News Over the Wires


Book Description

This unique history of telegraphic news gathering and news flow evaluates the effect of the innovative technology on the evolution of the concept of news and journalistic practices. It also addresses problems of technological innovation and diffusion. Menahem Blondheim's main concern, however, is the development of oligopoly in business and the control revolution in American society. He traces the discovery of timely news as a commodity, presenting a lively and detailed account of the emergence of the New York Associated Press (AP) as the first private sector national monopoly in the United States and Western Union as the first industrial one.




Over the Wire and on TV


Book Description

First the press became the media, and now the media have become the Imperial Media—or have they? In this timely and comprehensive analysis, Michael Robinson and Margaret Sheehan examine how the news media behaved (or misbehaved) in covering the 1980 presidential campaign. Using the media's own traditional standards as a guide, Robinson and Sheehan measure the level of objectivity, fairness, seriousness, and criticism displayed by CBS News and United Press International between January and December of 1980. Drawing on statistical analyses of almost 6,000 news stories and dozens of interviews with writers and reporters, the authors reach convincing and sometimes surprising conclusions. They demonstrate, for example, that both CBS and UPI strictly avoided subjective assessments of the candidates and their positions on the issues. Both gave the major parties remarkably equal access. But the media seem to give more negative coverage to front-runners, treating serious challengers less harshly. Perhaps the most surprising finding is that networks were not more superficial than print; CBS attended to the issues at least as often as UPI. Robinson and Sheehan find television coverage more subjective, more volatile, and substantially more negative than traditional print. But CBS behaved neither imperially nor irresponsibly in Campaign '80. The networks did, however, emulate the more highly charged journalism of the eastern elite print press. By blending the quantitative techniques of social science and the tools of Washington-based journalism, Robinson and Sheehan have produced a book that will be essential reading for students and practitioners of politics, public opinion research, journalism, and communications. Lively and readable, it should also appeal to anyone interested in the role of the news media in contemporary politics.




Crossed Wires


Book Description

A sweeping, revisionist historical analysis of telecommunications networks, from the dawn of the republic to the 21st century. Telecommunications networks are vast, intricate, hugely costly systems for exchanging messages and information-within cities and across continents. From the Post Office and the telegraph to today's internet, these networks have sown domestic division while also acting as sources of international power. In Crossed Wires, Dan Schiller, who has conducted archival research on US telecommunications for more than forty years, recovers the extraordinary social history of the major network systems of the United States. Drawing on arrays of archival documents and secondary sources, Schiller reveals that this history has been shaped by sharp social and political conflict and is embedded in the larger history of an expansionary US political economy. Schiller argues that networks have enabled US imperialism through a a recurrent "American system" of cross-border communications. Three other key findings wind through the book. First, business users of networks--more than carriers, and certainly more than residential users--have repeatedly determined how telecommunications systems have developed. Second, despite their current importance for virtually every sphere of social life, networks have been consecrated above all to aiding the circulation of commodities. Finally, although the preferences of executives and officials have broadly determined outcomes, these elites have repeatedly had to contend against the ideas and organizations of workers, social movement activists, and other reformers. This authoritative and comprehensive revisionist history of US telecommunications argues that not technology but a dominative--and contested--political economy drove the evolution of this critical industry.




The International Distribution of News


Book Description

Based on newly available and extensive archival evidence, this book traces the history of international news agencies and associations around the world from 1848 to 1947. Jonathan Silberstein-Loeb argues that newspaper publishers formed news associations and patronized news agencies to cut the costs of news collection and exclude competitors from gaining access to the news. In this way, cooperation facilitated the distribution of news. The extent to which state regulation permitted cooperation, or prohibited exclusivity, determined the benefit newspaper publishers derived from these organizations. This book revises our understanding of the operation and organization of the Associated Press, the BBC, the Press Association, Reuters, and the United Press. It also sheds light on the history of competition policy respecting the press, intellectual property, and the regulation of telecommunications.







The Radio Station


Book Description

The Radio Stationis considered the standard work on radio media. It remains a concise and candid guide to the internal workings of radio stations and the radio industry in all of its various forms. Not only will you begin understand how each job at a radio station is best performed, you will learn how it meshes with those of the rest of the radio station staff. If you are uncertain of your career goals, this book provides a solid foundation in who does what, when, and why. The Radio Stationdetails all departments within a radio station--be it a terrestrial, satellite, or Internet operation-from the inside-out, covering technology to operations, and sales to syndication. It also offers an overview of how government regulations affect radio stations today and how radio stations have adapted to new communications technologies. Drawing on the insights and observations of those who make their daily living by working in the industry, this edition continues its tradition of presenting the real-world perspective of where radio comes from, and where it is heading. The Eighth Edition of this classic text includes expanded sections on digital, satellite, and Internet radio; integration of new technologies; new and evolving formats; the uses and applications of podcasts and blogs; mobile multimedia devices; programming for the new radio formats; new contributions by key industry executives; digital studios; station clustering and consolidation; industry economics and statistics; and updated rules and regulations. The new companion website features the interviews and essays with industry professionals, an image bank, additional suggested reading, and a listing of helpful links to industry websites. This edition is loaded with new illustrations, feature boxes and quotes from industry pros, bringing it all together for the reader. Please visit the companion website (http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/cw/keith-9780240811864/) and click on the Resources tab at the top for helpful links and extra content.




The World's Work


Book Description

A history of our time.




Engineering News


Book Description




FAA Aviation News


Book Description