Editor’s Note: It is easy
to see how technology shapes our daily lives. What is not
always apparent is the role the press plays in these advancements.
This three part series investigates the relationship between
journalism, technology and society, from the beginnings
of the “wire” and the Associated Press in the
19th century to the mega-structures of the 21st century
wireless society.
For years, sociologists, philosophers and anthropologists
have studied the effects of media on society and how news
shapes the way people think. However, the news profession,
as a product and a purveyor of information, also drives technological
innovation and new modes of business. The Vietnam War, as
the first televised war, brought about a new kind of reporting
and new understanding of international structures, not unlike
how the Mexican War precipitated the formation of the Associated
Press.
The Associated Press, founded in New York City, began a
revolutionary news reporting
structure that spread internationally and was one of the first building blocks
for what became known as the ‘wired’ society in the 19th century
and the ‘wireless’ society of the 21st century.
The public introduction of the telegraph in 1844 revolutionized
information transfer and the production of national news.
In the United States in particular, the telegraph - or ‘wire’ -
became essential in building modern news systems as we know
it and in developing new systems of commerce. As early 20th
century media scholar Marshall McCluhan noted, telegraphy
connected individuals “across space,” thus person-to-person
relationships changed as this transcended traditional notions
of geography. But even prior to telegraphy, news organizations
were constantly searching for new ways to overcome the space
and time barriers that stalled news transmission.
News and Transportation
In the fifty years predating ‘the wire,’ the
equation of news coverage, printing, and information dissemination
was dependent on transportation. Intricate transportation
systems had to be developed to ensure news could reach across
the United States and Canada, often from Europe and beyond.
The better the transportation systems, the faster news reached
the public. During this period of the ‘transportation
revolution,’ when train tracks were being laid and
carrier services being developed, the notion of time and
space as it related to information was born. By the time ‘the
wire’ arrived, speed as a relation to cost was already
a commonly accepted component of the news profession. “Old
news is no news,” entered the journalistic thought
process. Local news could become national or even international,
and local business could market across the country.
The Wire and the Mexican War
When ‘the wire’ arrived for public consumption
in 1844, the “need for speed,” was already set
in journalism profession. As media scholar Menahem Blondheim
notes in his book, News Over the Wire, publishing the latest
news meant that information was made available for public
scrutiny in a way that couldn’t be accomplished before.
“The telegraph, by increasing the speed of news and
making its continuous transmission possible, broke down the
reporting of developing news stories into small and more
frequent segments. …[And] also promised to expand the
scope of the news,” from local to national to international
coverage, writes Blondheim.
When the Mexican War broke out in 1846, competition between
publications for the earliest news also broke out. It was
at this time
that Moses Sperry Beach, owner of the New York Sun, along
with his brother Alfred Ely Beach and father Moses Yale Beach,
proposed an arrangement with competing news organizations
to share expenses. The arrangement meant lower costs and
decreased time between reporting and publication of news
stories. Today the AP boasts 240 news bureaus around the
world and 1,500 member newspapers. Other organizations followed,
such as Reuters (established in1851 in London) and The United
Press International (established in 1907). Besides making
news available quickly and cheaply, the Associated Press
opened up a new way of doing business.
Part II of this series will examine
the technologies and methods of transmission that have ultimately
led to ‘the wireless’ society we live in now.
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