History, Background and Development of Electronic Newspapers

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History, Background and Development of Electronic Newspapers

In order to understand fully the theoretical aspects of this work and

to relate this to practical field results, it is necessary to

understand both the history and development of electronic newspapers

and the context within which such development has taken place.

The general historical context within which electronic newspapers are

being developed is first examined. A brief description of the history

of electronic publishing itself and some background containing details

of the characteristics of electronic newspapers is followed by a

review of development in the UK and a statement on their use, spread

and status to date. The major characteristics of some existing UK

based electronic newspapers are discussed and a comparison made with

their hard copy counterparts. The chapter concludes with a review of a

non-commercial leading edge example where issues of user acceptability

have been uppermost in the minds of the developers.

1. The historical perspective

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An alternative and enlightening perspective on history (to the more

usual one of "dead men and dusty dates") is obtained through the study

and understanding of the means by which communications has taken place

between human beings. There is strong evidence to suggest that control

of technology led to control of content and thus to maintenance of

cultural control within society generally. This is clearly a useful

perspective.

A most interesting and useful historical perspective is given by

Sreberny-Mohammadi (Sreberny-Mohammadi 1995) where she argues that,

thus far, communic...

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the overall scheme of things and is indeed itself controlled by the

same gatekeepers.

3. Summary

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The table below summarises the major characteristics of the three

epochs described above.

Epoch

Geography / Sphere of influence

Delivery of message

Relation-ships

Feedback

Control

Orality

Local

Real time

One to one; one to many

Real time; difficult to suppress

Little

Written / Printed word

Constrained by language

Non-real time

One to many

Non-real time; one to one - invisible, inaudible

Little early in epoch; monopolistic tendencies later

Electronic media

Global - visually; constrained by language orally

Real time

One to many

Non-real time - invisible, inaudible

Largely monopolistic

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