Technology and Communication

We live in a media-saturated world and rely on a variety of old and new media for information, entertainment, and connection. The beginnings of mass media and mass communication go back 560 years to the “print revolution” that occurred in Europe in the fifteenth century. As we progressed through the centuries, mass communication evolved from a mechanical process to electronic transmission, which paved the way for the digitized world of today.

(a)_____________________________

The origins of sound-based communication, radio in particular, can be traced to the invention of the telegraph. The telegraph was invented in the 1840s and was made practical by Samuel Morse, who invented a system of dots and dashes that could be transmitted across the telegraph cable using electric pulses, making it the first one-to-one communication technology. Messages were encoded to and decoded from dots and dashes on either end of the cable. This first cable could only transmit about six words per minute, but it was the precursor to the global communications network that we now rely on every day. Something else was needed, though, to solve some ongoing communication problems. During this time, war ships couldn’t be notified when wars ended and they sometimes went on fighting for months before they could be located and informed.

(b)________________________________    

In May 1895, the Russian physicist, Alexander Popov, reported sending and receiving a wireless signal across a 600 yards distance. In March 1897, Prof. Popov equipped a land station at Kronstadt and the Russian navy cruiser “Africa” with his wireless communications apparatus for ship-to-shore communications.

In about 1900, Popov's wireless apparatus was used in what may have been the first ever use of radio communications to help a vessel in distress. The battleship General Admiral Apraksin was going down amidst the ice floes of the Gulf of Finland with hundreds of sailors and officers aboard, but Popov's radio system enabled them to contact islands 45 kilometers away.

After Popov, the road to radio broadcast was relatively short, as others quickly expanded on his work. Numerous experiments and public demonstrations of radio technology—some more successful than others—were taking place around the same time in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

(c)___________________________________________

And do you know who invented the telephone? The real inventor was Antonio Meucci, a poor Italian American. He shared a workshop with Alexander Graham Bell, and made a “talking telegraph” for his wife who was ill in bed, so that she could call him when she wanted something. But Meucci never took his idea to the US Patent Office, because he was too poor to pay 250$ that he needed.

 (d)_________________________________________

As was the case with radio and telephone, several people were simultaneously working to expand the technology that would soon be known as television. In 1884, Paul Nipkow invented a mechanical television-like device that could project a visual image. It took a while for this crude version of a television to be turned into a more functional electronic version. In 1923, Vladimir Zworykin improved on this technology, followed closely by John Baird and Philo Farnsworth. Collectively, these men are responsible for the invention of television, which was the first mass medium capable of instantly and wirelessly transmitting audio and visual signals.

(e)__________________________________________________

Network and broadcast television was forever changed by the growth of cable and satellite technology. Cable was especially attractive to people who lived in mountainous, hilly, or rural areas that had difficulty receiving the broadcast channels’ signals. Many people were also happy to give up ugly rooftop antennae that required readjustment for each channel change.

(f)_________________________________________________

The “Internet and digital media age” began in 1990 and continues today. Tim Berners-Lee is the man who made the Internet functional for the masses. In 1989, Berners-Lee created new computer-programming codes that fixed some problems that were limiting the growth of the Internet as a mass medium. Berners-Lee also invented the first browser, which allowed people to search out information and navigate the growing number of interconnections among computers. Berners-Lee named his new network the “World Wide Web.”

Notes to the text:

ship-to-shore communications – связь между кораблем и берегом

to help a vessel in distress – помочь судну, терпящему бедствие

amidst the ice floes – среди обломков льда

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