Jonas Harvard, historia, Mittuniversitetet

Distant news and local opinion: How the telegraph affected spatial and temporal horizons in northern Scandinavia, 1850-1880

2008-2013


1. Which was the aim of the project and has it been fulfilled? Has the project plan been adjusted?

The topic of the project concerned the electric telegraph lines constructed across Europe starting in the late 1840's, which profoundly changed conditions for long-distance communication in the region. Focusing on the relationship between time and space, the purpose of the project was to analyse the effects of the electric telegraph on northern Scandinavia through a study of Nordic newspapers. By investigating 1) the motives behind extending telegraph lines to these distant regions, 2) the ideals associated with the technology itself, 3) the representation of time and space in the news and 4) the spatial and temporal references of the concept "public opinion", the study aimed to give a new perspective on the development of communications in this area. It thereby sought to use the spread of technology as a lens through which we may observe societal change, and to produce a transnational history relating the idiosyncrasies of northern Scandinavia to the common developments affecting Europe during the second half of the 19th century

The purpose can be said to have been fulfilled, and different publications have addressed different aspects of the key problem, see further below under heading 3, publications.

2. What are the three most important results of the project?

· Firstly, the project has indicated that no inherently Nordic dimension existed in telegraph news. There was in the late 19th century no need for a temporally integrated Nordic region, no need for a Nordic "now". Although telegrams were sometimes organized according to larger geographical categories, such as "the neighbouring countries", the cost and character of using the telegraph restricted usage of the new technology to particularly time-sensitive information. Only when such information was present, was the telegraph used to convey Nordic or Scandinavian perspectives. One example of this was the Scandinavianist meetings, but even these gave rise to nationally coloured reporting. This also mirrors the infrastructural development, where lines were built following traditional national routes, mostly connecting the larger cities within the respective nations.

· A second key result is the widespread acceptance of the notions of speedier communication related to the electric telegraph in the Nordic region. Although some critical voices were heard, numerous techno-evangelical accounts of the possibilities of the new communication were echoed in the Press across the region. This positive view regarding ideas contrasted clearly to another key result regarding practical use:

· Another key result concerns the practical problems related to the electric telegraph. Although the optimism was strong, in practice the Northern parts of Scandinavia struggled with high maintenance costs and difficulties in operating the network. In some cases harsh winters contributed to these circumstances. The relatively lower population in the North also made it less motivated to build parallel lines, and with single lines being the norm for a longer period, breaks and errors were more difficult to overcome. This asymmetry in some cases meant that the relative difference between the smoothly running networks of larger cities, and the problem-ridden ones of the periphery, increased communicative inequalities across space, rather than levelling out the field.

3. What results have been achieved in terms of publications (including open access publications): monographs, peer review articles, book chapters, conference papers, and others?

For a one-person project, this has been fairly productive. It has produced 4 co-edited books, one peer reviewed journal special issue, 5 journal articles, 12 book chapters and 9 conference papers. (Full list in Appendix A) The most important publication is Communicating the North