The click: Telegraphic technology, journalism, and the transformations of the New York associated press

This article traces the influences flowing between the telegraph and the press, through focusing on the emergence and early development of the New York Associated Press (NYAP) as an institution mediating between journalism and telegraphy. It finds that the telegraph was instrumental in bringing about cooperation between newspapers in newsgathering, ultimately changing the role of the individual newspaper from national and international gathering of crude, primary news to creatively presenting it. Founded on a broad telegraph-based news-net, the wire service made possible comprehensive gathering and simultaneous diffusion of a uniform news product throughout the country, thus promoting the vision of a common national news environment. Journalism in turn helped promote the telegraph and was instrumental in shaping the a-synchronous, one way architecture of message flow. Most significantly, it discovered the broadcast capabilities of the new medium.