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The mediatization of the air : wireless telegraphy and the origins of a transnational space of communication, 1900-1910s

  • Rikitianskaia, Maria Istituto Media e Giornalismo (IMeG), Facoltà di comunicazione, cultura e società, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera
  • Balbi, Gabriele Istituto Media e Giornalismo (IMeG), Facoltà di comunicazione, cultura e società, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera
  • Lobinger, Katharina Istituto di tecnologie della comunicazione (ITC), Facoltà di comunicazione, cultura e società, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera
    16.06.2018
Published in:
  • Journal of communication. - 2018, vol. 68, no. 4, p. 758–779
Historical mediatization
Air
Wireless telegraphy
New media
Meteorology
Timekeeping
Mobility
Aviation
English Airspace today is densely penetrated by Wi-Fi networks, GPS services, and broadcasting and mobile phone signals. This process, what we call the mediatization of the air, is not so new, as it began in the first two decades of the 20th century, with the advent of wireless telegraphy. Based on archival research, this paper shows that wireless telegraphy mediatized the air and made it a matter of common interest for formerly-disconnected international realms. The mediatized air transformed meteorology, timekeeping, mobility, and transportation, and challenged governance over aerial borders. Overall, this historical study contributes to a different narrative about mediatization by including an invisible and understudied phenomenon that today represents a basic and taken-for- granted infrastructure for global communication.
Language
  • English
Classification
Information, communication and media sciences
License
License undefined
Open access status
green
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://n2t.net/ark:/12658/srd1319393
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