1. The document discusses the history of communication networks and news distribution from the 15th to 18th centuries. Key developments included the establishment of postal services and the rise of printing, which led to printed news publications. 2. The two crucial developments affecting 15th-17th century communication networks were the establishment of various states' postal services and the role of the printing press in news distribution through printed leaflets and periodical publications. 3. The document also examines the Stamp Act of 1712, which imposed taxes on newspapers, and the transition to a more entertainment-focused press in the 18th century with the development of the first daily newspaper in England.

1. Chapter 16, 17, 18
Karen Menecola, Amanda Moss, Darren
McClure, Jennifer Morrow, Rachael Mckay

2. Amanda Moss – The Trade In News

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

4. Before printing in Europe
4 different types of communication networks
established:
1. Controlled by the Catholic Church
2. Controlled by the political authorities of
states and principalities
3. Connected to the rise of commercial
activity
4. Diffused to villages / towns through
merchants, travelling entertainers
(storytellers & ballad singers)

5. Changes From the 15th – 17th Century
*2 crucial developments affecting communication networks
1. Various states established postal services which
became very popular for the public and general use:
- France (1464) & England – royal post charged private
individuals to use it with permission
- Central Europe – post network linking Habsburg to
European cities
• 1490 – imperial post system
- the general public did not have access to these postal
services (foreign and domestic) until the early 17th century

6. 2. Printing press played a new role in news distribution
- “printed information leaflets, posters and broadsheets” (114)
sold by hawkers and peddlers in the street
- 2nd half of 16th century – periodical publications of news
- mid 17th century – weekly appearance of journals
- news paper production centres – Cologne , Frankfurt,
Antwerp, Berlin (European trading routes)
- news was more concerned with foreign news
- England (1640) – newspapers focused on more local news
- 1641 – 3 local newspapers were published weekly

7. The Periodical Press in the
18th Century
- 1702 – England’s first daily
newspaper – Daily Courant
- more specialized papers –
entertainment, cultural events,
financial and commercial news
-1750 – in total of all papers,
100,000 copies per week

8. Paper and Taxes
- Political authorities imposed tax on newspapers to
practice their control and power
- The Stamp Act of 1712 - newspaper owners paid
one shilling per printed sheet and one shilling per
advertisement
- many people were against this act
- 1803 – taxes were cut  1860 - TAX FREE

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

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

11. Karen Menecola – Electricity Creates
the Wired World

12. Intro
SO FAR:
- media that physically carried information, for
example, moving the medium moved the
information (books, clay tablets, quipu)
- invention of harnessable electricity, brought the
first wave of a new communications revolution, with
the telegraph and the telephone

13. Old Technology to New Technology
-Marshall McLuhan:
“messages travel faster than messengers”
- “transportation” model to “transmission”
- originally, they used
- smoke signals
- drum signals (talking drums)
- heliographs (reflecting sunlight with metal)
- torch signals that represented letters of the
alphabet

14. Invention of the Telegraph
- invented in 1840
- transformed words into
electrical impulses
- used Morse code – short
dots and long dots which
represented letters

15. Telegraph and Railroad
- wherever the railroad went, the telegraph was built as
well
- the railroad found it very convenient for the telegraph
provided the ability to monitor rail traffic and warn of
breakdowns
- telegraph became part of the railroads business:
- forwarding orders
- coordinated shipments
- reported transactions

16. Impact on economy
- end of the 18th century, the telegraph became a global system
- the telegraph greatly influenced journalism and the newspaper
- Michael Schudson states that it created 2 types of journalism:
- the information press: directed to political,
economical, and the business community
- the entertainment press: dramatic, scandalous, and
everyday life of the urban working class

17. Invention of the telephone
- created in the third quarter of the 19th century
- overcame several limitations of the telegraph:
- not restricted to transmission of written
documents
- telegraph was limited to the literate
- telegraph did not make its way into homes
- telephone competed with the telegraph, but also
complimented it

18. Invention of the Telephone (continued)
-late 1880s telephone moved into wealthy private
homes
- 1890s, invention of switch boards and telephone
into residential homes
- “electrical literacy”

19. Rachael McKay– Telegraphy: The
Victorian Internet

20. History of the Electric Telegraph
- Name: Prof. Thomas Morse
- Invented the American electric
telegraph
- Purpose: cosmopolitan use
that was not restricted to railway
lines

21. The Spread of the Electric Telegraph USA
•1846 – Morse's experimental line ran 40
miles between Washington and Baltimore
•1850 – 12,000 miles and 20 different
companies
•1852 – 23,000 miles + 10,000 under
construction
•1861 – completion of transcontinental
telegraph line connection east to west coast

22. The Spread of the Electric Telegraph
Britain:
- 1839 - first electric telegraph line
- 1848 – half of countries railway tracks have telegraph
wires running alongside
- 1850 – 2,215 miles of wire along railway lines
- 1851 – Great Exhibition in London.

23. The Spread of the Electric Telegraph
Internationally... (1852)
- 1,493 miles – Prussia – buried telegraphic wires
underground
- 1,053 miles – Austria
- 983 miles – Canada
- 750 miles – France – were reluctant to disregard old
optical telegraph technology
- Operations in –
Tuscany, Saxony, Spain, Russia, Holland, Australia, Cub
a, Chile, and India

24. The Spread of the Electric Telegraph
Inter-Continental:
- 1849 – first interconnection treaty, special joint
telegraph office
- 1850 – Austro German Telegraph
- Shortly after France, Belgium, Switzerland all
established international agreements

25. The Underwater Telegraph
Problem: To connect Britian with the rest of Europe they had to
overcome the English Channel (150 miles wide)
Solutions:
1. 1840 Wheatstone
2. 1843 Morse
3. Gutta-Percha

26. John and Jacob Brett
Attempt #1: They took a very large spool of telegraph wire
and coated it in ¼ inch of gutta-percha. They piled this on the
back of their boat and dropped it in weighting it at regular
intervals for it to sink to the bottom.
Problems:
- electrical properties of the water mixed with the cable
resulting in incomprehensible messages
- was easily broken apart did not sink on it's own (had to be
weighted down)

27. Attempt #2:
- With the help of Thomas Crampton, a railway
engineer, they were able to design a new method.
-They took 4 telegraph wires and coated them in gutta-
percha, twisted them together, wrapped them in tar
covered hemp and encased the whole thing in tar covered
cords.
-This new cord was much more durable and weighted so it
would sink on it's own.
-In November 1951 the first international, underwater
telegraph line was available to the public.

28. By 1854:
- London was sending daily telegrams to Paris
- England had been linked to Ireland
- England was connected
with Germany, Russia
, and Holland
- Europe was linked
with Africa

29. 1. Who invented the
American electric
telegraph??

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

31. Darren McClure
& Jennifer Morrow
-The New Journalism

32. -Most major news papers in New York started from
penny press
- the two largest were the World and the Journal
- quot;the new journalismquot;
- World and Journal -> entertainment (the ideal of
the quot;storyquot;)
- old penny press style (eg Times) -> factuality (the
ideal of quot;informationquot;)

33. Journalism as Entertainment
- the New York World – Begun in 1859
- revived by Joseph Pulitzer in 1883
- When he bought it, its circulation was about 15 000
- by 1886, its circulation was over a quarter million
- papers democratic position was an influence on its
success
- the innovation most responsible for the paper’s
success in circulation was sensationalism

34. Journalism as Entertainment
- sensationalism meant self-advertisement
- for example: the use of illustrations
- larger and darker headlines
- the world came to embody the entertainment
function of the newspaper
- newspapers also responded to the changes in city
population patterns

35. Journalism as Information:
- quot;All the News That's Fit to Printquot;
- the New York Times set the standard for mass-
circulation journalism after 1896
- claimed highest circulation but didn't compete with
the World or the Journal

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

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

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