The creation of the media : political origins of modern communications

America's leading role in today's information revolution may seem simply to reflect its position as the world's dominant economy and most powerful state. But by the early nineteenth century, when the United States was neither a world power nor a primary center of scientific discovery, it was already a leader in communications-in postal service and newspaper publishing, then in development of the telegraph and telephone networks, later in the whole repertoire of mass communications.In this wide-ranging social history of American media, from the first printing press to the early days of radio, Paul Starr shows that the creation of modern communications was as much the result of political choices as of technological invention. With his original historical analysis, Starr examines how the decisions that led to a state-run post office and private monopolies on the telegraph and telephone systems affected a developing society. He illuminates contemporary controversies over freedom of information by exploring such crucial formative issues as freedom of the press, intellectual property, privacy, public access to information, and the shaping of specific technologies and institutions. America's critical choices in these areas, Starr argues, affect the long-run path of development in a society and have had wide social, economic, and even military ramifications. The Creation of the Media not only tells the history of the media in a new way; it puts America and its global influence into a new perspective. Preface and Acknowledgments 11 INTRODUCTION The Political Origins of Modern Communications 13 Revolutions as Constitutive Moments 16 Communications and Power 19 The Path of American Development 24 PART ONE The Opening of the Public Sphere 1600-1860 33 CHAPTER ONE Early Modern Origins 35 The Diffusion and Control of Print 37 Networks and News 42 England's Opening 45 France and the Transnational Public 53 The De Facto Public Sphere 57 CHAPTER TWO New Foundations 59 Colonial Legacies 61 The Revolution and the Public Sphere 74 Constitutional Choices 83 Why Rights Mattered 89 CHAPTER THREE America's First Information Revolution 95 The Creation of the News Network 96 Privacy and Public Knowledge 106 The Democratization of Competence 111 An American Revolution in Communications 119 CHAPTER FOUR Capitalism and Democracy in Print 125 Publishing and the Limits of Copyright 127 The Revolution of Cheap Print 135 New Publics, New Markets 142 Center and Periphery in Antebellum America 151 The Consequences of Political Choice 158 PART TWO The Rise of Technological Networks 1840-1930 163 CHAPTER FIVE The First Wire 165 A Path for the Telegraph 167 Monopoly on the Wires 177 Wiring the News 189 CHAPTER SIX New Connections 203 A Path for the Telephone 204 The Technology of Civil society 212 Hello, Regulation 217 Wires, Waves, and Lines of Innovation 224 Communications and Strategic Advantage 234 PART THREE The Making of the Modern Media 1865-1941 243 CHAPTER SEVEN Great Transformations 245 The Rise of Moral Censorship 247 Diversity and Daily Journalism 262 Politics, Markets, and Magazines 272 The Local and Oppositional Press 274 CHAPTER EIGHT The Rediscovery of the First Amendment 279 Free Speech Becomes a Cause 280 War as a Generative Crisis 286 The Liberal Turn in the Twenties 298 CHAPTER NINE The Framing of the Movies 307 The Path to the Nickelodeon 308 Censorship and Diversity on the Screen 317 The Consolidation of Control 327 CHAPTER TEN The Constitution of the Air (1) 339 Clashes in the Ether 342 Divergent Paths 351 CHAPTER ELEVEN The Constitution of the air (2) 359 New Networks, New Powers 360 Censorship and Diversity on the Dial 375 Politics and the New Public Sphere 382 Networks and News 388 CHAPTER TWELVE Coda 397 The Sources of Media Power 400 The Media and Democracy 407 Notes 415 Index 483 America's leading role in today's information revolution may seem simply to reflect its position as the world's dominant economy and most powerful state. But by the early nineteenth century, when the United States was neither a world power nor a primary center of scientific discovery, it was already a leader in communications-in postal service and newspaper publishing, then in development of the telegraph and telephone networks, later in the whole repertoire of mass communications. In this wide-ranging social history of American media, from the first printing press to the early days of radio, Paul Starr shows that the creation of modern communications was as much the result of political choices as of technological invention. His original historical analysis reveals how the decisions that led to a state-run post office and private monopolies on the telegraph and telephone systems affected a developing society. He illuminates contemporary controversies over freedom of information by exploring such crucial formative issues as freedom of the press, intellectual property, privacy, public access to information, and the shaping of specific technologies and institutions. America's critical choices in these areas, Starr argues, affect the long-run path of development in a society and have had wide social, economic, and even military ramifications. The Creation of the Media not only tells the history of the media in a new way; it puts America and its global influence into a new perspective. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Social Transformation of American Medicine offers a historical analysis of the creation of modern 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. Reprint. 25,000 first printing. COMMUNICATIONS in Europe and America during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries underwent a radical transformation, but not because of any revolution in communications technology.