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The book argues that three forces: politics, economics and technology had shaped the media industry. The main events in each of these three areas are shown below.
Political
399 BC Socrates made to drink poison 380 BC Plato’s The Republic 350 BC Aristotle’s The Politics 103 BC Roman Senate publishes acta diurna 1393 Richard II makes Inn signs a legal requirement 1516 Henry VIII establishes Royal Mail 1557 Establishment of Stationers Company in UK 1559 Pope published Index of Prohibited Books 1624 Statute of Monopolies (start of patents and copyright) 1643 Licensing Order (UK) Stationers given monopoly 1660 Charles II established General Post Office 1688 “Glorious Revolution” in UK 1695 Abolition of Stationers monopoly 1710 Statue of Anne. First Copyright law UK 1712 Stamp Duty (UK and colonies) 1737 Benjamin Franklin appointed postmaster of Philadelphia 1765 Stamp Duty Act UK and America 1776 Declaration of Independence, USA 1790 Patent Act in USA 1792 Libel Act, UK 1792 Post Office Act, USA 1798 Sedition Act, USA 1843 Theatre Regulation Act, UK. 1850 Public Libraries Act, UK 1853 Advertising tax abolished in, UK 1853 Hackney Carriage Act UK 1855 Stamp Duty on newspapers removed, UK 1868 Telegraph Act, UK 1889 Copyright Act USA 1904 Wireless Telegraphy Act, UK 1912 Radio Act, USA 1921 Willis-Graham Act USA 1927 Cinematographic Film Act, UK 1927 Federal Radio Act, USA 1930 Hays Office. Cinema Code, USA 1934 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 1950 European Broadcasting Union formed 1951 Beveridge Committee, UK 1954 Comics Code Authority, USA 1954 UK Television Act. Establishes ITV 1962 Pilkington Report on future of TV in UK 1965 Highway Beautification Act, USA 1967 Public Broadcasting Act, USA. Creates PBS and NPR 1970 Financial and Syndication Rules (“Fin-Syn”) in USA 1973 Commercial radio starts in UK 1977 Annan Report. Led to Channel 4 and Sky TV (UK) 1979 USA Network Financial and Syndication Rules (“Fin-Syn”) 1995 Fin-Syn rules abolished 1996 Telecommunications Act USA 1997 Net Book Agreement abolished UK 2003 Communications Act, UK. Established Ofcom.
Economic (and social)
c1,200 BC Epic of Gilgamesh (First written story in cuneiform) 534 BC Athenian government pays for drama contests (Thespis) 230 BC Great Library of Alexandria founded 79 AD Public notices – posters - in Pompeii c800 Book of Kells c850 Musical notation 1452 Gutenberg prints the bible 1476 William Caxton sets up first UK printing press 1490 Thurn and Taxis granted mail monopoly by Austrian Empire 1576 First theatre in London 1594 Dafne First Opera 1599 Globe Theatre opens in London 1605 Cervantes wrote Don Quixote 1622 Corante: Weekly News . First regular newsletter 1623 Shakespeare’s First Folio printed 1665 Philosophical Transactions of Royal Society published 1665 Oxford Gazette, First official newspaper 1690 Worcester Post Man. First regular newspaper 1702 Daily Courant First Daily Newspaper in UK 1704 First UK Magazine; Daniel Defoe’s Review 1719 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 1731 The Gentleman’s Magazine 1755 Dr Johnson’s Dictionary 1788 Times 1792 WH Smith retail newsagents founded: UK 1799 Rosetta stone discovered 1806 Noah Webster’s Dictionary 1817 The Scotsman 1839 Obidiah Oldbuck - first comic book 1840 Penny Black stamp 1842 Illustrated London News 1843 Economist 1844 Samuel Morse sends first telegraph 1845 Magnetic Telegraph Company formed USA 1845 Electric Telegraph Company formed UK 1851 First transatlantic cable 1852 First pillar boxes for letter collection in UK 1860 Pony Express starts 1861 First pre-stamped postcard (USA) 1868 Paris authorised the Morris Column for posters 1878 J Walter Thompson opens advertising agency 1885 Yellow Kid - first comic strip 1885 Marconi demonstrates wireless telegraph 1886 Coca Cola brand invented. 1892 Vogue 1896 Argosy - “pulp fiction” 1896 Daily Mail 1898 Columbia records founded 1902 A Journey to the Moon first feature film 1905 Nickelodeon first opened 1906 Tele-type Corporation founded 1908 Motion Picture Patent Company 1912 Universal Studios founded 1914 Paramount Pictures founded 1915 The Birth of a Nation, DW Griffiths 1917 First Royal Telegram from George V 1917 Barnes & Nobel open in New York 1919 RCA founded 1920 KDKA radio, Pittsburgh 1922 BBC founded 1923 Time 1923 Claude Neon sign company founded 1926 NBC founded 1927 The Jazz Singer 1927 CBS founded 1930 Tintin 1930 Fortune 1935 Penguin paperbacks launched 1937 BBC TV starts 1938 Superman 1939 Batman 1939 NBC TV starts 1945 ABC founded (forced sale of part of NBC) 1946 Jukeboxes go into mass production 1951 I Love Lucy 1952 Checkers game on IBM 710 1958 Tennis for Two game on 1961 Spacewar (Game on DEC PDP1) 1961 Private Eye 1963 ZIP codes in USA 1964 Radio Caroline launched 1964 BBC 2 starts 1971 Galaxy Game (first coin the slot video game) 1972 Pong launched by Atari 1973 Commercial radio starts in UK 1976 Colossal Cave Adventure (text based game) 1978 Space Invaders 1979 WTBS Superstation goes national from Atlanta 1980 Multi User Dungeon (Computer Game) 1981 British Telecom created 1982 USA Today launched via satellite printing 1982 UK. Channel 4 starts 1984 UK Sky TV starts 1984 AT&T broken up 1985 Super Mario Brothers 1986 Wapping dispute - Murdoch 1986 Fox ( 4th US network) starts 1990 British Satellite Broadcasting launched 1991 Sonic The Hedgehog 1993 Mortal Kombat 1993 Dr Fun – first web comic 1996 Tomb Raider 1996 USA 1998 Google founded 2006 Last telegram sent by Western Union
Technology
350,000 BC Humanoids capable of speech 40,000 BC Great Leap Forward 35,000 BC Flutes made from bone in Germany 15,000 BC Earliest cave drawings 3500 BC Earliest writing: Harrapan 3000 BC Musical instruments in widespread use 2600 BC Papyrus used for documents 2000 BC Development of phonetic alphabet 1000 BC Movable type used in China 500 BC Parchment developed 100 AD Paper invented in China 1415 Brunelleschi demonstrates perspective 1447 Printing press (Gutenberg) 1791 Optical telegraph (Chappe) 1796 Invention of lithography ( Alois Senefelder ) 1814 Steam driven printing press 1825 Invention of the electromagnet (William Sturgeon ) 1837 Electronic telegraph patent (Charles Wheatstone) 1839 Daguerreotype photography 1841 Fox Talbot photographic patent 1840 Paper mass produced from wood pulp 1843 Rotary printing press invented (Richard Hoe) 1844 First Morse code telegram sent 1851 Telegraph cable under English Channel 1858 Transatlantic telegraph cable 1860s Newsprint comes in rolls made from wood pulp 1867 Sholes-Glidden Typewriter 1876 Telephone (Bell) 1877 Motion Pictures (Muybridge) 1877 Phonogram ( Edison) 1878 Half tone printing by New York Daily Graphic 1885 Marconi demonstrates wireless telegraph (radio) 1886 Automated typesetting Linotype invented (“hotmetal”) 1888 Kodak camera patented (George Eastman) 1993 Kinetoscope (Edison) 1895 Cinématography demonstrated by Lumière 1906 Tele-type Corporation founded 1912 First Neon sign 1920 Radio valve (called vacuum tube in USA) 1920 Telex network founded 1926 Television - mechanical imaging (Logie Baird) 1927 First Jukeboxes (AMI) 1928 Magnetic tape data storage 1929 Television - electronic imaging ( RCA/EMI) 1935 Kodochrome colour film 1947 Telecine machine invented 1947 Transistor invented (Bell Labs) 1948 33 rpm Long Playing record (Columbia) 1948 45 rpm vinyl Single record (RCA) 1951 Nimrod games computer 1956 Videotape first used 1956 Hard drive data storage 1957 First satellite (Sputnik) 1962 First communications satellite (Telstar) 1963 Hypertext invented by Ted Nelson 1963 Computer mouse invented (Douglas Engelbart) 1966 Audio cassettes 1971 ARPANET opens 1976 CD data storage 1977 Atari 2600 VCS 1979 Sony Walkman 1979 Pong – first computer arcade game 1982 Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) introduced 1982 Photocomposition replaces “hot metal” type. UK union agreement 1982 CD players and discs 1985 Nintendo Entertainment Syetem (NES ) 1988 First digital camera (Fuji) 1989 Nintendo Game Boy 1991 World first web browser at CERN 1993 WorldWideWeb launched (Tim Berners-Lee) 1993 Netscape browser 1994 Sony PlaySation 1995 DVD data storage 1995 MP3 audio file format approved 1998 Google launched 1998 Rio (early portable MP3 player) 1999 Napster (audio file sharing) 1999 TiVo (Digital Video Recorder) 2001 iPod launched by Apple 2001 Xbox games console 2005 Sony e-book 2007 iPhone launched by Apple 2007 Kindle by Amazon 2010 iPad launched by Apple 2010 Kinect launched by Microsoft |
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