Page 78 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

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The Rise of Majoritarianism
of information, and it reduced the importance of the postal service by
permitting businesses of all kinds to operate faster. Businesses that could
transmit information nearly instantly across the country could operate
in new ways, handling more transactions and placing less emphasis on
physical proximity and more on price and availability of goods. Pricing of
goods therefore become more uniform and more responsive to national
rather than local market forces. In this way, telegraph-based information
flows contributed to the beginnings of national economic markets in the
United States.
In the world of newspapers, the telegraph exerted similar influences.
The new wires permitted newspaper businesses to acquire and exchange
information much more rapidly. Some major papers took advantage
of the increased flow of information to produce multiple daily editions,
while smaller, rural papers were able to present national news more read-
ily and promptly than using the old exchange-paper methods. Early on,
some smaller papers incorporated the telegraph into their exchange sys-
tem. One local paper might receive wire news, then use an exchange with
other local papers to distribute information regionally. 74
The newspaper business thus changed, as new national news net-
works and pools formed around the telegraph-based flow of informa-
tion.NewspapersliketheBaltimoreSun,whichhadpromotedtheoriginal
Washington–Baltimore line, contributed enthusiastically to the develop-
ment of the telegraph, giving it publicity as well as funding. In partic-
ular, the penny papers exploited and promoted the telegraph, eventu-
ally integrating it into the media business. 75 By the 1850s and 1860s,
telegraph-based news agencies were fueling the continued expansion
and growth of the newspaper business. By this time, the postal service
was no longer such a vital link in the news chain. It would never again
be so important for moving information between news businesses and
getting newspapers into the hands of citizens outside the major urban
areas.
Whilethetelegraphspedtheflowofpoliticalinformationdramatically,
it was not a medium to supplant the newspaper as television one day
would, nor did it alter the basic content and characteristics of political
information. It left undiminished the relevance and command of parties.
While it constituted new infrastructure of great importance, to be sure,
it was not an alternative channel for communication between elites and
citizens nor a force for reorganizing political information itself.

74 75
Fang, A History of Mass Communication. Schudson, Discovering the News.
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