Morse Code
Who was Samuel Morse?
His motivation was that his wife died before message could reach him. Led to search for better system, saw software as key, not hardware, dot-dashed signal based on letter frequency.
What was the telegraph?
Telegraph was the way newspapers connected with each other.
What did the telephone do?
Telephone carried broadcast signals to affiliates of the radio networks.
True or False: Was the telephone and telegram both one to one and one to many?
True
What is Convergence Culture?
Media merging, is an ongoing process at the intersection of technology, industry, culture, audience
How does print technology lead to morse code?
- Morse checked with a printing company to see how many letters were typically stocked in a full font set
- Ex. of convergence: one media technology leading to the next
- Binary system of dots and dashes
- Internet also runs on binary code
Explain when the telegraph lines US, UK.
- First lines laid down in 1858
- Permanent lines in place by 1866
- Special AP - Reuters deal 1890s
Who invented the telephone?
Alexander Graham Bell
What was the way that newspapers connected with each other?
Telegraph
Explain the cycles of tech development.
Open - monopolies stagnate inventors try to circumvent old technologies.
Closed - experimentation, competition, innovation
Alternatives - patents and regulations are used to protect profits.
- Elegant software solution to hardware problem
- others like Cooke and Wheatstone could not solve it
- Failed to consider coding as the answer
- Morse code adopted internationality by 1865
- Morse wanted telegraph to be owned by government
- Like Daguerre, wanted to give the tech away to all
- European nations left it unregulated
- But US allowed telegraph to become a monopoly called Western Union
What was formation of Reuter's?
- Unlike US, telegraph was nationalized
- This meant there was net neutrality
- Paul Reuter (Havas employee) -UK
- Formed Reuter's in London 1851
- Second largest international wire service today (after AP)
Explain the invention of the telephone.
- Way of circumventing WU monopoly
- Alexander Graham Bell telephone experiments, 1870s
- Bell telephone patent, 1876
What did the telegraph and the telephone both do?
Transformed into instruments of mass communication, 1800-1900s.
What was the AP Western Union monopoly?
- Could "veto" entry of new members
- Refused to pass along "hostile information about AP or Western Union
- Theft of secret information for stock trading
- Exclusion of competitors from key newspaper markets
- False competitor United Press set up in 1882
- Secretly Funneled profits back to AP
In typical type font, printers stocked 12,000 ________ and 9,000 ______
1. E's
2. T's
What was the impact of the telegraph on news writing?
- Short dispatches become standard to prevent loss of signal from ruining story
- Only the most important information in first few words of dispatch.
- Inverted pyramid journalistic writing style comes from technological limitation / advantage
- The medium is, or has an impact on, the message
How does the telephone becomes a monopoly?
- From 1890s-1980s, AT&T forced most competitors out of business out of business
- Public relations campaign helped stare off a breakup until 1980s
-Kingsbury Commitment with US Justice Dept. allowed AT&T to continue as a regulated monopoly
True or False: Both the telegraph and the telephone known primarily for person - to - person communication
True
How did the associated press form in 1846?
- 1846 express news from Mexican War
- Became a monopoly with Western Union telegraph company in 1860s
- Blocked competition and managed news
Printers stocked 400 _____ and 200 ______ because they were rarely used.
1. Q
2. Z
Describe news before and after the telegraph?
Before
- Lengthy, descriptive, narrative
After
- brief, factual, inverted pyramid
How did the telephone reach millions?
- public relations campaign claimed telephone was a "natural" monopoly
- By 1912, telephone was regulated rather than broken up into competing companies
-only by 1982 were US phone services broken up into regional carriers with much lower rates
Did the telegraph or telephone allow wire services?
telegraph
Explain the newspaper writing style shifts.
- Less editorial flare in hard news stories
- Positive: brings more emphasis on objective new
- Negative: strips news of progressive reform impulse