Chapter 5 Wiring the News

"By the 1860's, the telegraph had become a firmly established medium for a
critical, even if limited, type of communication. Too expensive for individual
use except by the most affluent, it found it's primary customers in finance and
business, the state, and the press. It carried the high-value, timesensetive
commerical and govermental communication as well as dispatches about
breaking news of extralocal interest," ( Starr,177).

In The Creation of the Media, Starr touches upon technology and how it's not always available to the general public because of the cost it's not always available to them. This shows another way of the government such as the elite and trying to control and dominate lower class and trying to keep them back, trying to always keep them under their control.

Chapter 4 Publishing and the Limits of Copyright

The absence of copyright on foreign reprints created the peculiar risk that after
investing in an American edition, a publisher might find much of the market
taken by a competitor. To avert that possibility, publisher might find much to
maintain an informal norm known as "courtesy of the trade," which meant leaving
the market for foreign book to the first publisher to issue it in America"
(Starr, 123).

In The Creation of the Media, Starr trying to show the importance of Copyright. In today's society a lot of things such as Cd's, Movies, and Books are being shared amongst people who are not the people who originally came up with the ideas such as publish the book, wrote or sing the song or had any form of creating anything. Many authors, artists, etc, try to come up with many ways trying to keep their work from being copied. However, many people really don't care and take advantage of them because they made it possible for them to steal or get their information without paying for it. By this the authors, artist lose any profit that there were able to make. Many people feel the need to copyright because when they feel that it serves them right as the original workers to do so, and also for them to try to profit from their work. Also there is a competitive market that they feel obligated to copyright. Publishers and other artist's has an obligation to copyright with all the competition going on. Although the competitive market is good because the consumer has different choices. However, it does not benefit the artist.

Chapter 3 Privacy and Public Knowledge

"Most provisions in the Bill of Rights restated rights that the English had enjoyed under the common law, but one element that grew specifically out of the Revolutionary era was Fourth Amendment: " The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by the Oath or affirmations, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized". The references to "papers" underlines the historical connection of the Fourth Amendment to freedom of expressions" (Starr, 94-95).

Paul Starr's The Creation of the Media. In Chapter 3 the Privacy Of Public Knowledge. He goes on speaking about the first Amendment's Rights and how it cannot be violated by the law. And how these Amendment was created to support people's right. However, in many cases this is does not apply. Many People do not have these simple rights. If you are in the comfort of your own home and decided to surf the net and see something about the government you do not like and decided to blog on. If under any circumstances you raise other people cheek and write disturbing information you will have the FBI knocking at your door. Although they would not be able to delete your blog you will indeed pay for what you wrote in the comfort of your own home. You are limited in things you are allowed to say the Right to Privacy is limited.

Chapter 4

Starr talk about how the printing press always used lead type for the imprinting of thier papers. But a new type of type called stereotype proved to be more efficient because it was made out of light lead.This made it easier to change type and also because of the advances in printing and paper technology, it made the printing of books a lot cheaper.

Chapter 3

The press according to Starr, had to get the information out somehow. This was done by using the Post Office. Because of this, the post office was the most widely used institution to distribute print to all the democraphics until the government soon after seized control over all means of transferal of information.

Freedom of Press

Why was freedom of the press deemed so central to democracy by our founding fathers, and how did the free flow of information contribute to the new nation?

Freedom of press was deemed central to democracy because the press had a right to speak their own mind and print information that they had about a story for the masses to know about. The freedom of press also gave immunity to the press to a point where they could write about things that would not likely put them in jail.
The free flow of information contributed to the new nation by giving the reporters an incentive for finding stories that are worth putting in a newspaper or an article. The free flow of information also gave the press a bit more access to details about the government actions to certain problem areas that need to be dealt with or are not being dealt with. The community has a right to know what is going on within their government and their community as well, so the freedom of press gives them that possibility.
The government has also implemented laws on how much the press should know as well. This is done by legislation ensuring various degrees of freedom of scientific research, publishing, press and printing the depth to which these laws are entrenched in a country's legal system can go as far down as its constitution.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 talks about how the Printing Press in America helped to make the people, read, write and learn logic. It is amazing how this country the United States of America according to Starr, was one of the countries that would have the best educated people in the world. The Americas was observed by Alexis de Tocqueville which tried to prove that Americans were not civilizes human beings.

A Path for the Telephone

According to Paul Starr, The Creation of the Media "The telephone is a system for the benefit of capitalists and the more well to do people and not for the public at large" (The Association of Municipal Corporations pg 199)

My opinion about this quote is that the rich used the invention of the telephone to dominate the market. The rich got into the telephone business to make a profit. This quote means that te telephone was for certain kinds of people. During the 1800's there were people that couldn't afford to buy a phone. This quote is saying that the telephone wasn't for every body.

Globalization Through the Telegraph Industry

Paul Starr gave us insight as to how the telegraph industry in the mid-19th century impacted global markets through the use of channelling. He states that the telegraph, "By virtue of its role in disseminating commercial information, it played a central role in the development of a national economy, and after the successful laying of a transatlantic cable in 1866, telegraph circuits began to link international markets more closely" (Starr, 178). The telegraph system set grounds for globalization as the commercial information became a mere focus within society, due to the rise of opportunities among businesses and people. Such technology enabled the global economy to boom through linkages of markets from miles and miles away. The world no longer needed orders to trade or do business. For example, China, one of the world's largest and most extensive global markets can no do business through wiring systems (via telegraph). The advent of the telegraph industry was a medium that provided a system of communication that was affluential among international markets.

Excerpts from the Sun, New York - - Police Reports

In the excerpts from The Sun, New York Paper from 1834, Police reports we can read some of the crimes of the day. One lady was committed because of singing and telling a watchman off, another deaf and dumb man was charged because he ate oysters and refused to pay for them. Another lady was charge for being drunk and sitting where men should be sitting. The crimes of the day were different, but the important factor is that they were published for anyone to read them.

"If the learned assistant alderman intends by this, to close the hall of public justice against the admission of reporters of the press; if he consider our civil or criminal courts as mere courts of Inquisition, where none but the actors, practically or professionally, are to enter, he mistakes the genius of our institutions, and exceedingly underrates the liberties that we now do, and are determined ever to enjoy."

Here, in 1834 they realize the important aspect of the press and how the press must be allowed to report on whats going on in the courts, not only so the public knows people are being charged with crimes, that the courts are abusing their rights and powers.

Chapter 5

Quote: "The new technologies [the telegraph and the telephone] could expand social connections, increasing the possibilities of association, exchange and diffusion of information, but they also created new means of controlling communication that the state or private monopolists might use for their own purposes" (p. 155)

Comment: Technological innovations such as the railroad, telegraph, and telephone, and the emergence of newspapers and other print media had vastly enhanced the knowledge of political affairs, intensified political discussions among Americans, and enabled the people to inform themselves quickly about new political questions. At the same time, however, the self-serving interests of both the public and private spheres became a high-stakes game in which power and control were the ultimate prize. Unfortunately, this has changed very little in our modern times, as battles to control the mechanisms of the information age continue to rage on.

Chapter 4

Quote: “The greater diffusion and fragmentation of power in America produced a wider dispersion of communicative capacities" (p. 146)

Comment: By the early decades of the nineteenth century, the American religious and political print ideology was increasingly heterogeneous. Political divisions and the breakdown of Protestant religion into denominations failed to provide Americans with a textual consensus. Ironically, print itself became the very instrument of fragmentation. Unlike Europe, where secularism was triumphing, in the United States it was a religious momentum that carried with it the rise of print culture. The explosion of print in the 1820s served new waves of evangelical proselytism and indeed generated "a wider dispersion of communicative capacities" fueled by relationship between the print culture and the elite political culture.

Chapter 3

Quote: "By assuming direct control of postal routes, Congress opened a direct political channel for local demands that would spur the development of a broader network" (p. 88)

Comment: On a fundamental level, human activities and societal processes sustained by the exchange of printed information depended on the inter-institutional relations of the post office and press. Before the advent of the telegraph, the postal system afforded the only widespread and regular means of transmitting public information. In short, the post office and press together constituted the most important mechanism for the dissemination of public information at least until the Civil War, and the intelligence thus communicated affected many spheres of life in the growing nation, including politics.
Interests of various kinds maneuvered to obtain advantages-whether political, cultural, or business by influencing postal operations. In the late 1700s, the government declared the entire transportation system, including postal service, to be the exclusive domain of the state, “a direct political channel”, as well as the opportunity to increase state revenues, naturally fueled expansion of the communication network.

Chapter 2

Quote: "A free press was one that was open to all points of view (a common carrier), not one that exclusively expressed a viewpoint of its own" (p. 60).

Comment: The concept of the free press as the sentinel who guards democracy has been deeply rooted in American history. The Founders of the United States supported that concept eloquently and without exception. Accordingly, the press was the only commercial enterprise given specific constitutional protection: i.e., the First Amendment. Following the basic intent of the free press principle, courts have rather consistently ruled that if a subject is "newsworthy" it comes under First Amendment protection; the courts have generally said they decline to substitute their judgment on newsworthiness for that of editors. Thus openness to all viewpoints as opposed to a single opinion is necessary from both an ethical and a legal standpoint.

Chapter 1

Quote: "Markets themselves are information networks, and expanding commerce opened up new channels of communication" (p. 25)

Comment: Essentially, what Starr seems to be saying here, is that information, as a commodity, may be defined in terms of market demand. However the use of the system must be tailored to the nature of the information needed. Of course, the meanings of media and information are negotiable in that they are vulnerable to the active or reactive work of individuals and households as they transform and translate the public and alienating offerings of the formal economy into accessible and acceptable terms.

Bread and the Newspaper

Oliver Wendell Holmes article "Bread and the Newspaper" in the Atlantic M0nthly talks about the introduction of the telegraph and the connection it had with newspapers. The telegraph in 1861 was changing the way that information could be processed due to the speed that one could receive the information. Joined together with newspapers, "this perpetual intercommunication, joined to the power of instantaneous action, keeps us always alive with excitement." (Holmes 132) Holmes uses the American Revolutionary War and the Mexican War of Independence in 1812 as examples of information that was never readily available. He says, "War is a new thing to all of us who are not in the last quarter of our century." because now the whole nation is now penetrated by the ramifications of a network of iron nerves..." (Holmes 132) The technological advancement of the telegraph increased the rate at which newspapers received vital information for publishing and with the help of other technological advancements as the railroad for distribution, the whole country was interconnected and could receive information swiftly and thoroughly. With the increased amount of information available "this instant diffusion of every fact and feeling produces another singular effect in the equalizing and steadying of public opinion." (Holmes 133) The most important result of the telegraph might have been that with free speech already established, it provided society an opportunity for increased public opinion and activism in all current events at that time.

Re-Mix Hip Hop Lecture 3/1/07

After attending the Hip-Hop lecture I felt like I had a new understanding about the influences that Hip-Hop has on our culture and society. Personally, I am not a big rap or hip-hop person, but there are songs that I do like to hear occasionally. On the other hand the lyrics that are heard do influence people in different ways and can hurt people. I felt Eminem was a prime example of this because of his lyrics against homosexual people and other groups. Derogatory words such as "Ho, Bitch, and Nigger are destructive" according to Pres. Butts and I would have to agree with his assessment. Their should be a change made to fix these problems not only in single households but in larger society as a whole. The portrayal of violence, sex, and the mistreatment of woman must stop because it sets horrible examples for the youth in society. It is a shame that "mediocre, unintelligent, low life people exploit music to put money in their pockets such as artists and the record companies". (Pres. Butts) I agree, with President Butts and think music should be used to exploit the better qualities in society and according to Angie Beatty people can be empowered to change the negatives to positives through creativity, art, and being actively informed in their neighborhoods. Ultimately, free speech is one of the most important precedents since the beginning of our country and the responsibility is lies in the hands of the music artists and record companies to stop vulgar, profane, demeaning lyrics that can hurt the citizens of this country.