Media Timeline: Key Events
Cindy Royal, Ph.D
Associate Professor
Texas State University
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
croyal@txstate.edu
www.cindyroyal.com
www.onthatnote.com
cindytech.wordpress.com
twitter.com/cindyroyal
facebook.com/cindyroyal
Media Timeline
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Media and tech tightly tied to trade (china - silk
production), production, math, calendars, astronomy,
science, art, law; highly influenced by economic,
political and social events
International influences - Asia, Europe
New technology has often reflected/disrupted shifts in
power over time - from the few to the many
1600-1900
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1605: First regularly published weekly newspaper appears in
Antwerp.
1650: Leipzig publishes the first daily newspaper.
1690: After one issue Publick Occurrences, first colonial
newspaper, is suppressed.
1702: The first daily newspaper in the English language,
the Daily Courant.
1783: Pennsylvania Evening Post, the first daily newspaper
in America.
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1794: Nearly flat rate U.S. postal law mails most newspapers for a penny stamp.
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1797: In England, a heavy tax is levied on newspapers to limit the radical press.
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1801: Joseph-Marie Jacquard loom uses punch cards, anticipates computers.
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1827: First African-American newspaper, Freedom’s Journal.
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1828: First Native American newspaper, Cherokee Phoenix.
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1833: A penny buys a newspaper, the New York Sun, opening a mass market.
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1834: Babbage conceives the analytical engine, forerunner of the computer.
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1870: More than 5,000 newspapers are published in the U.S.
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1843: Byron’s daughter, Ada Lovelace, explains concept of computer programming.
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1898: Newspapers, led by Hearst and Pulitzer, help push U.S. into war with Spain.
1900-1950
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1900: U.S. has 2,150 daily newspapers, 478 tri- or semi-weeklies, 14,717 weeklies.
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1900: Total newspaper circulation in U.S. passes 15 million daily.
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1900: 562 cities in U.S. have more than one daily newspaper; New York City has 29.
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1914: 1,300 journals, 140 daily newspapers in U.S. targeted to ethnic populations.
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1930: Lowell Thomas begins first regular U.S. network newscast.
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1930: BBC transmits a play by television, 240 lines/sec of resolution.
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1930: Vannevar Bush’s partly electronic computer can solve differential equations.
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1933: U.S. newspapers pressure AP to cut service to radio, start “Press-Radio War.”
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1933: FDR begins radio Fireside Chats, bypasses hostile newspapers.
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1936: BBC starts world’s first regular television service, three hours a day.
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1938: CBS World News Roundup ushers in modern newscasting.
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1941: Radio networks on 24/7; heavy on news.
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1942: Atanasoff and Berry in Iowa build the first electronic digital computer.
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1944: NBC presents first U.S. televised network newscast, a curiosity.
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1944: Harvard’s Mark I, first digital computer to be put in service.
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1946: University of Pennsylvania’s ENIAC heralds the modern electronic computer.
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1948: CBS and NBC begin nightly 15-minute television newscasts.
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1948: WFIL-FM, owned by Philadelphia newspaper, transmits fax editions twice a day.
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1949: Hollywood studios begin to produce television programs.
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1949: The United States has 98 television stations.
1950-1970
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1950: Nielsen’s Audimeter tracks television audiences.
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1951: Color television sets go on sale.
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1951: Univac I is the first mass-produced computer.
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1952: Television sets in about 19 million U.S. homes.
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1954: 54% of American homes have television sets.
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1957: Many television programs switch to color.
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1958: The microchip; it will enable the computer revolution.
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1959: Television sets in more than 46 million U.S. homes.
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1960: 90% of American homes have television sets.
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1961: The time-sharing computer is developed.
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1961: FCC Chairman Newton Minow calls television a “vast wasteland..
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1963: TV is now principal source of news in U.S., according to Roper Poll.
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1963: Douglas Engelbart gets a patent for the computer mouse.
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1963: TV news “comes of age” in reporting JFK assassination.
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1963: Julia Child cooks on television as The French Chef.
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1967: Newspapers, magazines start to digitize production/computers in operation
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1968: 60 Minutes starts ticking, proves than news on TV can be profitable.
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1965: FCC rules bring structure to cable television.
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1969: UCLA computer sends data to Stanford computer, foreshadowing Internet.
1970-1990
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1972: Philadelphia Inquirer builds a computer database for a news story.
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1972: The Xerox Alto, first computer with mouse and graphical interface.
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1974: U.S. newspapers start to replace reporters’ typewriters with terminals.
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1975: On television, Saturday Night Live.
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1975: In Los Angeles, the first computer store; it sells assembled computers.
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1975: Microsoft founded
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1976: Apple Computer founded
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1976: Barbara Walters becomes first woman to anchor a U.S. TV nightly network newscast.
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1979: News groups arrive on the Internet.
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1980: A 25 lb. portable computer is favorite of reporters who send news from field. RS TRS- 80
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1980: CNN, 24-hour news channel, begins reports.
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1981: The laptop computer is introduced by Tandy.
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1982: USA Today is a newspaper influenced by television news style.
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1983: Time names the computer as "Man" of the Year for 1982.
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1983: Apple's Lisa, the first microcomputer with a graphical user interface.
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1984: Apple Macintosh and IBM PC AT are introduced.
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1983: Computer chip holds 288,000 bits of memory.
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1983: TCP/IP becomes standard for Internet communication between computers.
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1983: Internet domains get names instead of hard-to-remember numbers.
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1985: America Online founded as Quantum Computer Services.
The '90s
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1991: Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) written; helps create the World Wide Web.
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1992: Number of newspapers offering online news rises to 150.
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1993: Graphical user interface, Mosaic, is developed for the World Wide Web.
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1994: Two million computers connected to the Internet.
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1994: Almost 1/3 of all American homes have a computer.
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1994: Radio HK, a 24-hour Internet-only radio station.
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1995: U.S. population continues to increase, but newspaper readership declines.
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1995: 30 million Internet users worldwide.
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1995: Amazon.com starts selling books online, will become Web’s hottest retailer.
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1996: From Microsoft: Hotmail.com, a Web-based email site.
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1996: 45 million Internet users, including 30 million in U.S.
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1996: More than 100,000 Web sites, and growing fast.
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1996: Computer makers sell flat-panel displays.
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1996: A pocket telephone/computer comes on the market.
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1996: Several large newspapers offer Web access to archives.
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1997: Streaming audio and video are available on the Web.
The '90s, continued
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1993: Wired Magazine launches
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1994: NY Times on AOL
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1995: Craigslist, Houston Chron online
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1997: 2,600 U.S. newspapers have Internet sites or dial-up connections.
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1997: 43% of U.S. homes have computers
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1997: Blackhawk Down on Philadelphia Inquirer
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1998: Drudge Report, an online website, breaks news of Clinton-Lewinsky affair.
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1998: 3,250 newspapers, 1,280 TV stations now have online websites.
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1998: Google
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1998: 150 million Internet users estimated at year’s end, half in the U.S.
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1998: Estimated number of World Wide Web pages: 300 million.
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1998: Estimated number of Web pages added each day: 1.5 million.
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1998: Apple unveils the colorful iMac computer.
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1999: Number of U.S. daily newspapers drops to 1,483; total 56 million circulation.
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1999: Nielsen, Arbitron start World Wide Web rating service.
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1999: 150 million Internet users can access more than 800 million web pages.
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1999: Blogger starts
2000s
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2000: Seventy million computers connected to the Internet.
2001: Dotcom bust, 9/11 tributes, Wikipedia launches
2002: Google News, an automated service without human
editors.
2002: Friendster sets up Internet social contact network.
2002: On the Web, creators of online journals, or "web logs," now
"blog on."
2003: 239 million computer games are sold.
2003: From Apple Computer: the browser Safari.
2003: Cell phones add computer and Internet capabilities.
2003: Google buys Blogger; MySpace launched
2004: Facebook
2005: YouTube launches; News Corp buys MySpace
2000s, continued
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2006: TV networks place their most popular programs on the Web.
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2006: Battle in Congress over "net neutrality" regarding website access.
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2006: YouTube Invention of the Year; You – Person of the Year; Google Buys
YouTube
2009: Major U.S. newspapers face bankruptcy as readers, income erode.
2007: iPhone surfs Web, emails, plays videos, iTunes, makes phone calls,
takes pictures; Invention of the Year.
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2007: Twitter
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2008: Candidates embrace social media
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2009: Hudson plane crash photo on Twitter
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2010: iPad brings multi-touch email, books, movies, maps, apps.
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2010: Foursquare and Gowalla
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2010: iPad released
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2010: Mark Zuckerberg Person of the Year; The Social Network
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2011: Steve Jobs dies
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2011: Egyptian protests
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2011: Coupon sites, like Groupon, launch
2012
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Gowalla – RIP
Founder Jerry Yang leaves Yahoo
SOPA protests work
Marissa Mayer of Google becomes Yahoo CEO
Facebook buys Instagram
Facebook becomes a public company
2013
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Tumblr purchased by Yahoo
Facebook rolls out graph search
Google Glass released to developers
Vine and Instagram videos become popular
From Pencils to Pixels
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Humanists not considered in tech loop
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Stages of Literacy Technology
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Restricted communication function; small number of initiates
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Adapted to familiar functions associated with an older technology
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Decreased costs improves spread of new technology; better able
to mimic ordinary forms of communication
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New literacy; technology creates original forms of communication
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Ultimately effects older technologies
Pencil originally used for marking measurements
Earliest forms of writing were to record business transactions, not
transcribe speech
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Writing was considered cumbersome, expensive
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Written documents not considered “interactive”
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Validity questioned
From Pencils to Pixels
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Do you agree with the author’s contention that
“the computer is simply the latest step in a
long line of writing technologies?”
Milestones in New Media
Pre-1995
Wired Magazine - 1993
NY Times on AOL - 1994
Nando -1994
1995
Craigslist launched
Slate, Salon, USA Today, Houston
Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer
1996
Washington Post
Wall Street Journal
Chicago Tribune
LA Times
MSNBC
2001
DotCom Bust
9/11 Tributes
Wikipedia launched
2007VA Tech Shooting
Twitter tips at SXSW
Invention of the Year - iPhone
CNN/ YouTube Debates
2002
Google News
1997
Blackhawk Down
1998
Drudge Report
Google
1999
Blogger
IndyMedia
2000
AOL/Time Warner merger
2003
RSS
Google Buys Blogger
MySpace launched
2008
CBS acquires CNET
Candidates embrace social media
EveryBlock.com
2004
Jon Stewart on Crossfire
Rathergate
Press Credentials to Bloggers
WikiNews, Facebook, Digg
2005
YouTube
News Corporation buys
MySpace
2006
Macaca
Invention of the Year -YouTube
Person of the Year - You
Google Buys YouTube $1.65B
2009
Hudson Plane Crash photo
Iran elections
Politifact wins Pulitzer
MSNBC purchases Everyblock
Foursquare & Gowalla
2010
iPad released
Wikileaks
Facebook -500M Users;
Zuckerberg Person of the Year;
The Social Network
2011
Egyptian Protests
Coupon sites
AOL/HuffPo merger
MySpace sold to Specific
Media
Death of Steve Jobs