Media Timeline

Media Timeline

868 A.D – The Diamond Sutra was the first ever dated book, printed on wooden blocks and published in China.

1436 – Johannes Gutenberg, a goldsmith by profession developed the first printing press in Europe. His machine was capable of printing to a high-quality in a far shorter period of time, than before. Gutenberg then went onto print the ‘Bible’ in 1455 for Pope Pius II.

1476 – William Caxton sets the first English printing press in Westminster.

1605 – Johann Carolus published the first ever newspaper printed in Strasbourg called Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien.  

1665 – The London Gazette was the first newspaper to be published on the 7^th November 1665. The Gazette was published by henry Muddiman, and its first ever publication is noted in Samuel Pepys diary. The London Gazette was posted to subscribers, not printed for general sale to the Public.

1690 – The first American newspaper called Publick Occurrences

1731 - The Gentleman’s Magazine is founded in London and is in circulation until 1907.

1785 – The Daily Universal Register later known as The Times after 1788 is founded.

1791- The first Sunday newspaper, The Observer is founded, but is not a success and led its founder W.S. Bourne into £1,600 debt.

1821 – The Manchester Guardian was founded by Cotton merchant John Edward Taylor following the closure of the more radical Manchester Observer following the Peterloo Massacre in 1819.

1827 – The first black newspaper, the Freedom Journal was founded in New York.

1831 – William Lloyd Garrison founded The Liberator, which ardently opposed slavery until 1865.

1838 – The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce were founded.

1843 – The Economist which is a market leading economics magazine was founded.

1851 - The New York Times was founded on the 8^th of September by former politician and journalist Henry Jarvis Raymond and former banker George Jones.

 1857 - Ralph Waldo Emerson and other writers found in Boston, The Atlantic Monthly magazine.

1862 – Abbe Giovanna Caselli invents his Pantelegraph and becomes the first person to transmit a still image over wires.

1877 – Thomas Edison created the Phonograph which allowed audio to be stored and transmitted.

1884 – The Financial News later known as the Financial Times was launched in London to target the community within the City of London.

1884 - George Eastman invented the first flexible photographic film. Photographic film allowed multiple images to be stored onto a plastic coated strip. These images could then viewed later.

1888 – George Eastman founded Eastman Kodak Company and popularised the use of roll film, revolutionising photography through making it more available to all.

1889 – The Wall Street Journal was founded in New York City by Charles Dow, Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser.

1891 – Thomas Edison creates the first motion picture camera. It took a sequences of pictures combined them to create a sense of motion.

1893 – The very first radio was invented Nikola Tesla in America.

1894 – Finally wireless and paperless transmissions of information is available.

1895 - Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory in Lyon, is the first motion picture to be shown to an audience. The film was made in a 35mm format, with an aspect ratio of 1:33.1, and at a speed of 16 frames per second. The 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds, holding a total of 800 frames.

1895 – The company Dickson, using Thomas Edison’s camera creates a fifteen second motion picture.

1895 – The Foundation of the American Historical Review was established as a joint effort between the history department at Cornell University and its counterpart at Harvard University. It targeted readers interested in all periods of history.

1890’s - The 1890’s saw the start of a new form of journalism, ‘Yellow Journalism’.

1902 – The first use of colour in a film was produced by Edward Raymond Turner in London who captured a colour production of his family at their home in Hounslow.

1903 – The first narrative film was created called ‘The Great Train Robbery’. This was a silent film created by Edwin .S. Porter. The film lasted ten minutes with only fourteen scenes and was based on the story by Scott Marble. 

1906 – Emma Goldman founds her Magazine Mother Earth which played a vital role in anarchist philosophies in North America and Europe.

1906 – The first feature length film was the Story of the Kelly Gang was the first to use more than one reel. Being a total of six reels long, the film was at the time the longest film at roughly one hour long. Based in Australia, the film showcases scenes of intense gang action that included "stick ups".

1907 - The development of the Cathode Ray Tube is used to produce television images, ten years after it was invented.

1909 – Charlotte Perkins Gilman founds her own feminist magazine The Forerunner which appeared until 1916.

1911 – The Daily Herald was founded in Los Angeles to target a new audience in California where film studios were increasingly opening.

1914 – The Times Literacy Supplement becomes an independent publication.

1922 – The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is founded in London and was based at Broadcasting House in Portland Place, London.

1922 – The Readers Digest is founded in New York, The Conservative magazine is published in 19 languages and had a readership of over 100 million.

1923 – Henry Luce and Briton Hadden founded the TIME magazine in New York.

1926 – NBC is founded as a radio network by RCA, General Electric and Westinghouse Electric Corporation.

1927 – CBS, the first only radio station starts broadcasting its regular television programme in New York City.

1927 - Talkie was the first film to contain dialogue, while not the first film to include sound such as music and effects, The Jazz Singer produced by Warner Bros and director Alan Crosland, was the first feature film to include dialogue. While dialogue is only present in 25% of the film, it set the stage for future productions.

1928 – The first animated film with sound was released on the 29^th July 1928 by Disney.

1933 – Newsweek magazine and media company, U.S. News and World Report is founded.

1934 – The Partisan Review was founded in New York by the United States Communist Party.

1936 – Henry Luce founds LIFE magazine in New York City.

1936 – The first television broadcast was ‘The Man with the Flower in His Mouth’ and was played in London. It laid the foundation for home broadcasting with in media.

1938 - The council communist magazine International Council Correspondence changes its name to Living Marxism. In 1942 it becomes New Essays. Its editor since 1934 had been Paul Mattick.

1938 – The first colour television broadcast was pioneered by George Valensi.

1939 – The First FM radio station was invented. It was created by Edward Armstrong. This radio was used so that you could change between the AM or FM in a quick second. FM has traditionally played Music and AM has traditionally played shows.

1945 – The Commentary is founded and published on behalf of the American Jewish Committee, which becomes a leading neo-conservative publication.

1946 - The Blue Network, part of NBC, became the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in 1946.

1950 – Smaller portable radios were created in 1950, which meant that they could be carried around, which couldn’t have happened before due to the large weight and size of previous radios.

1952 - By year's end, the number of TV households grew to 20 million, up 33% from 1950. U.S. advertisers spent a record $288 million on TV time. From 1950-1953, television in the household sparked from 3,000,000 to 17,000,000.

1953 – Hugh Hefner founds Playboy magazine, which is only published in the U.S.A to begin with.

1953 - The House of Wax produced by Warner Bros. was the first 3D colour film. This was also one of the first harrow films to be shot in colour.

1953 - Colour broadcasting officially arrives in the U.S. on Dec. 17 when FCC approves a modified version of the RCA system. The arrival of colour broadcasting allowed viewers to view broadcasts in the colour they are recorded in.

1955 – In New York Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher and Norman Mailer found the alternative weekly The Village Voice.

1956 - The Video Recorder, along with videotape, is introduced by Ampex Corp. Video recorders allowed movies and videos to be recorded directly onto videotapes.

1957 - By August of 1957, more countries worldwide allowed TV advertising than forbid it.

1957 - In an October report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr Meyer Naide identifies "television legs", which were blood clots that result from watching TV too long.

1959 – The Manchester Guardian becomes known as The Guardian and is converted into a national paper.

1960 – The New Left Review is published, this is a bimonthly academic journal which contains a commentary on the matter of Marxism.

1960 - The first of the four "great debates" between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon is broadcasted on Sept. 26, breaking new ground in presidential campaigning.

1960 - In 1960, TV surpasses newspapers as an information source. A November poll indicated that 36% of Americans found TV a more reliable source, compared to the 24% who favoured print. 

1963 - On Aug. 28, Dr. Martin Luther King delivers his famous "I have a dream" speech as millions watch on TV.

1964 – International Publishing Corporation starts the publication of The Sun to replace the daily herald.

1965 – The Cosmopolitan magazine is transformed into a women magazine. This came about due to the magazine aiming to target a gap within the market which were women.

1965 - In the year of 1965, colour TV flourishes. NBC leads the way and begins to use the phrase "The Full Colour Network". 

1968 - Around December of 1968, manufacturers produced about 11.4 million TV sets, up from the 5.7 million sets made in 1960.

1969 – The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is founded in the United States.

1969 - On July 20, astronaut Neil Armstrong takes mankind's first step on the moon as millions of U.S. viewers watch the historic event live on network TV.

1970 - As of Jan. 2, the 1970 congressional ban on radio and TV cigarette advertising takes effect, stripping the broadcast business of about $220 million in advertising.

1971 - In 1971, the transition from 60-seconds to 30-seconds for the standard length for commercials takes hold. This was a large change in the advertising community.

1972 - In the United States the pay TV station Home Box Office starts broadcasting, since 1975 it's also available via satellite. 

1972 - In New York the Downtown Community Television Centre today is founded. The aim of the organization in the beginning was to empower less privileged groups to produce their own political videos. The productions of the DCTV today reach up to 100 Million spectators every year.

1973 - NAB and other networks agree to reduce commercial time in children's weekend fare from 16 minutes an hour to 12 minutes an hour. This "law" was placed because of the growing concern on TV's effect on children.

1977 - In the year of 1977, gross TV advertising revenues rise to $7.5 billion, which was 20% of all U.S. advertising.

1980 – CNN is founded by Ted Turner, which was the first TV channel to provide 24 hour news coverage.

1980 – The first Boom Boxes were released, they were loud radios with two large speakers and became an iconic symbol for people carrying them on their shoulders.

1981 – Rupert Murdock’s News International buys The Times and Sunday Times, leading to the resignation of its editor of 14 years William Rees-Mogg.

1981 – MTV starts broadcasting as a channel.

1982 – Channel 4 is founded, offer four channel to satellite TV.

1983 – The Wall Street Journal Europe is formed, is was distributed in over 60 countries across Europe, The Middle East, and East Asia.

1984 - During the Super Bowl, Apple Computer introduced the Macintosh computer. This ad, in all, costed $900,000. This ad turns the Super Bowl into a major ad event.

1986 – The Independent newspaper was founded, and is considered the only newspaper without a political affiliation.

1990 - In 1990, the Children's Television Act took effect, limiting the amount of commercials in children's TV programming. It also required operators to carry at some programming to meet children's educational needs.

1993 - 98% of U.S. households owned at least one TV set.

1994 – The music magazine Mojo is founded in the United Kingdom.

1995 – Westinghouse Electric Corporation buys CBS for $5.4 billion

1995 - Disney Pixar's Toy Story is the first full length feature film created solely by computer generated imagery.

1996 – Fox News Channel starts broadcasting in the United States.

1996 - In mid-January, digital satellite dishes are released. They became the biggest selling electronic item in history, next to the VCR. 

2000 – Satellite radio knocked the previous year radio’s off the charts. In the 2000s the XM Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio began. XM radio has over 170 crystal clear, digital channels, covering a wide range of entertainment from music to sports, news and talk shows. 

2000 - The DVD becomes more popular and DVD movies became more common.

2005 - Flat screen and HDTV sales rise in the year of 2005. These types of televisions are usually very thin, and contain high image quality. When first released, these TVs were very expensive.

2009 - Avatar, created by James Cameron, was the first full featured film to utilize performance capture throughout the entire film. Performance capture allows live characters to perform actions and dialogue that is then computer generated into a fictional character. 

2012 - In 2012, most TV manufactures released high definition 3D sets. In order to view television in 3D, you must wear modern LCD glasses that lets you view video in clear 3D.