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"The path to freedom"? Transocean and German wireless telegraphy, 1914-1922
"Der Weg ins Freie"? Transocean und die deutsche drahtlose Telegraphie, 1914-1922
[journal article]
Abstract
'This article examines the early years of Transocean, a news agency owned and run by the German government, and its use of wireless telegraphy from 1914 to 1922. This investigation of the infancy of wireless technology demonstrates that technology plays a constitutive role in defining news. The Germ... view more
'This article examines the early years of Transocean, a news agency owned and run by the German government, and its use of wireless telegraphy from 1914 to 1922. This investigation of the infancy of wireless technology demonstrates that technology plays a constitutive role in defining news. The German government used the new possibilities innate in the medium of wireless to carve out their own sphere of operation in the seas and on continents where German telegraph news had never played a major role, in particular East Asia. Wireless telegraphy enabled the German government to circumvent the British communications blockade in World War I. Afterwards, Transocean's wireless transmissions to East Asia and ships en route caused an uproar in Britain disproportionate to its circulation. It was the Germans' innovative use of wireless telegraphy that other nations, particularly the British, found most disturbing, rather than the content of the reports themselves.' (author's abstract)... view less
Keywords
telegraphy; news agency; technological progress; communication technology; Great Britain; First World War; German Reich
Classification
Social History, Historical Social Research
Method
historical
Document language
English
Publication Year
2010
Page/Pages
p. 209-233
Journal
Historical Social Research, 35 (2010) 1
DOI
https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.35.2010.1.209-233
ISSN
0172-6404
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed