1. T H E M U LT I P L E AV E N U E S O F N E W S
C O V E R A G E AVA I L A B L E
F R O M T H E I R O R I G I N S U N T I L TO D AY
Joann Vaglica
Professor Prusslin
Research Paper
04/2012

2. INTRODUCTION
How do you get the latest and breaking news today? How about 10 years ago, what medium did
you turn to for the happenings of the day? In this day in age, individuals have multiple avenues
they can pursue when looking for the news, whether it's a scandalous story, a small brush fire two
towns over, or a tsunami happening overseas, but it wasn't always like that. With the evolution and
modernization of media platforms over the decades, stories, from all different levels of news-
worth, can be contrived in an instant. Where do people go for the news? It’s a question that’s
always asked and over the years, the answer changes.

3. THE NEWSPAPER
 One of the first "newspapers" to be created dates back to 59 B.C.. The Roman's "Acta
Diurna.” Wasn't written on paper, but rather bulletin boards that were kept in locations that
people frequented in order to keep their citizens knowledgeable of current events.
 In 1447, Gutenberg started the Printing Revolution and is credited with the formation
of newsletters and informational pamphlets.
 By 1662, the first newspaper publication "In the English-speaking world, [titled] The
Weekly Newes" was distributed but it wasn't until three years later in 1665 that an official and
well formatted newspaper, England's "London Gazette," came out.
 The "London Gazette" is considered the first "modern, English-language.”

4. THE NEWSPAPER CONT’D
 Twenty five years later, the creation of the newspaper found its ground in
the United States.
 Boston's "Publick Occurrences” distributed in 1690, immediately after it
was "suppressed by the authorities.”
 Even though the origin of the newspaper dates way back to centuries ago,
it was in 1704 that the "Boston News Letter" became the first government-
sanctioned newspaper” to be recognized in America.

5. THE NEWSPAPER CONT’D
 Fast forward to 2007: over 6,500 newspapers out on a daily basis, 395 million
copies per day (in America)!
 Once the recession hit in 2008, plus the growth of social networking and the
Internet, the newspaper industry was hit with a tremendous decline, some papers even
becoming non-existent.
 All is not dead for the newspaper industry. In a study done by the Pew Research
Center, 72% of Americans are said to follow local news by reading newspapers for
"crime, local politics, community events, or arts and culture.”

6. THE TELEVISION
 In 1831, two men by the name of Joseph Henry and Michael Faraday discovered the
electronic communication era which ultimately helped in the creation of the television.
 By 1862, the first still image was made transferable through the pantelegraph that was
invented by Abbe Giovanna Caselli.
 After multiple passing years and many scientists coming together for this new creation, in
1900, the term "television" was first used at the International Congress of Electricity held at the
World's Fair in Paris.

7. THE TELEVISION CONT’D
 By 1926, John Baird officially operated a television using 30 lines of resolution system
running at 5 frames per second.”
 Eventually progressed to color and sound and were able to be controlled with remotes.
As well, cable TV and various channels were made available to the public and with each
upgrade of the system, it became more mainstream.

8. THE RADIO
 Italian inventor, Guglielmo Macroni, was the first person to send and receive radio signals,
but technically, the radio was designed by Nikola Tesla in 1892.
 After a successful radio transmission in 1896, which only transmitted signals as far as one
mile away, he realized the great potential a radio could hold.
 By 1898, he "flashed the results of the Kingstown Regatta to the offices of a Dublin
newspaper, thus making a sports event the first public broadcast.”

9. THE RADIO CONT’D
 The following year, Marconi went to Chelmsford, Essex and opened up a radio factory
which made it possible to establish a radio connection between Britain and France.
Connection to US by 1901
 The radio as we know it today was invented in 1921.
 Today there are over 30,000 radio stations worldwide, with 12,000 of them solely in
America. Two billion radio sets are "in use, or about one radio for every 3 persons; proof that
video never killed the radio star.”

10. THE INTERNET AND
SOCIAL NETWORKS
 Computer was first discovered in 1939, but it wasn't until 1957 that the evolution of
computers took effect. From the 1930s until this day, almost every year there has been
innovations in either hardware, software, models, gaming products, graphics, search engines, and
most importantly, the Internet, which came along in 1990.
 The modern computer as we know it today, was established by Alan Turnig.
 In 1941, German engineer Konrad Zuse invented the first working
computer.
 As of December 31, 2011, in a population calculated with over six billion people worldwide,
nearly 361 million people have Internet access. In America alone, nearly 275 million people use
the Internet.

11. THE INTERNET AND SOCIAL
NETWORKS CONT’D
 Facebook, created by Mark Zuckerberg after he supposedly stole the idea
from fellow classmates.
 Originally called TheFacebook.com, at first, site was only opened to
Harvard students beginning on Feb. 4, 2004.
 Facebook today: 3,000 employees as of December 2011, 845 million
monthly active users with about 80% of users outside of the U.S. and Canada,
over 480 million monthly users on Facebook mobile, offered in 70+ languages.

12. THE INTERNET AND SOCIAL
NETWORKS CONT’D
 Two years after Facebook, Twitter was created, 2006
 A team of members including: Dick Costolo, CEO, Jack Dorsey, Executive Chairman, Evan
Williams, Director, and Biz Stone, Creative Director,
 Originally the idea was for a podcasting startup, but Apple launched iTunes before these
men launched their creation.
 A man by the name of Noah Glass was actually the first person to bring Odeo (podcasting)
to light. He had a product where you call a phone number and it would turn your message into
an MP3 hosted on the Internet.

13. THE INTERNET AND SOCIAL
NETWORKS CONT’D
 Dorsey came up with the brilliant idea for a medium that revolved
around "status, what people were doing at a given time.”
 Twitter today: almost 200 million users worldwide, approx.
450,000 people opening new accounts on a daily basis, 140 million
messages are tweeted everyday.
 In 2008, Twitter had less than 10 employees, but today they stand
at 400 and are still hiring.

14. DATA
 In 2012, people who go mobile are getting news on all their devices. They also appear to
be getting it more often, and reading for longer periods of time.
 34% of desktop/laptop news consumers now also get news on a smartphone.
 About 27% of smartphone news consumers also get news on a tablet
 These digital news omnivores are also a large percentage of the smart phone/tablet
population and most of those individuals (78%) still get news on the desktop or laptop as
well.