as vertising, and links to other places on the Web part of the alternative or underground press network. A few zines can also be bought as in many countries, notably in the Soviet Un- CD-ROM disks, central elements in the world ion and Eastern Europe as the samizdat that of multimedia. not long ago criticized the communist govern- Many of the small circulation magazines ments. American zines are no more respect- and the even smaller circulation newsletters ful of American leadership. The chief that sprang into existence in the 1990s owe difference is the freedom to publish. their continued existence to the tools of desk- The newest idea for a magazine in the top publishing. With a microcomputer, a mid-'90s is a different kind of zine, the elec- black-and-white scanner for photographs, a tronic zine. It was probably inevitable that the laser printer to produce camera-ready pages, Internet, which offers so many ways to con- and a page layout program, the smallest pub- nect people by interest, should offer maga- lishers set themselves up in business, visible zines. By 1996, hundreds could be found on reminders that advances in technology have the World Wide Web with more being added allowed more producers to provide a wider daily. Each zine features a home page, but- range of communication to more consumers tons that call up articles and sometimes ad- than ever before.

Figure 6.1 Magazine stands can offer thousands of periodicals. This is just part of the computer section.

Multimedia, a Newer Book

Molly Armstrong, a junior at Trinity Uni- access such elements as graphics, anima- versity in San Antonio, Texas, took images tion, video, and audio through linkages that of the heart of a chick embryo from micro- let the user click effortlessly from anyplace scope slides. She transferred them to a com- to anywhere. puter on which she created a rotating 3-D As an example of such linkages, let us model. She offloaded the images on vide- start with media history on the World Wide otape that she presented to her mi- Web with the topic of media history. We croanatomy class professor as her term enter the phrase "media history" into a paper.23 search engine. We are rewarded with a list of choices. We click on a graphic to "The Media History Project." By hyperlinks, we What Is Multimedia? click on "Connections" to "Television." From Her impressive work fits one definition of there, let us click to the "Airwaves Golden multimedia, for it combines several media Age Media Page." Among the choices, we to produce a result. A narrower definition click to "The Shadow," which teases the requires interactivity by the user who can THE HIGHWAY 199 reader with "Who knows what hyperlinks videotape, which retains the advantage of lurk..." Some of these connections could recording. However, these digital disks de- lead to still or moving images and to sound. liver far better images than videotape's ana- If we were clicking on a CD-ROM, we might log signal can offer plus multi-channel find enough text and visual information to sound. In addition, the user can go directly fill an encyclopedia. to a favorite scene. At the end of the video, A University of Delaware professor of- there is no tape to rewind. fered this definition of what multimedia is The reinvention of books on compact and what it is not: discs has added to the list of CD-ROM titles. Encyclopedias and other reference books First, there must be a computer to coordinate have been followed by hundreds of titles on what you see and hear, and to interact with. a broad range of subjects, particularly Second, there must be links that connect the books for children. Here is a review of one information. Third, there must be such book on a single CD-ROM disk: navigational tools that let you traverse the web of connected information. Finally, since multimedia is not a spectator sport, there You'll find it hard to believe the wealth of must be ways for you to gather, process, and Quicktime movies, photos, animal sounds, communicate your own information and stories, and well-written information The into The ideas. Software Toolworks has stuffed San Diego Zoo Presents... The Animals! This If one of these components is missing, multimedia tour of the San Diego Zoo you do not have multimedia. For example, explores the lives and habitats of more than if you have no computer to provide interac- 200 animals, depicted in 1,300 photos and tivity, you have mixed media, not multime- an hour of video clips. The software safari dia. If there are no links to provide a sense is lucidly explained in 2,500 carefully cross- of structure and dimension, you have a referenced pages and presented in a polished bookshelf, not multimedia. If there are no 25 navigational tools to let you decide the package of handsome graphics. course of action, you have a movie, not multimedia. If you cannot create and con- If it is difficult to regard this work as a book, tribute your own ideas, you have a televi- despite its 2,500 pages of reading, the iden- sion, not multimedia. tification may be a little easier with The Mayo Clinic Family Health Book—Interactive Edition, which "contains hundreds of illus- CD-ROM trations, video clips, and animated seg- If videotape offers an Information Highway ments showing medical procedures and version of a book, so does CD-ROM. Thou- parts of the body."26 Or consider Aesop's sands of compact disk—read only memory Fables, a CD-ROM in which "each fable's discs are being published on subjects that accompanying music is well chosen. Chil- range the alphabet from astronomy to zool- dren can have the fables read to them or ogy. Carrying data on silvery disks that fit read them themselves."27 in the hand, this tool of communication Books on audiotape have been available contains not only reams of reading matter, for many years to the visually impaired. In but full stereo sound and both still and abridged form they are especially popular moving images. Databases permit users to with drivers facing a long daily commute. skip back and forth almost as easily as Educational disk producers were criti- flipping the pages of a magazine, with the cized for trying to outdo children's televi- difference that the page can talk. sion in flash and dash. Critics contended Major CD-ROM players—Sony, Phillips, that educational tools should not build CD- Time Warner, Toshiba—agreed on a uni- ROMs out of video clips and sound bites versal format for DVD, the digital video that attempt to out-dazzle MTV, for that disc that carries a full-length movie on a CD-ROM disc. DVDs will compete with 200 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION simply continued the departure from liter- CD-ROM Zines acy and logical thought. Blender was one of about six magazines produced in the United States on CD-ROM But while multimedia may appeal to the MTV-fueled rhythms of a hot-wired genera- in 1996. Blender sold about 75,000 copies of tion, some critics believe that all that hot- each issue at about $12 per copy in record linking is an educational detriment. and software stores or by subscription. Like Considering the sorry state of literacy, there's most of the other CD-ROM magazines, or real danger in even a partial abandonment of zines, it covered pop culture and entertain- narrative forms and rigorous modes of ment news, but it could just as easily have thought associated with logical arguments; covered politics or economic news. What where A leads to B. Multimedia's forte is not came in each CD-ROM disk was a combina- reason, but hot emotional impact—the same tion of text, audio, animation, graphics, and ingredients that make local TV news 28 video, all color and digital. Blender, published compelling yet less filling. bimonthly, offered film and music reviews with audio and video samples, video inter- By 1996, thousands of CD-ROM disks were views, articles, games, and advertising. available, and more were coming to market The publisher's slogan was, "The first daily. A casual skimming of a catalog of- wave of new media." It carried advertising fered such choices as an encyclopedia of that took advantage of interactive multime- postage stamps, an encyclopedia of the JFK dia. For example, ads for Dewars scotch assassination, maps of every street in the and Puma tennis shoes were games with United States, every phone number in the clues. In the Dewars ad, someone could United States, an enormous number of push abutton that revealed a joke involving books and games, plus art and photography Dewars scotch. Push another button and on everything from bikini models to classic you could order Dewars merchandise. paintings. Of more than passing interest is Push another for cocktail recipes. An ad for Understanding McLuhan, which carries Sony put someone on a motorcycle cross- hours of his videotaped and audiotaped lec- ing the desert traveling through a story that tures and reviews, plus the complete texts had the feel of a foreign intrigue movie. of Understanding Media and The Gutenberg The viewer was entertained while encoun- Galaxy. tering Sony products. The user might spend half an hour wandering around in a

Figure 6.2 CD zines like Blender reach tens of thousands of mostly young users with a fast-paced multimedia mix. (Courtesy Blender.) THE HIGHWAY 201

Dewars world or a Sony world. Levi's, Toyota, and Universal Pictures offered other advertising environments. Advertis- As the century draws to a close, the direc- ers took note that this was voluntary time tion that multimedia will take and the ve- that the viewer chose to spend with a com- hicles that will carry it are not fully clear, mercial, compared with having to sit for multimedia synthesizes several emerg- through a broadcast commercial. Advertis- ing and competing technologies. What is ing agencies and large advertisers opened abundantly clear is that multimedia is here themselves up very quickly to CD-ROM to stay. and the World Wide Web.

Cable Narrowcasting

Until the mid-1970s, cable television was subscribing to HBO services. Technology mostly a means of improving signals and moved quickly enough that by 1977 dishes bringing over-the-air broadcasts to commu- as small as 4.5 meters, costing under nities far from television stations. That was $10,000, brought reception within the about to change. means of all but the smallest cable systems. Home Box Office began with a test in Wilkes-Barre, Pennslvania, in 1972 as a Ted Turner Moves In movie and sports pay channel. Nearby cable operators liked the idea and wanted to Independent Atlanta broadcaster Ted sign on, so HBO expanded its microwave Turner, observing that cable operators were system to include additional cable compa- buying satellite dishes to bring in HBO, put nies. The cost of relaying HBO's programs his UHF station on the same SATCOM sat- via microwave led HBO to take a chance on ellite. Unlike HBO's method of charging contracting to distribute a program via individual subscribers for an extra channel RCA's domestic communications satellite, without commercials, Turner offered, for a SATCOM. That gave it a potential for na- small per-subscriber charge, inexpensive tional distribution. Looking for a program programming with commercials to cable that would draw a large audience nation- systems that until then were giving sub- wide, HBO chose a boxing match, perhaps scribers little more than a basic service. All recalling the excitement that greeted Tele- subscribers to the cable service could re- PrompTer's experimental Key-TV pay tele- ceive the programming. His station fea- vision broadcast of the second Floyd tured movies, sports, and news around the Patterson-Ingmar Johansson heavyweight clock. By going national, his money-losing match. UHF station, now called WTBS, became the On September 30, 1975, HBO broadcast first "superstation." Turner recalled, "HBO the Joe Frazier-Muhammed Ali champion- kicked it off, but one service really wasn't ship fight from Manila by satellite transmis- good enough to wire the country because sion. The "thrilla from Manila" cablecast, as all they really had at the time was movies. We brought baseball, basketball, and Ali dubbed it, was such a success that Time, 29 Inc., the parent corporation, leased a SAT- hockey." COM transponder on a long-term basis to The HBO and Turner success stories did transmit HBO programs to any cable sys- not pass unobserved. Among new channels tem owning, or willing to spend $150,000 via satellite came televangelist Pat Robert- for an earth station receiving dish 10 me- son's Christian Broadcasting Network ters in diameter. This move 'transformed (CBN); the Learning Channel, which took on HBO from a regional to a national network the educational mission that the major net- distributing uncut and uninterrupted mov- works ignored; Bravo, reaching a thought- ies, special events, and live sports via sat- ful audience with discerning films from ellite. By 1977, 262 cable systems were around the world; Lifetime, programming to 202 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION adult women; the Getty Oil company's En- tion of—an all-talk channel, international tertainment and Sports Programming Net- news, two all-golf channels, a channel with work (ESPN), focusing on adult men; MTV, old sports footage, two history channels, an whose images were primarily aimed at all-food channel, plus separate channels for young males; the Disney Channel and fitness and for wellness (exercise and Nickelodeon, which set new levels for chil- health), home and garden, military mat- dren's programming. The Cable Satellite ters, money matters, consumer matters, Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN) was cre- channels with shows about single people, ated to distribute the proceedings of the books, fine arts, Christian music, country U.S. House of Representatives to cable sys- music, how-to-do-it advice, crime pro- tems via satellite. Two more "supersta- grams, westerns, war movies, horror mov- tions," Chicago's WGN and New York's WOR, ies, movie previews, soap operas, game joined the growing throng of available cable shows, plus an international channel in channels. Advertiser-supporter music video several foreign languages, several shopping channels were launched, including Music channels, a channel selling sex-related Television (MTV) in 1981 and the Nashville merchandise, and two channels of advertis- Network in 1983. In 1985, The Discovery ing, one for classifieds and one for info- Channel made its debut, providing educa- mercials.30 tional nonfiction programming about such Anyone who imagines television as a topics as nature and history. HBO's use of unifying force in society has only to look at a satellite was followed by such pay-TV the cable listings in the daily newspaper. movie-laden channels as Showtime, The Talk show host Larry King commenced, "In Movie Channel, and Cinemax. some ways this will be good for politicians In 1980, Turner Broadcasting began dis- and their media consultants because it will tributing a nationwide news service, the be easier to target niche audiences with Cable News Network (CNN), via satellite. specific messages."31 Perhaps not all social Its success led to a second CNN channel of critics were calmed by such prospects. continual 30-minute newscasts. During the Some concern has been expressed in the Gulf War of 1991, polls reported that CNN United States about the disparity between was the public's first or second choice for the poor in America, who as a group watch news. a lot of television, and the middle class, In school classrooms, the controversial who watch less. There are places in the Channel One beamed newscasts contain- world where watching TV might be envied, ing commercials. Schools got free televi- but in the relatively wealthy United States, sion monitors, videocassette recorders, the unenviable truth is that the poor watch even satellite dishes as an inducement to much more advertiser-supported "free" sign up. Students were exposed to news- television than do the middle class. To casts prepared for them, full of stories with some extent, the difference is due to an teen appeal and fast moving graphics. educational differential, and to some ex- Many of the students, being exposed to tent it is due to the cost of other kinds of commercials every day, could not under- entertainment. The likelihood is that when stand why social critics tore their hair. other channel choices siphon off audience segments, the poor will be left behind, and New Channels the communication spread between the poor and the rest of the society will expand, Other specialized channels formed, with supporting the "knowledge gap" theory, audiences being calved like ice from a gla- which states, "As the infusion of mass me- cier. By 1996, channels were in existence or dia information into a social system in- planned for Spanish-speaking, African- creases, segments of the population with American, and Asian audiences, plus more higher socio-economic status tend to ac- channels designed for children, teenagers, quire this information at a faster rate than young adults, and the elderly. There were the lower status segments, so that the gap also either plans afoot for—or the realiza- THE HIGHWAY 203 in the knowledge between these segments chandising through catalogs is expected to tends to increase rather than decrease."32 decline, along with many retail stores.33 Brand names are expected to lose some of Home Shopping their appeal and the marketing is predicted to follow the concept of cutting the poten- The Home Shopping Network and Cable tial market into small, specialized groups. Value Network combine two activities on Plans have also been germinating to sell the top of the enjoyment list of millions of groceries and drug store sundries by inter- people: watching television and shopping. active cable. Its champions prefer to call it electronic Communication technology that came retailing or direct-to-home selling, while op- along in the last century had made possible erators stand by ready to take 800-number the mailed catalogs and the popularity of orders. brand names that are now taken for Shopping from the toolshed home adds a granted. The small town general store suf- further dimension to the concept of com- fered. New communication technology is munication without transportation. It en- now turning the wheel once again, this compasses not only the cable shopping time at the expense of catalog mailers. networks, but television shopping programs, infomercials (program-length commercials), interactive television marketing, Cable Franchises telephone database marketing, and shop- Cable industry revenues in the United ping via computer modem. By the mid- States exceeded $1 billion by 1978. Two 1990s, total sales were in the billions of years later, revenues passed the $4 billion dollars and growing, with nationally fa- mark. By 1994, the total passed $23 billion mous manufacturers and retailers entering from cable users plus more than $4 billion the business. Separately on the Internet, from advertisers. While many small, pri- merchants by the thousands have been set- vate cable systems remain, the cable busi- ting up home pages on the World Wide Web ness increasingly belongs to the multiple and advertising in Web zines. As electronic systems operator (MSO) which is likely to retailing increases, normal mail order mer- have a communications empire embracing

Figure 6.3 Shopping from home while watching television combines activities many people enjoy. Brisk business at the Home Shopping Network call centers require a lot of order takers. 204 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION broadcast stations, pay cable channels, Pay Cable newspapers, magazines, and even enter- Many of the program services that are not prises like book publishing and record pro- pay-TV at some level are known as basic ducing. cable. Beyond the basic cable are one or Satellites sparked phenomenal growth more tiers, or bundles, of cable channels for cable television in the late 1970s and available at higher monthly rates. Beyond early 1980s. Until then the cable industry these are channels with a fixed monthly had been providing millions of small town charge, such as HBO. Some cable systems viewers with clear reception of local sta- also offer pay-per-view (PPV) channels. tions and sometimes a few stations from a When someone phones in an order for a nearby larger market, but it did not offer movie or a special event advertised on a enough to metropolitan or suburban view- preview channel, the cable company ers to justify wiring the big cities. Satellites obliges by piping the show to an address- changed that. Cable television evolved able converter at the subscriber's home. from being mostly a retransmitter of broad- Each subscriber has a number as unique as cast signals to being a source of hitherto a telephone number. unavailable programming. A pay-per-view test that began in 1991 When cable moved into the cities and allowed Denver area viewers to order mov- suburbs, cable franchising wars ensued in ies from a list of more than 1,000 titles fed the rush to win major market franchises. out of a video center to a viewer's home The cities, however, proved to be harder through fiber optic lines. It created a video bargainers than small towns. City councils store in the living room without the need specified requirements the cable operator to return the movie. At the head end the had to meet, such as the number of chan- technology was old-fashioned by the fast nels, subscriber rates, and the length of moving standards of this century. It de- time to get the system up and running. An pended on employees finding videotapes important part of the franchise was local on shelves and punching them up on video access programming, including channels players for the customer. set aside for education and civic affairs Time Warner and other American media plus public access channels so any resident giants invested heavily to develop new in- could present a program or a viewpoint. A teractive and multimedia services that cable company that wanted to come into combined the bandwidth of fiber optic ca- the city would have to offer a range of ble with the flexibility and storage of com- public services. In other words, cable could puters. Time Warner's Full Service not be merely a vaudeville stage. It would Network video-on-demand experimental have to be a town hall and a street corner service in Orlando, Florida, used a multi- soap box as well. To acquire franchises, media navigation system to show viewers cable companies promised equipment and what options were available. Helping to personnel to program its public access solve the problem of the bandwidth de- channels. mands of moving pictures were not only Franchises gave cable companies exclu- satellites and fiber optics, but digital video sive monopolies in the cities where they compression. built systems, but their monopoly positions The high-powered merger negotiations came under attack from rival cable compa- of cable and telephone companies have nies or citizen groups which argued that the made for exciting headlines, with their franchise holders were not living up to promises of 500 channels. That arbitrarily their contracted promises. Competition chosen number, incidentally, is mislead- seemed an obvious solution. By 1992, at ing. A virtually infinite number of channels least 50 cities had competing cable serv- beckons. ices, and the number is growing. The Tele- Technological promises have been communication Reform Act of 1996 allows hedged by political issues such as whether telephone companies to compete. the promised service would be available to THE HIGHWAY 205 everyone. Another question revolves identified by such initials as MDS (mul- around common carriage. Will all cable tipoint distribution service), MMDS (mul- service entrepreneurs have access to the tichannel multipoint distribution service), conduit? Will production of content be ITFS (instruction television fixed service), separated from its distribution? At what and OFS (operational fixed service). Wire- point does the First Amendment collide less cable was in a limited sense direct with anti-trust regulation? By the mid- broadcast satellite without the satellite. Mi- 1990s, telephone companies in the United crowave towers transmitted the television States were merging with cable companies picture to any home, hotel, apartment and extending their reach to entertainment house, or business equipped with a receiv- production and media of various kinds, ing dish. Unlike a satellite whose footprint alarming observers who see danger from can span a nation, a microwave signal is power shifting into a few corporate hands. local, limited to reaching receiving anten- The Telecommunications Reform Act of nas within line of sight of the transmitting 1996 allows everyone to play in everyone antenna. else's yard: long distance, local phone serv- Wireless cable often provided a cable- ice, cable service, and media production. like service of up to 33 channels, usually in Broadcasters can own more stations, cable markets too small for cable companies to companies can raise their rates, and elec- bother with. That number could increase to tric power companies can offer a range of 300 channels with digital transmission, telecommunication services. Despite the which would also overcome the problem of fears of monopoly, it is still true that more weather affecting the signal, and possibly producers are sending a greater variety of put wireless cable into real competition material over more channels to a larger with standard cable. In the mid-1990s, wire- total audience than ever. less cable was available in at least 38 coun- Both basic and pay services suffer from tries.34 piracy if people who do not pay for the Also still used is satellite master antenna programming tap the signal by hooking television (SMATV), also known as private into a neighbor's feed, either wiring up cable, which was little more than a satellite special electronic devices or buying satel- dish atop an apartment house, hotel, hospi- lite dishes. The cable industry figured it tal, office building, or condo building, with was losing $500 to $700 million annually cables running to apartments or rooms. It because of service theft. HBO and other is a cable system in miniature. pay channels responded by scrambling their feeds. In 1986, HBO began scrambling Fiber Optics the feeds of HBO and Cinemax. Other channels quickly followed suit. The un- Optical fibers made of glass less than a scrambled feeds were offered to owners of hundredth of an inch in diameter present a backyard dishes for a fee. promising technology for cable distribu- Of the American homes that are able to tion. Transmitting information in the form subscribe to cable service, fewer than two of light, a single hair-thin strand can convey out of five chose not to do so. Investors in up to 16,000 phone conversations, com- direct broadcast satellite systems saw these pared to 24 for copper wire. An optical fiber homes as a potential market, which led to can transmit 167 television channels, while DBS service now offering not only regular a bundle of six strands the size of a tele- cable fare, but an increased number of phone cord can feed out more than 1,000 movie channels, a taste of the so-called video signals. 500-channel universe to come. Sending a message by light is as old as the ancient Greek heliograph, a brightly polished shield flashing in the sun. Before Wireless Cable Alexander Graham Bell pushed a voice An older technology, wireless cable, also along a wire, British physicist John Tyndall attracted some attention. Its services were showed a light beam trapped in a stream of 206 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION water. Bell himself tried to prove that light uses, the cost of replacing existing copper could transmit the voice with a photo wire with the new technology is a delaying phone to carry voice signals, but bad factor. So is the cost of putting into a televi- weather interfered with transmission. Nor- sion set the unit needed to convert an opti- man French received a patent in 1934 for cal digital signal into an electrical analog an optical telephone using solid glass rods signal. to conduct voice signals, but the big break- The quality of digital pictures and sound through came from Arthur Schawlow and transmitted along glass fibers astonishes Charles Townes, the scientists who in 1958 first-time viewers. Electrical signals shar- invented the laser. Corning Glass Works ing a copper wire begin to blend after a figured out the efficient manufacture of short trip, but not so with light transmis- optical fiber made of silica glass the thick- sion through glass. Also, two-way transmis- ness of a human hair. By the start of the sion poses no problems for glass, unlike 1990s, a laser with a light source the size of copper. As production of optical fiber in- a grain of salt could blink one billion times creased, prices fell sharply and, at the same a second, converting voices, pictures, and time, the capacity of optical fiber lines to text into a string of 1s and Os. A photo carry data soared. The capacity expanded detector at the receiving end of the fiber even more when the signal was altered by strand reconstituted the light flashes as an the technology called DVC, digital video electronic signal that converted back into compression, which made more efficient voices, pictures, and text. use of existing channels. Because light travels much faster than electricity, transmission speed increased Programming Through markedly. It has been estimated that the Optical Fihers entire text of the Encyclopedia Brittanica and the Bible could circle the Earth over a Because it is not always convenient to fiber optic strand in less than two seconds. watch a film starting at 8 p.m. or 10 p.m., HBO has experimented with multiplexing Theoretically optical fibers can, when tucked the same film at staggered hours through into a household's telephone line, deliver a several channels, using digital compression virtually infinite number of channels. By and fiber optics. wedding that awesome capability to the vast In addition to the possibility of a much penetration of their phone lines, the Baby greater range of program choices than ca- Bells could make both the networks and ble now delivers, among the potentials of cable instantly obsolete. And when linked to new technology is a marriage with high a central computer bank via an interactive definition television to deliver wall-sized hookup, an optical fiber system would serve as a kind of omnipotent electronic genie. At pictures of such quality that the image the touch of a button, subscribers could do might hardly be distinguishable from the their shopping and banking, send messages, original. The day may come when a water- book theater seats, make travel fall will look real enough to splash in. arrangements, call up an old newspaper article or request a lesson in the new math.35 Japanese researchers envision golfers practicing their swings in front of three- Lightweight and strong, the fibers can stand dimensional simulations of courses... "Doc- much physical abuse, but unlike copper tors could have world offices, not local cable, which can carry its own electrical offices. And I could go on vacation — or pick power, fiber optics cannot function during a vacation spot — by immersing myself in a different environment, stroll down the streets a power outage. They blink out. Telephone of Barcelona or along a Caribbean beach," companies would have to provide alterna- says Mr. Smoot, an executive at Bell tive backup power. Although the cost of Communications Research.36 creating and installing pure glass fibers has become competitive with copper for new THE HIGHWAY 207

Coaxial cable seems to do well enough for the cable service that was originally delivered. It can also handle videotex and home The members of the plugged-in society will shopping. What a fiber optic line into the settle deeper into their toolshed homes, home can do is provide hundreds of chan- grateful for communication replacing nels, plus movies on demand, which is prob- transportation. Jeffrey Reiss, Request TV ably how most of those channels will be chairman, predicted, "The home would be- used. If the public is willing to pay for the come the world's largest electronic theater. service, fiber optics switched networks or People would begin to say, 'Why do we ever hybrid fiber-coaxial networks (fiber for the have to go out?'" main lines, coax for the drop into homes) will replace trips to the video rental store.

Footprints on the Globe

Satellites have redefined the meaning of in an effort to migrate into the rich coun- distance. What the telegraph began, the tries they see on television.38 communication satellite completed. An Intelsat executive recalled a holiday trip: Geopolitical Considerations We were in Guaymas, Mexico, several weeks Arthur Clarke, who originated the idea of ago, riding through a small poverty-stricken communication satellites in geosynchro- area with a guy from Chicago. He was busy nous orbit, has commented, "The commu- denigrating the area, "Who could stand to nications satellite is going to spread ideas live here, you wouldn't know anything about and concepts throughout the world more the world, it is so squalid, etc." I was busy powerfully (than the printed medium has taking pictures of houses perhaps 25 feet done)."39 The geopolitical implications are square with a 1954 Chevy pickup in the driveway and a satellite dish on the roof. An startling. Direct broadcast satellites area of perhaps 1,000 people, with about 50 (DBS), which are not routed through a satellite dishes! control point, but go directly into people's He said, "What do those dishes do, any- homes, have not been greeted as an unal- way?" I said, well, these people can get 130 loyed joy in Third World countries con- TV channels from at least seven nations in cerned with programming imported from five languages, and in addition they can get industrialized countries. Intended to sub-carrier FM stereo. In other words, they point us toward the heavens, these com- have Quebec, Venezuela, Mexico City, all of munication satellites instead rekindle old America, BBC, and even Japan occasionally; quarrels about cultural imperialism. and they get the Chicago Symphony as clearly as you do. DBS's potential for "coca-colonization" or He was stunned. Then he said, "What do even direct propaganda television broad- they think when they see all that, and they casts is not offset by an unwilling host look at this, where they live?" And I was nation's ability to block reception. Unlike silent, and my wife was silent, and he was incoming radio signals, satellite television silent. transmission is difficult to block. Viewers receive television programs from whatever How might poor people react? They could the satellite has to offer, and no govern- demand reform in their own countries. ment censor is likely to intrude. They could revolt. They could grow even By 1996, more than a dozen satellites more resentful at the world's "haves." Some beamed programs to Asia. Many people put might steal. They could retreat into funda- up dishes, but not all governments wel- mentalism. Or they could risk everything comed them. Rupert Murdoch, owner of 208 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Star-TV, declared that technologies such as ing or planning to do so internationally by satellite television "proved an unambigu- satellite. ous threat to totalitarian regimes everywhere," a comment that led China to A Split-Second Apart restrict dish use.40 It also declared its intention to ban Star-TV, which was enough to Of all the things one can say about modern convince Murdoch to placate China's lead- communications, the most remarkable is ers by removing the BBC World Service that people on opposite ends of the globe from Star-TV. China limited the dishes to are a split-second apart, yet men and luxury hotels and some businesses, al- women are alive who were born before the though an estimated one million illegal first airplane flew and even before the first dishes were pointed where they could re- radio transmission. Consider, for example, ceive western programs. how strange and how quaint the people of In 1994, Iran declared home dishes ille- Japan seemed to Americans at the start of gal. Direct reception was also banned in this century and how strange and fearsome Syria, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, Iraq, Americans seemed to the Japanese. Now a Vietnam, and Singapore, although the bans young Japanese rice farmer and a middle- were not always enforced. In much of Sin- aged Minnesota housewife can watch the gapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, the gate- same live television broadcast of the Olym- keepers are the small cable operators who pics in Europe. As far as the technology is put dishes atop apartment blocks. Myan- concerned, they could even watch each mar dealt with unwanted programming by other while carrying on a conversation. a prohibitive license fee on dishes. Malay- The day may come when newer technol- sia had restrictions similar to China's. Indo- ogy will permit that conversation over tele- nesian President Suharto even banned phones that do their translating. advertising on his own country's Palapa By means of communication satellites, satellite apparently out of fear that rural the Atlanta Olympic games were seen people would see how much better some worldwide by billions of people, an urbanites lived. The ban remained in effect astonishing feat considering that the first for eight years. Indonesian viewers were geosynchronous communication satellite later permitted to watch, but their dishes went into orbit a little more than three had to be pointed only at the Palapa satel- decades earlier. Matching improvements lite. With hesitation, Japan—of all coun- in satellites have been the receiving dishes. tries—agreed to permit pointing home The first terrestrial earth stations cost $10 dishes at foreign satellites, and South Korea million each and required a staff of engi- agreed to pointing at a Japanese satellite. neers. The newest home dishes sell for a Its DBS footprint, or reception area, spilled few hundred dollars and can easily be set over into part of South Korea, which did not up. Once again, we see the characteristic please that government. shared by so many mass communication Being a nation under someone else's tools of becoming smaller, cheaper, and footprint is not always considered disad- easier to operate at the same time that their vantageous. More than a dozen East Euro- capabilities grow. pean, Mideastern, and North African nations that fall under Europe's Eutelsat Changes in News Reporting footprint can buy its service, whereas at- Structures tempting to match the service by launch- Like the telegraph, communication satel- ing their own satellites would be lites have been a catalyst for changes in prohibitively expensive even if frequen- news reportage. Just as the telegraph cies were available. boosted the news reporting capacity of Banning satellite reception at home does smaller and inland newspapers, the satel- not stop transmitting abroad. The state lite has widened the reach of local televi- broadcasting corporations of Singapore, sion stations. The telegraph made prompt Malaysia, and Iran were either broadcast- THE HIGHWAY 209 reports possible of the Mexican-American receive remote reports no longer depend and the Civil War. It encouraged coopera- solely upon the major networks. tive reporting arrangements from far-off It has not gone unnoticed that a large locales, leading to the formation of the As- city station that decided to replace a net- sociated Press and the promotion of objec- work newscast with its own version could tivity and uniformity in writing style. The realize millions of dollars in extra income communication satellite, by making distant a year. Whether network newscasts— coverage much cheaper and more avail- sometimes referred to as dinosaurs—can able, has led local television stations to survive is a much discussed question. send reporters all over the United States In addition to relaying video, audio, and and to remote corners of the globe. When written news dispatches to newspapers and the Berlin Wall came down, reporters from broadcast stations, satellites transmit data local American stations were among those from the Dow-Jones News Service, Nexis, who beamed live reports across the Atlantic. Lexis, and other online services directly to "Live via satellite" is a familiar phrase. readers. Satellites also beam page plates for Television networks' frequent use of satel- newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal lites to transmit sports, newscasts, and in- and USA Today to regional printing plants. dividual news stories filed by reporters has For the average citizen, satellites have been matched by local stations that ex- had their most obvious impact on cable change news items with one another television service for entertainment. The through such independent networking ar- entire cable industry relies on satellite re- rangements as Conus. Local news directors lay of entertainment programs, a practice have more choices of national and interna- initiated by HBO with the Ali-Frazier box- tional news than ever before. A generation ing match. before, distance had to be factored into a decision to cover an event. Around the The Beginnings time of the Vietnam War, television stations simply did not transmit news over The satellite era began when the Soviet great distances. ABC, CBS, and NBC did so, Union launched the first Sputnik (fellow but when AT&T charged $3,000 to rent traveler) in 1957. The United States, sur- loops and lines for a cross-country video prised and embarrassed, reacted with a transmission, even the networks did not crash space program. John Kennedy was act casually to arrange reception of a re- elected partly on his promise to get Amer- porter's film from the scene of a story. ica moving with more determination into By the 1990s, video pictures were sent outer space. across the country for $75. The dropping Military satellites produced significant costs of satellite transmission have made advances in communication, but it soon the filing of stories via satellite from report- became evident that the satellite was an ers to their networks or stations a daily ideal vehicle for civil communication traf- occurrence. With ENG (Electronic News fic. In 1962, Congress enacted and Presi- Gathering) supplanted by SNG (Satellite dent Kennedy signed the Communications News Gathering), local station news trucks Satellite Act, creating a privately owned equipped with satellite uplinks roam far corporation, COMSAT, to launch and oper- from base to cover stories. A reporter can ate a global system. It was then impossible beam live reports from the scene of an to get a live television picture from Europe event in minutes after the truck arrives. to the United States. Instead, film was By providing an alternative to traditional flown across the Atlantic. The television television network connections, the com- networks covered the Vietnam War by munication satellite has been one of the shipping cans of undeveloped film by com- causes of fundamental alterations in the mercial air transport from Saigon via Tokyo structures of television news coverage. Local to San Francisco, where it was developed, station news departments that can cheaply screened, and sent by microwave to New York for use on the evening news. With 210 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION videotape and satellites, coverage of wars Arthur Clarke, best known as a science has become much more efficient, as, to be fiction writer, in a 1945 article wrote that if sure, have the wars. a satellite was placed 22,300 miles above Scientists recognized the communica- the Equator in an orbit around the Earth of tion potential of satellites as a kind of great 24 hours, it would remain stationary in antenna tower, but the first American com- relation to a fixed point on Earth. Three munication satellite, Echo 1, in 1960, was satellites parked above the Equator and little more than a silvery balloon put into spaced equidistant from one another could orbit for a short time, a passive reflector receive from and transmit to almost any bouncing back radio signals. Because of point on the globe. Clarke wrote: that silvery sheen from a coating of alumi- num and because Echo was as big as a ten- Many may consider the solution proposed in story building, tens of millions of people this discussion to be too far-fetched to be saw Echo in its low orbit over the earth. As taken very seriously. Such an attitude is un- communications technology went, a reasonable, as everything envisaged here is a plastic balloon wasn't much, but Ameri- logical extension of developments in the last ten years—in particular the perfection of the cans who saw it felt heartened that they long-range rocket of which V-2 was the could actually witness, from their own back prototype.41 porches, what their country was doing in the space race, even though the Soviet Un- By the mid-'60s, Clarke's theory had been ion had already sent a dog, Laika, into space proven in the form of packages of electron- equipped with machines that radioed back ics hurtling through weightless space in the beating of her heart. Two months after fixed orbits. Powered by solar energy, the Echo's launching, the U.S. Army's Courier I early communication satellites used rela- carried a receiver and transmitter for two- tively little current, less than 100 watts, way communication. News commentators, about the strength of a light bulb. The signal envisioning Buck Rogers weapons in space, could be picked up and amplified only by a opined that in the Cold War, the Russians sensitive, large, and expensive earth station had seized the high ground early, but the^ located far from the electrical interference Americans were counterattacking. A differ- of cities. ent analogy would serve better today, that of control of land and ocean trade routes. The most valuable trade of all is informa- INTELSAT tion. The opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olym- Two years after Echo came Telstar I, the pic Games in 1964 was broadcast live to first commercial communications satellite. much of the northern hemisphere by Syn- This AT&T satellite, a microwave tower in com 3, the first satellite to be placed into the sky, carried transponders (transmitters geostationary (also known as geosynchro- and responders), which received, ampli- nous) orbit. A year later came the Comsat fied, and retransmitted radio signals be- satellite, Intelsat I, nicknamed Early Bird, a tween powerful ground stations. Launched 76-pound workhorse parked in geostation- primarily for transatlantic communication, ary orbit over the Atlantic Ocean to link Telstar I was joined a year later by Telstar countries around the North Atlantic. De- II primarily for transpacific communica- signed to work for 18 months, it lasted four tion. Among Telstar I's limitations was an years carrying 240 telephone circuits, more earth orbit of approximately once every 90 than six times as many as the Atlantic cable minutes, during which it would have line- laid on the ocean floor nine years earlier. of-sight with stations in both Europe and Early Bird initiated commercial commu- the United States for perhaps 15 minutes at nications. Satellites over the Pacific and a time. Huge, expensive tracking antennas Indian oceans began full global coverage in had to follow the Telstars because they 1969, three weeks before the first moon were in a low, nonsynchronous orbit. landing, the most widely seen event in THE HIGHWAY 211

Figure 6.4 Communication satellites in the Intelsat VII and VII-A series are in orbit beaming audio, video, and data streams. (Courtesy Comsat.)

history, which included a telephone call once again shifted west, this time to Alaska, from President Nixon in the Oval Office to with two-way televised medical advice for Neil Armstrong on the surface of the moon. people in remote areas who had called with A consortium of more than 100 countries specific problems. In one case, a health formed the International Telecommu- worker at a construction site got stitch-by- nications Satellite Organization. Owning stitch guidance from a physician as he more communication satellites in space sewed up the face of a man who had been than any other provider, Intelsat rents its badly injured. During its five-year lifetime, services for television, radio, computer the Teacher-in-the-Sky beamed programs to data, and telephone circuits to about 300 southern Asia on health, agriculture, and state-run and large private organizations family planning to people who had never around the world. The arrangement is prof- before seen television. It started India on itable for its member countries—136 by its own satellite programming. In the 1996. Intelsat prices are relatively steep, United States, it led in 1979 to The Learning even though the cost of transmitting tele- Channel. Its success advanced the realiza- phone, telex, radio, and television signals tion that people could, in a sense, meet has dropped sharply. face-to-face without expensive travel. Business and professional video telecon- Video Teleconferencing ferencing has become a booming field. As for education, the phrase distance learning Video teleconferencing by satellite grew is heard with growing frequency, every- out of an experiment that began in 1974. A thing from graduate study to allowing bed- NASA Applications Technology Satellite, ridden children to attend class. quickly nicknamed the Teacher-in-the-Sky, pointed its antenna toward Appalachia, where it fed graduate college courses to Direct Broadcasting teachers whose remote locations gave Three types of communication satellites them no opportunity for advancement. are in orbit. MSS (mobile satellite service), When the evening classes were over, the which serves ships at sea, has been ex- antenna shifted to the Rockies to beam panded to include mobile satellite service vocational classes for junior high schools. like the system Peter Arnett used in cover- When those classes ended, the antenna ing the Gulf War. FSS (fixed satellite service) 212 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Figure 6.5 To receive DBS service, customers need an 18-inch antenna dish, a remote control unit, and a receiver. (Courtesy USSB.)

is the standard commercial C-band and Ku- flat, placed on a roof or window ledge, are band service for telephone, television, ra- no more conspicuous than rooftop anten- dio, and data transmission. BSS (broadcast nas. It is expected that the dish will connect satellite service) is used for DBS (direct broad- not only to the TV set for programs and to cast satellite) transmission. DBS may prove the VCR for movies, but to the home com- to be the ideal way to transmit HDTV (high puter for data. definition television) pictures. In 1996, Hughes Electronics, a subsidiary of Gen- eral Motors, offered about 175 channels of C-Band and Ku-Band its DirecTv. USSB offered about 25 channels A transmitter on Earth uplinks signals of DBS. Primestar expected to expand to 22,300 miles to a satellite transponder, about 150 channels of FSS. A fourth com- which amplifies them, changes their fre- petitor, Echo Star Communications, prom- quencies to avoid interference with the in- ised about 200 channels of DBS, including coming signals, and retransmits them back international channels. to Earth to satellite dishes. These down- All types of DBS satellite-to-home ser- links are wired to receiver-decoder units vice are also designated as DTH (direct to about the size of small VCRs, each con- home). A disadvantage of DBS services lies nected to a television set. C-band and Ku- in being national and international only, band frequencies in the electromagnetic not local. To hear a local newscast, some spectrum can be used for telephone, com- other means are needed, such as cable or puter data, radio, and television transmis- even rabbit ears. And unless a technologi- sion. DBS, using Ku-band frequencies, cal breakthrough provides a way, interac- transmits television directly to homes. tive capability will not be available by Each band has its own advantages and satellite; it could be available by two-way problems. The C-band signal is not as af- cable service in competition with DBS for fected as Ku-band by torrential rainstorms. the viewer's dollar. However, C-band downlink frequencies DBS employs a satellite transmitter that must be shared with microwave systems on bypasses a ground television station to the ground, limiting the satellite's power beam directly into homes equipped with and the location of earth stations. Ku-band relatively inexpensive (about $500) satel- does not interfere with microwave trans- lite dishes of 18 to 39 inches diameter. Far mission, and the earth stations can be lo- smaller than the $2,000 C-band dishes 8 cated in the middle of cities. The stronger feet or more wide that dot the rural land- the signal that the satellite returns, the scape, the DBS dishes, either parabolic or higher the wavelength, and the wider the THE HIGHWAY 213 separation from other orbiting satellites, large corporations communicate with their the smaller need be the collecting dish. branch offices through VSATs because they are cheap, reliable, fast, and of high qual- 43 Scrambling the Signal ity. Some developing countries use VSATs as a relatively inexpensive way to Although C-band transmission was not communicate over large distances when planned for direct-to-home use, as many as other means prove unreliable or unavail- five million homes have installed receiving able.44 dishes on rooftops and backyards. Program Three types of satellite communication suppliers and cable operators were shocked can now be held with any number of par- by their growing popularity because dish ticipants. Video teleconferencing, which owners were getting free what others were can appear like something out of Orwell's paying for. What was more, the dish owners 1984, is the least used and most expensive felt justified in doing what they wanted on method because of the equipment and their own property despite court decisions wideband transmission lines needed, but it that receiving these programs was a theft of is growing. Audio conferencing, a fancier service. Threats of legal action were made, version of the familiar telephone confer- but the cable industry had no stomach for ence call, uses a clearer audio line and dragging tens of thousands of citizens to sometimes includes some limited visuals. court. Computer conferencing is a multi-partici- Trying to put dish manufacturers out of pant version of e-mail; unlike the other business was no solution because some versions, it is asynchronous; participants dishes are sold to people who live where no do not have to be present when messages cable is available. This is a legitimate indus- arrive.45 try. The practical solution was to encrypt, or scramble, the satellite signals so they could be received only with a descrambler A Limit to Infinite Space that could be rented for a monthly fee. Among the newest satellites, those in the Fabricating descramblers to evade the fee Intelsat VII-A series carry 40 transponders was a clear violation of the law. each, which, with digital technology, can The International Standards Organiza- transmit 112,500 telephone conversations tion met from time to time to deal with plus three television channels at once. Yet, other problems, such as unrelated video space is not infinite where communication standards, like NTSC, PAL, SECAM, D-2 bandwidth is concerned. Despite ingenuity Mac, Beta, and VHS, plus incompatible in expanding the available frequencies, audio technologies. limits exist. One way to get around the saturation is to change from normal analog Teleports television signals to digital signals, which can be compressed so a transponder that is Beyond dishes serving homes and motels, sending one movie will be able to send ten there are multi-million dollar teleports in the same amount of spectrum. DBS sig- offering a convergence of television, ra- nals are already digital. dio, and data services, including video teleconferencing, using satellite and ground communication. As an airport is a transportation hub for passengers and cargo, a modern teleport is a transporta- A portion of the scientific and engineering tion hub for information.42 talent devoted to improving communica- VSAT, which stands for Very Small Aper- tion satellites is engaged in trying to shovel ture Terminal, a private networking system, more entertainment into the toolshed uses a satellite to replace terrestrial lines. homes in which we live. Because consum- Operating outside the telephone system, ers respond to ever greater choice, an advertisement for a home satellite dish read: 214 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Electronic Commuting

Electrons are replacing cars as transporta- their business. A boat serves just as well tion to work and school. Consider these if business is done in coastal cities. examples: • A Spanish language teacher in Spokane gives lessons via satellite to 1,300 stu • A parole judge presides at a hearing as a dents as far away as Alaska and Guam. In convict wearing an orange prison Maine, students can earn a B.A. degree jumpsuit stands penitently before a via interactive TV. monitor. The judge no longer has to ride • English literature students who click on the circuit from prison to prison. a poem are hyperlinked to a literary re • Two cardiologists in a major hospital view and a biography of the author. check over the cardiogram and X-rays of • Law students use an electronic bulletin a heart patient in a rural clinic 70 miles board to ask professors about legal points away. Images, sounds, and data crisscross that puzzle them. Software lets the stu Iowa as digital pulses over fiber optic dents remain anonymous, so they are lines. Some discomfort maybe felt by the less afraid to ask "dumb" questions. Lee- patient because the warm physical pres ence and the touch of another person is missing, but the advantages are greater. Construction of telecommunications fa"- cilities can hardly keep up. • A reporter beams live reports from the scene of a murder minutes after she and an engineer drive up in their satellite truck. The distance of an event from the television station has become less signifi cant, and reporters travel much further. • A middle management executive has a cellphone by his side morning, noon, and night. There is no certain escape time in the work week, and the week now con tains seven days, not five. Home has become just another place to deal with data. • Consultants put a different spin on the home-office-car triangle by living and working in vans filled with communica tion and computation equipment. Their home address is a telephone number, a Figure 6.6 Satellite dishes on the roof of a fax number, and an e-mail Internet ad university building make dress. They travel from city to city for interactive distance learning possible. THE HIGHWAY 215

About 100 Minnesota school districts share classes with neighboring districts through telecommunications, saving money and, most important, permitting schools to offer courses that otherwise would be unavailable.48

When transportation meant ships, people built Venice. When it meant trains, they built Chicago. When it meant cars, they built Los Angeles. Cities have always been fundamentally shaped by the dominant transportation of their time. It's one of the givens of urban planning. But today, planners are beginning to see that society is on the verge of building a new kind of city in an era driven not by transportation but by telecommunications... Since at least the Industrial Revolution, people who wanted to get paid to work needed to migrate to where the jobs were Figure 6.7 A classroom equipped for located... interactive distance learning. Some Telecommunications might create an students attend class by satellite. urban Diaspora that spreads hundreds of miles from the core. Or it might lead to the revival of smaller towns that provide a safer ture notes, assignments, and a legal data- 49 base are online. Supplemental readings more pastoral environment for residents. are, too, so the professor spends less time at the copier. Students who don't own Advantages of Working computers go to computer labs. from Home One lane of the information highway—tele- Who Works at Home? communications—is cheap to ride on, local One survey reported that fully one-third of to global in scope, saving of real travel, and the adult work force of the United States in sometimes subversive. Our vehicle on this 1993 did all or part of their work at home, lane may be a facsimile machine, a video- a total of 41.1 million homeworkers, of whom phone, a computer modem, or perhaps just 7.6 million were identified as telecommuters an ordinary telephone. Our purpose is to who commute to their jobs electronically.46 avoid driving downtown to work. Among them were accountants, architects, Considering the cost of renting office bankers, bookkeepers, clerical workers, space, it is cheaper for corporations to have computer operators, programmers, systems some workers plug into a network from analysts, counselors, data entry clerks, en- home. But telecommunication may change gineers, lawyers, real estate agents, secre- the employer-employee relationship, so taries, brokers, travel agents, and, of course, permanent staff positions are eliminated. writers.47 Part-time contract workers or consultants Doctors plug into a personal communi- are substituted. cation network that reaches them in an It is certainly more efficient for the em- emergency and will allow the exchange of ployee to avoid the time and expense of a detailed information in real time. Children daily commute, to say nothing of child day who have been compelled by lengthy ill- care. The reality is freeing many employ- ness to remain away from school have been ees on some days from the freeway crawl. able to participate in daily classroom activ- In 1993, about 41 million Americans, one- ity by means of equipment at their bedside. 216 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION third of the adult work force, worked at herding, for most people have a gregarious home at least part of the time.50 Alvin Tof- element to their nature and need the occa- fler in 1980 foresaw an increasing shift of sional presence of others. Along with these work from office and factory to the home, benefits come the obvious financial savings which he labeled "the electronic cottage."51 that accrue with not having to purchase The metaphor differs only slightly from the copiers, facsimile machines, videophones, metaphor introduced in this book of the and other tools that are needed only occa- toolshed home filled with the paper, photo- sionally. A well-equipped telecenter will graphic, and electronic tools of communi- have all the needed business tools of com- cation that we use for information and munication for rent. It provides communi- entertainment. cation with only a bit of transportation, not Increasingly, the communication tool- the long commute downtown. shed office has melded with the communi- Telecommunication expands the possi- cation toolshed home to accomplish the bilities of replacing travel by electronic process called telecommuting, allowing communication, and does so in an era of some office workers to stay at home, but growing concern about the deleterious ef- connected to their jobs. fects of the automobile. Computers and Personal savings in expanding the tool- communication satellites assist in telecom- shed home into a workplace can be consid- muting, a word coined to encompass all erable, including automobile wear and types of transmission over distance. The tear, gasoline, dry cleaning, and child care. concept reflects the convergence of the The isolation of working away from other means of electronic interchange among people is offset by the compensation of persons and machines, encompassing tele- taking a break to watch a child at a neigh- phone, computer, facsimile, broadcasting, borhood ball game or to go grocery shop- cable, and satellite technologies. ping. However, the telephone allows for Multi-million dollar telecenters may of- human interaction, and for higher level fer a convergence of television, radio, and employees and consultants, the video- data services, including video teleconfer- phone call and the video teleconference encing, using satellite and ground commu- call may increase the degree of communi- nication. Just as an airport is a cation with colleagues. Parents care for transportation hub for passengers and small children while on the job, but at a cargo, a modern teleport is a transportation time when young mothers work because hub for information.52 Once again, people the paycheck is needed, little joy may at- find new ways to communicate without tend data entry or piecework with no com- actually going anywhere. pany but small children and perhaps none of the regular company employee pension Where Will We Live? and medical insurance benefits. Once again we shaped the tools and then the The future promises even more replace- tools shape us. ment of transportation, with its demands on natural resources and its pollution. Shopping by electronic catalog, working at The Telecenter home via computer modem and facsimile, A hermit existence suits few of us. As a video teleconferencing in place of business compromise between commuting to a dis- travel, job interviewing, attending classes, tant job site and working from home, the and offering computer-assisted diagnostic telecenter offers a neighborhood location medical care are all reporting success. Un- fully equipped with the tools of communi- doubtedly, they will expand. How that may cation, where people working for different affect future living patterns is challenging companies can work and also gather sociologists. around the coffee machine. The telecenter As for pollution, modern communica- obviates the long daily commute on a tion presents the least amount of pollution. crowded freeway, yet allows some self- It uses up the least amount of the earth's THE HIGHWAY 217 resources. In an era of recognized limits, it on Social Security checks. Telecommuting has found no limits. This powerful agent of could reverse at least some of that if con- change does its work by changing minds. It cerns about urban crime and high living does not exhaust the land. costs overcome a sense of the benefits of If significant parts of one's work, mar- city life. keting, education, entertainment, and well- What kind of community would result if being can be accomplished without leaving people could work from their homes and home, how would that impinge on a choice those homes could be anywhere in the city, of residence? Would more people choose to in the state, in the world? Would a city even live in the countryside instead of in cities be necessary? Perhaps telecommunications or suburbs? Would executives choose to will exert such a centrifugal force on popula- live in San Francisco or Santa Fe and com- tions that existing cities will decay, as mute electronically to Omaha? The post- Manuel Castells envisions, remaining as World War II shift of middle-class families host mainly to populations who do not func- from the city to the suburbs, a move partly tion in a society of electronic highways lead- determined by the technology of cars and ing to toolshed homes. Those who lack super highways, altered American life. A opportunities to become part of the wired new population shift based on the availabil- world, said Castells, "are not exploited; they ity of the emerging communication tech- are ignored. It's the shifting from exploita- nologies could shake up life as much as the tion to irrelevance. That's much worse."53 move to the suburbs did.

What Will Happen to Cities? We have already been witness to a centrifu- Small towns in much of the United States gal movement to the suburbs, which has suffered as high school graduates left for left behind a crumbling infrastructure the opportunities and excitement of the marked by a declining tax base, rising ex- cities. A few returned to raise their chil- penses, and the other ills of modern cities. dren, but only a few. With dwindling popu- Matters could hardly improve if the most lations, businesses shuttered. Schools shut plugged-in members of a community had down. Towns essentially died, remaining no reason whatever to enter the city where once they lived and worked. That has not home to a handful of elderly people living happened yet, but the trend is accelerating.

The Internet

On the day in 1996 that President Clinton day to protest the censorship implications signed the Telecommunication Reform Act, of the Communications Decency Act. users of the Internet around the world by The censors are not going away. In the coincidence cooperated in producing "24 borderless Internet world a game of cat and Hours in Cyberspace." Internet browsers mouse may have been played in 1996 by learned how rural doctors in Wales trans- restrictive Asian governments and those mitted pictures to specialists 150 miles citizens who will risk arrest to gain free away for diagnosis, how a woman student access. China and Singapore have been try- in an Estonian university connected to a ing to block certain Web sites with political worldwide network of women, how relief or sexual content they don't like. They workers in Cambodia went online to nego- limit the number of Internet service tiate the language for a lending program, providers, then they set electronic filters to and on and on. But browsers also got a block unapproved sites. Other govern- sense of the political battles that could swirl ments have been watching with more than around such a powerful information tool curiosity. But dissidents may get around when many home pages went black for the the blockage by setting up home pages 218 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION overseas to serve as a kind of mail for- reading the document and its translations. warder. Also, site addresses can be shifted. At that point I said, 'That's it. I'm com- The Internet is not easy to block if someone pletely over the edge. I need to get out is determined enough to get through, and now!'"57 Cases of Internet addiction have access is growing. been reported, with users online for 18 Microsoft and Intel, the world's largest hours a day racking up hundreds of dollars providers respectively of computer soft- in monthly phone bills. The Internet Ad- ware and microchips, announced plans to diction Support Group had 300 members make the Internet the dominant voice and online, which seems a counterproductive video telephone system. Their an- way for "cyberaddicts" to meet.58 Some nouncement said computer users could companies try to keep employees from reach each other for the price of a local wasting time on their computers; a soft- phone call. ware program called UnGame blocks access Around the world millions of people to about 3,000 games. each day use the Internet, a network that links more than 40,000 (no one knows for certain) government, business, college, Who Owns the Internet? and private networks with more than two The Internet Society, based in Reston, Vir- million host computers in 200 countries ginia, has been overseeing the Internet from Australia to Zambia, to tap into data- network, but, according to a computer spe- bases, swap e-mail messages, or chat with cialist, "asking who is in charge of Internet users who share a special interest.54 A sur- is like asking who is in charge of the na- vey in late 1995 estimated 9.5 million users tional sidewalk system."59 The U.S. Defense in the United States alone, spending an Department set up the Internet in 1969 to average of 6.6 hours weekly on the In- promote communications between the ternet.55 Later surveys showed several military and the private sector. To be able times that number of users. At the end of to continue communication even in the 1995, Americans and Canadians on average event of a nuclear attack, the Internet was spent as much time on the Internet as they built to function without a central point of did watching rented videotapes.56 control. Each computer on the network Private corporations use the Internet for shared equal responsibility. In 1984 a internal communication and to provide "backbone" of high-speed communication technical support for their customers. Poli- lines allowed supercomputers to exchange ticians use it as a cheap way to get their massive amounts of data for such tasks as messages to voters. Bored college students weather forecasting without tying up the on different campuses can, via the In- Internet. The National Science Foundation ternet, tap into MUDS, which stands for ran it as a research tool, although it was Multi-User Dungeons, to battle villains and becoming clearer each year that the In- each other in medieval villages. It is all as ternet had become much more. Because anonymous as the senders wish. For every- the service was subsidized by the U.S. gov- one who can spare the time, there are soap ernment, it was cheaper than the tele- operas. The proverbial fly upon the wall is phone, the mails, or fax. now Everyman, who can buzz or watch as It has grown in such a chaotic fashion the mood strikes. Seductive, the Internet that some users have called for increased coaxes otherwise busy people to wile away government control, a situation reminis- hours, detoured by bulletin boards that cent of the mid-1920s, when U.S. broadcast- catch their attention. One professor re- ers begged the federal government to step called, "One day I was looking at docu- in to regulate the disorder that over-the-air ments for a research project and found broadcasting had become. In 1994, after 25 myself sidetracked to astrophysics docu- years of government management, the In- ments from Lund, Sweden. The document ternet was turned over to private enter- was in Swedish and English translation. I prise. Naturally, the Internet free-for-all ended up spending more than an hour has its own appeal. Said one letter writer: THE HIGHWAY 219

Don't touch my Internet. Keep the govern- Finally, there is the fun stuff. Recipes for ment out, and let us cyberjunkies regulate nearly every kind of dish, the lyrics of every ourselves! The Internet stands for liberty song by Bob Dylan or 10,000 Maniacs, sex and open expression. It is pure freedom of guides, games, magazines, chess clubs, the speech—the good, the bad and the ugly. And laws governing Hong Kong, and images you don't have to get past magazine editors to from the space shuttle can all be pulled into be heard.60 your computer.

An Internet address, a combination of let- A computer game that attracted attention ters and symbols, on an office card was a was the National Budget Simulation, cre- sign of being "with it" because the user ated at the University of California. Players functioned on a national, even global basis saw a simplified model of the federal comfortably from within his or her toolshed budget. They could reduce or cut programs home. The scope of the Internet seems to ranging from national defense to elemen- be as large as information itself. Programs tary education. Many players discovered and text can be downloaded with what is that balancing the budget was not so easy. known as a File Transfer Protocol, referred to as FTP. Information stored on computers The World Wide Web throughout the Internet can be accessed through a system called Telnet. A file access The World Wide Web, or WWW to its grow- system known as Gopher arranges informa- ing legions of devotees, is the most compre- tion by topic for easier access. Two other hensive part of the Internet. It combines frequently encountered terms are URL words, graphics, video, and sound, adds (Uniform Resource Locator), which means colors, includes advertising, and download- the address of a file, and HTML (Hypertext able text and programs. It gives a sem- Markup Language), which is the language blance of order to the Internet. It is possible used to write Web pages. to organize a search for information on any topic by a key word or phrase. Internet, once the realm of scientists and The Web is readily available to anyone computer experts, has become accessible to with a modem and browser software. nearly everyone. Yet defining Internet, be it Each of more than 100,000 WWW sites a democracy or anarchy, remains difficult, (http://address/document name) welcomes for it is just a computer network that con- you with a home page that includes a table nects to other computer networks. If that of contents.62 The home page serves as a sounds dull, something of interest only to front porch for the many rooms of the scientists and computer wizards, think house inside (or a store front for a busi- again. Internet, because of its odd beginnings, is a relatively unregulated path ness). Each room may contain some com- through an electronic landscape filled with bination of words, pictures, and sounds. unimaginable treasures. Click on a small picture and it will grow to It can be a serious place, and indeed its fill the screen. Click on a sound and it will electronic mail feature is one of the primary pour through your computer speaker, be it ways scientists and other academics talk to a bit of country music or a lion's roar. The each other... It has its arty, intellectual side, Web uses hypertext, or hypermedia soft- with files that provide the complete works of ware that lets users follow their own path- Shakespeare, everything you could possibly ways, linking from topic to topic and want to know about classical music, and cross-referencing. reviews of obscure and not-so-obscure movies... Among the odder choices has been a Then there is the practical side. Hun- video camera staring at a coffee machine, dreds of university and government library reminding anyone old enough to have been card catalogs are available, as well as the an early cable channel user of the video Central Intelligence Agency's latest review camera that panned among a clock, a ther- of the political climate of nearly every coun- mometer, and a barometer. More interest- try in the world... ing are the guides, including maps of 220 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION subway routes around the world. Free soft- to foil thieves, but governments fear that ware and electronic magazines are there such encryption will also protect the pri- for the downloading, along with pictures vacy of terrorists and child pornographers. and sound. In 1996 the U.S. government reluctantly Businesses use the Internet to commu- eased some restrictions on selling coded nicate with each other. Has a Domino's Internet programs. franchise in Indianapolis run low on buf- What is available on the Web can fill the falo wings? Do they need more pizza dough Yellow Pages, so it was logical that some- in Little Rock? Get on the Domilink. It one would actually publish a book of yellow speeds cooking tips around the circuit and pages modeled after the telephone com- the recipes to make sure that the sauces pany book. It has the advantage of a quick taste the same in Minot, North Dakota, as look-up in a convenient form, but the dis- they do in Miami. advantage of relying on the static medium Jim Clark, the manager of easy-to-use of a printed book to describe such a fast Web browsing software called Netscape changing medium. Printed yellow pages are Navigator, and Marc Andreessen, whose de- inevitably out of date before they reach the sign of Mosaic provided the basic technol- bookstore, yet they offer a useful service. ogy that led to Netscape, gave away millions The Web itself carries free search tools, of copies free and became wealthy in the among them "Net Search," "Open Text process. By giving away the software they Index," "Alta Vista," "Switchboard," "Deja built a user base that businesses rightly saw News," "Excite," "The Lycos Home Page," as advertising targets and potential custom- "WebCrawler Searching," and "Yahoo." Any- ers. A 1995 report estimated that the one who logs on can reach what is available Netscape home page was being looked at on a bewildering array of topics. For those more than three million times a day. willing to subscribe, with or without money changing hands, more detailed information Electronic Cash is available. Subscribers are added to a listserv, an electronic mailing list. A subscrip- If anyone could create a home page, then tion to a listserv may bring a periodic anyone could be a publisher. Readership focused collection of news items, which is (visits to any portion of a Web site are called really a personalized electronic newspaper hits) could amount to the hundreds of thou- carrying stories gleaned from a variety of sands. Internet publishers have found ways databases and online news services. to download money by offering a taste of their wares to the public, then asking for subscription fees to be sent to them the old Bulletin Boards fashioned way, with checks or credit cards. The Los Angeles earthquake of 1994 tested Many publishers are still paid only in repu- the ingenuity of people outside the area tation, but if current tests of electronic cash who wanted to find out how their relatives prove successful, a new publishing indus- had fared. To keep the lines clear, AT&T try will be created. programmed its network to limit incoming Printed material that can be downloaded calls. But the earthquake was not 20 min- is a natural sales item to be paid by "e-cash," utes old when computer users plugged into but in fact anything that is now sold by a the Internet to get messages in and out. The mailed catalog could one day be advertised Associated Press reported: and ordered through the Web and paid for by a transfer of electronic cash from one A plea from Tobias Koehler in Denmark account to another. David Chaum, the went out shortly after the quake hit. mathematician who founded Digicash, is "Hi there. Is everything OK in Ventura, convinced that thieves cannot get their fin- California? My sister just went there, she is in gers on anyone's electronic hoard. California for the first time." Security of credit card and other finan- In an electronic version of a ham radio cial information requires complex coding network, some computer users in various THE HIGHWAY 221

parts of of the country offered to relay crafts bulletin board last summer to ex- messages to people in their areas from rela- change quilting tips. tives and friends who couldn't make long- Their first group activity was a scrap fab- distance phone calls from the quake zone.63 ric swap by mail, which they planned on the computer bulletin board. By next day, 12,000 messages had been filed on a Prodigy bulletin board set up just Tens of thousands of bulletin boards serve for the earthquake. millions of users in the United States alone Nothing on the chaotic Internet is more with the electronic equivalent of tacking free-wheeling than the honky-tonk section notes onto cork boards for anyone to read.65 of the Information Highway known as Many users also tap in for the free or share- newsgroups, which vary from thoughtful to ware computer programs, there for the sleazy, even potentially dangerous. Unless downloading. someone exercises censorship, such as a Support groups use newsgroups to deal decision in 1996 by CompuServe to shut with problems relating to physical disabili- down its member access to about 200 ties, eating disorders, drug use, AIDS, can- addresses identified with pornography, cer, diabetes, and mental illness. At least anything is available, including child por- one Alcoholics Anonymous group, which nography. Efforts are being made to stamp calls itself "One Byte at a Time," held bul- out sites dealing with child pornography, letin board sessions. It is more convenient but the task isn't easy in the borderless and decidedly less embarrassing to type in: world of the Internet. With dozens of neo- "Hello, my name is Susan, and I'm an alco- Nazi newsgroups at Web sites, confronta- holic," than to face others at a meeting. tions have raged over First Amendment Sympathetic and understanding replies free speech issues. All arguments had to come flying back from members all over face the plain fact that the First Amend- the world who are online. Online, distance ment is part of the U.S. Constitution, but becomes meaningless. the Internet is international. In Germany, Women who do not identify their gender for instance, displaying the swastika is ille- reported that they were being taken seri- gal. ously for the first time and they were being Anyone may start a newsgroup or add appreciated for their ideas. comments to someone else's comments Boards devoted to devotion include not about whatever, joining in with treasure or only religious discussion groups, but even trash. An attack is known as flaming, just prayer groups. Praying in a cyberchurch part of a free-wheeling anarchy. Bulletin meets the special needs of people whose boards, forums, and chat lines add to the mobility is limited. It also brings together ceaseless cacophony. co-religionists who are a tiny minority in Electronic newspapers, or bulletin their own communities. Add'one or two in boards, for special interest groups (called this town to a handful in that town and you SIGs), ignore geography in creating multi- soon have the makings of a vigorous con- ple versions of McLuhan's global village, gregation. Yet, as already observed, such but by no means a single village. Through distant connections with unseen people a newsgroup BBS (bulletin board system), to separates the communicator from his or cite one example out of thousands, the old her immediate environment. tradition of quilting brings people together: Exercising Control ... A group of quilters is turning a computer bulletin board into a back-fence quilting bee. Newsgroups allow communication both on Thirty-one subscribers to a general interest a personal and a mass scale, so members information and shopping service know as may address their messages to one or all. the Prodigy Service became acquainted Some boards provide information relating when they tuned into the service's to computers themselves, but bulletin 222 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION boards are also devoted to discussions of links universities by fiber optics to permit general topics, political topics, political faculty and students to share information causes, even hate propaganda on a few and super-computer resources, and to col- boards. The Prodigy online service estab- laborate. It may be the genesis of a lished a policy to either accept or reject national information service.67 Distant items for bulletin boards in order to remove learning through video teleconferencing is offensive material, but decided not to get a growing field, managed by both into the complications of editing material. universities and private enterprises. It may not be possible to stop militant The days when the Internet was used by groups from pouring out their messages of university faculty, business, and govern- hate on the Internet. The United States, ment staffers as a source of quick knowl- with its First Amendment protection, has edge exchange are not gone. More serious long been hospitable to printing thoughts, groups, hoping to exchange valuable infor- no matter how vicious. Countries unaccus- mation, manage to convey a degree of or- tomed to anyone printing anything they derliness by requiring interested parties to like have no choice but to get used to it on become subscribers. No cost is involved. the Internet. Monitors decide who will be admitted to All boards could be reached by anyone the ranks of subscribers and will thus be in the world with a computer, a modem, entitled to participate in the exchanges of and a telephone. Some bulletin board data. The elect receive the privilege of wad- sysops (system operators) allow free ac- ing through masses of data that arrive on cess, others set a nominal fee. Many sysops every electronic breeze. give themselves the authority to peek at Tens of thousands of networks have any private messages and to censor mes- been formed throughout the world. There sages. They are the policemen of the elec- are networks that serve private companies, tronic communities they created.66 They networks that serve universities, networks are also the landlords. The typical sysop for government agencies and for private needs little more than a computer, a mo- agencies. Local-area networks, called LANs, dem, a leased telephone line, a network allow computers to share files and such router, and some reason for existing, iden- peripheral devices as printers. Super net- tified by a cyberspace address. Some sysops works like Usenet for newsgroups and the also figure out how to make money from World Wide Web interconnect many net- the venture. For many others, it remains works. These "networks of networks" allow an expensive and time-consuming but en- a user to tap into an enormous range of thralling hobby. bulletin boards and to reach e-mail users in For the most part, newsgroups bring to- other networks. Usenet, for example, con- gether cyberspace communities of com- nects several hundred thousand computer mon interest, uniting participants who are nodes for users exchanging everything unlikely ever to meet face to face, a realign- from computer programs and cooking reci- ment of friendships through the gauze lay- pes to reviews of Japanese animation. ers of tools of communication plus the further distancing of handles, reminiscent Advertising of citizen band radio, in place of real names. TERMIN A. TOR has whimsical Inevitably advertising came onto the In- confabulations with N. DROID to their ternet, at first as a free classified ad listing hearts' content. No one in the group knows on a bulletin board of items for sale. But it what N. DROID looks like, except DROID was the World Wide Web that proved to be himself or herself. a vehicle for major advertisers. Typically, a company set up shop on the Web with a home page that acted as a store front. It Knowlege Groups looked attractive and displayed some of the On a different level, the government-run wares available inside, just a mouse click National Research Education Network away. THE HIGHWAY 223

McDonald's led the caravan of major have gone without food or even bathroom advertisers down the Information Highway breaks rather than risk missing some sharp by running ads in America Online's enter- retort. Through neglect of what was near tainment section. It should be noted that and visible, more than one boy lost his McDonald's Corp., the company with the flesh-and-blood girl friend and gained aca- golden arches, lost its name on the Internet demic probation, which put chat lines to a company that got in first by registering firmly on the list of addictions. its "domain name" with the Internet Net- A 34-year-old Seattle man wrote to "Dear work Information Center. The InterNIC is Abby" that he had become "hooked on com- as close as the Internet comes to having a puter chat lines": central administration. Auto shoppers found not only informa- I have been in contact with a young woman tion on the Web, but deals through discoun- in Miami (computer only—no telephone, no ters who signed up hundreds of dealers mail). In recent weeks, our conversations across the nation. Buyer and seller come have become very sexually explicit. (This is together at what is purported to be a no- known as "computer sex.") Abby, in your opinion, am I being un- haggle price that might be thousands of faithful to my wife—or just indulging in dollars below usual dealer prices. The In- some harmless fun? Please bear in mind ternet has shaken up the automobile indus- that there is no way to verify that the person try. It seems logical that appliance dealers you are chatting with on one of these lines and others would not be far behind. It was is who she says she is (name, age, gender, estimated that online purchases would etc.) You may be chatting with a 95-year- reach $4 billion annually by 1999. old grandfather. Abby replied that computer sex could be

Chat Lines damaging to his marriage and, if his wife There was no human contact, no "face found out, to his computer. time," unless you left it for an old-fashioned It should be noted that chat lines are also date, but some users found true love on Vised by corporations for business purposes what were called Internet Relay Chat lines, and by people interested in discussing spe- or IRC. These are ongoing conversations. cial topics. "A" types something. "B" replies. "C" adds a comment. "A" can't let that remark pass. And so on into the night and the next morn- Social Implications ing. Conversations that began in anony- When we tie into the Internet from a home mous safety online with names like "Fun," computer, we deny ourselves even the "Lips," and "Hot Sex" may have led, after the minimal contact with humans that we get customary exchanges of e-mailed photo- by visiting the library and smiling a hello graphs, to actual meetings, where the cy- to a librarian. Howard Rheingold, a regular berfantasy suddenly became, over hot user of a computer bulletin board put the coffee, cold reality. A few marriages have emotional connection and limitation into been reported from these cyberdates, but perspective: inevitably there have been a greater number of disappointments and not a few My virtual community, the WELL (Whole heartbreaks among lonely "computer- Earth 'Lectronic Link), is based in the San heads" who chose a social whirl of personal Francisco Bay Area, with members all over communication from the isolation of a key- the world. Since I joined the WELL via my board. Still, hope sprang eternal down by modem in 1985, I've spent more than two the old bit stream. hours every day connected to the WELL and the larger Internet. My family and my flesh- The chat lines have been particularly and-blood community are living evidence addictive. Some students—mostly, but not that computer networks are not populated exclusively, male—cannot tear themselves with that stereotype, the soulless geek. Sure, away even after 12 hours. A few students there are many lonely and 224 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

socially inept people who seek some kind of from the Federal Communications Com- human contact that they lack in the real mission or any equivalent government world. But there are plenty of people who agency anywhere. Because of the available are just like everyone else—we go to work, technology, a radio program, a song, or raise families, attend PTA meetings and baseball games... speech can either be downloaded or heard Virtual communities are not Utopias. in real time. People need to understand their limitations Most important, through the Internet a as well as their benefits. There are dark radio station is no longer local. Except for sides, just as every technology casts cultural shortwave and clear channel broadcasting, shadows. Electronic bulletin-board systems radio had been basically a community tech- can bring people together, but the computer nology except for some limited radio-by- screen can be a way of controlling satellite service. A broadcaster who cannot relationships, keeping people at a distance. attract a large enough audience in his own Supported by federal grants, public librar- city or town and the surrounding area can- ies and governments at various levels have not survive. With Internet radio, that limi- been designing ways to use the Information tation vanishes. Say that you want to Highway, including methods to provide specialize in patter songs—Gilbert & Sulli- open access to rich and poor alike. Govern- van, Tom Lehrer, Broadway show tunes, ments expressed concern that poor people, and the like. Perhaps no city in the United deprived of means available to others to States could support such a radio broadcast- generate resumes or access employment ing schedule. But with a hundred listeners databases, would fall still further behind. in Memphis, a hundred more in Des With so many library card catalogs now Moines, two dozen each in Kuwait and in electronic files, accessible to users from Calcutta, and very low overhead, a radio office and home computers, it was only a entrepreneur could make some money at it. matter of time that some universities Besides music, an Internet radio station would take the next step and allow users to could broadcast meetings, speeches, fo- order books by telephone or fax without rums, conversation, or any other audio. In setting foot into the library. The books are 1996, radio stations in Hong Kong, Taiwan, sent by post or the university's interoffice and Malaysia were reaching their nation mailing service. The day may come when and other listeners throughout the world. the books themselves will be downloaded. On the day in late 1995 that the net.radio The books would then always remain on site opened for business on the World Wide Web, it recorded more than 186,000 the library shelf in pristine condition. The 69 user would be able to keep the books with "hits." Unlike radio broadcasting's no concern about overdue fines. Electronic imprecise ratings estimates, network radio databases already offer this option of com- stations can determine not only exactly munication without transportation. Hun- how many people tuned in, but also their dreds exist, thanks to individuals and names, addresses, and phone numbers institutions willing and indeed eager to because listeners had to fill out a form in share compiled information. order to gain access. Television signals can also be sent throughout the world via the Web, but their Radio on the Internet quality was a long way from broadcast Nowhere is evidence of a potential explo- standards as of 1996. Nevertheless, a start sion in the number of choices stronger than was made in 1996 by programs such as in the opportunity to put radio signals on "Encarta on the Record," featuring former the Internet. television journalist Linda Ellerbee with an Because the signals travel by wire, no audio track and video images. demand is made on the electromagnetic Communication engineers use the spectrum. No permission is needed as yet metaphor of a pipe. A telephone line feeding into a computer modem is a narrow THE HIGHWAY 225 pipe. A coaxial cable feeding into a television mediately with a private message. No, it is set is a wide pipe. A fiber optic line feeding like radio, enabling one person instantly to into a cable box is a Niagara of a pipe. Movies reach millions. No, it is like a newspaper, can be downloaded in seconds. Access via reporting fresh information, plus features, cable box to the Internet allows massive data advertising, and a public forum. No, it is transfer in fractions of a second, and that is like the postal service with its private mail expecially welcome in downloading Internet and junk mail. No, it is like television, with still and motion video. an ability on the World Wide Web to add pictures and sound to words. No, it is like the magazine industry, able to reach mil- Trying to explain the Internet recalls to lions of readers self-selected in thousands mind the fable of the blind men describing of highly focused groups. It is a huge post an elephant. It is like the phone system, office. It is a huge library. It is a huge enabling anyone to reach anyone else im- soapbox. And on and on.

MAILBOX IN THE COMPUTER E-mail, electronic mail, bypasses not only the and "telephone tag." In Great Britain, you can post office, but also the telephone. It is total send e-mail to a friend even if your friend "communication without transportation," does not own a computer. With a service omitting even the trip to the corner mailbox, called Electronic Post, you send your e-mail to and without the accompanying effort of deal- the post office nearest your friend's home. ing with writing paper, envelopes, and The local postman will laser print the letter, stamps. A point-to-point communication sys- put it in an envelope and deliver it. tem, it puts a mailbox in the home, inside any Along with newsgroup bulletin boards, e- computer equipped with a modem and com- mail links people with special interests, in- munications software. The owner of a com- cluding the political, no matter how removed puter so equipped can transmit a message— from centrist tendencies, all of it free of the mail a letter—to one or many similarly censor. Government censors in scores of na- equipped computers in offices down the hall tions probably do not know what is going on, or to a home halfway around the world. and, even if they did, could scarcely halt the To use a telephone, radio, or television exchange of information across their borders, requires an open channel of communication short of copying all letters, seizing all com- between sender and receiver. Even during puter modems or tracking down all interna- periods of silence the channel remains open. tional phone calls. By contrast, e-mail uses store and forward The transmission system of e-mail resem- communications. A message is stored at the bles a telephone network in its ability to con- sending site, forwarded to the receiving site nect one transmission node—a telephone— along channels shared by many other packets with another in seconds, and it resembles the of information, and stored at the receiving postal service in its ability to transmit written site, to be read at leisure. E-mail in this way information. Yet, e-mail "is just too demo- makes efficient and frugal use of commu- cratic" for some addressees.70 Matters have nication bandwidth. For example, 15,000 reached the point that movie stars and other people might be able to send one-page letters well-known names would rather not have to 15,000 friends in a city one thousand miles their e-mail addresses made public because away along the same channel that one person their electronic mailboxes become cluttered uses to telephone one other person for ten with messages from the star-struck and any- minutes. A disadvantage of e-mail has been one else with a yen to contact the famous. that it has not worked well in sending vast Unlisted e-mail addresses may be possible, amounts of real-time data such as a television but will certainly present an attractive chal- program. lenge to a hacker who would enjoy digging A mail receiver can reply easily and out the address and spamming it on electronic quickly to e-mail, bypassing the postal system bulletin boards far and wide. Continued 226 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Mailbox in the Computer (continued) E-mail can be addressed to everyone on a Although the art of letter-writing may list. The hacker as broadcaster. The hacker as have died, another form of writing has ap- junk mailer, anonymous as he wishes and peared: thinking people writing to each free to say anything. The e-mailbox of every- other on computer screens... Where the one who belongs to a popular newsgroup is ancient forum was a place for making stuffed daily. Chain letters are among the speeches, the computer forum is a place nuisances, although they are as illegal on the for written exchange. Internet as they are through the postal sys- With every new technology the art of tem. Worse than a nuisance is the threat of a writing changes. When Henry James stalker who begins by "virtual stalking" on the switched from writing successive drafts Internet. Pedophiles have managed to locate on paper to dictation to a typist, his sen- the e-mail addresses of children to whom they tences grew longer and his fiction more send pornographic letters and pictures. Find- diffuse. His writing became more like the ing a way to stop them has not proved easy. way he talked. Composing by computer has had somewhat the opposite effect, Writing Style E-mail has also revived the making prose more focused and finessed, art of letter writing, but has given it a spunky enabling—even encouraging—an endless twist. These instant messages are shorter series of revisions that would have and more informal than the traditional "snail strained the hand or forced the typist to mail" wending its slow way through the post- quit. al system. Some users think that e-mail cor- Something that was lost in the age of respondence, like telephone conversations, telephone seems to be returning via the lowers inhibitions. Messages are more direct computer: literary friendship. Friendships and emotional. formed through conversation are rather People who "hate to write letters" say they different from those written out. Verbal encounter no such emotional impediments in friendships are more transitory, thriving tapping out a few words on a keyboard. Some on the clever phrase, feeding off the facts observers have noted that the writing of faxed of daily life—jobs, habits, shopping trips documents is more likely to be in the straightforward style of memos than in the or sex stories. Friendships that come about through writing are far more more polite, more elaborate circumlocutions 71 of letters, but philosopher David Glidden saw intimate. in bulletin boards a return to the days when letter writing was an art:

Eaxing

In the rain forests of Chiapas state, the will be equipped with a cell telephone, Mexican army was in hot pursuit of the computer, and fax: Zapatista rebels when the Zapatistas faxed out a communique that the federales were During lulls they can arrange a date, they "killing children, beating and raping can settle on what they want to have fixed for dinner, and they can remind their home women." In the ensuing demand to know 72 what was really going on, the offensive computer that it's time to water the plants. came to a halt and reporters were allowed into the area. They found no evidence of Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich pre- atrocities. Meanwhile, the Zapatistas had dicted that armchair generals melted away into the rain forests, lugging ... will be able to see the battle in real time. their laptops. You'll then be able to pick up your tele- Vice President Al Gore predicted an phone and call your son or daughter who electronic battlefield where every soldier you are watching real time in a firefight. THE HIGHWAY 227

You will chat with them about your view placed by a computer containing an inter- of how they are conducting their squad nal fax board capable of communicating operations. with any fax machine, or by fax software. A laser printer at the receiving end can Anyone listening to such speculations produce a hard copy. might be inclined to dismiss them as science fiction foolishness, but they were said in all seriousness by the United States Vice "Fax" Is More Than a Noun President and the Speaker of the House of The word started as a noun: facsimile. That Representatives, two men who agree with was shortened: fax. Then, a sure sign of each other on almost nothing. popularity and diffusion into society, the noun fax became the adjective fax ("a fax Speed of Facsimile report") and also a verb ("Fax it to me") with a past tense ("I faxed it to you yesterday"). Facsimile is faster by far than the govern- A century ago, telephone started down the ment postal system or Federal Express, us- same path. Facsimile (from the Latin "to ing ordinary telephone lines. For many make similar") can also refer either to the people, fax is easier to use than e-mail output or to the machine that sends images because it does not require a computer. of documents, including photographs, to Unlike e-mail, a fax message can carry the other side of town or across continents graphics as easily as text, which was won- or oceans, point-to-point to anyone with derful news for people writing in Chinese another facsimile machine. The newspaper or Japanese. Because their written lan- that will arrive at your computer printer guages rely on complex ideographs that instead of outside your door is still mostly defeated the teletype machine, facsimile a futurist's dream, but facsimile technology proved to be an ideal way to transmit writ- is bringing it closer. For documents and ing. It is little wonder that the Japanese, the letters, including newsletters, the fax by- largest manufacturers of fax machines, passes the postman. It is a photocopier have also been its largest market. hooked to a telephone. Delivery anywhere E-mail and fax are both transmitted in in the world takes seconds. seconds from one location to another, or The fax machine and the computer mo- from one location to many others. Each dem turned out to be magic boxes for tele- method has its advantages. Totally elec- commuters who decided they no longer tronic, e-mail does not require paper. Its must drive to work each day for the sole alphanumeric characters can be written by purpose of writing, drawing, or examining one person, edited by another, and re- what their colleagues were writing, draw- turned to the writer; for example, co- ing, or examining. authors can send a document back and forth without ever committing the words to paper. However, e-mail cannot transmit Facsimile's Origins pictures. Fax transmits bit-mapped images, Although the facsimile machine, which essentially a pattern of dots that duplicates rapidly diffused into society during the last a page; words and pictures are all the same decade of the twentieth century, was to a fax machine. The original fax message widely considered to be among the newest can be on paper or in a computer file. of the tools of communication, its origins The modern facsimile machine trans- can be traced to 1842, when the telegraph mits what is on a page by scanning it using was being invented and long before Alexan- a light source, like a laser beam, to read the der Graham Bell invented the telephone. dark and light points, which are converted Credit is given to another Scottish inventor, into digital data then sent over a phone line Alexander Bain, who used a metallic brush to the receiving machine, where the page sweeping over a raised copper letter of the is reproduced. Much of the function of a alphabet to transmit a signal over an elec- stand-alone facsimile machine can be re- tric wire that resulted in a rough copy of 228 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION that letter drawn by a pendulum swinging Decision, that allowed customers to con- over a sheet of chemically treated paper. nect fax machines and other non-Bell de- About the same time, F.C. Bakewell in Lon- vices to the Bell System. Improvements in don was developing an electrochemical technology plus the agreement on a single copying telegraph that he demonstrated by worldwide standard for transmission did transmitting handwriting and sketches. In the rest. 1865, the Italian Abbe Jean Caselli sent an One victim of the boom has been the actual photograph—of the Empress of telex business. Another is likely to be over- France— over a wire, using a scanning cyl- night mail delivery by the U.S. Postal Ser- inder, a stylus, and coated paper, a basic vice and such private couriers as Federal technology that was carried well into mod- Express. If there is a fax machine to receive ern times by AP and UP for transmitting a document, facsimile is cheaper, faster, photographs to member newspapers. and much more convenient than any In the late nineteenth century, the method that involves transportation. In telautograph at railroad stations recorded fact, fax rates dropped as first class postage seat reservations. It could transmit a hand- rates rose, so that by 1990, it was some- written message over a telegraph line for times cheaper to fax a letter than to mail it 250 miles. The device was invented by with a stamp. Elisha Gray, who had filed for a telephone patent on the same day as Alexander Gra- A Variety of Uses ham Bell. In 1902, a photoelectric scanning system developed by Dr. Arthur Korn was Faxes are used in seemingly infinite ways, able to transmit and reproduce images. The including tasks involved in mass communi- Associated Press began regular photoelec- cation processes, such as an advertising tric service to member newspapers in 1934. agency sending a layout to a client for ap- AT&T and RCA transmitted photographs proval, the U.S. National Weather Service and weather maps by radio. faxing forecast maps to television stations, An early effort to send facsimile news- or a newspaper bureau reporter sending a papers directly to homes and businesses story to a distant city desk instead of tele- had little success. These were slow, expen- phoning for the rewrite desk. sive machines that printed poorly.73 To While principally employed in business- make matters worse, machines from differ- to-business communication, the fax is used ent manufacturers were incompatible. A in ways that should be surprising only to half century later the experiment was re- those who underestimate the imagination of vived for people willing to pay the charges people who have a means of modern mass for having a newspaper delivered inside communication technology in their grasp. their homes instead of to their front doors. Xerox introduced the Telecopier, the First we were faxing memos. Then birthday greetings. Then lunch orders for a ham-and- first paper facsimile machine for business, cheese to go. And now there is an art show in 1966. The device, manufactured by Mag- of more than 70 works, all of which were navox, produced poor quality faxes, but faxed from around the globe... As it has nothing else was available until the Japa- done for the business world—eliminating nese entered the marketplace in 1984. such time-consuming problems as lead- Their facsimile machines produced images footed couriers and post-office blunders— the of higher resolution transmitted in less fax machine has made the task of putting on an art show of more than 70 wildly different time than the Telecopier. Demand by busi- 74 ness firms grew at an astonishing rate, soon works a snap. augmented by a home demand, the business-first-then-home pattern followed by At least one radio station encouraged fax the telephone a century ago and more re- requests for songs. Restaurants delivered cently by the computer and the copier. faxed orders for lunch. Bowling teams each The fax popularity explosion began after comprising a Japanese and an American a court ruling in 1968, the Carterphone competed across the Pacific with the part- THE HIGHWAY 229 ners faxing scores, strategy, and encourage- redial, so that nothing else can get through ment. before their messages do, meanwhile The fax machine is another communica- churning out a repetitive series of beeps, tion technology with unintended conse- clicks, and dial tones, the plaintive cry of quences. Owners of fax machines find junk one fax machine yearning for another. mail—copied on their own paper, no less—clogging their "in" trays. Facsimile technology, which has been There's a dark side to this fax boom, too, of spreading year by year, has given the course: junk fax. Some outfits have taken United States a truly national press when to... rewarding office workers with tote bags and sometimes cash in exchange for lists of pages of major newspapers can be transmit- all the fax numbers the office machine has ted by satellite to regional printing plants communicated with on a given day. They're so Wednesday's edition is available on gathering fax numbers to sell to direct mar- Wednesday, not only in New York City and keters... Junk fax threatens to swamp many Washington, D.C., but in cities across the offices' fax machines, so now the trick is to United States and overseas. As the facsim- conceal your fax number; don't spread it ile machine has been diffused into society, 75 around. prices dropped and the number of attractive features rose. Letters, photographs, One advertiser offered for sale the very and drawings are being sent anywhere in type of paper his ads were using up! Some the world there is a telephone. As the twen- persistent junk fax advertisers have com- tieth century draws to a close, that means bined fax transmission with automatic anywhere in the world.

Going Up the Highway

In the Coliseum of ancient Rome, specta- councils. Cable would supposedly do the tors voted thumbs up or thumbs down on shopping, perk the coffee, and protect the whether a gladiator lived or died. In 1982, home, thanks to its two-way transmission Saturday Night Live comedian Eddie Mur- capability downstream from a central loca- phy held up a live lobster he had named tion to a home and upstream from the Larry. Viewers could call one number if home to the central location. they wanted Larry to live, another if they Does the public want interactive capac- wanted Larry to go into the pot. At 50 cents ity? While the computer terminal-based In- a call, 123 thousand phoned to say Larry ternet system is hugely popular, so far the should live, and 117 thousand voted for the everyday answer for a television terminal- pot. At least that was the announced result. based operation seems to be "No!" GTE The rumor was that the vote went the other spent millions in the prosperous Los Ange- way, but the producers felt it would not do les suburb of Cerritos to test an interactive to cook Larry the Lobster, so they cooked system that would permit residents to bank the election returns instead. and shop at home, study, play games, and The future may not hold more lobsters access movies. The experiment failed. for us, but it will certainly hold more "Quite frankly, I don't know of anyone who chances for such electronic plebiscites. uses it," said the mayor.76 Actually, hotels Nothing is more likely to add to our choices increasingly offer movies on instant de- in the communication toolsheds that we mand instead of informing guests that a call home than two-way cable, also known movie will start at the top of the hour. And as interactive television (ITV). Many prom- the Sega cable channel lets young players ises about cable's interactive potential have choose among 50 interactive games. When been made by futurists and by cable com- interactive systems become more user panies in franchise applications to city friendly, use should grow. 230 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

The Qube Experiment The same lack of interest led to the death of the Qube experiment. In 1977, Warner- Amex introduced the much publicized interactive system, Qube, in its Columbus, Ohio, cable system, and later incorporated it into several of its other systems. Qube subscribers had a keypad with numbers from 0 to 9 that could send an electronic signal to a central bank of computers that analyzed all responses. To elicit replies, an announcer or a written message across the screen questioned subscribers on various issues, such as whether a particular congressional bill should be passed. Subscrib- ers selected the appropriate button in a multiple choice fashion. A computer calcu- lated the calls and printed the percentage for each choice on screen. The interactive system also polled the households to discover what programs they were watching. Qube expanded its interactive capability in 1981 to give subscribers access to a computer data bank that held such useful information as news, weather, and consumer tips. Viewers could compete against one another for prizes. Viewers Figure 6.9 The remote control unit for the could also scan a shopping catalog and set-top box. (Courtesy Time place orders, and they could select pro- Warner.) grams. Unfortunately, either the interactive programs were less appealing than the designers predicted or Warner-Amex did However, Warner must have been im- not foresee Qube as becoming anything pressed with the concept. Merged with more than a loss leader to sell its cable Time, Inc. as Time Warner, it began an service. In any case, the service lost more even bigger interactive experiment in 1994 than $30 million in seven years and the with a digital video-on-demand service in company ended its ambitious experiment. Orlando, Florida, for 4,000 homes. At any time, 1,000 homes could simultaneously access any services of the Full Service Net- work, including any of about 100 movies, which viewers could fast-forward, rewind, or pause as if they had the videotape. View- ers could shop, bank, and order pizza. Time Warner and other American media giants have invested millions of dollars in developing new interactive and multimedia services. A major goal was to combine the bandwidth of fiber optic cable with the flexibility and storage of computers. Other interactive efforts have been tried Figure 6.8 A set-top box gives a television and sometimes abandoned. ACTV Interac- set interactivity capacity. tive Television in the 1990s ran games for (Courtesy Time Warner.) New York subscribers who competed for THE HIGHWAY 231 prizes. Viewers played push-button black- than of teletext because more information jack with a dealer who sassed them ("I have can be stored. Teletext users, using a tele- your measly little bet"). A similar combina- vision monitor, must also wait for a "page" tion allowed an interactive "psychiatrist" to to roll by before they capture it, whereas ask questions, nod his head, take notes, and videotex users, using a computer monitor, accuse the viewer of "hiding something." can access frames of information immedi- Some California viewers could play along ately. To confuse matters, the terms are with Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. Singa- sometimes used interchangeably. pore Airlines, in 1996, installed real gam- A criticism of online videotex, besides bling programs on seat back screens of the discomfort of accessing words by sitting some of its planes. Passengers used their in front of a screen, has been the difficulty credit cards to play. of getting an overall picture of the day's Ultimately, users will decide if interac- news, unlike the relaxed and common tive television has a future. If the sub- method of sprawling on the sofa and scan- scriber base fails to reach a critical mass, it ning the front page of the daily newspaper cannot survive. Several American compa- or watching a newscast. Using videotex has nies abandoned plans to launch such ser- been compared to looking at a football field vices, although France, Great Britain, through a drinking straw.78 Japan, and Canada provided two-way sys- The idea for a commercial videotex serv- tems that ranged from experimental to ac- ice began when British scientists visiting tively profitable, including teletext and the 1964 New York World's Fair came upon videotex.77 the AT&T Picturephone. Although they saw little immediate value in face-to-face Teletext and Videotex telephone conversation, the idea of hooking television screens to the telephone net- Newspapers eat forests. Teletext and videotex work fascinated them. They wanted to do not. Cynics refer to "the dead tree me- show not faces, but information. Originally dia." Newspapers are transported, requir- called viewdata, videotex service was first ing trucks and cars, sometimes buses and . offered to consumers by the British Post airplanes. All use gasoline. Teletext and Office in 1979 under the commercial name videotex are communicated electronically, Prestel. Using the Prestel system, someone requiring none of these. A daily urban with a television set attached to a modem, newspaper can easily weigh two pounds; its a keypad, and a telephone could access Sunday version, twice that. In virtually computers loaded with information rang- every household, much of it goes unread, a ing from the stock market to horoscope sheer waste. In a world of decreasing re- readings. However, Prestel did not catch on sources and increasing pollution, the elec- with the British public. Fewer than 2 per- tronic communication of news and cent took the service, although it was popu- information makes sense. lar with certain businesses like travel Teletext is the one-way transmission of agents. Meanwhile, Great Britain's Ceefax text to viewers via a television signal's un- and Oracle systems, both teletext, offered used scanning lines, or vertical blanking news, puzzles, fiction, and information for interval (the horizontal bar on a television special groups. screen that becomes visible when the set France, Japan, and Canada also devel- isn't tuned perfectly). Special decoding oped teletext and videotex systems. equipment attached to the set deciphers France's national system, Teletel, reaching the information, and it appears in the form one in every five households, became by of pages of text that the viewer can select. far the most successful use of interactive Videotex is a computer-based interactive television. The French government's post- system that allows viewers access to a data al service, PTT, gave telephone customers bank containing information. Viewers can a free monitor and keyboard unit, or also conduct transactions. There is a Minitel, then charged for access to about greater practical application of this system 10,000 private services listed in an elec- 232 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION tronic directory. The public use the the potentially popular forms of interactive Minitels to both shop and pay for goods, television is home shopping, which was the pay other bills, check airplane and train cable programming phenomenon of the schedules, make hotel reservations, learn 1980s. In the interactive version, subscrib- the latest news, the weather or what their ers purchase merchandise by keying in horoscope advised, play computer games, their account information on two-way ca- or chat with fellow hobbyists. Subscribers ble systems. Teleshopping combines televi- also used it for e-mail. The 1996 Telecom- sion and telephone, plus computers to munication Act will probably result in simi- process the orders. In the Chicago suburb lar services in the United States as of Deerfield, viewers in an experiment can telephone and cable systems merge. order from several dozen local stores by punching into the phones the catalog num- Online Services bers of the items displayed on the screen. Cable's two-way capability allows bur- America Online, also called AOL, tries to glar, fire, and medical alarm devices to look slick and hip for a young, with-it connect to a cable system. Each participat- clientele. CompuServe, which began as a ing home is scanned about every ten sec- consumer videotex service, provides As- onds by a computer in a central monitoring sociated Press news on demand, access to station to see if everything is in order. If many kinds of bulletin boards, e-mail, and any problems are detected, a signal is sent a variety of information, just as AOL does. back to the cable company, which notifies CompuServe established a niche among police. At the community level, interactive professional and business users as a seri- cable systems provide services like traffic ous, international network with access to light control, energy management, and local numbers in industrialized countries. meter reading. Users also are given access to specialized Not all varieties of interactive cable have libraries and databases. The Dow Jones fared well. What the public likes best is a News Retrieval began as a business infor- smorgasbord of possibilities, including bul- mation service before reaching out to the letin boards, e-mail, computer games, and general public. Many of the features offered videotex access to news headlines, sports by commercial services were also available scores, stock market reports, and the through independent gateway servers to weather forecast. Knight-Ridder's Viewtron the World Wide Web and the rest of the and similar services from the Los Angeles Internet through such navigation software Times-Mirror and the New York Times, as Netscape's Navigator. which offered only news-on-demand, One criticism of online services was that failed. The public would not pay for a spe- it was designed by men and most of its use cial terminal that did not provide entertain- is by men, not by women. More than four ment. Online terminals by non-profit out of five subscribers in its formative years groups and bank-at-home terminals con- were men. Prodigy learned a lesson from nected to personal computers did no better. this and hired women to help design and Faring even worse were online terminals market its product in order to increase the in shopping malls and airports that provide number of women customers. Its goal was information if you pushed a button or a family-oriented service with graphics and touched a screen. They were vandalized. bulletin boards to which beginners could Teenage boys, it seems, could not resist navigate fairly easily. However, it captured them. Nevertheless, they are still in use. only a small portion of the market. Interactive Possibilities Other Interactive Operations Interactive cable can be hooked up without complex technology. A transceiver in the Meeting the strong public desire for com- home gives the viewer upstream capability, munication without transportation, one of anything from a simple "yes or no" re- THE HIGHWAY 233 sponse with a couple of pushbuttons to a not only choices of programs, but choices keypad for a variety of choices all the way within programs. Montreal interactive ca- to conversation via computer keyboard or ble subscribers chose among camera angles a speech recognition device. in baseball and hockey games. Following The telephone works well enough if just the Montreal example, a viewer watching a a few people call, but on a national basis if football game potentially could choose at millions of people called at once to express any moment to see the action from high an opinion, most would not get through. above, from the 50-yard line, or from the The Bell system is not set up to handle such end zone, the same choices now available traffic. After President Bush's State of the only to the television director. A game show Union Address in January 1992, CBS view- viewer could play against the studio con- ers were asked to phone in their opinions; 25 testants, answer multiple choice questions, million tried, but only 315,000 got through.79 and, after punching in an incorrect answer, The home hooked by fiber optics to a hear the game show moderator say, "You at computer can receive school lessons and home are wrong." A homesick viewer who send back the student's answers to a test, identified the place where she grew up an electronic variation of the old familiar could receive the latest home town news. home study course. At Laurel Springs High In the future, a viewer watching a drama School in Ojai, California, for example, stu- might be able to choose the path the story dents could elect online courses in which will take; children may find this prospect all the reading material, including course more appealing than adults would, but who instructions and study guides, were fed to knows? the students' homes electronically. Every- A system called L-VIS (Live Video Inser- thing from social studies to science was tion System) has been slipping customized online, although admittedly an assigned billboard-like ads onto the walls of ball- English novel was easier to read when it parks, using electronic imaging "occlusion was in the old-fashioned form of a book. technology" to mask for viewers at home Homework was handed in online using what is actually on the wall. It is expected software written for each course. Other that static images will soon be replaced by kinds of information might be found in moving pictures and even 3-D, and that information-laden databases. advertising will be moved from the wall to A daily listing of classified ads in direct the middle of the playing field. competition with newspapers is a reality in Tests were also conducted to determine many cities. Rental apartments can be lo- the feasibility of targeting commercials to cated by tapping into a real estate database reach homes fitting certain demographic that is constantly updated. That makes a profiles. If such a use of interactive televi- business for real estate firms that become sion can be made to work, an elderly couple not only customers of newspapers, but and a young single woman watching the competitors. same program might see different com- Auto sales can be dealt with in a similar mercials. More ominously, one day regis- manner. By 1995, about 50 different makes tered Democrats might not hear the same of automobiles were advertised on World version of a political speech as registered Wide Web sites and on a CD-ROM called the Republicans. Young and old might receive New Car Buyers Guide, which gives an alter- different messages. native to car buyers who do not like to visit showrooms where they expect pressure from salesmen. According to George Gerbner, "What we are facing with cable is a transformation of our world similar to the one brought about by Manipulating Television 80 Programs the printing press." The interactive possibilities of fiber optics had visionaries talking of giving viewers 234 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

News Online

Newspapers are no longer what they once services divided by region and topic. The were. They are more than black ink on Associated Press and CNN have separate white paper. They are a voice on the tele- news sites. So do hundreds of newspapers, phone, a matrix of pixels on a computer television stations, radio stations, maga- screen, a CD-ROM disk. American newspa- zines, and newsletters. Their numbers pers are going to multimedia. They are grow daily. reinventing themselves to offer not a single product for all readers, but a variety of Telcos, Newspapers, and products for a diverse audience: people of Newscasts every age and color and religion and eth- nicity and language and sexual orientation In 1995, eight of the biggest American and, above all, of every possible interest. newspaper companies—owning 185 daily Again, narrowcasting and choice. newspapers—joined to create a national network of online local newspapers, and they invited all daily newspapers in the The Electronic Newspaper United States to join them to set up a clear- The paperless newspaper, whose roots go inghouse of information and sales between back to the late 1970s, is finally arriving at information providers and users. The an- our homes through online database ser- nounced goal was to offer for sale a vast vices like Prodigy, which was designed to array of information: news, features, be a national online newspaper, and from sports, plus ticket purchases, home shop- many newspapers themselves that have ping, e-mail, and bulletin boards. gone into the online business. For a few Telephone companies and newspapers dollars a month, a daily newspaper, particu- may in future make excellent partners. larly those in large cities, offers its readers The newspapers can produce a responsible such fare as 24-hour news updates and editorial product, and the telephone com- more information than the printed edition panies can deliver it electronically over carries on major stories, plus Internet ac- cable to the home. cess. For an extra charge, the reader gets Here would be a new way to get news, sports scores, horse racing results, cross- without a newspaper's built-in restriction word puzzle solutions, an extended horo- of space. Anything that any wire service or scope, and soap opera updates. major newspaper carried on a topic could The interactive newspaper creates a liv- be online. ing editorial page and op-ed page (the opin- A television newscast has an inherent ion page opposite the editorial page) unlike limitation of time. Experiments were un- anything that exists on paper today. It re- derway to combine a newspaper and a sembles an Internet chat line or listserv newscast so that a story would contain text that runs parallel threads (ongoing discus- and sound bites. The process would elimi- sions on a topic) on several subjects at nate the wasteful practice of throwing once. Many discussions are linked to news away, unread, much of a Sunday newspa- and editorial content. per that lands on the doorstep. In the In the realm of opinion, it may be United States, that can be several pounds possible to create a continuous interactive of mostly wasted paper. Automobile symposium that will make the current bumper stickers once carried the message: editorial and op-ed pages seem as though "Save Our Forests. Don't read The Sunday they belong in the Stone Age.81 New York Times." Those who know where to look on the We have not achieved the dream that our Internet can find news summaries from daily newspaper will become paperless. In newspapers around the world. For exam- this vision, the information will come into ple, ClariNet provides news from news our homes electronically, saving the THE HIGHWAY 235

Figure 6.10 An online page from the Minneapolis Star Tribune features headlines leading to extensive story coverage, special services like classified ads, plus a directory to other newspapers. (Courtesy Minneapolis Star Tribune.) world's dwindling forests, to say nothing of If the day comes that self-employed energy resources, such as the gas that fuels reporters can sell their stories, perhaps ac- the trucks that deliver the lumber, the companied by sound and pictures, world- newsprint, and the newspaper that lands at wide over the Internet for a few cents the front door. directly to each reader using digital cash, Aware of the inevitable waste of paper the entire basis of journalism will shake in delivering each day's news and adver- itself into new forms. An astrologer named tising, futurists have long predicted an Jean Dixon provided Prodigy subscribers on-demand news service through tele- on the Internet with horoscopes for the day phone or cable lines onto television or com- they were born. Of every dollar that Prod- puter screens. The electronic newspaper igy charged, a portion went to the astrologer. would not only bring news without paper, At least one respected journalist, Robert it could provide far more information about Parry, formerly of the Associated Press and any subject of interest than an ordinary Newsweek, offered his investigative reports newspaper could provide. It would rival free on the Web and by subscription to specialty magazines. readers who preferred direct delivery via e-mail, fax, or the postal service. Selling News Instead of At MIT's Media Lab, NewsPeek (which sounds like "New Speak") was organized to Newspapers receive only those news stories of interest Newspapers are just one means of news to the user. Other researchers envisioned delivery. If news can be delivered electroni- readers keying in a request to a portable cally, its cost will be in gathering and pre- computer hooked to a telephone line. The paring, not in getting it into our homes. latest news would be downloaded to be Huge, expensive presses, newsprint, and read at leisure. the complex infrastructure of home deliv- The volume of unedited, unorganized ery would be unnecessary in a purely elec- information available via the Internet to- tronic world. day is so huge that only a determined reader with a lot of free time will pick 236 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION through it looking for an understanding of Some reporters, especially sports report- the day's news. Inevitably, readers will ers on tight deadlines, drive to their assign- seek organized reports, and that is the work ments with modem-equipped notebook of journalists. computers. At the stadium, they write their stories as the game develops. The lead, The Computerized with its score, is written last. The story is Newspaper transmitted back to the newspaper office or the Associated Press bureau by the touch of Modern newspapers rely on computers at a button. Portable computers are attached every step. Reporters type their stories on to cellular telephones, so the reporter does keyboards using word processing programs not have to go searching for a public tele- plus spelling checkers and online library phone. Foreign correspondents, confront- databases, including electronic records of ing uncertain telephone connections, have past newspaper stories, which have re- been grateful for equipment that can trans- placed the old morgue of newspaper clip- mit an entire dispatch in just a minute or pings. Using their terminals, reporters two with fidelity. It is much more efficient access computerized government records. than shouting over a bad line, "No, that's 'B' Associated Press and other news agency as in 'Baker'." wire copy pours in on high-speed data lines via modem. Copy editors call up stories on video display terminals to edit them and National Distribution add headlines. Photographs enter comput- For local newspaper readers dissatisfied ers as a digitized stream of dots to be sized with the rationing of serious news fr6rh and cropped. Makeup editors design each around the world, a national press has edition using page layout software. Classi- emerged in the United States that rivals the fied ads, taken by phone, go right into the national presses of Europe, whose geo- computer. Display ads arrive on diskette. graphically smaller countries have always The finished page comes out as a thin plate liked national newspapers. Modern com- ready for the press, which is also under munications technology has made possible computer control. Circulation lists on data- a national press in the United States. base speed the home delivery. For a newspaper with national distribu- The untidy piles of loose sheets of paper, tion, a satellite uplink transmits images of once the hallmark of every newspaper of- each page to receiving dishes located at fice, are less evident. Gone at many news- printing plants of cities chosen as regional papers are the noise, the grime, and the distribution points. The Tuesday edition of smell of ink, replacedby pastel carpet. Even such national newspapers as the New York small weeklies and free suburban shoppers Times and the Wall Street Journal arrives at have taken advantage of computers. most doorways in the nation on Tuesday. By the mid-1990s several hundred newspapers in the United States and Canada did their page makeup on computers. While As if all this were not enough, some smart many of them pasted graphics and pictures newspaper vending racks signal the circula- in manually, a few included all visual mat- tion department when they run low. As the ter in the pagination. song says, the Times they are a'changing. THE HIGHWAY 237

Notes 29 Matt Stump and Harry Jessell, "Cable: The First Forty Years," Broadcasting, 21 Novem 1 Mark Poster, The Mode of Information: Post- ber 1988, sec. 42. structuralism and Social Context (The Univer 30 Sydney W. Head, Christopher H. Sterling, sity of Chicago Press, 1990), 7. and Lemuel B. Schofield, Broadcasting in 2 Leo Bogart, "Highway to the Stars or Road to America: A Survey of Electronic Media, Nowhere?," Media Studies Journal: The Race seventh ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., for Content, [Winter 1994): 1. 1994), 574., and Minneapolis Star Tribune, 26 3 Newsweek, 8 June 1992, 22. February 1994, sec. 3E. 4 Ithiel de Sola Pool, Technology and Culture 31 Larry King, On the Line (New York: Harcourt (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Brace& Co., 1993), 176. 1990), 261. 32 Tichenor, P.J., G.A. Donahue and C.N. 5 Newsweek, 22 January 1996, 60. Olien, "Mass Media Flow and Differential

6 James W. Carey, "The Communications Growth in Knowledge," Public Opinion Quar Revolution and the Professional Communica terly (Summer 1970): 159-60. tor," Sociological Review. Monograph No., 13, 33 Joan Van Tassel, "Electronic Retailing," in University of Keele, (1969), 26 Grant, August E., and Kenton T. Wilkinson,

7 Associated Press, Minneapolis Star Tribune, eds., Communication Technology Update, 1993- 7 October 1993, sec. 19A. 1994 (Austin: Technology Futures, Inc.,

8 George Gilder, Life After Television (Colum 1993), 92-93. bus: Whittle Direct Books, 1990), 24. 34 Kelly S. Baldwin, "Wireless Cable (MMDS),"

9 TV Guide, 10 April 1993, 3. in Grant et. al, 67-68. 10 Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave (New York: 35 Newsweek, 17 October 1988, 95. William Morrow, 1980), 369. 36 The Wall Street Journal, July 10, 1990: Al.

11 Minneapolis Star Tribune, 12 September 37 Joseph N. Pelton, Interlsat director of spe 1993, sec. 27A cial projects, 21st Century Satellite Communi 12 Peter Leyden interview with Manuel Cas- cations. tells, Minneapolis Star Tribune, 15 April 38 Paul Kennedy, Preparing for the Twenty-First 1994, sec. 16A. Century (Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers 13 New Scientist, 136:1850 (5 December 1992): Ltd., 1993), 63. 22. 39 The Wall Street Journal, 1 February 1990, sec. 14 The Economist, 13 February 1994, 4. Al. 15 Lawrence Tessler, Vice President, Advanced 40 The Economist, 3 February 1996, sec. 54. Technology Apple Corp. 41 Extra-Terrestrial Relays: Can Rocket Stations 16 Newsweek, 27 February 1995, 27. Give World-Wide Radio Coverage?" Wireless 17 Alvin Toffler, 226. World, October 1945. 18 Donald R. Katz, "Are Newspapers Yester 42 Karen J.P. Howes, "Teleports — Satellites, day's News?", Esquire, January, 1990, 40. Fiber and Compression," Via Satellite, August 19 John Halton, "The Anatomy of Computing" 1993, 26-34. in Tom Forester (ed.), The Information Tech 43 S. Chase, "The VSAT Revolution - Doing nology Revolution (Cambridge: The MIT Business at Home and Abroad," Via Satellite, Press, 1985), 3-4. November 1991, 58-63. 20 David Bunnell, "Tracking the Revolution," 44 P. McDougal, "VSATs and Developmental Publish!, (September/October, 1986): 9. Communications," Space Communication and 21 Anthony Smith, Books to Bytes: The Computer Broadcasting, June 1989, 445-455. and the Library (New York: Gannett Center 45 Rogers, Everett M., Communication Technol for Media Studies, 1988), 3. ogy: The New Media in Society (New York: 22 John Vivian, The Media of Mass Communica The Free Press, 1986), 50-51. tion, 3rd ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 46 Based on a survey of 2,500 respondents 1995), 64. nationwide by Link Resources, reported in 23 Newsweek, 30 January 1995, 62. Peter Leyden, "Teleworking could turn our 24 Fred T. Hofstetter, "Is Multimedia the Next cities inside out," Minneapolis Star Tribune, Literacy?" Educators Tech Exchange, (Winter 5 September 1993, sec. 16A. 1994), 7. 47 Marcia Kelly, "Work-at-home," The Futurist, 25 MacUser, November 1993, 91. (Nov/Dec 1988): 32. 48 Leonard Inskip, "Electronic 'Highways' of 26 Op. cit.: 98. the Future," Minneapolis Star Tribune, 27 Op. cit.: 96. 21 December 1988, sec. 21 A. 28 Newsweek, 27 February 1995, 29. 238 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

49 Peter Leyden, "Teleworking could turn our Forum Media Studies Center, Columbia Uni- cities inside out," Minneapolis Star Tribune, versity, 24. 5 September 1993, sec. 1A, 16A. 68 Howard Rheingold, "Cold Knowledge and 50 New York market research firm Link Social Warmth," Newsweek, 6 September Resources, reported in the Minneapolis Star- 1993, 49. Tribune, 14 May 1994, sec. IE. 69 Data supplied by net.radio, Minneapolis, 51 Toffler, 210-23. Minnesota. 52 Karen JP Howes, "Teleports — Satellites, 70 The Wall Street Journal, 22 June 1994, sec. Fiber and Compression," Via Satellite, August A10. 1993, 26-34. 71 David Glidden, professor of philosophy, Uni 53 Peter Leyden interview, Minneapolis Star versity of California, in Minneapolis Star Tribune, 15 April 1994, sec. 16A. Tribune, 30 May 1989. 54 The Internet Society estimated two million 72 Vice President Al Gore, Speech to Armed host computers as of January 1995, with the Forces Communications and Electronics number climbing rapidly. Association, February 1995. 55 American Internet User Survey data avail 73 Eli Wathne and Carlos Reos, "Facsimile able at http://etrg.findssvp.com/surveys/ Machines," in Grant, et al., Communication inetshrt.html Technology Update, 1993-1994 (Austin: Tech nology Futures, Inc., 1993), 286. 56 Casro Communicator (Winter 1995): 1. 74 Leslie Guttman, San Francisco Chronicle, 12 57 The Minnesota Daily, 31 May 1994, 13. January 1990. 58 Newsweek, 18 December 1995, 60. 75 Jim Seymour, "PCs and the Fax Culture," PC 59 Mark McCahill, quoted in the Minneapolis Magazine, 13 June 1989, 77. Star Tribune, 22 August 1993, sec. 5B. 76 Lawrence K. Grossman, "Reflections on Life 60 Time, 15 August 1994, 6. Along the Electronic Superhighway," Media 61 Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 22 August 1993, Studies Journal (Winter 1994): 32. sec. 5B. 77 Chong Min Lee, "Videotex," in Grant, et al., 62 Scott Bourne, "Spicing Up Your Web Site Communication Technology Update, 1993- with Audio," InfoNation, November 1995, 1994 (Austin: Technology Futures, Inc., reported an estimate of 55,000 sites as of 1993), 155. October 10, 1995, with the number growing 78 Rogers, 49. rapidly. 79 Eli Wathney, "Interactive Television," in 63 San Francisco dateline, 18 June 1994. Grant, et al 80. 64 Associated Press, 19 January 1990. 80 Waters, Harry F., "Cable TV: Coming of 65 Newsweek, 6 March 1995, 75. Age," Newsweek, 24 August 1981, 49. 66 Rogers, Everett M., Communication Technol 81 Everette Dennis, "Values and Value Added ogy: The New Media in Society (New York: for the New Electronic Journalism," Vital The Free Press, 1986), 42. Speeches, 1 September 1995, 677. 67 Media, Democracy and the Information High way. Conference report of The Freedom

A Summing Up

During all six information revolutions, in exists. In order to induce the desired some region active with the ferment for change, those people seek to convince oth- change, at least one new means of producers, using whatever means they can, paring communication messages was com- ticularly the media of communication. bined with at least one new means of Where success depends upon convincing distributing those messages to a wide audi- large populations, they use means of mass ence. The result was the change that can be communication. If newly invented means characterized as a revolution, sometimes of communication prove successful, the re- slow and sometimes rapid, but always in- ceivers of the communication are intro- exorable. Simultaneously, the ferment for duced not only to the message, but to the change has led to the spread of the new means of its delivery. Their effectiveness media themselves. becomes self-evident. An inseparable connection has always Some of the receivers of communication existed between the tools of communica- in turn adapt these new means for their tion and the social fabric. Throughout his- own purposes, becoming the new movers tory they have developed together in an and shakers of their society. The result is intertwined, mutual cause and effect rela- an expansion into an information revolu- tionship, each giving impetus to the other. tion that not only alters an existing politi- A rational explanation for such a consis- cal, social, or economic situation, but tent pattern of symbiotic activity is not widens the use of the new tools of commu- hard to come by. The pattern that leads to nication. The lesson of history is that the such societal change has depended on tools of communication will be used by more than an inventor's genius. A Eureka! those who want to better their society or moment has always been a necessary but their own fortunes, pleasures, or conven- insufficient basis. ience. An explanation can be stated as a series It has been said that a society that has of logical steps that begin by recognizing guns will find ways to use them. It is even that ferment in a society is carried on by truer that a society that possesses tools of people seeking change of some sort, per- communication will use them and will do haps political or perhaps for personal gain so in unstructured ways. Unlike weapons, where a reasonable expectation of success the tools of communication were never 239 240 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION intended to remain on the shelf awaiting communication are potentially at hand for their hour of need. Distributed for active those dissatisfied enough with the status employment in commerce, education, in- quo to make the effort or take the risk to formation transfer, personal communica- use them. No shortage of the dissatisfied tion, and leisure activities, the tools of exists anywhere.

Revisiting the Six Information Revolutions

In the first of the six identified revolutions, from the dull, uncomfortable, and unhappy writing, the combining of the phonetic al- here and now. Delivered were music on a phabet for the production of communica- phonograph record; the novel in the pages tion with papyrus for its delivery led to a of a bound book; the story and the article sharing of knowledge around the Mediter- in a magazine; news and travel photo- ranean and to the beginnings of recorded graphs; the affordable personal camera, history, plus tremendous advances in the which preserved memories; music, drama, arts and sciences. It was the true start of the and humor delivered by radio; and the movement of information across time and handsome men and beautiful women, space. The mind would no longer be con- whose faces loomed in the mystical dark- strained by memory, for information could ness of the nickelodeon and the movie be stored. theater. People no longer had to create The second information revolution, their own daydreams. They came ready printing, combined the movable type print- made. ing system of Gutenberg, which produced We are living through the fifth informa- the messages, with paper, which provided tion revolution, the transformation of the the delivery mechanism. Together, print- home into a communication toolshed. For ing and paper gave words that took wing for millions of people, a home is no longer the Renaissance, humanism, the Reforma- primarily a place in which a family lives in tion, the Counter-Reformation, and mer- the traditional sense of gathering to eat, cantilism, and helped to end the static sleep, and share the small intimacies that feudal age. The printing revolution aided constitute family. Instead, it is the place and was aided by the spread of literacy. where the tools of communication are With printing the modern world began. stored and communication beyond the Mass media, the third information revo- home is received and sent. It is here that lution, combined a soaring production of people spend many of their hours mentally paper and of printing for newspapers and or physically isolated from one another, magazines to stimulate a responding rise in mostly with television, but also with vide- literacy. The public school, the public li- otapes, radio, telephone, books, magazines, brary, the telegraph, and photography newspapers, and computers, brought by joined this revolution to bring knowledge such devices as the modem, answering ma- and current information for the first time chine, fax, cable, and satellite dish. We to masses of people. Advertising kept the have discovered the power of mass com- industrial revolution humming by expand- munication to part us from each other, and ing the markets for the output of the facto- we appear to be contented. ries. Because of mass communication, the Finally, we are entering the sixth infor- roots of democracy and capitalism sank mation revolution, the journey filled with deep. choices along the Information Highway. The fourth information revolution, en- The dimensions of this revolution are not tertainment, brought escape in a package. fully clear, but it promises to more com- Tales real and fictional of other places and pletely separate communication from other times took masses of people away transportation. Working from home, learn- A SUMMING UP 241 ing from home, communicating with dis- or women, we must recognize the individ- tant people from home, and receiving most ual differences accorded by gender as well of life's pleasures at home allows the indi- as by culture, education, and position. That vidual to function while seldom venturing is, we must acknowledge the weakness of out of the front door. Home may no longer generalization in what follows. need to be within physical reach of job, Let us say that Tribal Human belongs school, entertainment sources, or loved mostly to pre-history, although a few mem- ones. It can be anywhere we desire. That bers still dwell in remote desert, jungle, could in time reverse the industrial revolu- and icy pockets of Earth. Medieval Human tion's centripetal flow of populations and continues to exist in many places. Toolshed wealth into cities during the past two cen- Human lives next door, or perhaps stares turies. Tremendous social consequences out of the mirror at you each morning. both positive and negative would attend Tribal Human lacked most tools of com- such a shifting of population. Further, the munication other than those that came values inhering in information threaten with birth. Only a few other people com- economic stagnation for huge areas of the posed Tribal Human's lifetime circle of ac- globe where communication tools are not quaintances. For all we know, Tribal abundant. Human may have recognized those inti- On a personal level, when any commu- mates by smell as much as by sight. Tribal nication technology is used, it displaces Human's life in the natural state, lacking some other means of communication or arts, letters, and a larger society, and sur- behavior that had been satisfactory until rounded by fear and danger, Thomas Hob- the new technology became available. bes summarized as solitary, poor, nasty, True of writing in Socrates' era that re- brutish, and short. However, poor, nasty, placed memorizing, it will be equally true brutish, and short though Tribal Human's of the Information Highway. Whether e- life was, it might have been less solitary mail replaces Post Office "snail mail," the than the life of plugged-in Toolshed Hu- downloading of a movie replaces an eve- man, who, surrounded by and dependent ning out, or hours at a bulletin board re- upon the modern tools of communication, place a date, some other technology or can live a very solitary life indeed. As for activity is displaced. Something desirable Tribal Human, surely with danger around such as direct human contact may be lost. and dependence upon other members of Despite the effortless international reach the tribe for very existence, all five senses of new media, isolation frequently accom- and the sixth sense were kept sharp enough panies the acquisition of information and to know fellow tribal members intensely entertainment, whether through the read- and intimately. If someone were to suggest ing of a book or the online connection with that Tribal Human should think about what an Internet database. That isolation began life must be like elsewhere, this human of with the shift from an oral to a written a tribal world would probably snort in deri- culture and has expanded ever since to the sion and go about the day's work. extent that social dysfunction is a worri- Depending upon where on Earth and to some part of riding along the Information what social stratum Medieval Human was Highway. born, this person probably lived much closer to the time of Toolshed Human, but in terms of communication, was closer to Communication in the spirit and the daily life of Tribal Hu- Three Eras man. If born to village life, Medieval Hu- Let us consider three human beings, one man may have met few others. An ordinary from a tribal civilization, one from a medie- person in the French province of Nor- val world, and one from the modern world mandy during the tenth century probably who lives in the midst of the latest tools of met between 100 and 200 people in a life- 1 communication. Although they can be men time, and had a vocabulary of 600 words. 242 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Although aware of a world outside, Medie- generous applications of well-advertised val Human knew that it was not to be deodorant. examined. If born to a village, Medieval If Toolshed Human has a physical im- Human stayed in the village unless there pairment, such as blindness, deafness, or came the rare opportunity to join a Cru- limited mobility, compassionate hardware sade. Medieval Human's scant knowledge and software such as braille, audio services, of the world beyond the village came from sensor equipment, and closed-captioning travelers passing through, but if they are available to switch the flow of informa- brought reports of strange and different tion and entertainment to alternate senses. worlds, as Marco Polo once did, Medieval Yet, although aware of millions of oth- Human had no reason to do anything but ers, Toolshed Human may have in fact fewer snort in derision and go about the day's touching contacts than Tribal Human or work. Almost all the tools of communica- Medieval Human and may greet and be tion that we take for granted did not exist greeted by fewer people who know Toolshed in Medieval Human's time. Of those that Human's name. Desiring a large measure of did—parchment, maybe paper, the book non-involvement and anonymity, Tool- copied in a monastery, the newsbook, post- shed Human may sublimate any need for al service, the stained glass church window emotional stimulation through transmitted or monastery wall telling a Biblical forms of sex, violence, and gambling, all story—awareness of any of them depended readily available by the various means of upon Medieval Human's place in life. In communication at the touch of a button. In any event, they hardly mattered. It was fact, having read breathless reports that unlikely that Medieval Human could read one of the earliest applications of three- and certainly could not write. What did dimensional virtual reality will be rated matter was Medieval Human's relationship XXX, Toolshed Human can hardly wait for with fellow villagers, with the lord of the techno-romance to arrive. As for the five land, and with the all-knowing, all-seeing senses, only two of them, sight and hearing, God who ruled in this world and the world are kept sharp. Toolshed Human's sense of to come. Like Tribal Human, Medieval Hu- smell hardly kicks in unless some offensive man probably used the five senses to their odor comes along. A keen touch has little fullest, at least when sober. value outside non-virtual romance or safe- Toolshed Human, fully attuned to the cracking. As for taste, TV packaged dinners world, is aware of millions of people, sees took care of that a long time ago. them in movies and videotapes, watches The tools of communication will not them on television, hears their music on a guarantee Toolshed Human power or CD, reads about them in newspapers, wealth, but without the tools power and books, and magazines, talks to a few of wealth are not likely at all. Should the them on the telephone and exchanges chit- government lock up the tools, Toolshed chat with others by mail and e-mail. Tool- Human certainly will lack power. Should shed Human has knowledge through Toolshed Human own the tools that can written, aural, and visual media of far more bring both information and entertainment, fictional people than Tribal Human or Me- but use them only for the latter, wealth will dieval Human were aware of actual people. not arrive. Like these ancestors, Toolshed Human has If Toolshed Human chooses to live a need for intimacy, but seldom acquires it alone, a spider in an electronic web, it may through close, direct, physical contact. If be because living alone is the least bother- anyone were to speak of the pleasure of some lifestyle, with the fewest intrusions smelling another person, not the perfume on connect time and no quarrels about but the unwashed skin, Toolshed Human media choice. Toolshed Human revels in would snort in derision and go about the media choice. If the history of communica- day's work, for Toolshed Human's meet- tion tells us anything, it is that more ings with others are always preceded by choices come along all the time. A SUMMING UP 243

Notes 1 George C. Coulton, Medieval Village, Manor and Monastery (New York: Harper & Bros., Torchbooks, 1960], 15. Bibliography

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B.C. 350: In Egypt, parchment book of 3500: In Sumer pictographs of accounts Psalms bound in wood covers. written on clay tablets. 450: Ink on seals is stamped on paper in 2600: Scribes employed in Egypt. China. This is true printing. 2400: In India, engraved seals identify the 600: Books printed in China. writer. 700: Sizing agents are used to improve 2200: Date of oldest existing document paper quality. written on papyrus. 751: Paper manufactured outside of 1500: Phoenician alphabet. China, in Samarkand by Chinese 1400: Oldest record of writing in China, captured in war. on bones. 765: Picture books printed in Japan. 1270: Syrian scholar compiles an encyclo- 868: The Diamond Sutra, a block- pedia. printed book in China. 900: China has an organized postal serv- 950: Paper use spreads west to Spain. ice for government use. 950: Folded books appear in China in 775: Greeks develop a phonetic alphabet, place of rolls. written from left to right. 950: Bored women in a Chinese harem 530: In Greece, a library. invent playing cards. 500: Greek telegraph: trumpets, drums, 1000: Mayas in Yucatan, Mexico, make shouting, beacon fires, smoke sig- writing paper from tree bark. nals, mirrors. 1035: Japanese use waste paper to make 500: Persia has a form of pony express. new paper. 500: Chinese scholars write on bamboo 1049: Pi Sheng fabricates movable type, with reeds dipped in pigment. using clay. 400: Chinese write on silk as well as 1116: Chinese sew pages to make wood, bamboo. stitched books. 200: Books written on parchment and 1140: In Egypt, cloth is stripped from vellum. mummies to make paper. 200: Tipao gazettes are circulated to 1147: Crusader taken prisoner returns with papermaking art, according to Chinese officials. a legend. 59: Julius Caesar orders postings of Acta Diurna. 1200: European monasteries communicate by letter system. A.D. 1200: University of Paris starts messenger service. 100: Roman couriers carry government 1282: In Italy, watermarks are added to mail across the empire. paper. 105: T'sai Lun invents paper. 1298: Marco Polo describes use of paper 175: Chinese classics are carved in stone money in China. that will later be used for rubbings. 1300: Wooden type found in central Asia. 180: In China, an elementary zoetrope. 1305: Taxis family begins private postal 250: Paper use spreads to central Asia. service in Europe.

255 256 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

1309: Paper is used in England. 1661: Postal service within the colony of 1392: Koreans have a type foundry to pro- Virginia. duce bronze characters. 1673: Mail is delivered on a route be- 1423: Europeans use block printing. tween New York and Boston. 1443: The simplifed Korean phonetic 1689: Newspapers are printed, at first as alphabet, hangul. unfolded "broadsides." 1450: A few newsletters begin circulating 1696: By now, England has 100 paper in Europe. mills. 1451: Johnannes Gutenberg uses a press 1698: Public library opens in Charleston, to print an old German poem. S.C. 1452: Metal plates are used in printing. 1704: A newspaper in Boston prints ad- 1453: Gutenberg prints the 42-line Bible. vertising. 1710: German engraver Le Blon develops 1464: King of France establishes postal system. three-color printing. 1477: An advertisement appears in 1714: Henry Mill receives patent in Eng- English. land for a typewriter. 1490: Printing of books on paper becomes 1719: Reaumur proposes using wood to more common in Europe. make paper. 1495: A paper mill is established in Eng- 1725: Scottish printer develops stereotyp- land. ing system. 1500: Arithmetic + and - symbols are 1727: Schulze begins science of photo- used in Europe. chemistry. 1500: By now, approximately 35,000 1732: In Philadelphia, Ben Franklin starts books have been printed, some 10 a circulating library. million copies. 1755: Regular mail ship runs between 1500: Spectacles balance on the noses of England and the colonies. Europe's educated. 1770: The eraser. 1533: A postmaster in England. 1774: Swedish chemist invents a paper whitener. 1545: Garamond designs his typeface. 1775: Continental Congress authorizes 1550: Wallpaper brought to Europe from Post Office; Ben Franklin first Post- China by traders. master General. 1560: In Italy, the portable camera ob- 1780: Steel pen points begin to replace scura allows precise tracing of an quill feathers. image. 1784: French book is made without rags, 1560: Legalized, regulated private postal from vegetation. systems grow in Europe. 1785: Stagecoaches carry the mail be- 1565: The pencil. tween towns in U.S. 1609: First regularly published newspa- 1790: In England, the hydraulic press is per appears in Germany. invented. 1627: France introduces registered mail. 1792: Mechanical semaphore signaler 1631: A French newspaper carries classi- built in France. fied ads. 1792: In Britain, postal money orders. 1639: In Boston, someone is appointed to 1792: Postal Act promises mail regularity deal with foreign mail. throughout U.S. 1639: First printing press in the Ameri- 1794: First letter carriers appear on can colonies. American city streets. 1640: Kirchner, a German Jesuit, builds a 1794: Panorama, forerunner of movie magic lantern to project images. theaters, opens. 1650: Leipzig has a daily newspaper. 1794: Signaling system connects Paris 1653: Parisians can put their postage-paid and Lille. letters in mail boxes. 1798: Senefelder in Germany invents 1655: The word "advertising" is intro- lithography. duced. 1799: Robert in France invents a paper- 1659: Londoners get the penny post. making machine. COMMUNICATION TIMELINE 257

1800: Letter takes 20 days to reach Savan- 1833: A penny buys a New York newspa- nah, Georgia from Portland, Maine. per, opening a mass market. 1801: Semaphore system built along the 1833: In Germany, a telegraph running coast of France. nearly two miles. 1801: Joseph-Marie Jacquard invents a 1834: Babbage conceives the analytical loom using punch cards. engine, forerunner of the computer. 1803: Fourdrinier continuous web paper- 1836: Rowland Hill starts to reform British making machine. postal system. 1807: Camera lucida improves image trac- 1837: Wheatstone and Cooke patent an ing. electric telegraph in England. 1808: Turri of Italy builds a typewriter for 1837: Morse exhibits an electric tele- a blind contessa. graph in the U.S. 1810: An electro-chemical telegraph is 1837: Pitman publishes a book on short- constructed in Germany. hand in England. 1810: Postal services consolidated under 1837: Daguerre cuts photo exposure time uniform private contracts. to 20 minutes. 1813: Congress authorizes steam boats to 1838: In England, Wheatstone's Stereo- carry mail. scope shows pictures in 3-D. 1814: In England, a steam-powered rotary 1838: Daguerre-Niepce method begins press prints The Times. photography craze. 1815: 3,000 post offices in U.S. 1839: Fox Talbot in England prints photo- 1816: Newspapers carried for less than 2 graphs from negatives. cents postage. 1839: Herschel invents hypo fixative. 1816: Niepce captures image with 8-hour 1839: In Russia, Jacobi invents electrotyp- exposure. ing, the duplicating of printing 1818: Stamped letter paper is sold in plates. Sardinia. 1839: Electricity runs a printing press. 1818: In Sweden, Berzelius isolates sele- 1840: In Britain, first postage stamps are nium; its electric conductivity sold. reacts to light. 1841: Petzval of Austria builds an f/3.6 1819: Napier builds a rotary printing lens. press. 1841: The advertising agency is born. 1820: Arithmometer, forerunner of the 1841: The first type-composing machine calculator. goes into use in London. 1821: In England, Wheatstone repro- 1842: Illustrated London News appears. duces sound. 1842: Another use for paper: the Christ- 1823: Babbage builds a section of a calcu- mas card. lating machine. 1843: In the U.S., the photographic 1823: In England, Ronalds builds a tele- enlarger. graph in his garden; no one is inter- 1843: Ada, Lady Lovelace publishes her ested. Notes explaining a computer. 1825: Persistence of vision shown with 1844: Morse's telegraph connects Wash- Thaumatrope. ington and Baltimore. 1827: Niepce makes a true photograph. 1845: Postal reform bill lowers rates and 1827: In London, Wheatstone constructs a regulates domestic and interna- microphone. tional service. 1829: Daguerre joins Niepce to pursue 1845: The typewriter ribbon. photographic inventions. 1846: In Germany, Zeiss begins manufac- 1829: Burt gets the first U.S. patent for a turing lenses. typewriter. 1846: Double cylinder rotary press pro- 1830: Calendered paper is produced in duces 8,000 sheets an hour. England. 1847: First use of telegraph as business 1832: Phenakistoscope in Belgium and tool. Stroboscope in Austria point to motion pictures. 258 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

1847: In England, Bakewell constructs a 1861: Oliver Wendell Holmes invents "copying telegraph." stereoscope. 1848: Forerunner of the Associated Press 1862: In Italy, Caselli sends a drawing is founded in New York. over a wire. 1849: The photographic slide. 1862: In U.S., paper money. 1850: The paper bag arrives. 1863: Large U.S. cities get free home de- 1851: In the U.S., paper is made from livery of mail. wood fiber. 1863: First international postal confer- 1851: The Erie railroad depends on the ence held in Paris. telegraph. 1864: Workers in "railway post office" sort 1851: Telegraph cable is laid across the mail on trains. English Channel. 1864: Postal money orders sold in U.S; 1851: Archer invents wet-plate photogra- $1.3 million in 6 months. phy process. 1865: Atlantic cable ties Europe and U.S. 1851: Newspaper postage cut in half; free for instant communication. distribution within county. 1866: Western Union dominates U.S. 1852: Postage stamps are widely used. wires. 1853: Envelopes made by paper folding 1867: In U.S., Sholes builds a working machine. typewriter. 1854: Telegraph used in Crimean War. 1869: Color photography, using the sub- 1854: Bourseul in France builds an ex- tractive method. perimental telephone. 1869: From Austria, postcards. 1854: Carte-de-visite process simplifies 1870: Stock ticker comes to Wall Street photography. 1871: Halftone process allows newspaper 1854: Curved stereotype plate obviates printing of pictures. column rules; wide ads soon. 1872: Simultaneous transmission from 1855: Printing telegraph invented in the both ends of a telegraph wire. U.S. 1873: U.S. postcard debuts; costs one 1855: Prepayment of letters made com- penny. pulsory. 1873: Illustrated daily newspaper appears 1855: Registered letters enter service. in New York. 1873: Maxwell publishes theory of radio

1856: Poitevan starts photolithography. waves. 1856: Blotting paper replaces sand boxes. 1873: Remington starts manufacturing 1856: Machine folds newspapers, paper Sholes' typewriters. for books for drying ink. 1873: Typewriters get the QWERTY 1857: A machine to set type is demon- pseudo-scientific keyboard. strated. 1873: In Ireland, May uses selenium to 1857: In France, Scott's phonautograph is send a signal through the Atlantic a forerunner of Edison's phono- cable. graph. 1874: Universal Postal Union formed. 1858: Mail boxes appear on American

streets. 1875: Edison invents the mimeograph. 1858: First effort at transatlantic tele- 1875: In the U.S., Carey designs a sele- graph service fails. nium mosaic to transmit a picture. 1858: Eraser is fitted to the end of a pencil. 1876: Bell invents the telephone. 1858: An aerial photograph is taken. 1877: In France, Charles Cros invents the phonograph. 1859: Camera gets a wide-angled lens. 1877: In America, Edison also invents I860: Pony Express carries mail between the phonograph. St. Joseph, Mo. and Sacramento. 1878: Muybridge photographs a horse in 1861: Telegraph brings Pony Express to motion. an abrupt end. 1878: Cathode ray tube is invented by 1861: First chemical means to color pho- Crookes, English chemist. tography. COMMUNICATION TIMELINE 259

1878: The dynamic microphone is in- 1888: The coin-operated public tele- vented in the U.S. and Germany. phone. 1878: Telephone directories are issued. 1888: Edison's phonograph is manufac- 1878: Full page newspaper ads. tured for sale to the public. 1878: In France, praxinoscope, an optical 1888: Oberlin Smith sets forth theory of toy, a step toward movies. magnetic recording. 1878: Dry-plate photography. 1889: Herman Hollerith counts the U.S. 1879: Benday process aids newspaper pro- population with punch cards. duction of maps, drawings. 1890: A.B. Dick markets the mimeograph. 1880: First photos in newspapers, using 1890: Typewriters are in common use in halftones. offices. 1880: Edison invents the electric light. 1890: In England, Friese-Greene builds 1880: France's Leblanc theorizes trans- the kinematograph camera and pro- mitting a picture in segments. jector. 1890: In France, Branly's coherer con- 1880: First parcel post. ducts radio waves. 1881: Women enter the business world via 1891: Large press prints and folds 90,000

the typewriter. 4-page papers an hour. 1881: Business offices begin to look mod- 1891: Telephoto lens is attached to the ern. camera. 1882: In England, the first wirephotos. 1891: Edison's assistant, Dickson, builds 1883: Edison stumbles onto "Edison ef- the Kinetograph motion picture fect"; later, basis of broadcast tubes. camera. 1884: In Germany, Nipkow scanning 1892: Edison and Dickson build the peep- disc, early version of television. show Kinetoscope. 1884: People can now make long dis- 1892: 4-color rotary press. tance phone calls. 1892: Portable typewriters. 1884: Electric tabulator is introduced. 1892: Automatic telephone switchboard 1884: Waterman's fountain pen blots out comes into service. earlier versions. 1893: Dickson builds a motion picture 1885: Dictating machines are bought for studio in New Jersey. offices. 1893: Addressograph joins the office 1885: Eastman makes coated photo print- machinery. ing paper. 1894: Marconi invents wireless telegraphy. 1885: U.S. Post Office offers special delivery. 1895: France's Lumiere brothers build a portable movie camera. 1885: Trains are delivering newspapers daily. 1895: Paris audience sees movies projected. 1886: Graphophone's wax cylinder and sapphire stylus improve sound. 1895: In England, Friese-Greene invents phototypesetting. 1886: Mergenthaler constructs the Lino- type machine for setting type. 1896: Underwood model permits typists 1887: Celluloid film; it will replace glass to see what they are typing. plate photography. 1896: The monotype sets type by machine 1887: Montgomery Ward mails out a 540- in single characters. page catalog. 1896: Electric power is used to run a 1887: Berliner gets music from a flat disc paper mill. stamped out by machine. 1896: In Britain, the motion picture pro- 1887: Comptometer multi-function adding jector is manufactured. machine is manufactured. 1896: X-ray photography. 1887: Ads appear in magazines. 1896: Rural free delivery (RFD) inaugu- 1888: "Kodak" box camera makes picture rated. taking simple. 1897: In England, postmen deliver mail to 1888: Heinrich Hertz proves the existence most homes. of radio waves. 260 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

1897: In Germany, Braun improves cath- 1905: Photography, printing, and post ode ray tube with fluorescence. combine in the year's craze, pic- 1897: General Electric creates a publicity ture postcards. department. 1905: In France, Pathe colors black and 1898: Photographs taken by artificial white films by machine. light. 1905: In New Zealand, the postage meter 1898: New York State passes a law is introduced. against misleading advertising. 1905: The Yellow Pages. 1899: Sound is recorded magnetically by 1905: The juke box; 24 choices. Poulsen of Denmark. 1906: The Victrola turns the phonograph 1899: American Marconi Company incor- into furniture. porated; forerunner of RCA. 1906: In Britain, new process colors 1900: Kodak Brownie makes photography books cheaply. cheaper and simpler. 1906: A program of voice and music is 1900: Pupin's loading coil reduces tele- broadcast in the U.S. phone voice distortion. 1906: Lee de Forest invents the three- 1901: Sale of phonograph disc made of element vacuum tube. hard resinous shellac. 1906: Dunwoody and Pickard build a 1901: First electric typewriter, the Blick- crystal-and-catwhisker radio. ensderfer. 1906: An animated cartoon film is pro- 1901: Marconi sends a radio signal across duced. the Atlantic. 1906: Fessenden plays violin for startled 1902: Germany's Zeiss invents the four- ship wireless operators. element Tessar camera lens. 1906: An experimental sound-on-film mo- 1902: Etched zinc photoengraving. tion picture. 1902: U.S. Navy installs radio telephones 1907: Bell and Howell develop a film pro- aboard ships. jection system. 1902: Photoelectric scanning can send 1907: Lumiere brothers invent still color and receive a picture. photography process. 1903: Technical improvements in radio, 1907: DeForest begins regular radio mu- telegraph, phonograph, movies, sic broadcasts. and printing. 1907: In Russia, Rosing develops theory 1903: London Daily Mirror illustrates of television. only with photographs. 1908: In U.S., Smith introduces true color 1903: Cheap crayons are mass produced motion pictures. in the United States. 1909: Radio distress signal saves 1,700 1904: A telephone answering machine is lives after ships collide. invented. 1910: Sweden's Elkstrom invents "flying 1904: Fleming invents the diode to im- spot" camera light beam. prove radio communication. 1911: Rotogravure aids magazine produc- 1904: Offset lithography becomes a com- tion of photos. mercial reality. 1911: "Postal savings system" inaugu- 1904: A photograph is transmitted by rated. wire in Germany. 1912: U.S. passes law to control radio sta- 1904: Hine photographs America's under- tions. class. 1912: Motorized movie cameras replace 1904: The Great Train Robbery creates hand cranks. demand for fiction movies. 1912: Feedback and heterodyne systems 1904: The comic book. usher in modern radio. 1904: Music is recorded on both sides of a 1912: First mail carried by airplane. phonograph disc. 1913: The portable phonograph is manu- 1905: In Pittsburgh, the first nickelodeon factured. opens. 1914: Radio message is sent to an airplane. COMMUNICATION TIMELINE 261

1914: In Germany, the 35mm still cam- 1923: Kodak introduces home movie era, a Leica. equipment. 1914: In the U.S., Goddard begins rocket 1923: Neon advertising signs. experiments. 1924: Low tech achievement: notebooks 1914: First transcontinental telephone get spiral bindings. call. 1924: The Eveready Hour is the first spon- 1915: Wireless radio service connects sored radio program. U.S. and Japan. 1924: At KDKA, Conrad sets up a short- 1915: Radio-telephone carries speech wave radio transmitter. across the Atlantic. 1924: Daily coast-to-coast air mail service. 1915: Birth of a Nation sets new movie 1924: Pictures are transmitted over tele- standards, but is racist. phone lines. 1915: The electric loudspeaker. 1924: Two and a half million radio sets in 1916: Cameras get optical rangefinders. the U.S. 1916: Radios get tuners. 1925: Commercial picture facsimile radio 1917: Photocomposition begins. service across the U.S. 1917: Frank Conrad builds a radio station, 1925: All-electric phonograph is built. later KDKA. 1925: A moving image, the blades of a 1917: Condenser microphone aids broad- model windmill, is telecast. casting, recording. 1925: From France, a wide-screen film. 1918: First regular airmail service: Wash- 1926: Commercial picture facsimile radio ington, D.C. to New York. service across the Atlantic. 1919: Shortwave radio is invented. 1926: Baird demonstrates an electro- 1919: Flip-flop circuit invented; will help mechanical TV system. computers to count. 1926: Some radios get automatic volume 1920: First cross-country airmail flight in control, a mixed blessing. the U.S. 1926: The Book-of-the-Month Club. 1920: Sound recording is done electri- 1926: In U.S., first 16mm movie is shot. cally. 1926: Goddard launches liquid-fuel 1920: KDKA in Pittsburgh broadcasts first rocket. scheduled programs. 1926: Permanent radio network, NBC, is 1921: Quartz crystals keep radio signals formed. from wandering. 1926: Bell Telephone Labs transmits film 1921: The word "robot" enters the lan- by television. guage. 1927: NBC begins second radio network; 1921: Western Union begins wirephoto CBS formed. service. 1927: Farnsworth assembles a complete 1922: A commercial is broadcast. electronic TV system. 1922: Technicolor introduces two-color 1927: Jolson's The Jazz Singer is the first process for movies. popular "talkie." 1922: Germany's UFA produces a film 1927: Movietone offers newsreels in with an optical sound track. sound. 1922: Singers desert phonograph horn 1927: U.S. Radio Act declares public own- mouths for acoustic studios. ership of the airwaves. 1922: Nanook of the North, the first docu- 1927: Negative feedback makes hi-fi pos- mentary. sible. 1923: Zworykin's electronic iconoscope 1928: The teletype machine makes its camera tube. debut. 1923: Ribbon microphone becomes the 1928: Television sets are put in three studio standard. homes, programming begins. 1923: A picture, broken into dots, is sent 1928: Baird invents a video disc to record by wire. television. 1923: 16mm nonflammable film makes 1928: In an experiment, television its debut. crosses the Atlantic. 262 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

1928: In Schenectady, N.Y., the first 1933: Multiple-flash sports photography. scheduled television broadcasts. 1933: Singing telegrams. 1928: Steamboat Willie introduces Mickey 1934: Drive-in movie theater opens in Mouse. New Jersey. 1928: Times Square gets moving headlines 1934: Associated Press starts wirephoto in electric lights. service. 1928: IBM adopts the 80-column punched 1934: In Germany, a mobile television card. truck roams the streets. 1929: Experiments begin on electronic 1934: In Scotland, teletypesetting sets color television. type by phone line. 1929: Telegraph ticker sends 500 charac- 1934: Three-color Technicolor used in ters per minute. live action film. 1929: Ship passengers can phone relatives 1934: Communications Act of 1934 cre-

ashore. ates FCC. 1929: Brokers watch stock prices on an 1934: Half of the homes in the U.S. have automated electric board. radios. 1929: Something else new: the car radio. 1934: Mutual Radio Network begins 1929: In Germany, magnetic sound re- operations. cording on tape in the lab. 1935: German single lens reflex roll film 1929: Television studio is built in London. camera synchronized for flash 1929: Air mail flown from Miami to bulbs. South America. 1935: IBM's electric typewriter comes off 1930: Photo flashbulbs replace dangerous the assembly line. flash powder. 1935: The Penguin paperback book. 1930: "Golden Age" of radio begins in U.S. 1935: All-electronic VHF television 1930: Lowell Thomas begins first regular comes out of the lab. network newscast. 1935: Eastman-Kodak develops 1930: TVs based on British mechanical Kodachrome color film. system roll off factory line. 1935: Nielsen's Audimeter tracks radio 1930: AT&T tries the picture telephone. audiences. 1931: Commercial teletype service. 1935: Tweeter and woofer reduce loud- 1931: Electronic TV broadcasts in Los speaker distortion. Angeles and Moscow. 1936: In London, scheduled television 1931: Exposure meters go on sale to pho- broadcasts begin. tographers. 1936. A magnetic tape recorder, the Mag- 1931: Bell Labs experiment with stereo netophone, is built in Germany. recording. 1936: Berlin Olympics are televised 1931: NBC experimentally transmits 120- closed circuit. line screen. 1936: Bell Labs invents a voice recogni- 1932: Disney adopts three-color Techni- tion machine. color process for cartoons. 1936: Kodachrome film sharpens color 1932: Kodak introduces 8mm film for photography. home movies. 1936: Coaxial cable connects New York to 1932: The Times of London uses its new Philadelphia. Times Roman typeface. 1936: Alan Turing's "On Computable 1932: Stereophonic sound in a motion pic- Numbers" describes a general pur- ture, Napoleon. pose computer. 1932: Zoom lens is invented, but a practi- 1937: Stibitz of Bell Labs invents the elec- cal model is 21 years off. trical digital calculator. 1932: The light meter. 1937: Pulse Code Modulation points the 1932: NBC and CBS allow prices to be way to digital audio transmission. mentioned in commercials. 1937: NBC sends mobile TV truck onto New York streets. 1933: Armstrong invents FM, but its real future is 20 years off. COMMUNICATION TIMELINE 263

1937: A recording, the Hindenburg crash, 1946: Pennsylvania's ENIAC heralds the is broadcast coast to coast. modern electronic computer. 1937: Carlson invents the photocopier. 1946: Automobile radio telephones con- 1937: Snow White is the first feature- nect to telephone network. length cartoon. 1946: French engineers build a photo- 1938: Strobe lighting. typesetting machine. 1938: Two brothers named Biro invent the 1947: Hungarian engineer in England ballpoint pen in Argentina. invents holography. 1938: CBS World News Roundup ushers in 1947: The transistor is invented, will modern newscasting. replace vacuum tubes. 1938: DuMont markets electronic televi- 1947: The zoom lens covers baseball's sion receiver for the home. world series for TV. 1938: Radio drama, "War of the Worlds," 1948: The LP record arrives on a vinyl causes national panic. disk. 1939: Mechanical television scanning sys- 1948: Shannon and Weaver of Bell Labs tem abandoned. propound information theory. 1939: New York World's Fair shows televi- 1948: Land's Polaroid carnera prints pic- sion to public. tures in a minute. 1939: Regular electronic TV broadcasts 1948: Hollywood switches to nonflamma- begin in the U.S. ble film. 1939: Air mail service across the Atlantic. 1948: Public clamors for television; FCC freezes new licenses. 1939: Many televised firsts including sports coverage, variety show, fea- 1948: Airplane re-broadcasts TV signal ture film. across nine states. 1940: Fantasia introduces stereo sound to 1949.- Network TV established in U.S. American movie public. 1949: RCA offers the 45 rpm record. 1941: FCC sets U.S. TV standards. 1949: Community Antenna Television, 1941: CBS and NBC start commercial forerunner to cable. transmission: WW II intervenes. 1949: Whirlwind at MIT is the first real 1941: Goldmark at CBS experiments with time computer. electronic color TV. 1949: Magnetic core computer memory 1941: Microwave transmission. is invented. 1941: Zuse's Z3 in Germany is the first 1950: Regular color television transmis- computer controlled by software. sion. 1942: Atanasoff and Berry in Iowa build 1950: Vidicon camera tube improves tele- the first electronic digital computer. vision picture. 1942: Kodacolor process produces the 1950: A.C. Nielsen's Audimeters track color print. viewer watching. 1943: Repeaters on phone lines quiet 1951: One and a half million TV sets in long distance call noise. U.S., a tenfold jump in one year. 1943: Wire recorders help Allied radio 1951: Cinerama will briefly dazzle with a journalists cover WWII. wide, curved screen and three pro- 1944: Harvard's Mark I, first digital com- jectors. puter to be put into service. 1951: Computers are sold commercially. 1944: IBM offers a typewriter with pro- 1951: Still cameras get built-in flash units. portional spacing. 1951: Coaxial cable reaches coast to coast. 1945: American G.I.s find tape recorders 1951: Bing Crosby's company tests video in German radio stations. recording. 1945: Clarke envisions geosynchronous 1952: 3-D movies offer thrills to the audi- communication satellites. ence. 1945: It is estimated that 14,000 products 1952: Sony offers a miniature transistor are made from paper. radio. 1946: Jukeboxes go into mass production. 1952: EDVAC takes computer technology a giant leap forward. 264 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

1952: Univac projects the winner of the 1960: A movie gets Smell-O-Vision, but presidential election on CBS. the public just sniffs. 1952: Telephone area codes. I960: The Post Office experiments with 1952: Sony offers a miniature transistor facsimile mail. radio. I960: Zenith tests subscription TV; unsuc- 1953: NTSC color standard adopted. cessful. 1953: CATV system uses microwave to 1961: Boxing match test shows potential bring in distant signals. of pay-TV. 1954: U.S.S.R. launches Sputnik. 1961: FCC approves FM stereo broadcast- 1954: Radio sets in the world now outing; spurs FM development. number newspapers printed daily. 1961: Bell Labs tests communication by 1954: Regular color TV broadcasts begin light waves. in U.S. using NTSC standard. 1961: IBM introduces the "golf ball" type- 1954: Sporting events are broadcast live writer. in color. 1961: Letraset setting makes headlines at home simple. 1954: Transistor radios are sold. 1961: The time-sharing computer is de- 1955: Tests begin to communicate via fi- veloped. ber optics. 1962: Cable companies import distant sig- 1956: Ampex builds a practical videotape nals. recorder. 1962: FCC requires UHF tuners on TV 1956: Bell tests the picture phone. sets. 1956: First transatlantic telephone calls 1962: Comsat created to launch and oper- by cable. ate global satellite system. 1957: Soviet Union's Sputnik sends signals 1962: Telstar satellite transmits an image from space. across the Atlantic. 1957: FORTRAN becomes the first high- 1963: From Holland comes the audio cas- level computer programming sette. language. 1963: Zip codes. 1957: A surgical operation is televised. 1963: CBS and NBC TV newscasts expand 1957: First book to be entirely phototype- to 30 minutes in color. set is offset printed. 1963: PDP-8 becomes the first popular 1958: Videotape delivers color. minicomputer. 1958: Stereo recording is introduced for 1963: Polaroid camera instant photogra- public sale. phy adds color. 1958: Data moves over regular phone cir- 1963: Communications satellite is placed cuits. in geosynchronous orbit. 1958: Broadcast bounced off rocket, pre- 1963: TV news "comes of age" in reporting satellite communication. JFK assassination. 1958: The laser. 1964: Olympic Games in Tokyo telecast 1958: Cable carries FM radio stations. live globally by satellite. 1959: Local announcements, weather 1964: Touch Tone telephones and Pic- data, and local ads go on cable. turephone service. 1959: The microchip is invented. 1964: From Japan, the videotape re- 1959: Xerox manufactures a plain paper corder for home use. copier. 1964: Russian scientists bounce a signal 1959: Bell Labs experiments with artifi- off Jupiter. cial intelligence. 1964: Intelsat, international satellite or- 1959: French SECAM and German PAL ganization, is formed. systems introduced. 1965: Electronic phone exchange gives 1960: Echo I, a U.S. balloon in orbit, re- customers extra services. flects radio signals to Earth. 1965: Satellites begin domestic TV distri- 1960: In Rhode Island, an electronic, bution in Soviet Union. automated post office. COMMUNICATION TIMELINE 265

1965: Computer time-sharing becomes 1971: Wang 1200 is the first word proces- popular. sor. 1965: Color news film. 1972: HBO starts pay-TV service for 1965: Communications satellite Early cable. Bird (Intelsat I) orbits above the 1972: New FCC rules lead to community Atlantic. access channels. 1965: Kodak offers Super 8 film for home 1972: Polaroid camera can focus by itself. movies. 1972: Digital television comes out of the 1965: Cartridge audio tapes go on sale for lab. a few years. 1972: The BBC offers "Ceefax," two-way 1965: Most broadcasts are in color. cable information system. 1965: FCC rules bring structure to cable 1972: "Open Skies": any U.S. firm can television. have communication satellites. 1965: Solid-state equipment spreads 1972: Landsat I, "eye-in-the-sky" satellite, through the cable industry. is launched. 1966: Linotron can produce 1,000 alpha- 1972: Sony's Port-a-Pak, a much more numeric characters per second for portable video recorder. printing. 1972: "Pong" starts the video game craze. 1966: Fiber optic cable multiplies commu- 1973: The microcomputer is born in nication channels. France. 1966: Xerox sells the Telecopier, a fax 1973: IBM's Selectric typewriter is now machine. "self-correcting." 1967: Dolby eliminates audio hiss. 1974: In England, the BBC transmits 1967: Computers get the light pen. Teletext data to TV sets. 1967: Pre-recorded movies on videotape 1974: Electronic News Gathering, or ENG. sold for home TV sets. 1974: Satellite transmission of mailgrams. 1967: Cordless telephones get some calls. 1974: "Teacher-in-the-Sky" satellite begins 1967: Approx. 200 million telephones in educational mission. the world, half in U.S. 1975: The microcomputer, in kit form, 1968: TV photographers lug two-inch- reaches the U.S. home market. tape portable videotape recorders. 1975: "Thrilla' from Manila"; substantial 1968: FCC approves non-Bell equipment original cable programming. attached to phone system. 1976: Sony's Betamax and JVC's VHS bat- 1968: Intelsat completes global communi- tle for acceptance in the home. cations satellite loop. 1976: Apple I. 1968: Approx. 200 million TV sets in the 1976: Dolby stereo goes into movie thea- world, 78 million in U.S. ters. 1968: The RAM microchip reaches the 1976: Ted Turner delivers programming market. nationwide by satellite. 1969: Astronauts send live photographs 1976: Still cameras are controlled by mi- from the moon. croprocessors. 1970: Postal Reform Bill makes U.S. Post- 1977: Columbus, Ohio, residents try 2- al Service self-supporing. way cable experiment, QUBE. 1970: In Germany, a videodisc is demon- 1978: From Konica, the point-and-shoot strated. camera. 1970: U.S. Post Office and Western Union 1978: PBS goes to satellite for delivery, offer Mailgrams. abandoning telephone lines. 1970: The computer floppy disc is an in- 1978: Electronic typewriters go on sale. stant success. 1979: Speech recognition machine has a 1971: Intel builds the microprocessor, "a vocabulary of 1,000 words. computer on a chip." 1979: Videotext provides data on com- 1971: Sony's 3/4 inch "U-Matic" cassette mand. VCR makes TV news photography 1979: From Holland conies the digital easier. videodisc read by laser. 266 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

1979: In Japan, first cellular phone net- 1984: National Geographic puts a work. hologram on its cover. 1979: Computerized laser printing is a 1984: A television set can be worn on the boon to Chinese printers. wrist. 1980: In France, a holographic film 1984: Japanese introduce high quality shows a gull flying. facsmile. 1980: Intelsat V relays 12,000 phone calls, 1984: Camera and tape deck combine in 2 color TV channels. the camcorder. 1980: Public international electronic fax 1984: Apple Macintosh, IBM PC AT. service, Intelpost, begins. 1984: The 32-bit microprocessor. 1980: Atlanta gets first fiber optics sys- 1984: The one-megabyte memory chip. tem. 1984: CONUS relays news feeds for sta- 1980: CNN 24-hour news channel. tions on Ku-Band satellites. 1980: Addressable cable T.V. converters 1985: Digital image processing for editing pinpoint individual homes. stills bit by bit. 1981: 450,000 transistors fit on a silicon 1985: CD-ROM can put 270,000 pages of chip 1/4-inch square. text on a CD record. 1981: Hologram technology improves, 1985: Cellular telephones go into cars. now in video games. 1985: Synthetic text-to-speech computer 1981: Sony Walkman tape player starts a pronounces 20,000 words. fad. 1985: Television broadcasts can be heard 1981: The IBM PC. in stereo. 1981: The laptop computer is introduced. 1985: U.S. TV networks begin satellite dis- 1981: The first mouse pointing device. tribution to affiliates. 1982: From Japan, a camera with elec- 1985: At Expo, a Sony TV screen measures tronic picture storage, no film. 40x25 meters. 1982: USA Today typeset in regional 1985: Sony builds a radio the size of a plants by satellite command. credit card. 1982: Kodak camera uses film on a disc 1985: In Japan, 3-D television; no specta- cassette. cles needed. 1982: Optical character readers identify 1985: Pay-per-view channels open for city, state, and ZIP Code on enve- business. lopes. 1986: HBO scrambles its signals. 1983: Cellular phone network starts in 1986: Cable shopping networks. U.S. 1987: Half of all U.S. homes with TV are 1983: Lasers and plastics improve news- on cable. paper production. 1987: Government deregulates cable indus- 1983: Computer chip holds 288,000 bits try. of memory. 1988: Government brochure mailed to 107 1983: Time names the computer as "Man million addresses. of the Year." 1989: Tiananmen Square demonstrates 1983: ZIP + 4, expanded 9-digit ZIP codes and postal bar codes are in- power of media to inform the world. troduced. 1989: Pacific Link fiber optic cable 1983: AT&T forced to break up; 7 Baby opens, can carry 40,000 phone calls. Bells are born. 1990: Flyaway SNG aids foreign reportage. 1983: American videotext service starts; 1990: IBM sells its Selectric division, a sign of the typewriter's passing. fails in three years. 1984: Trucks used for SNG transmission. 1990: Most 2-inch videotape machines are also gone. 1984: Experimental machine can trans- late basic Japanese into basic Eng- 1990: Videodisc returns in a new laser lish but with mistakes. form. 1984: Portable compact disc player arrives. COMMUNICATION TIMELINE 267

1991: Beauty and the Beast, a cartoon, 1994: To reduce Western influence, a Oscar nominee as best picture. dozen nations ban or restrict satellite 1991: CNN dominates news coverage dishes. 1994: Prodigy bulletin board fields worldwide during Gulf War. 12,000 1991: Live TV news switching between messages after L.A. quake. 1994: world capitals during Gulf War Magazines—known as '"zines"—are looks simple. published on CD-ROM disks. 1994: 1991: Denver viewers can order movies at Competitors agree on a standard home from list of more than 1,000 for high definition TV. 1995: titles. Experimental CD-ROM disk can 1991: Moviegoers astonished by computer carry a full-length feature film. morphing in Terminator 2. 1995: Sony demonstrates flat TV set. 1991: Baby Bells get government permis- 1995: DBS feeds are offered nationwide sion to offer information services. in U.S. 1995: Denmark announces 1991: Collapse of Soviet anti-Gorbachev plan to put plot aided by global system called much of the nation online within 5 the Internet. years. 1995: Major U.S. dailies 1991: More than 4 billion cassette tape create national rentals in U.S. alone. on-line newspaper network. 1991: 3 out of 4 U.S. homes own VCRs; 1995: Lamar Alexander chooses the fastest selling domestic appliance in Internet to announce presidential history. candidacy. 1995: Audio of live 1992: Cable TV revenues reach $22 bil- events can be heard lion. on the Internet. 1996: The 1992: At least 50 U.S. cities have compet- stripped-down Net computer ing cable services. arrives. 1996: More than 1992: After President Bush speaks, 25 mil- 100,000 World Wide lion viewers try to phone in their Web sites, and growing fast. 1996: opinions. There are 60 million Internet users 1993: Dinosaurs roam the earth in Juras- worldwide, and growing fast. 1996: The TV-top box connects television sic Park. sets to the Internet. 1993: Unfounded rumors fly that cell- 1996: The Advanced Photo System pro- phones cause brain cancer. vides drop-in film loading, choice 1993: Demand begins for "V-chip" to block of print formats. 1996: Phone,

out violent television programs. cable, broadcast companies 1993: 1 in 3 Americans does some work compete under the Telecommunication at home instead of driving to work. Reform Act. 1996: U.S. Postal Service 1994: After 25 years, U.S. government pri- handles nearly vatizes Internet management. 600 million pieces of mail daily. 1994: Rolling Stones concert goes to 200 1996: A pocket telephone/computer workstations worldwide on Internet comes on the market. "MBone." Index

Audience fragmentation, 169-170, Acta Diurna, 3, 30 Actors, 127-128, 190-191 Audion, 93, 94 132-133, 140 ACTV Interactive Audiophiles, 150 Television, 230-231 Advanced Photo Audiotape, 112-114, 164 System, 121 Advertising, 60-65 books on, 199 children and, 162 digital, 114, 185 Auteur ethics and, 65 tradition, 129 Authors, 26

interactive TV and, 233 Avant-garde movies, 129 Internet, 222-223 and multimedia, 200-201 newspapers and, 52, 56 B origins of, 61-62 Babbage, Charles, 195 radio, 64, 117-118 Baby Bells, 145-146 television, 64-65, 161-162 Babylon tools, 64 libraries in, 13 Advertising agencies, 62-63 Agenda writing in, 2-3 setting, 163 Agitprop trains, 129 Bain, Alexander, 154, 227-228 Baird, Alexanderson, E.F.W., 93 Alexandria, John Logie, 154, 155, 175 Bakewell, F.C., library of, 13 Alpha state trance, 141 228 Battleship Potemkin, 129 Beato, Alphabets, 7-8 AM radio, 151 America Felice, 73 Being There (Kosinski), 139- Online (AOL), 232 American 140 Bell, Alexander Graham, 84-85, 107, Federation of Musicians, 183 American 108 Bell Laboratories, 85, 111 Berliner, Revolution, 44-45 Ampex, 176 Emile, 85, 109 Berzelius, Jon, 154 Andreessen, Marc, 220 Answering Betahans, 179-180 Betamax VCPvS, 177 machines, xxiii, 147, 175 Aquino, Bible Benigno, xxvi Archer, Frederick, 72 Gutenberg, 23 Aristotle, 9 translation restrictions on, 19, 26-27 Armstrong, E. Howard, 91, 93, 94, 150 vernacular translations of, 33-34, 36 Arnett, Peter, 168 Associated Press, 56, Billboards, 61-62 Birth of a Nation, The, 67, 82 128-129 Bit-mapped images, 227 Black objective reporting and, 53-54 Death, 18 Blay, Andre, 177 Bleak House Assyria, 13 AT&T (American (Dickens), 193 Telephone and Telegraph), 86, 117-118, 145, 155

268 INDEX 269

Blender, 200 Bly, Carlson, Chester, 75 Carlyle, Nellie, 103 Boiler Thomas, 45 Carson, Rachel, 186 plate, 54 Carter, Jimmy, xxvii Carterphone Bookmobiles, 186 Decision, 145, 228 Caselli, Abbe Booknet, 186 Jean, 154, 228 Castells, Manuel, Book-of-the-Month Club, 185 193, 217 Catalogs, 63, 143-144 Books, 22-27, 185-186 Catholic Church, 40 Caxton, on audiotape, 199 William, 25 CB (citizen's band) censorship of, 26-27 radio, 151 C-band, 212-213 CD- early, 36-37, 39-40 ROMs, 199-201 Cellular phones, Boorstin, Daniel J., 75 146-147 Censorship Bradford, Andrew, 104 books and, 26-27 Brady, Mathew, 73 Internet and, 217-218, 221-222 Brainerd, Paul, 195-196 movies and, 125-126, 133 Brand loyalty, 60 Brand news and, 51 names, 63-64 Branly, satellite communications and, xxv, Edouard, 90 Braun, 207-208 Ferdinand, 93 Braun, Karl, videos and, 181 154 Briggs, Joseph, 142 Change, societal. See Society, change arfd" Britain Channel One, 202 Chaplin, Charlie, 127, movies in, 130 128, 131 Chat lines, 221, 223 Chaum, Prestel system, 231 British David, 220 Child labor, 45-46, 74 Children Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), of the Poor, 74 Children's programming, 118, 154 Broadcasting, 93, 95, 162. 160-161 China See also Radio; censorship and, xxix, 37, 208 Television Broadsides, 31 Brownie lack of information revolutions in, 22 cameras, 121 BSS (broadcast satellite movies in, 130 service), 212 Bubonic plague, 18 Bulletin news in, 30 board systems (BBSs), 220-221 paper invented in, 21-22 postal system in, 15 printing in, 35-38 c Tiananmen Square uprising, xxiv-xxvi Cable TV, 169-174, 201-207 Christianity, 18-19, 26-27, 33-34, 40 fiber optics and, 205-207 written tradition of, 6, 8 franchises, 173-174, 203-204 Cinematographe, 97 Cities, interactive, 191-192, 204, 229-233 43-44, 216-217 City Mercury, narrowcasting in, 201-203 61 pay, 204-205 Civil Rights movement, 165-166 piracy, 205 Civil War, American, 62, 73 Civil specialized channels on, 201-203 War, The, 161 Clark, Jim, 220 and video rentals, 179 Clarke, Arthur, 207, 210 Class wireless, 205 Calhoun, John, 68 Caller consciousness, 44-45 Clay ID, 147 Camera lucida, 70 Camera tablets, 1-2, 3 Cleisthenes, 11 obscura, 69-70 Camera Work, 119 CNN (Cable News Network), 168, 169, 202 Cameras, 119-121. See also Photography CNN syndrome, xxxi Codexes, 6 video, 136, 181-182 Canaanite alphabet, 8 Canards, 31. See also Pamphlets Carey, Philip, 154 270 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Coherers, 90, 93 Desktop publishing, 191, 194-196 Coinage, 10-11 Desktop video, 136, 182 Diamond Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), 108 Sutra, 36 Dickens, Charles, 106, 193 Comics, newspaper, 103 Dickson, W.K.L., 97 Dictating Commerce machines, 111 Digicash, 220 14th century, 19, 23 Digital audio broadcasting (DAB), 151 changes due to, 10-11 Digital audio tape (DAT), 115, 185 Digital Commercial press, 52 compact cassettes (DCC), 114, 185 Digital Common Sense, 49 compression, 206 Digital imaging, 121- Communication 122 Digital video discs (DVD), 178, 199 history of, 1-3, 77-78 Diodes, 92-93 three eras of, 241-242 Communication Direct broadcast satellites (DBS), 207, Act of 1934, 117 Communication 211-213 toolshed, xvii, 138-188, movie distribution and, 136 240 radio and, 151 Direct to home (DTH) Communications Decency Act, 217 service. See Direct Communications Satellite Act (1962), 209 broadcast satellites (DBS) Community antenna television (CATV), Disco Vision, 178 Dockwra, 170, 172. See also Cable TV William, 30 Doctorow, E.L., 186 Compact discs (CDs), 114, 136, 185 Dolby, Ray, M., 176 Double erasable, 179 chaining, 164 Doublier, Francis, video, 178-179 98 Dove, Rita, 191-192 Drive Composographs, 122 time, 150 Drive-in movies, 134 CompuServe, 232 Drummers, 60 DuMont, Allen, Computers, 194-196 Conrad, 156 Durant, Will, 6, 11 Frank, 114-115 Contact photography, 71 Continuous web paper, 106 CONUS, 165, E 209 Cooke, William, 78 Early Bird, 210-211 Eastman, Courier, 210 George, 97, 120-121 E-cash, 220 Crookes, Sir William, 154 Crosby, Echo, 210 Bing, 113, 175-176, 183 Crusades, Economist, The, xxx 36 Ediphone, 111 Crystal-and-cat-whisker detectors, 93-94 Edison, Thomas Cultural imperialism, xxix-xxx, 181 movies and, 97 Cuneiform writing, 2-3, 4 Curiosi, 15 phonograph and, 107-109 Cursus publicus, 15 radio and, 90 telegraph and, 82 telephone and, 85 Edison effect, 92 D Education. See also Literacy; Universities Daguerre, Louis, 70-72 free public, 44, 48 Daguerreotypes, 71 videos and, 179-180 Daley, Richard, 167 Egypt Dance crazes, 110 libraries in, 12 Dark Ages, 18-19 and papyrus, 4-5 Dayan, Daniel, 168 postal system in, 15 de Forest, Lee, 91, 93, 151, 175 Declaration of the Rights of Man, 49 Defoe, Daniel, 104 Democracy, 11 Demotic writing, 3 Denmark, computerization in, 193 Department stores, 102 INDEX 271

scribes in, 6 Fleming, John Ambrose, 92-93 writing in, 3 Eisenstein, Elizabeth, 25 Fleming valves, 93 Eisenstein, Sergei, 129 Electrical Footprints, satellite, 208 transcriptions. See Recording Electronic Forums, Internet, 221 news gathering (ENG), Fourdrinier machine, 48, 49-50 164-165,. 176-177 France, movies in, 129 Electronic voice messaging (EVM), 147 Franklin, Benjamin, 49, 53, 66, 104 Electrotyping, 48 E-mail, 225-226, 227 Fred Ott's Sneeze, 127 Engels, Friedrich, 46 Entertainment Freed, Alan, 182-183 media, xvii, 101-137, 240 French Revolution, 44-45, 46, 47, 49 cultural imperialism in, xxix-xxx Friedan, Betty, 186 magazines, 104-106 Friese-Greene, William, 97 movies, 123-136 FSS (fixed satellite service), 211-212 newspapers, 103-104 FTP (file transfer protocol), 219 photography, 119-123 the poor and, 98, 102, 124 radio, 114-118 recordings, 107-114 Gazettes, 31. See also Newspapers Erasmus, Desiderius, 20 Geosynchronous orbit, 210 Gerbner, Ethics, advertising and, 65 George, 233 Germany, movies in, Evening Transcript, 52 EVR 129, 130 Glidden, David, 226 Global cartridges, 177 village, 168-169, 189 Godey's Lady's Book, 105 Goldmark, Peter, 184 Goldwyn, Samuel, 98 Gopher, 219 F Gorbachev, Michail, xxiv Family structure Graphophone, 108, 111 Gray, computers and, 194 Elisha, 84, 85, 107, 228 Gray, Industrial Revolution and, 46 William, 88 Great Train media and, 192-193 Family Viewing Robbery, The, 126 Greece Hour, 160 Faraday, Michael, 90, 154 alphabet of, 7 Farming, 46-47 Farnsworth, Philo, 155 knowledge/learning in, 7-14 Fax machines, xxv, 226-229 Federal libraries in, 13 Communications Commission (FCC), papyrus and, 5-6 117 postal system in, 15 Greek and cable TV, 172-173 language, 10 Greene, Graham, xvi and phone company reorganization, Griffith, D.W., 128 Gulf War, xxxi- 145-146 xxxii, 167-168, 180 Gutenberg, and television standards, 157 Federal Johannes, 23, 38-40 Food and Drugs Act (1906), 63 Feminine Mystique, The, 186 Feng Tao, 35 Fenton, Roger, 73 Fessenden, Reginald, 91, 93 H Fiber optics, 205-207, 233 Halftone process, 48, 63, 74 cable TV and, 206-207 Hammurabi's code, 3 movie distribution and, 136 Handwriting, 34 telephone and, 145 Harris, Benjamin, 31 Film, 97, 120 Hartley, R.V.L., 175 color, 121 Harvest of Shame, 165 Fixed satellite service (FSS), 211-212 Havas, Charles, 81 Flaming, 221 Hays Office, 133 HBO (Home Box Office), 201, 206 272 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Helical scan VCRs, 176 multimedia and, 198-201 Heliographs, 78 Information revolutions Henry, Joseph, 90 defining, xv-xvii Herodotus, 15 lifestyle changes due to, xxii-xxiii Herschel, Sir John, 71 shared characteristics of, xviii-xix Hertz, Heinrich, 90 Infotainment, 161 Ink, 4 Hieratic language, 3 Inquisition, the, 27 Instant print Hieroglyphics, 3 process, 121 Integrated services High definition television (HDTV), 158, digital network 206, 212 (ISDN), 145 INTELSAT, movie distribution and, 136, 158 210-211 Intelsat I, 210-211 High fidelity, 111, 184-185 Hill Street Interactivity, 190, 191-192 Blues, 159 Hindenberg, 183 Hine, TV and, 229-233 International Lewis, 74, 75 "His Master's Voice," 110 Telecommunications Hitler, Adolf, 149 Hits, Internet, 220 Satellite Organization, 211 Hoardings, 62 Hoe, Richard, 48 Internet, 217-226 Hogan's Alley, 103 Hollerith, Herman, advertising on, 222-223 195 Holograms, 122-123 Home pages, bulletin boards, 220-221 219 Home shopping, 203, 232 censorship and, 217-218, 220-221 Homeworkers, 215. See also chat lines, 223 Telecommuting House Un- e-mail, 225-226 American Activities extremists on, xxxi, 222 Committee, 134 How the Other Half history of, 218-219 Lives, 74 HTML (Hypertext Markup knowledge groups on, 222 Language), 219 Humanism, 20, 34, 36 news on, 234-236 Hussein, Saddam, xxviii Hyksos, 5 newsgroups, 221-222 Hypermedia, 219 Hypertext, 219 Hypo, 71 politics on the, xxxi, 217-218 radio on, 224-225 shopping on, 203, 220

I social implications of, 223-224 Iconoscope, 155 World Wide Web and, 219-220 Internet Illustrated London News, 74 Network Information Center, 223 Internet Image dissector, 155 Society, 218 Inventions, Incunabula, 24 dissemination/integration of, India, movies in, 130 xxii Industrial Revolution, xvi-xvii, 43-47 Iran, censorship in, 208 IRC (Internet advertising and, 60-61, 62 relay chat) lines, 223 Islamic mass entertainment and, 101-102 civilization, 22 Italy, movies in, 130 Information Age, xvi Ives, Frederick, 74 Ives, Herbert, 155, Information highway, xvii-xviii, 189-201, 175 229-238, 240-241. See also Internet; World Wide Web information rich/poor and, 194, J 202-203 Jackson, William Henry, 73 interactivity and, 190, 191-192 Jane Fonda's Workout, 177 Japan movies in, 130 papermaking in, 7, 22 writing/alphabet in, 7 Jazz Singer, The, 131 Jenkins, Charles Francis, 155 Jerrold Electronics, 171-172 INDEX 273

Jingles, 64 paper's effects on, 23 Johnson, Eldridge, 109-110 Journal vernacular printing's effects on, 32-35 of Public Notices, 61 Journalism, 56, Local area networks (LANs), 87, 222 103. See also News; Lodge, Oliver, 90, 91 Logan, Robert, 8 Newspapers Lollards, 27 L.O.P. (least objectionable Jukeboxes, 111 Junk mail, program) 143-144, 229 policy, 153 Lord & Thomas, 64 Loudspeakers, 95 Low power television (LPTV), 162 Lower case letters, 40 LPs, K 184 Luddites, 46 Lumiere, Auguste, 97 Kalmus, Herbert, 131 Lumiere, Louis, 97 Luther, Martin, 15, Katz, Elihu, 168 20, 36 L-VIS (live video insertion Keillor, Garrison, 192 system), 233 Kennedy, John F., assassination of, 165 Keystone Kops, 127 Khomeini, Ayatollah, xxviii M Kinescope, 175 Magazines, 104-106, 197-198 Kinetograph, 97 and advertising, 62-63, 104, 106 Kinetoscope, 97 audience fragmentation in, 106, 191, King, Larry, 202 197-198 King, Martin Luther, 166 delivery of, 68, 104 King, Rodney, 180 early, 26, 104-105 Klein, Paul, 153 electronic, 197-198 Knowledge gap, 202 illustrations in, 54, 74-75, 105 Kodak camera, 120-121 mass circulation, 56, 105-106, 197 Koenig, Friedrich, 48 plagiarism in, 105-106 Koppel, Ted, xxvi Malarkey, Martin, 172 Korea, printing in, 38 Manutius, Aldus, 34 Marconi, Korn, Arthur, 228 Guglielmo, 90-91 Marcos, Kosinski, Jerzy, 140-141 Ferdinand, xxvi Marey, Etienne Ku-band, 212-213 Jules, 96-97 Marketing, xix, 150 Kurosawa, Akira, 130 Marketing research, 64 Mass media, xvii, 43-100, 240 content vs. medium in, xx-xxi L Industrial Revolution and, 43-47 Labor unions, 45, 46 Land, power of, xix-xx Edwin, 121 Lantern slide and social fragmentation, 190-194 shows, 73 Lasker, Albert, and social protest, xix Master antenna 64 Latin language, 32-33 television (MATV), 170, Letterpress printing, 49 171-172. See also Cable TV Libraries, 3 ancient, 9, 12- Materialism, advertising and, 65 13 free public, 44 License Maxwell, James Clerk, 85, 90 May, fees, 161 Life, 74 Joseph, 154 McClure, S.S., 56 McClure's Lights, electric, 101-102 Magazine, 56 MCI Decision, 145 Lindbergh, Charles, 144 McLuhan, Marshall, xxi, 7, 135, 152-153, Linotype machines, 48-49 189 Medicines, Listservs, 220 Literacy patent, 63 in the 14th century, 19-20 in ancient Greece, 10 middle-class, 24 newspapers and, 55 274 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Medieval Human, 241-242 Multimedia, 198-201, 204 Multiple Melies, George, 123 systems operators (MSOs), Merganthaler, Ottmar, 48 203-204 Mesopotamia, 6 Mexican Munsey, Frank, 106 Murrow, Edward War, 81 Microphones, 108 R., 160-161, 164, 165 Music. See also Middle class Recording literacy and, 24 fragmentation and, 190-191 movies and, 98, 125-126 radio and, 182-183 and working class, 44 Music videos, 184 Mill, Henry, 58 Milton, Mutoscopes, 97 John, 53 Minidiscs (MDs), Muybridge, Eadweard, 96 114, 185 Modernism, 47 Muzak, 111 Monasteries books produced by, 23-24 knowledge maintained by, 7 N postal systems of, 28 Narrowcasting, 150, 169-170, 201-203 Money Nation, The, 65 coinage, 10-11 National Biscuit Company, 63-64 National electronic, 220 Board of Censorship of Motion paper, 21-22, 37 Mongols, 37 Pictures, 133 National Cable Morita, Akio, 177 Morris, Lloyd, Television Association, 102 Morrison, Herbert, 183 172 National Community Television Morse, Samuel F.B., 71, 78-79 Councjl, Movie palaces, 125-126 Movies, 172 95-98, 123-136 National Public Radio (NPR), 158 National and censorship, 125-126, 133 Research Education Network, color, 131-132 222 colorizing, 131-132 Nationalism, 33, 89 as communication, 95-96 Neorealism, 130 Netscape and desktop video, 136 Navigator, 220 Networks development of, 96-97 Internet, 222 distribution of, 135-136 radio, 118, 149, 150 escapist, 126-127 satellite, 213 impact of, 95-96 satellites and, 209 musicals, 132 television, 162, 165 New nickelodeons, 123-125 Wave movies, 129 New non-American, 129-130 World Information and political issues in, 133-134 Communication Order (NWICO), xxix projection of, 97-98 New York Sun, 52 News racism and, 124-125, 128-129 concept of, 51-52 sound in, 130-131 electronic news gathering, 164-165, the star system and, 127-128, 132-133 176-177 and television, 134-135, 158-159 history of, 30-32 visual language of, 126, 128 local, 67, 168-169 vs. videos, 174-175, 177-178 online, 234-236 westerns, 132-133, 159 public appetite for, 81-82, 168-169 women and, 124 radio, 149, 163-164 MSS (mobile satellite service), 211 satellite news gathering, 165, 208-209 Muckrakers, 56, 74 MUDs (multi- television, 162-163, 164-169 user dungeons), 218 Mullin, John, timeliness of, 65-66 113 News agencies, 81-82 and objective reporting, 53-54, 82 News expresses, 68 INDEX 275

News gathering Online services, 232 audiotape and, 113-114 Oral culture cooperative, 53 television as, 152-153 electronic, 164-165, 176-177 writing and, 11-12 satellite, 165, 208-209 telegraph and, 80-81 videotape and, 164-165, p 176-177 Packaging, 63-64 Newsbooks, 31 Pagers, 146 Newsgroups, 221-222 Pahlevi, Shah Reza, xxvii Newsletters, 31 Paine, Tom, 49 Newspapers, 51-56 PAL standard, 157 advertising in, 62-63 Pamphlets, 31, 49 business of, 51-52 Paper, 19, 20-23 censorship and, 51 invention of, 21 chains, 55 manufacture of, 48, 49-50, 106 colonial American, 65-66 newsprint, 74 color in, 103 westward spread of, 22-23 Paperless effects on reading, 103 society/office, 21 Papyrus, 4-6, 19 entertainment in, 103-104 Parcel post, 30, 143 Parchment, 6-7 faxes and, 227, 228 Parry, Robert, 235 Parsons, L.E., 171 free exchange of, 66-67 Party press, 52 Pathe, Charles, 110 free vs. controlled, 55-56 Pathe, Emile, 110 Pathegraphe, 111 illustrations in, 51, 54-55, 74-75 Pay-per-view (PPV), 204 Pay-TV, 174 inverted pyramid style in, 82 PCS (personal communication service), local news in, 67 146-147 mass circulation, 103 Peel, Sir Robert, 46 Peephole news sources of, 52-54 machines, 97 Penny Magazine, The, online, 234-236 105 Penny press, 50, 52, 54. See origins of, 30-32 also postal delivery of, 65-69, 142-144 Newspapers technical improvements in, 54 Persistence of vision, 96, 154 Peter Pan telegraph and, 77, 80-82 Clock, 111 Petites Affiches, Les (Little telephone-based services by, 148 Notices), 61 Petzval, Josef, 71 Pfieumer, Newsreels, 164 Newssheets, 31 Fritz, 113 Phoenicians, 7, 8 Newsweek, xxv Niche marketing, Phonautograph, 107 Phonevision, 174 150 Nickelodeons, 123-125 Niepce, Phonofiddle, 111 Phonograph parlors, Joseph, 70 Nipkow, Paul, 154 109 Phonographs, 108-111 Novels, 106 Phonopostal, 111 Photoconductivity, 75 NTSC (National Television System Photocopying, 75-76 Photoengraving, Committee) standard, 157 74-75 Photogenic drawing, 71. See also Photography Photographic revolver, 97 O Objectivity Greek concept of, 12 in reporting, 53-54, 167 telegraph and, 77 Offices, business, 57-58 Offset lithography, 49, 55 Oldcastle, Sir John, 27 Olympic games, 168, 208 276 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Photographs/illustrations newspapers/magazines and, 65-66, half-tone printing, 48 67-68, 142-144 manipulation of, 121-122 postage stamps and, 62, 80 in newspapers, 54-55 postmasters and, 29-30, 66-67 Photography, 69-76 Tasso family, 19 Poster, Mark, 189 cameras-improvements and, 119-121 Postmodernism, 35, 47, 189 POTS chemistry of, 70 (plain old telephone service), 146 digital, 121-122 Poulsen, Valdemar, 113 Powers, John dry-plate, 119-120 E., 65 Preece, Sir William, 85, 91 Press- as a hobby, 120-121 radio war, 163 Prestel system, 231 holograms, 122-123 Prices, uniformity in, 80 Prime time, muckrakers and, 74 150 Printing, xvii, 18-42, 47-49, 240 photoengraving and, 74-75 block, 26, 36, 37 roots of, 69-70 books and, 23-27 wet-plate, 72 Photojournalism, 74 censorship and, 26-27 Physical activity, media's effects on, European knowledge of Chinese, 140, 141 Pi Sheng, 38 35-38 Pickford, Mary, 128 literacy and, 34-36 Pictographs, 2 as mass medium, 47-49 Picturephones, 147 Points movable type, 38-40 (type size), 40 Poland, newspapers and, 31-32 media in, xxx-xxxi Polaroid stereotyping, 48 cameras, 121 Police, 46 typesetting in, 48-49 Politics vernacular, 25-26, 32-33 Printing in America, xxxi presses, 48 Printing telegraph. See censorship in, 26-27, 207-208 Teletype Privacy, computers and, 195 economic freedom vs political control Private branch exchanges (PBXs), 87 and, xxx-xxxi Private cable, 205 Private express and mass media, xxiii-xxxii companies, 68, 143 Prodigy, 232, 234 newspapers and, 32, 55-56 Producers, independent, 135, 136 photography and, 72-73 Production Code Administration, 133 radio and, 90, 149 Programming television and, 165, 166-167 cable TV and, 170, 172 written documents, 9-10 fiber optics and, 206-207 Poniatoff, Alexander M., 176 interactive TV and, 233 Projection, Pony Express, 68, 81 motion picture, 96, 97-98 Public access Population transfers stations, 173, 174, 204 Public affairs, the Industrial Revolution and, 43-44 47-48 Public Broadcasting System technology and, xxi, 216-217 (PBS), 158 Public Radio International, Porter, Edwin, 126 Post roads, 158 Publick Occurrences, 31 Publishers, 68 as postmasters, 66-67 Pulitzer, Joseph, Postal Reform Act (1970), 144 54 Postal systems, 65-69, 142-144 air mail, 144 as businesses, 29-30 Q e-mail and, 225-226 Quadraphonic sound, 184-185 free home delivery by, 142-143 Qube, 230-231 governments and, 30 QWERTY keyboards, 59-60 history of, 14-15 international agreements in, 68-69 mail transportation in, 67-68 Middle Ages, 28-30 INDEX 277

R Religion censorship and, 26-27 Racism, in movies, 124-125 in the Dark Ages, 18-19 Radio, 89-95, 114-118, 148-152 television as, 168-169 advertising, 64, 117-118 vernacular printing and, 33-34 amateurs in, 93-94 written tradition in, 6, 8 Renaissance, broadcasting, 93, 114-118 the, 20, 34, 36 Reporting, 52-54, 77, 167. CB, 151 See also News; clandestine, xxvii Newspapers Reuter, Julius, competition in, 91-92, 115-116 30 Reuters, 81 Review, The, 104 cultural influence of, 149 Rheingold, Howard, 223-224 FM, 150 Righi, Auguste, 90 Riis, Jacob, future of, 151 74 Robert, Nicholas, 49 golden age of, 149 Robertson, James, 73 Rock 'n' homogenization by, 148-149, 189-190 roll, 182-183 Romans, 12, 15 on the Internet, 151, 191, 224-225 Ronephone, 111 Roosevelt, national policies on, 118 Franklin, 149 Rosing, Boris, networks, 118, 149, 150 154-155 Rotary cylinder press, origins of, 90-91 48 Rotula, 28 political broadcasts, 149 Rural free delivery (RFD), 142-143 receivers, early, 94-95 Russia regulation of, 92, 116-117 Gorbachev's arrest, xxiv scheduled programming in, 114-115 movies in, 129-130 societal effects of, 89-90, 115-116 VCRs in, 180 Rybczynski, stations, early, 94, 115 Witold, xix-xx telephone used as, 86-87 television and, 150-151 voice transmission in, 92-93 s Radio Act of 1912, 92 Radio Act Samizdat, 198 of 1927, 116-117 Radio group, Sarnoff, David, 150, 155, 156 117 Railroads SATCOM, 201 mail delivery and, 68, 80 Satellite communications, 207-213 and newspapers, 52-53 bandwidth limits and, 213 telegraph and, 79-80 cable TV and, 200-201, 204 Rashomon, 130 Reading. C-band/Ku-band, 212-213 See also Literacy censorship and, xxv as listening, 25, 33 direct broadcasting and, 211-212 spread of, 33-34 Ready future of, 213 prints, 54 Reaumur, Rene de, history of, 209-211 50 Receivers, radio, 93-95, 118 news and, 208-209 Recording, 107-114, 182-186 phone service and, 146 audiotape, 112-114, 164 politics and, 207-208 digital, 114, 185 radio and, 151 high fidelity, 111, 184-185 television and, 170 Satellite invention of, 107-109 master antenna television music and, 182-183 (SMATV), 205 Satellite news phonographs and, 109-111 gathering (SNG), 165, portable, 112-114 208-209 radio and, 149, 183-184 Recreation, Satellites, types of, 211-212 public, 101-102. See also Schawlow, Arthur, 206 Entertainment media Reformation, the, 20, 34, 36 Registered mail, 30 278 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Schulze, Johann, 70 Sumerians libraries of, 13 Schwarzkopf, Gen. Norman, xxxi, 167-168 numerals invented by, 2 Scott, Leon, 107 writing and, 1-2, 4 Scrambling signals, 213 Superstations, 201-202 Scribes, 6, 7 Syllabaries, 2 Scriveners, 25 SECAM standard, 157 Sejong, King, 38 T Selecta vision, 177-178 Tabloids, 103-104 Talbot, Semaphore, 78 William Fox, 71-72 Talk Sennett, Mack, 127 shows, 161 Tarlton, Robert, Shapp, Milton Jerrold, 171-172 172 Tasso postal system, Sholes, Christopher, 58-59, 60 19, 29 Tatler, The, 104 Silent Spring, 186 Teacher-in-the-Sky, 211 Siquis, 61 Technicolor, 131 Sitcoms, 160 Technology Smith, Oberlin, 112-113 developing countries and, 193 Soap operas, 159-160 pattern of progress in, 9 Social interaction Telautograph, 228 Telecenters, 216 communication tools effect on, xix, xxi, Telecommunication Reform Act (1996) 95-96, 139-140, 175, 239-241 146,159,204 Internet and, 223-224 Telecommunications, 195 printed materials effect on, 32 Telecommuting, 193, 214-217 Social structure advantages of, 215-216 Greek, 10-11 and population transfers, xxi, 216-217 Industrial Revolution and, 43-44, 46 Teleconferencing, 147, 211 Telefon printing/literacy and, 34-35 Hirmondo, 86-87, 170 Telegraph, 77-83 village/rural vs. urban, 44 development of, 77-79 Society news and, 55 change and, xvi, 239-240 newspapers and, 77, 80-82 fragmentation in, 190-193 telephone competition with, 85 wireless communication and, 152 typewriters and, 58, 59 Socrates, 12 Spamming, 225 Sparta, 11 Telegraph reporters, 53 Special interest groups (SIGs), 221 Telegraphone, 113 Spectator, The, 104 Spielberg, Steven, Telemarketing, 147 95 Sputnik, 209 Stamp Act of 1765, 32 Telephone, 83-89, 145-148 Stanford, Leland, 96 Stanton, Edwin, automatic translation, 148 82 Steichen, Edward, 119 Stereo, 111, cellular/pocket, 146-147 150 Stereo mats, 54 Stereotyping development of, 84-85 (printing), 48 Stern, Howard, 151 dial, 88 Stibitz, George, 195 Stieglitz, Alfred, early perceptions of, 83-84 119 Stone, John, 91 long distance and, 88 Store and forward communications, 225 news and, 55 Stroh, Augustus, 111 Stromer, Ulman, 23 operators/switchboards, 86-88 Strowger, Almon, 87-88 Subscription picturephones, 147 television (STV), 174 as public utility, 86 as radio, 86-87 reorganization of phone companies, 145-146 telegraph competition with, 85 Telephone group, 117 INDEX 279

Teleports, 213 Trip to the Moon, A, 123 Teleprinters, 82 Ts'ai Lun, 21 Teletel system, 231-232 Turner, Ted, 169, 201-202 Teletext, 231-232 Tyndale, William, 27 Type, Teletype, 55, 59, 82, 89 movable, 38-40 Type sizes, Teletypewriter exchange service (TWX), 40 Typewriters, 57-60 89 keyboards, 59-60 Teletypewriters. See Teletype Sholes, 58-59 Television, 152-162 advertising, 64-65, 158 and books, 185-186 U cable, 169-174 UHF (ultra-high frequency), 157 Civil Rights movement and, 165-166 U-matic, 176-177 UNESCO, color, 155, 157 xxviii-xxix United States HDTV, 136, 158, 206, 212 Civil War, 62, 73 interactive, 229-233 first newspapers in, 31-32 on the Internet, 224-225 private media development in, 79, 92 invention of, 154-156 Univac, 195 knowledge gap and, 202-203 Universal Postal Union, 69 movies and, 134-135 Universities, 24-25, 34 news, 162-163, 164-169 Internet and, 222 pay, 174 postal systems of, 28-29 University of paying for, 161-162 Paris, postal system, 28-29 Upper case problems with heavy usage of, 141 letters, 40 URLs (uniform resource programming, 158-161 locators), 219 U.S. v. Paramount, 158 and radio, 150-151 Usenet, 222 spread of, 156-157 standards, 156, 157 stations, early, 155-156 V time spent watching, xxiii, 152-153, Vacuum tubes, 92-93 202-203 Vail, Alfred, 78-79 videotape and, 175-177, 180 Telnet, Vail, Theodore, 86 219 Telstar, 210 Terrorism, xxvii Third V-chips, 159 World countries, xxviii-xxix, 181, Vellum, 6 194, 202-203 Thomas, VHF (very-high frequency), 157 Lowell, 163 Thomson, Sir VHS format, 177 J.J., 154 Thoreau, Henry Victor Talking Machine Company, David, 83 Threads, 234 109-110 Thurn and Taxis postal system, 29 Video camcorders, 136, 181-182 Video Tiananmen Square uprising, xxiv-xxvi piracy, 180-181 Video teleconferencing, Tielines, 82 147, 211 Videocassette recorders (VCRs), Tipao (palace report), 30 174-176, 177-178 Titanic, 92 political power of, xxvi-xxvii, 179-180 Tocqueville, Alexis de, 47 Toffler, Alvin, video piracy and, 180-181 194, 216 Toll broadcasting, 117. See also Videodiscs, 178 Video-on- Advertising Tombstone page makeup demand, 230 Videos, music, style, 48 Toolshed Human, 241-242 184 Videotape, 164, 174-182 Townes, Charles, 206 Transatlantic color, 176 cables, 80, 88 Transponders, 210 Tribal development of, 175-176 Human, 241-242 news gathering and, 176-177 280 A HISTORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Videotex, 231-232 radio and, 92, 94, 95 Vietnam War, 167-168 telephone and, 88 Viewdata, 231-232 World War II Village Video Network, 179 audiotape and, 113-114 Violence television and, 156-157 rock/rap music and, 183 World Wide Web, 219-220 television/movies and, 140, 159 advertising and, 222-223 Voice mail, 147 choices and, 192 Voice of America, 90 links on, 198-199 VSAT (very small aperture terminal), 213 radio on,151,191, 224-225 search tools, 220 Worldwide Television News (WTN), 165 W Writing, xvii, 1-17, 240 Walesa, Lech, xxxi Chinese, 21 Walkie-Talkies, 146 on clay tablets, 1-2 Walkman, 112, 140 Wall handwriting, 34 Street Journal, xxvi ideographic, 2 Walson, John, 171 knowledge advances and, 2-3, 7-14 Wanamaker, John, 64 media for, 3-7 Wang, An, 195 War of oral cultures and, 11-12 the Worlds, 149 Warfare phonetic, 2 photography and, 46 resistance to, 11, 12 technology and, 46 WTBS, 201 television and, 167-168 Warner, Harry M., 130-131 Watergate scandal, 168 Watts riots, 166 Wedgewood, Thomas, 70 X Western Union, 79-80. See also Telegraph Xerography, 75-76 X-ray Wet-plate photography, 72 Wheatstone, photography, 75 Charles, 78 White, E.B., 156 Whitney, Eli, Xylographic printing, 26 50 Wireless cable, 205 Wolff, Bernard, 81- Xylography, 35 82 Women Internet and, 221, 232 literacy and, 33 Y as telephone operators, 87-88 Yellow journalism, 103 typewriters and, 57-60 Yellow Kid, The, 103 work and, 44, 45-46 Young, Thomas, 107 "World News Roundup," 149 World War I movies and, 129 Z Zenger, John Peter, 51 Zines, 197-198, 200-201 ZIP (Zoning Improvement Plan) codes, 144 Zukor, Adolph, 128 Zworykin, Vladimir, 155