A méhkas szelleme - ME.dok 2012/2

I have chosen to study the development of the notion “distance” in modernity
because it is present in all the discourses about media – it helps to
define the usage and use of each new communication technology – but also,
because it shows the antagonistic logic of modernity – the meaning of distance
had to be constantly expanded in order to maintain the justification of
the technical development.
The Canadian Harold Adams Innis was the first to draw attention to the
importance of the notions of space and time (e.g. distance) in the study of
media history. For him, communication was not only carrying information
from A to B, but also transfering knowledge from one generation to another.
The capacity of the electric telegraph to bridge large distances in the
twinkling of an eye was revolutionary for a society that considered the notion
”distance” important, and the phonograph first was a medium to record
human voice and not to play music, because people began to use the same
word for temporal relations. Also, the telephone was the ”most democratic
medium” because one needed only little prior technological knowledge to
use it – it became important, to have a medium that made social differences
disappear. In my thesis I tried to argue for the existence of these ideologies in
the contemporary Hungarian media environment and I wanted to add some
historical events how they were actually realised.
Thanks to the telegraph, space had been “annihilated” – wrote the contemporary
newspapers. This enthusiasm about the defeat of geographical
distances in the mid-19 th -century society was to a certain degree politically
determined. The term “distance” had been present in the minds of politicians
since the French Revolution and the emergence of national states, which
meant a switch from a vertical to a horizontal view of connection between
the members of a society. This is the reason why in European countries the
telegraph was a monopoly of the state. It connected not only the countryside
with the capital, but also the peripheral colonies with the center. To manage
this, the telegraph lines had to cross many countries, some of them being
concurrent in the colonial race. Many conflicts (ultimately the WWI) have
shown how vulnerable this connection was. The radio, the new communication
technology, seemed to compensate that deficiency. It was called the
“wireless” and during the war, it was used exclusively by the armies. This
militant connotation seemed to prevail after the war, too, as many countries
tried to overwhelm each other in the air by building stronger transmitters or
offering more attractive programs. The broadcasting policy of the Hungar-
ian Radio in the 1920’s was an attempt to communicate
solidarity to Hungarians living outside the
borders of post-Trianon-county, but also to convince
the people of the Entente-states about the
Hungarian cultural superiority. The latter is the
reason why the broadcasting of music, this nonverbal
and universally understandable content,
had so much importance at that time.
I wanted to introduce the term ”temporal
distance” on the basis of the brand new media
to record human voice: the phonograph and the
SZÓKÖZÖK
Thanks to the telegraph,
space had been
“annihilated” – wrote the
contemporary newspapers.
This enthusiasm about
the defeat of geographical
distances in the mid-19thcentury
society was to a
certain degree politically
determined.
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