The Creation of the Media
Offers a historical analysis of the creation of communications in the United States and demonstrates how political decisions affected the developing American society and how these choices have social, economic, and military impact.
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2011–2021years
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- A couple of books on the topic: "The Master Switch" by Tim Wu, and "The Creation of the Media", by Paul Starr.
"The Master Switch" goes through the history of radio, where an initial period of experimentation was stifled by regulation, with big business (the large networks) being the major beneficiary; the two weren't necessarily opposed.
On the other hand, the former will show you that eliminating regulation doesn't necessarily eliminate the problem. In the absence of effective regulation in the 19th century, Western Union seized an effective monopoly on telegraphy. Having done that, they then made a deal for cut rates with the Associated Press whereby AP-affiliated newspapers (effectively, any paper that wanted to cover national stories) were forbidden to editorialize against the monopoly.
- The claim is that ISPs won't see it in their best interest to restrict access to particular content, or to charge premiums. That's inconsistent with their observed behavior (e.g., charging extra for mobile phone tethering, even though shipping packets costs them the same whether or not the phone ships them three feet further to a laptop). It's also inconsistent with their expressed desires (viz., for instance, AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre whining about Google and Yahoo wanting to "use [our] pipes free" --- even though the pipes in question were already paid for by customers who thought they had every right to use them to access Google content).
For more on the relevant history, I recommend "The Master Switch" by Tim Wu, or "The Creation of the Media" by Paul Starr.
Cite on the Whitacre quote: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/ip-telephony/how-google-can-tell-e...
- This isn't the first century in which the press has skewed its coverage of its own business to serve its business interests. For decades, the Associated Press and Western Union had a symbiotic relationship in which the AP got favorable rates in return for, among other things, forbidding its subscribing papers to criticize the Western Union telegraph monopoly. (Here's where I'd link to a reference if it was on line, but it's not: Paul Starr, "The Creation of the Media", ch. 5, p. 184.)
- My (admittedly brief) comment concerned the original formation of the U.S. Post Office and its long-time role in subsidised communications. Robert McChesney is among those who've addressed this:
In the first generations of the republic, newspapers accounted for between 70 percent and 95 percent of post-office traffic, and newspapers depended upon the post office for the distribution of much of their circulation. A key question facing Congress was what to charge newspapers to be mailed. No one at the time was arguing that newspapers should pay full freight, that the market should rule; the range of debate was between those who argued for a large public subsidy and those who argued that all postage for newspapers should be free, to encourage the production and distribution of a wide range of ideas. The former position won, and it contributed to a massive flowering of print media in the United States throughout the early 19th century. What is most striking about this period, as Paul Starr argues in his new book, The Creation of the Media, is that there wasn't rhetoric about free markets in the media, nor about the sacrosanct rights of commercial interests. That came later.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/McChesney/Waging_Media_Bat...
In his books, McChesney puts strong weight on the role of the post office in the development of early journalism and media, largely in the form of newspapers and magazines.
Related: the USPS subsidised the operation of both railroads and air travel through postal services on both. Trains, through the 1960s, had "post office cars", which not only carried postal mail, but which were mobile sorting offices in which mail was organised, in transit, for its final destination. The development of postal codes, "Zone Instant Postal Codes", better known as "ZIP Codes", in the 1960s, helped phase those out.
Airmail played a role in the establishment of early regularly scheduled air flights.
And if you've ever wondered what the "RMS" in "RMS Titanic" stood for, it's "Royal Mail Ship".
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_post_office
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZIP_Code
- Hi rst:
You're right, "Master Switch" is a great book. It has influenced me in the writing of #killswitch.
Link to #killswitch project: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/akorn/killswitch-a-docum...
I have not read "The Creation of the Media", by Paul Starr. What can you tell me about that book?
