Week 5 Flashcards
Who patented/invented the telephone and when?
Alexander Graham Bell in 1876
When and where was the first switchboard opened?
1878, New Haven
What came before the electrical telegraph?
The optical telegraph
Who invented the telegraph and when?
Samuel F.B. Morse in 1837
What phrase did Morse use when demonstrating the telegraph?
“What hath God wrought?”
James Carey said that
the use of electricity enabled the separation of communication from transportation.
Telegraph: ____ at a distance
Telephone: _____ at a distance
Telegraph: writing at a distance
Telephone: voice at a distance
According to Carey, what were the 3 major consequences of the telegraph?
- Decontextualization of markets in space
- Commodity separated from representations
- Standardization of goods through abstract grading system
What does Marx mean by commodity fetish?
Once things become commodities we forget who made them. We don’t pay attention to the social nature of commodities.
Abstracting commodities fro the people who produce them.
What was a disadvantage of the telephone, particularly for business men?
There was no written record of the conversation.
What were some of the reasons why the job of being a switchboard operator carried gendered connotations?
- Women not as rude as men
- Can pay women less for the same job
- Women entering workforce as secretaries, seems appropriate
By the 1920s and 30s advertising for the telephone shifted, how?
Ads were directed more toward women as housewives and less toward business men.
