Telegraph: Invention and Impact
Menahem Blondheim · The International Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies · 2019
The modern telegraph, an electricity‐based technological solution for communicating textual messages in real time, was one of the most significant departures in communication history and in journalism. Divorcing communication from transportation, the telegraph was first put into public use in the United States in 1844, and news transmission became its “killer application.” Speedy news gathering by telegraph helped transform news into a commodity, and news broadcast to newspapers over national and international networks leveled information advantages, set agendas, and promoted the appearance of objectivity, at the same time that it enabled the formation of monopolies of news knowledge.