tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/telegraph-15003/articlesTelegraph – The Conversation2022-08-12T12:16:26Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1860832022-08-12T12:16:26Z2022-08-12T12:16:26ZThe metaverse isn’t here yet, but it already has a long history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478566/original/file-20220810-15557-oao8ef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C11%2C3699%2C2575&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As far back as the late '80s people could venture into a virtual online world.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screenshot of Habitat from Lucasfilm Games</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nattie’s metaverse romance began with anonymous texting. At first “C” would admit only to living in a nearby town. Nattie eventually learned “Clem” was a man with a solitary office job like hers. For Nattie “lived, as it were, in two worlds” – the world of office tedium and an online world where “she did not lack social intercourse.”</p>
<p>Texting drew them closer: “annoyances became lighter because she told him, and he sympathized.” Nattie soon realized “she had woven a sort of romance about him who was a friend ‘so near and yet so far’.” Their blossoming relationship almost failed when Clem’s co-worker visited Nattie’s office pretending to be Clem, but the deceit was exposed in time for their “romance of dots and dashes” to succeed.</p>
<p>With that last sentence I gave away the ending to “<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24353">Wired Love</a>,” source of the quotes above. Published in 1879, Ella Thayer’s novel of “the telegraphic world” makes remarkable predictions. Yet “Wired Love” is planted firmly during the time of what journalist Thomas Standage aptly termed the “<a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/victorian-internet-9781620405925/">Victorian Internet</a>.” Many aspects of the current metaverse were already familiar 143 years ago. </p>
<h2>What’s old is new</h2>
<p>History is more than fun facts: It deeply shapes ways of thinking and acting. As an anthropologist who’s been <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=uFsG9kcAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">studying virtual worlds</a> for almost two decades, I’ve found that the metaverse’s rich past shapes what too often appears unprecedented.</p>
<p>This isn’t accidental. The contemporary metaverse is overwhelmingly owned and developed by corporations whose profit models demand focus on the Next Big Thing. This typically sidelines history – with massive financial and social implications. </p>
<p>At its core, the metaverse is <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-describe-the-metaverse-makes-a-difference-todays-words-could-shape-tomorrows-reality-and-who-benefits-from-it-182819">defined by the concept of the virtual world</a>. As “Wired Love” illustrates, the telegraph and later the telephone constitute early virtual worlds. </p>
<p>Multi-user dungeons, or MUDs, arose in the second half of the 20th century. These virtual worlds appeared on local computer networks in the late 1970s, and entered dial-up internet services in the 1980s and 1990s. Richard Bartle, co-creator of the first MUD, noted that by 1993 <a href="https://mud.co.uk/richard/DesigningVirtualWorlds.pdf">over 10% of all internet traffic</a> was on MUDs. Virtual worlds with graphics, including avatars, date back to <a href="http://www.fudco.com/chip/lessons.html">Habitat</a>, launched in 1985.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UWI8f9QpnR8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Big media companies were already promoting their virtual world offerings in 1987.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With advent of broadband in the 2000s, many key aspects of the contemporary metaverse became established. Longtime metaverse observers like Wagner James Au have <a href="https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2022/06/sl-metaverse-history.html">repeatedly emphasized</a> how many “new” developments have rehashed long-standing debates.</p>
<h2>Real estate and the laws of virtual physics</h2>
<p>Consider what metaverse history reveals about virtual real estate. <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/06/26/theres-a-strong-bull-case-for-metaverse-real-estat/">Pundits enthuse</a> about the virtual “land rush” and emphasize location. For instance, virtual world <a href="https://www.sandbox.game/en/">The Sandbox</a> sells plots for around $2,300, but in December 2021 <a href="https://fortune.com/2021/12/09/snoop-dogg-rapper-metaverse-snoopverse/">someone paid $450,000</a> to purchase land <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61979150">next to a virtual mansion</a> owned by rap star Snoop Dogg. </p>
<p>Why the price spike? <a href="https://today.rtl.lu/news/business-and-tech/a/1935715.html">Co-founder Sebastien Borget explained</a> that The Sandbox has a finite number of plots, and people can access only adjacent plots. Thus, only a few people can own virtual land next to Snoop Dogg.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1441076327948316686"}"></div></p>
<p>I believe that The Sandbox is deeply indebted to the virtual world Second Life, where spaces to practice building have been termed “sandboxes” since its 2002 launch.</p>
<p>Second Life originally had “point-to-point teleportation” (P2P). You could arrive anywhere in an instant. But in 2003 Linden Lab, the company that owns Second Life, disabled P2P. Residents trying to reach a destination would appear at the nearest “telehub.”</p>
<p>This had implications for real estate. Valuable for businesses and entertainment, plots of land near telehubs sold for top dollar — until 2005, when <a href="https://lindenlab.wordpress.com/2005/11/27/formerly-known-as-telehubs/">Linden Lab suddenly announced</a> the end of telehubs and <a href="https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2005/12/point_to_point_.html">the return of P2P</a>. </p>
<p>Land near former telehubs no longer had special value; <a href="http://alphavilleherald.com/2005/12/extra_extra_bar.html">some people lost thousands of dollars</a>. The most powerful landlord can’t change the laws of physics, but Linden Lab could literally recode scarcity out of existence.</p>
<p>Fast-forward almost 20 years. Land next to Snoop Dogg’s virtual mansion is scarce: A plot could cost $450,000 because The Sandbox doesn’t have P2P. But were the company to suddenly add P2P, that $450,000 investment could become nearly worthless. That pundits have tended to ignore this fact reveals the danger of forgetting metaverse history.</p>
<h2>Immersion – sensory or social?</h2>
<p>Another example of metaverse history’s importance concerns the idea of virtual environments. Virtual worlds don’t just connect places; they’re places in their own right. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478406/original/file-20220809-16-m0dy2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A vintage black and white photograph of man seated at a desk holding a telephone receiver to his head" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478406/original/file-20220809-16-m0dy2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478406/original/file-20220809-16-m0dy2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=732&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478406/original/file-20220809-16-m0dy2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=732&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478406/original/file-20220809-16-m0dy2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=732&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478406/original/file-20220809-16-m0dy2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478406/original/file-20220809-16-m0dy2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478406/original/file-20220809-16-m0dy2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From their earliest days, telephone calls have brought people together across great distances into shared virtual conversational spaces.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/thc.5a42105/">Theodor Horydczak Collection, Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1883/01/22/archives/playing-chess-by-telegraph.html">played chess using the telegraph</a> 150 years ago; those virtual chessboards weren’t located on either end of the wire. <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/101">In 1992 Bruce Sterling noted</a> that telephone calls don’t take place in your phone or in the other person’s phone. They take place in a virtual environment: “The place between the phones. The indefinite place out there, where the two of you, two human beings, actually meet and communicate.”</p>
<p>In 1990, <a href="https://journals.tdl.org/jvwr/index.php/jvwr/article/view/287">Habitat’s founders concluded</a> that the metaverse is defined more by the interactions among people within it than by the technology that creates it. They were particularly skeptical of virtual reality technologies, noting “the almost mystical euphoria that currently seems to surround all this hardware is, in our opinion, both excessive and somewhat misplaced.”</p>
<p>At issue isn’t VR’s potential, but the Matrix-like idea that sensory immersion is necessary to the metaverse in every instance. The key distinction is between <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691168340/coming-of-age-in-second-life">sensory immersion and social immersion</a>. The idea that virtual environments require VR misunderstands “immersion.” It’s also ableist, since not everyone can see or hear. The metaverse’s history indicates that social immersion is the metaverse’s foundation. </p>
<h2>Learning from history</h2>
<p>The metaverse has a long way to go, but it already has a long history. Proximity and immersion are just two examples of crucial topics this history can demystify. </p>
<p>This is important because the current, rampant mystification isn’t accidental. The emerging version of the metaverse is overwhelmingly owned and developed by Big Tech. These companies seek to manufacture the perception that the metaverse is new and futuristic. But metaverse histories are real; they can reveal past mistakes and contribute to better virtual futures.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186083/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Boellstorff does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The metaverse is still unfolding, but it has been developing for more than a century. Rudimentary virtual worlds have existed – in imagination and reality – since the days of the telegraph.Tom Boellstorff, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1170692019-05-21T11:36:40Z2019-05-21T11:36:40ZSimply elegant, Morse code marks 175 years and counting<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274994/original/file-20190516-69174-1o1ftdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4361%2C2909&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There's still plenty of reason to know how to use this Morse telegraph key.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/morse-code-key-on-white-background-97099433">Jason Salmon/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The first message sent by Morse code’s dots and dashes across a long distance traveled from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore on Friday, May 24, 1844 – 175 years ago. It signaled the first time in human history that complex thoughts could be communicated at long distances almost instantaneously. <a href="https://prezi.com/9puvdbvqudzy/early-methods-of-long-distance-communication/">Until then</a>, people had to have face-to-face conversations; send coded messages <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-talking-drums-29197334/">through drums</a>, <a href="https://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/wilderness/how-to-send-smoke-signal.htm">smoke signals</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22909590">semaphore systems</a>; or read printed words.</p>
<p>Thanks to Samuel F.B. Morse, communication changed rapidly, and has been changing ever faster since. He invented the electric telegraph in 1832. It took six more years for him to standardize a code for communicating over telegraph wires. In 1843, <a href="https://www.thedailystar.com/opinion/columns/samuel-morse-s-telegraph-plans-perfected-in-cherry-valley/article_1ceb7424-a97a-5d70-b6c8-82045d04043a.html">Congress gave him US$30,000</a> to string wires between the nation’s capital and nearby Baltimore. When the line was completed, he conducted a public demonstration of long-distance communication.</p>
<p>Morse wasn’t the only one working to develop a means of <a href="https://taskandpurpose.com/the-jolt-of-electricity-that-forever-altered-war">communicating over the telegraph</a>, but his is the one that has survived. The wires, magnets and keys used in the initial demonstration have given way to smartphones’ on-screen keyboards, but Morse code has remained fundamentally the same, and is still – perhaps surprisingly – relevant in the 21st century. Although I have learned, and relearned, it many times as a Boy Scout, an amateur radio operator and a pilot, I continue to admire it and strive to master it.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274164/original/file-20190513-183109-5w8cpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274164/original/file-20190513-183109-5w8cpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274164/original/file-20190513-183109-5w8cpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=29&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274164/original/file-20190513-183109-5w8cpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=29&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274164/original/file-20190513-183109-5w8cpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=29&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274164/original/file-20190513-183109-5w8cpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=37&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274164/original/file-20190513-183109-5w8cpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=37&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274164/original/file-20190513-183109-5w8cpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=37&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Samuel F.B. Morse’s own handwritten record of the first Morse code message ever sent, on May 24, 1844.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/mmorse.071009/">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Easy sending</h2>
<p>Morse’s key insight in constructing the code was considering how frequently each letter is used in English. The most commonly used letters have shorter symbols: “E,” which appears most often, is signified by a single “dot.” By contrast, “Z,” the <a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/explore/which-letters-are-used-most">least used letter</a> in English, was signified by the much longer and more complex “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Morse_code">dot-dot-dot (pause) dot</a>.” </p>
<p>In 1865, the International Telecommunications Union <a href="https://www.itu.int/en/history/Pages/ITUBorn1865.aspx">changed the code</a> to account for different character frequencies in other languages. There have been other tweaks since, but “E” is still “dot,” though “Z” is now “<a href="https://www.itu.int/dms_pubrec/itu-r/rec/m/R-REC-M.1677-1-200910-I!!PDF-E.pdf#page=4">dash-dash-dot-dot</a>.”</p>
<p>The reference to letter frequency makes for extremely efficient communications: Simple words with common letters can be transmitted very quickly. Longer words can still be sent, but they take more time.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274166/original/file-20190513-183083-1rn88ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274166/original/file-20190513-183083-1rn88ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274166/original/file-20190513-183083-1rn88ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274166/original/file-20190513-183083-1rn88ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274166/original/file-20190513-183083-1rn88ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274166/original/file-20190513-183083-1rn88ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274166/original/file-20190513-183083-1rn88ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274166/original/file-20190513-183083-1rn88ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Samuel F.B. Morse.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/item/2016816533/">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Going wireless</h2>
<p>The communications system that Morse code was designed for – analogue connections over metal wires that carried a lot of interference and needed a clear on-off type signal to be heard – has evolved significantly.</p>
<p>The first big change came just a few decades after Morse’s demonstration. In the late 19th century, Guglielmo Marconi invented <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/guglielmo-marconi">radio-telegraph equipment</a>, which could send Morse code over radio waves, rather than wires.</p>
<p>The shipping industry loved this new way to communicate with ships at sea, either from ship to ship or to shore-based stations. By 1910, U.S. law <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Ship_Act_of_1910">required many passenger ships in U.S. waters</a> to carry wireless sets for sending and receiving messages. </p>
<p>After the Titanic sank in 1912, an international agreement required some ships to assign a person to <a href="https://www.itu.int/itunews/manager/display.asp?lang=en&year=2006&issue=06&ipage=pioneers&ext=html">listen for radio distress signals</a> at all times. That same agreement designated “SOS” – “<a href="https://www.itu.int/itunews/manager/display.asp?lang=en&year=2006&issue=06&ipage=pioneers&ext=html">dot-dot-dot dash-dash-dash dot-dot-dot</a>” – as the international distress signal, not as an abbreviation for anything but because it was a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17631595">simple pattern</a> that was easy to remember and transmit. The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/02/us/coast-guard-signs-off-on-morse-code-and-an-era-at-sea-ends.html">Coast Guard discontinued monitoring</a> in 1995. The requirement that ships monitor for distress signals was <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-aug-16-mn-13607-story.html">removed in 1999</a>, though the U.S. Navy still teaches at least some <a href="https://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=92864">sailors to read, send and receive Morse code</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274734/original/file-20190515-60545-17v0f17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274734/original/file-20190515-60545-17v0f17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274734/original/file-20190515-60545-17v0f17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274734/original/file-20190515-60545-17v0f17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274734/original/file-20190515-60545-17v0f17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274734/original/file-20190515-60545-17v0f17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274734/original/file-20190515-60545-17v0f17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274734/original/file-20190515-60545-17v0f17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The arrow points at the chart label indicating the Morse code equivalent to the ‘BAL’ signal for a radio beacon near Baltimore.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/digital_products/vfr/">Edited screenshot of an FAA map</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Aviators also use Morse code to identify automated navigational aids. These are radio beacons that help pilots follow routes, traveling from one transmitter to the next on aeronautical charts. They <a href="https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2012/august/31/ifr-fix-how-is-your-morse-code">transmit their identifiers</a> – such as “BAL” for Baltimore – in Morse code. Pilots often learn to recognize familiar-sounding patterns of beacons in areas they fly frequently.</p>
<p>There is a <a href="https://www.fistsna.org/">thriving community</a> of amateur radio operators who treasure Morse code, too. Among amateur radio operators, Morse code is a cherished tradition tracing back to the earliest days of radio. Some of them may have begun in the Boy Scouts, which has made learning Morse variably <a href="https://observer.wunderwood.org/2016/02/22/history-of-morse-code-in-the-bsa/">optional or required</a> over the years. The Federal Communications Commission used to require all licensed amateur radio operators to demonstrate proficiency in Morse code, but that <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-modifies-amateur-radio-service-rules-eliminating-morse-code-exam">ended in 2007</a>. The FCC does still issue <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/commercial-radio-operator-license-program/commercial-0">commercial licenses that require Morse</a> proficiency, but no jobs require it anymore.</p>
<h2>Blinking Morse</h2>
<p>Because its signals are so simple – on or off, long or short – Morse code can also be used by flashing lights. Many navies around the world use blinker lights to communicate from ship to ship when they don’t want to use radios or when radio equipment breaks down. The U.S. Navy is actually testing a system that would let a user <a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a27391/us-navy-morse-code-software/">type words and convert it to blinker light</a>. A receiver would read the flashes and convert it back to text.</p>
<p>Skills learned in the military <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4120186/Army-veteran-54-crawled-rocky-beach-two-hours-breaking-leg-saved-exchanging-Morse-code-signals-wife-using-TORCH.html">helped an injured man communicate</a> with his wife across a rocky beach using only his flashlight in 2017.</p>
<h2>Other Morse messages</h2>
<p>Perhaps the most notable modern use of Morse code was by <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2014-mar-29-la-me-jeremiah-denton-20140329-story.html">Navy pilot Jeremiah Denton</a>, while he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. In 1966, about one year into a nearly eight-year imprisonment, Denton was forced by his North Vietnamese captors to participate in a video interview about his treatment. While the camera focused on his face, he blinked the Morse code symbols for “torture,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/29/us/politics/jeremiah-a-denton-jr-war-hero-and-senator-dies-at-89.html">confirming for the first time</a> U.S. fears about the treatment of service members held captive in North Vietnam.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ioC_F8FvviM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Navy pilot Jeremiah Denton, a prisoner of war, blinks Morse code spelling out ‘torture’ during a forced interview with his captors.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-10-25-me-16256-story.html">Blinking Morse code</a> <a href="https://consultqd.clevelandclinic.org/managing-locked-in-syndrome-lessons-from-a-profile-of-a-rare-case/">is slow</a>, but has also <a href="https://owlcation.com/humanities/morse_code">helped people with medical conditions</a> that prevent them from <a href="https://www.blog.google/outreach-initiatives/accessibility/imagining-new-ways-learn-morse-codes-dots-and-dashes/">speaking or communicating</a> in other ways. A number of devices – including <a href="https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/gboard-ios-morse-code-mode/">iPhones and Android</a> smartphones – can be set up to accept Morse code input from people with limited motor skills.</p>
<p>There are still many ways people can <a href="https://morsedx.com/">learn Morse code</a>, and <a href="https://cwops.org/cw-academy-2/">practice</a> using it, even online. In emergency situations, it can be the only mode of communications that will get through. Beyond that, there is an art to Morse code, a rhythmic, musical fluidity to the sound. Sending and receiving it can have a soothing or meditative feeling, too, as the person focuses on the flow of individual characters, words and sentences. Overall, sometimes the simplest tool is all that’s needed to accomplish the task.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117069/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eddie King is affiliated with the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) as a Senior Member. He is also a member of the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL), American Association of Engineering Educators (ASEE), Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), Civil Air Patrol (CAP), and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).</span></em></p>Morse code works whether flashing a spotlight or blinking your eyes – or even tapping on a smartphone touchscreen.Eddie King, Ph.D. Student in Electrical Engineering, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/425782015-09-01T09:58:57Z2015-09-01T09:58:57ZLOL in the age of the telegraph<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93230/original/image-20150827-368-1fy5qx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Could these gentlemen be early pioneers of textspeak?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Post_Office_Engineers.jpg#/media/File:Post_Office_Engineers.jpg">Council Flat Holm Project/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>From “lol” to “brb,” the internet and text messaging gave rise to a unique form of short form language – “textspeak” – in which almost all of us are well-versed.</p>
<p>But long before the internet revolutionized communication, humans experienced a different sort of technological innovation: the telegraph.</p>
<p>In 1837, the first commercial telegraphs were released by Samuel Morse, William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone, and this machine – as journalist Tom Standage argues in his book <a href="amazon.com/gp/product/162040592X/">The Victorian Internet</a> – mirrored the impact that the internet has had in modern times.</p>
<p>The result was an entirely new way to wield language – one that, in a number of ways, resembles today’s textspeak. </p>
<h2>Communicating at speeds unheard of</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93356/original/image-20150828-19950-1cg1ip0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93356/original/image-20150828-19950-1cg1ip0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=739&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93356/original/image-20150828-19950-1cg1ip0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=739&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93356/original/image-20150828-19950-1cg1ip0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=739&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93356/original/image-20150828-19950-1cg1ip0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93356/original/image-20150828-19950-1cg1ip0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93356/original/image-20150828-19950-1cg1ip0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An 1809 drawing of the electric telegraph.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_telegraph#/media/File:Soemmerring_1810_telegraph_overview.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Using electricity, the telegraph could communicate quickly over long distances – at speeds unheard of. Soon it was developed for both government and commercial use. And because we were suddenly able to transmit interactions over large distances, new types of language were created to fit the medium. </p>
<p>There were several ways to communicate over these distances, including moving bars up and down or connecting one wire to each letter of the alphabet.</p>
<p>One of the forms of communication developed for the telegraph that’s still familiar today is Morse code, which used sequences of dots and dashes (or dits and dahs) to represent letters and numbers. More than just a cipher, Morse code had its own short forms and abbreviations to make messages as concise as possible; in this way, it’s an early predecessor to today’s textspeak. </p>
<h2>Message and data rates may apply</h2>
<p>Telegrams were written communications in Morse code sent over a wire (or, later, radio waves) across great distances, which were then translated into written English for the recipients. </p>
<p>But if you wanted to send a telegram, companies like the <a href="http://distantwriting.co.uk/electrictelegraphcompany.html">Electric Telegraph Company</a> and Western Union charged by the word, with messages of 10 words costing as much as 10 cents (or US$2 in today’s money) – significantly more than current standard texting rates! </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93358/original/image-20150828-19912-sc9bhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93358/original/image-20150828-19912-sc9bhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93358/original/image-20150828-19912-sc9bhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=704&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93358/original/image-20150828-19912-sc9bhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=704&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93358/original/image-20150828-19912-sc9bhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=704&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93358/original/image-20150828-19912-sc9bhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93358/original/image-20150828-19912-sc9bhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93358/original/image-20150828-19912-sc9bhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The index of a Morse code guide from 1879.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.jmcvey.net/cable/Port_charges_1879_codex_TOC_600w704h.jpg">http://www.jmcvey.net</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So as you can imagine – just like with modern character-constrained mediums like Twitter – people developed short forms to get their message across in as little space (and, consequently, for as little money) as possible. <a href="http://www.telegraph-office.com/pages/telegram.html">Numerous</a> <a href="http://www.jmcvey.net/cable/signal_codes.htm">guides</a> to the telegraphic codes were published.</p>
<p>Many of these shortenings look familiar even to us today. Take <a href="http://sundaymagazine.org/2010/08/from-1890-the-first-text-messages/">one account</a> from an 1890 New York Times article, which was uncovered by the blog <a href="http://sundaymagazine.org">Sunday Magazine</a>. </p>
<p>The article details telegrams sent between two telegraph operators who had never met each other, but had developed their own lingo for their personal messages.</p>
<p>You can see a short form “Hw r u ts mng?” which can be parsed as “How are you this morning?” It looks a little bit like a long text message today, or a heavily truncated tweet from one person to another. </p>
<p>Some codes from this era remain with us today, including the distress call SOS, which was first introduced in 1905 as part of German government radio regulations.</p>
<p>Throughout its history, Morse code has undergone its own evolution as different people started to use it for different purposes. In a <a href="https://archive.org/details/RespectablyFrench.ROFLCon.BeforetheLOL">2008 talk</a>, historian Jason Scott describes this evolution from the telegraph to amateur radio, a modern hobby that involves using radios to communicate with people around the world. As Morse code was adapted to be used in these new formats, there were considerable innovations in communication. </p>
<p>Referring to it as the “first social network,” Scott describes how amateur radio (sometimes called ham radio) operators sent each other messages and updates using codes. They also used this technology to send each other images over the radio using sequences of characters and codes that were intended to be decoded and printed out. </p>
<p>These images, sent by slow-scan television methods (which stemmed from similar technology used <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow-scan_television#Early_usage_in_space_exploration">to send images from space exploration</a>, often included the call signs of their sender and other jargon, and might be an early analog to online avatars or user profile images. </p>
<p>Thus, as people immersed themselves in technological innovations, they adapted their language to new forms and uses.</p>
<h2>HI HI: LOL of the 19th century?</h2>
<p>Indeed, many of these patterns developed by amateur radio users are familiar to those who use textspeak or online lingo. Shortly after writing my article on <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-you-haha-lol-through-the-ages-41562">the history of LOL</a>, I received an email from <a href="http://showcase.netins.net/web/wallio/">Ralph Wallio</a>, an amateur radio enthusiast. </p>
<p>He shared with me the existence of abbreviations in Morse code, specifically one for laughter. The sequence HI HI, …. .. …. .., is a short form for laughter and is a favorite among amateur radio communicators. It could even be seen as <a href="https://lrobison.wordpress.com/2007/03/26/morse-code-influences-on-ham-radio-lingo/">an early predecessor to LOL</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.ac6v.com/73.htm#HI">Some sources</a> speculate that this particular sequence originated as an attempt to imitate the sound of a person chuckling. HI HI is quite similar to traditional text representations of laughter hehe and haha, which have been in use <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-you-haha-lol-through-the-ages-41562">since the time of Chaucer and Shakespeare</a>. Wallio suggested that using HA HA in Morse code would be read as …. .- …. .-, which would be more time-consuming to transmit, hence the use of HI HI instead. </p>
<p>It turns out that Morse code today has <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_code_abbreviations">quite a few of these short forms</a>, and some of them will be familiar to those who chat online or send text messages today – not the forms, necessarily, but the things that are being abbreviated. </p>
<p>“Thank you,” which is often reduced to “ty” in text messaging and other online communication, appears at “TU” in Morse code. “Please” appears as “PLS” in Morse Code, and “plz” in many forms of communication online. The phonetic reductions of “you” to “u” and “are” to “r” are represented in Morse Code as well. </p>
<p>Short forms have existed throughout human history of using different mediums to communicate, and the short forms themselves are representative of the possibilities that the medium affords. </p>
<p>Some of these have withstood the test of time, and some haven’t; nonetheless, it goes to show how adaptable language is, and how communication technology almost always breeds new forms of writing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42578/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lauren B. Collister does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Long before ‘sup’ and ‘hwu’ there was ‘Hw r u ts mng?’Lauren B. Collister, Electronics Publications Associate, University of PittsburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/379472015-02-24T06:31:33Z2015-02-24T06:31:33ZIf you think newspapers are losing their credibility, take a look at fashion magazines<p>Peter Oborne’s dramatic exit from his role as chief political commentator of The Telegraph has sharpened the focus on editorial credibility. While his resignation and the reasons for it have caused <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-peter-obornes-resignation-forces-us-to-confront-about-journalism-37771">a storm of shocked comment</a> from across the media, the issue is not a new one for the consumer fashion media sector.</p>
<p>As London Fashion Week reaches its climax, it’s a good moment to think about the insidious shift in power from editorial teams to advertising brands. Today, those brands appear to call the shots on a significant part of the product-based editorial offer in all kinds of consumer magazines.</p>
<p>Responding to the Oborne controversy, veteran newsman and editor <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02kbpvf">Harold Evans was exercised by two aspects of the problem</a>. First he talked about the editorial credibility of the media outlet. His view was that the very credibility of editorial content was what sold ads. He was also concerned about the development of native advertising – what we used to call advertising features or advertorials.</p>
<p>What Evans highlighted was the trust that exists between an editorial team and its readers. Readers have loyalty to publications and websites because they are trusted to select relevant information and edit in the interests of the readers and users. While the loyalty is perhaps now diminishing, it is part of the ethical behaviour of trained journalists to behave in a trustworthy manner.</p>
<p>You wonder what fashion magazine readers would think about the credibility of their trusted editorial teams if they knew that front covers were sometimes paid for – that is, the cost of the shoot, not as an advertising rate – by an advertising brand. That same brand would have input into the location, the model, the grooming and the garments. Inside the fashion magazines, stylists now have to make up creative ideas for the storytelling of an editorial shoot – the garments used are frequently dictated by the PRs of the advertisers, often head-to-toe outfits.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72814/original/image-20150223-32215-roxtos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72814/original/image-20150223-32215-roxtos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72814/original/image-20150223-32215-roxtos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72814/original/image-20150223-32215-roxtos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72814/original/image-20150223-32215-roxtos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72814/original/image-20150223-32215-roxtos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72814/original/image-20150223-32215-roxtos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Do advertisers call the shots when it comes to fashion mags?.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/urbansheep/5484993">urbansheep</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I recently flicked through a fashion mag where the exact same garment combination was used in an ad for a brand and in the so-called editorial shoot. Even in a media world where there is an unwritten deal that advertisers are always covered editorially this seems a step too far.</p>
<p>It is virtually a badge of honour for newspaper fashion writers to be banned from catwalk shows after a bad review for a designer, but the situation of those writing for fashion magazines is different. </p>
<p>Fashion and lifestyle brand advertising revenue is the lifeblood of commercial success for fashion magazines, particularly in an environment of falling circulations. Never able to be critical, consumer fashion mags used to show their disapproval of collections by not including them in their catwalk reports, but now advertisers demand inclusion as part of the “deal”. The threat to withdraw advertising is a strong incentive to make editorial decisions, and readers might find this disconcerting if they knew about the backroom negotiations.</p>
<p>The internet has not helped matters. The number of bloggers who declare their relationship with brands via sponsored posts is increasing. But there are still many who effectively hoodwink their readers into thinking they are giving an objective judgement on product when they have either been gifted product or even been paid for coverage. You’d think the web would improve transparency, but this is far from the case.</p>
<p>Advertisers have always been cherished and “looked after”, so it was perhaps predictable that their power would increase as audiences fragment and readers get used to getting information for free.</p>
<p>Evans’s view may now be considered an old-fashioned one. News UK has, for example, recently set up a division solely to facilitate native advertising across its titles and websites. And guess what? Rather than being lead by someone from the ad team, former Sunday Times Style editor, <a href="http://static2.thedrum.com/news/2014/09/18/news-uk-launch-native-advertising-arm-spearheaded-sunday-times-editor-tiffanie-darke">Tiffanie Darke, takes the helm</a>.</p>
<p>So while commentators continue to chew the cud on the Oborne resignation, fashion writers covering London Fashion Week will be contemplating how critical, if at all, they can be about a collection they hate while anticipating the negotiations ahead on which garments they will be allowed to feature.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37947/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Josephine Collins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The line between advertising and editorial may be blurred in newspapers, but it’s all but non-existent in consumer magazines.Josephine Collins, Course Leader, BA (Hons) Fashion Journalism, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/377712015-02-18T16:53:11Z2015-02-18T16:53:11ZWhat Peter Oborne’s resignation forces us to confront about journalism<p>As news of <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/peter-oborne/why-i-have-resigned-from-telegraph">Peter Oborne’s resignation from The Daily Telegraph</a> went scattering around the internet and as further coverage came in interviews and articles that evening and the following morning, it became clear that a story of very traditional dynamics of journalism was unfolding. </p>
<p>Oborne resigned because he was fed up with stories being pulled offline and criticism of advertisers was being relegated to small corners of inside pages at the paper. For Oborne, a boundary had been crossed and the journalistic ideals he subscribed to had been broken.</p>
<p>But one has to ask if it is only because it is a story coming from a storied and traditional newspaper and a well-regarded journalist that we are even hearing about it.</p>
<p>What Oborne’s letter shows is an unravelling of an agreed-upon set of rules that journalists and journalism and particularly newspapers adhere to. These rules are what allow newspapers to balance the profit-making demands with its public interest ideals. By abiding with them, both the business of running a paper and the editorial decisions that fill its pages could be managed. Clearly for Oborne, the business leaders at the Telegraph had failed to adhere to that division – and his frustration over that failure is apparent. </p>
<p>His is not a unique case, of course, as both overt influence by corporate owners and more passive influence has “chilled” critical journalism time and time again. However the blending of corporate and editorial interests has become an ever-present concern, particularly as revenue from print advertising has dwindled and newspapers have sought new ways to secure both revenue and readers. </p>
<p>You only need to look to the news earlier this year, that The New York Times was adding to its in-house design staff to create native advertising and content, for a similar story of the blurring of distinctions between what is journalism and what is advertising. </p>
<p>As with Tuesday’s expose from Oborne, <a href="http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2015/01/8560278/emtimesem-staff-content-studio">that the New York Times would consider such a move was met with surprise</a>. With both the Telegraph and the New York Times, the idea that such legacy media brands would consider crossing this sacred line leads to a great deal of uneasiness over the extent to which newspapers would accede to advertiser demands, and questions over what audiences and readers can trust from these brands.</p>
<p>Which returns us to the worrying thought that we might only be hearing about these instances of corporate pressure and editorial influence because they are happening at legacy institutions in traditional news environments. </p>
<p>For as much as we can suggest that what Peter Oborne wrote in his resignation letter might be commonplace, we also only know of the instances he describes. Contrasting the minimal space for critical stories in the inside pages of the Telegraph with front-page splashes and major investigations in competing newspapers is tangible. It can be measured in ink and inches. </p>
<p>When protests in Hong Kong secured the attention of leader articles and front pages in a range of British newspapers and the Telegraph’s coverage was tepid, as Oborne alleges, that can be explored by looking at an array of newspapers in any newsagents. When UK newspapers were decrying China’s refusal to grant British MPs access to Hong Kong and the Telegraph was mum (setting aside <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/hongkong/11097844/Lets-not-allow-Hong-Kong-to-come-between-us.html">space for the Chinese ambassador</a> ahead of a “lucrative” supplemental section China Watch) we can see that. In traditional terms, these can all be compared.</p>
<p>What’s more damning and more worrisome is that Oborne can point to articles critical of HSBC and published on the Telegraph’s website being deleted. Without his tell-all resignation, we might never be aware of such stories. It is perhaps ironic that it was <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/hsbc-story-deleted-telegraph-website">Buzzfeed that ran the deleted stories on its site</a>. </p>
<p>It was also Buzzfeed, the site that built its online presence on the very blend of native advertising and original content under discussion here, that reminds us of the futility of suppressing news when there are so many online possibilities. And it is Buzzfeed, and sites like it, that force us to ask whether the boundaries between the advertising and the editorial still exist, and where are they drawn online.</p>
<p>What should make Peter Oborne’s resignation a shock and a media scandal is not only the violation of a particular set of journalism’s ideals and paradigms. It is that it introduces obvious questions we have no way to reasonably answer. How often this is happening elsewhere? How do we measure the “tweaks” and “edits” and “changes” happening online at the behest of advertisers or under corporate pressure? And how do journalists, who have built their reputations on the boundaries between advertising and editorial, now repair the paradigms that Oborne’s letter reveals as broken?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37771/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Eldridge does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As news of Peter Oborne’s resignation from The Daily Telegraph went scattering around the internet and as further coverage came in interviews and articles that evening and the following morning, it became…Scott Eldridge, Lecturer in Journalism Studies, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/377702015-02-18T16:49:33Z2015-02-18T16:49:33ZPeter Oborne resignation shines a light on the dark arts of business journalism<p>Peter Oborne’s <a href="https://opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/peter-oborne/why-i-have-resigned-from-telegraph">attack on the management of the Daily Telegraph</a> for downplaying the latest HSBC scandal raises interesting insights into a wider malaise within business journalism. On one side stands The Guardian, helping to expose widespread tax evasion, and on the other the Daily Telegraph management, accused of deliberately suppressing the story for commercial interests. Which best represents the state of financial and business journalism in the UK?</p>
<p>In research I carried out for my forthcoming book on corruption and collusion in business journalism, I found that the Telegraph carries more business coverage than any of its competitors. A newspaper like the Telegraph is trusted by its readers, they expect it to tell the truth and because business news is so central to the paper’s offering, if Oborne is correct then what we are seeing is a betrayal of their trust. Why should they trust it again? How much more is driven by commercial pressures? </p>
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<p>It’s no secret that the traditional business model of newspapers has broken down. Papers were always a dual product, a combination of editorial which attracted readers, and a platform which attracted advertising because of a newspaper’s circulation. However, falling circulation has reduced the attraction for advertisers which has resulted in falling revenues and cost-saving measures. This is why advertisers are keenly fought over, with the danger that they can influence editorial decisions.</p>
<p>Faced with financial constraints and the challenge posed by digital delivery platforms, newspaper owners have responded by cutting costs. As the most expensive element of a newspaper is the editorial, it is journalists who have borne the biggest brunt in terms of lost jobs. My forthcoming research shows employment in the UK’s mainstream print sector shrank by between a quarter and a third from a baseline estimated in 2001 of 55,000-60,000 jobs to around 40,000 in 2010. </p>
<p>In an interview for my book, the Guardian’s online editor, Julia Finch, told me: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Because of the reporting timescales we tend to cover companies reporting their results, all we can do these days is report results, analysis takes longer and is more expensive. More demands on the journalist and less time to actually do the checking. This is going to get far worse because of the economics of the media industry.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Due to the increased volume of work and the limited amount of time available to produce stories, journalists have changed from a hunter-gatherer of stories to data processors. Increasingly this means having to rely on external sources for both the source of the stories and their content. </p>
<h2>We need better business journalism</h2>
<p>Why does this matter? We need critical financial and business journalism because of the way our relationship with business has changed. Over the past 30 years the power of the state and the trade unions, which used to protect society from the predatory activities of business, has rapidly diminished.</p>
<p>At the same time, politicians have rebalanced the economy. Services that were once provided by public sector have been outsourced to private companies. Many of these are multinational corporations owned by offshore shareholders. </p>
<p>We live and work in a global economy – Amazon, Starbucks, Google are major household names everywhere and while we might welcome their services we have learnt there is a cost. There has been outrage at the tax avoidance schemes carried out by many of global companies and HSBC is only the latest example.</p>
<p>In the past, it has been business reporters in newspapers who have been at the forefront of exposing these activities, thereby demonstrating the importance of such reporting. But what happens when companies have enough sway to affect that reporting?</p>
<h2>Safe conduits</h2>
<p>My experience in financial journalism provides too many examples of journalists colluding with businesses in order to present a positive or less critical aspect. Such “safe conduits” possess impeccable credentials and are trusted by business to become the channel through which their opinions are expressed. </p>
<p>The conduits are also used by pro-business lobby groups and think tanks to act as cheerleaders for political and economic causes that they argue affect business interests.</p>
<p>Business journalism matters because it helps dictate the political agenda. The so-called “<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/10986255/Our-drive-to-cut-red-tape-is-working-both-at-home-and-in-Europe.html">war on red-tape</a>” and the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jan/26/labour-50p-tax-rate-what-you-need-to-know">50p tax campaign</a> are issues that started in the business pages and which were then translated into legislation. Increasingly this means that policy on key issues are decided not through democratic institutions but in the boadrooms of UK plc in the service of their own interests. </p>
<p>It has to be asked whether such an uncritical acceptance of business is either healthy or good for business. What type of friend is it that does not hold you to account when you do wrong, applauding misdemeanours and dubious practice as being essential business activity? What kind of friend let you precipitate an economic crisis or seeks to excuse or apologise for behaviour that might elsewhere be regarded as criminal? </p>
<p>If our newspapers reported on politics or politicians in such an uncritical fashion, we would quickly dismiss it as propaganda. Peter Oborne’s resignation has been the wake-up call we needed about the undue influence business has on journalism.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37770/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Butterick is affiliated with the Labour Party.
</span></em></p>Peter Oborne’s attack on the management of the Daily Telegraph for downplaying the latest HSBC scandal raises interesting insights into a wider malaise within business journalism. On one side stands The…Keith Butterick, Director, Centre for Communication Research, University of HuddersfieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.