Catalysts for Change - Ethics for the Information Age - page 26

Guglielmo Marconi put Hertz's discovery to practical use by successfully transmit-
ting radio signals in the hills outside Bologna, Italy, in 1895. Unable to attract the at-
tention of the Italian government, he took his invention to England, where he founded
the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company. The name of the company reflects Marconi's
concept of how his invention would be used. To Marconi, radio, or “wireless,” was a
superior way to transmit telegraph messages.
David Sarnoff emigrated from Russia to the United States with his family when
he was nine. When he had completed school, he landed a position with the Marconi
Wireless Telegraph Company. In 1912 Sarnoff made a name for himself when his of-
fice relayed news about the sinking of the Titanic . Four years later, Sarnoff suggested the
use of radio as an entertainment device, writing: “I have in mind a plan of development
which would make radio a household utility in the same sense as the piano or phono-
graph....Thereceivercanbedesigned in the form of a simple music box...[which]
can be placed in the parlor or living room” [33]. In two decades, Sarnoff 's vision had
become a reality.
The power of radio as a medium of mass communication was demonstrated on the
evening of October 30, 1938 (the night before Halloween). From CBS Radio Studio One
in New York, Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater put on a one-hour dramatization
of H. G. Wells's War of the Worlds (Figure 1.13). To increase suspense, the play was
performed as a series of news bulletins interrupting a concert of dance music. These
bulletins described events occurring on a farm near Grovers Mill, New Jersey. Many
listeners panicked. “People packed the roads, hid in cellars, loaded guns, even wrapped
their heads in wet towels as protection from Martian poison gas, oblivious to the fact
that they were acting out the role of the panic-stricken public that actually belonged in
a radio play” [34].
1.3.6 Television
Broadcasting video over a wire began in 1884 with the invention of an electro-
mechanical television by Paul Nipkow, but the first completely electronic television
transmission was made in 1927 by Philo Farnsworth. Millions of Americans were for-
mally introduced to the television at the 1939 World's Fair held in New York City, which
had as its theme “The World of Tomorrow.” Since an early retail television set cost about
as much as an automobile, televisions remained a rarity in American households until
the 1950s, when prices fell dramatically.
Television's ability to send a message around the world was demonstrated in July
1969. Hundreds of millions of people watched on live TV as astronaut Neil Armstrong
stepped from the lunar module onto the surface of the Moon (Figure 1.14).
Television has created many opportunities for “news junkies” to get their fixes.
The major commercial broadcast television networks have been supplemented by Fox,
CNN, and other cable news organizations plus a myriad of Web sites. The various
organizations compete with each other to be the first to break news stories. Increasingly,
the media have turned to computer technology to help them provide information to the
public. Sometimes this has led to embarrassing mistakes, as in the 2000 US presidential
election.