Outline:
I- Geographical Space: A barrier to communication
II- Geography and the Mythical World
III- Ancient Encounters of Societies and Cultures
IV- Global Explorers: Migrants, Holy People, Merchants
V- Mapmakers in the Medieval World
VII- The Printing Press, the Knowledge Explosion
VIII- The Growth of the telegraph
IX- The Era of News Agencies
X- The Rise of Reuters
Geographical Space: A barrier to communication
In the past, distance was a hadicap for people to communicate with others.
•Geography of space” =“Geography of experience” through space of flow.
-Distance is no more a problem to communicate. Technological tools, for instance T.V, Internet, Radio, etc. made the world small and easy to access for every single person.
Geography and the Mythical World
-Frances Cairncross, argue that the speed of communication is creating a world where the miles have little to do with our ability to work or interact together
-Cairncross predicts that much work that can be done on a computer can be done from anywhere
-Cairncross discusses about 30 major changes likely to result from these trends, including a diminishing need for countries to want emigration.
Ancient Encounters of Societies and Cultures
-In addition to official systems of communication, there have also been informal networks of travelers and traders
-The technologies of international communication may be contemporary phenomena but trade and cultural interchanges have existed for more than two millennia between the Graeco-Roman world with Arabia, India and China
-Information and ideas were communicated across continents, as shown by the spread of Buddhism, Christianity and Islam.
Global Explorers: Migrants, Holy People, Merchants
-Waves of emigration as a result of industrialization helped to create a popular demand for news from relatives at home and abroad and a climate of international consciousness
Mapmakers in the Medieval World
-Mapmaking was an integral part of communication history
-Maps were widely considered to be valuable keys to unlocking unknown worlds
(Chritopher Colombus while discovering US)
The Printing Press, the Knowledge Explosion
-It was the Moslems, who developed paper technology and brought it to Europe
-In the sixteen century paper was available
-Once, printing with “movables” types became available, it was recognized as a truly extraordinary technological advance
-Johannes Gutenberg made a truly significant technological advance
-He eventually managed to cast individual letters in molten metal in such a way that they would be as clear and sharp as those on this slide
-The number of books available exploded as the printing press quickly spread throughout Europe
-Because more and more of these books appeared in the vernacular, printing greatly accelerated the development in science, philosophy, and religion
In Imagined Communities, (1983) Benedict Anderson gives a detailed analysis of the interaction between capitalism and printing
-The printing revolution helped to lay the basis for the Reformation and the foundations of nationalism (nation-state) and of modern capitalism
-The new languages, mainly European ones: Spanish, English, French became the main vehicle of communication for the European colonial power in many parts of the world
-To harmonize international postal rates and to recognize the principle of respect for the secrecy of correspondence, the Universal Postal Union was established in 1875 in Berne, under the Universal Postal Convention of 1874
The Growth of the telegraph
-The second half of the nineteenth century witnessed an expanding system of imperial communications made at place by the electric telegraph
-The telegraph made the transmission of information rapid and ensured secrecy and protection of codes
-As usual, the business community was first to make use of this new technology (current parallelism)
-The rapid development of the telegraphy was crucial feature in the unification of the British Empire
-By the end of the century, as a result of the cable connections, the telegraph allowed the Colonial Office and the India Office to communicate directly with the Empire within minutes
-The new technology also had significant military implications
-The overhead telegraph, installed in Algeria in 1842, proved a decisive aid to the French during the occupation and colonization of Algeria
-To regulate the growing internationalization of information, the International Telegraph Union was founded in 1865 with 22 members, all European, except Persia
-The cable technology was an essential part of the new imperialism
-The cables were the arteries of international networks of information, of intelligence of services and of propaganda
-After the war, the debates over who should control the cables dominated discussions at the 1919 peace talks at Versailles and reflected the rivalry between the British cable companies and the growing US radio interest for ownership and control of global communications networks
-The USA proposed that the cables be held jointly under international control or trusteeship and that a world congress be convened to consider international aspects of telegraph, cable and radio communication
The Era of News Agencies
-The French Havas Agency (ancestor of APF) was founded in 1835, the German agency Wolff in 1849 and the British Reuters in 1851, it was created by Charles-Louis Havas in 1835 in Paris and used by merchants & government officials
-Starting 1860, the agency was reporting news from all over Europe
-As a result of the Nazi aggression, the French government took the agency over
-The three European agencies began as international one subsidized by their respective governments
-The three European agencies controlled information markets in Europe and were looking beyond the continent to expand their operations
-In 1870, they signed a treaty to divide up the world market between them
-The resulting associations of agencies became known as the league of Allied Agencies
-The basic contract set the “reserved territories” for the three agencies
-Each agency made its own separate contracts with national agencies or other subscribers within its own territory
-Sometimes the three agencies shared territories in which all three agencies had equal rights
-However, Reuters tended to dominate
-Its influence was due to the British Empire
Reuters =>British Empire=>Reuters
-However, Reuters tended to dominate
-Its influence was due to the British Empire
-British control of cable lines made London itself an unrivalled centre for world news
-After the First World War, Wolff ceased to be a world agency and AP started to challenge Reuters and Havas Agency
The Rise of Reuters
-Communication was critical to the expansion and consolidation of modern European empires
-The fortunes of Reuters, the most known international news agency can be seen to run in parallel with the growth of the British Empire
-Reuters had been started in 1851 by entrepreneur Julius Reuter
-It started sending news and commercial information from Achen to Brussels via pigeon
-Paul Julius Reuters noticed that, with the electric telegraph, news no longer required days or weeks to travel long distances
-In 1865, Reuter's private firm was restructured and became a limited company called Reuter’s Telegram Company
-The expansion of trade and investment had led to a huge growth in the demand for news and contributed to the commercialization of news and information services
- Reuters exploited this demand helped by the new communication technologies, especially the telegraph
-The expansion of European capitalism had created a pressing need for improved commercial intelligence
-The relationship between capital and communication was an aspect of what has been called the
REUTERS FACTOR =CNN FACTOR
-Functions like a multiplier that turns
An increase in the supply of information = An increase in businesses
