History of
Telecommunications
NMC 320
Fall 2007
3 credits
Instructor: Dr. William E. Loges
Oak Creek Bldg., Room 218
(541) 737-9855
Office
Hours: Tuesday, 10:30-noon, Thursday, 3:30-5 PM, and by appointment
e-mail:
bill.loges@oregonstate.edu
These are the
days of lasers in the jungle, lasers in the jungle somewhere.
Staccato
signals of constant information, a loose affiliation of millionaires and
billionaires.
These are the
days of miracle and wonder; this is a long distance call.
The way the
camera follows us in slo-mo, the way we look to us all.
-Paul Simon, “The Boy in the Bubble”
My aim is for
you to leave this class in December with a greater appreciation of how these
“days of lasers in the jungle” are the result of days when such devices were
unheard of. The corporations, policies,
entertainments, and controversies that are central to the communication
industry today are very familiar to students of history. Mergers of corporate giants, the politics of
regulation and deregulation, the discovery of new ways to amuse ourselves, and
the concern that our entertainments are mere perversions all have historical
precedents.
These trends
did not develop in a social or political vacuum. As the history of telecommunications was
unfolding, it intersected with the rest of social and cultural life. You should
enter this class with some familiarity with that broader history, and leave the
class with a new context in which to understand it. If you are uncomfortable with your knowledge
of basic 19th and 20th century history, see me. I can recommend a couple of good ways to get
yourself up to date relatively painlessly.
This class
(and the textbook we will use) will cover the following: (1) technological developments, (2) economic
and corporate developments, (3) legal and political developments, (4) artistic
developments, and (5) social developments.
One or more of these areas might interest you more than the others. That’s OK.
I hope to offer you opportunities during the term to recognize intersections
between the things that interest you and things you hadn’t considered relevant
before.
This book is
available in the bookstore and is required reading. Additional short articles
may be given to you in class from time to time. The required textbook focuses
on technologies derived from the telegraph, such as the telephone, Internet,
and related services. In other words, it has little to say about broadcasting.
Students in
New Media Communications are expected to own a copy of The New Media Reader. Selections from that book are also required,
notably in weeks 8 and 10 of the course.
A book that I
recommend (but don’t require) that offers a well-written history of American
broadcasting is Tube of Plenty by
Erik Barnouw.
NMC 101 is a
prerequisite for this course.
Some basic
expectations: (1) You will attend class.
(2) You will participate in the class.
Attendance is not the same as participation. Read the book. Ask
questions, and answer questions that I pose to the class. Let me know your
opinion about the book, the lecture, the assignments, and anything else. You’ll
sure hear plenty of my opinions about these things. It’s only fair that I know
yours. (3) There will be frequent quizzes during the semester. They will
consist of multiple choice and true/false questions.
The quizzes will
start at 8:30 promptly, and will take 25 minutes or so to complete. You may not retake or make up a quiz. If you miss one you’ve failed it, and that’s
all there is to it. Since no single quiz
is worth a large part of your grade, missing one can’t hurt you that much. Missing a lot of them will hurt a lot.
The quizzes will
cover material in the reading and lecture.
Before each quiz I will ask if there are any questions about any subject
at all. If you have no questions about
what you’ve read, I presume that you are prepared to be tested on it.
The final exam
is cumulative, and will consist of many of the questions from past quizzes plus
new items about the latest material we’ve covered in the class.
Bring a pencil
to all quizzes and to the final exam.
To fully understand student conduct
expectations, please visit this link:
http://oregonstate.edu/admin/stucon/achon.htm
Your grade
will be calculated as follows:
Quizzes: 75% (each quiz is worth 12.5% of your grade)
Final Exam 25%
Accommodations are collaborative efforts
between students, faculty and Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD).
Students with accommodations approved through SSD are responsible for
contacting the faculty member in charge of the course prior to or during the
first week of the term to discuss accommodations. Students who believe they are
eligible for accommodations but who have not yet obtained approval through SSD
should contact SSD immediately at 737-4098.
Students
who successfully complete this course should be able to do the following:
Calendar of Events
Chapters
refer to Sterling et al.
Week 1
Sept. 25: Review Syllabus and assignments
Some basic vocabulary
Sept. 27: Introducing Telecommunications
Read: Chapter 1
Week 2
Oct. 2: Telegraphy and Early Telephony
Read: Chapter 2
Oct. 4: Quiz 1
Competitive Telephony
Read: Chapter 3
Week 3
Oct. 9: Early Radio
Oct. 11: Telephone Monopoly
Read: Chapter 4
Week 4
Oct. 16: Quiz
2
Early Computing
Oct. 18: Convergence
Week 5
Oct. 23: Experiments in Television and The
Great Depression
Oct. 25: Quiz 3
Radio
at War
Week 6
Oct. 30: Post-War
TV
Nov. 1: Quiz 4
Radio
Adapts
Week 7
Nov. 6: Telephony
Evolves
Read:
Chapter 5
Nov. 8: Broadcasting
in the 1960s
Week 8
Nov. 13: Quiz 5
Computing
Evolves
Read:
Bush, “As We May Think” in The New Media
Reader
Nov: 15: Breaking
up
Read:
Chapters 6 and 7
Week 9
Nov. 20: Quiz 6
Innovations
in Telephony
Read:
Chapter 8
Nov. 22: Thanksgiving
Week 10
Nov. 27: Computing
Accelerates
Read:
Turing, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” in The New Media Reader
Read:
Weizenbaum, “From Computer Power and
Human Reason” in The New Media Reader
Read:
Licklider, “Man-Computer Symbiosis” in The
New Media Reader
Read:
Nelson, “A File Structure for the Complex, the Changing, and the Indeterminate”
in The New Media Reader
Nov. 29: Convergence
Today
Read:
Chapters 9 and 10
Final Exam: Monday,
December 3, 2 PM