Invention Of The Radio And Its Impact On The World

Numerous inventions throughout history have put an influence on the world, but only one invention has changed with the times and still came out on top. The radio. One of the most revolutionary pieces of technology to ever be created. Not only has it changed and improved to become even better than before, it has shaped and changed the world forever in both positive and negative ways. Doing everything from assisting in communication in one’s everyday life, advancing entertainment, to even developing warfare. It has overcome threats from the television industry by keeping up to date and has even fought against many laws. The radio truly shaped the world. 1901 is when it all began, the invention of the radio. One of the biggest debates in the technological aspects of history, is who really did invent the radio? There is only one true inventor, even though many others had their own ideas and creations of their own. Guglielmo Marconi was an inventor/scientist born and raised in Italy. He spent days upon days trying to perfect his creation of the radio, but always knew he was missing something. He chose to then investigate other inventor’s research to try to find some “inspiration”. One of the inventors he looked into was Nikola Tesla.

Nikola Tesla was born in Croatia but moved to New York for an education. He became an electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and a futurist, which is someone who specializes or shows interest into predicting the future and finding ways to make contributions to the future of the world. Telsa perfected his invention of the radio but never publicly published it. That’s when Marconi decided to look into his research and stole 17 of Teslas’ patents (someone’s intellectual property). Marconi fixed up his radio, and released it to the world. Tesla passed away in January of 1943, 6 months later, the U. S. Supreme Court took a vote, and came to a conclusion that Marconi’s’ patents were invalid, and Teslas’ were indeed valid. Crowning Tesla the true inventor of the radio. The creation of the radio really affected the technological advancements we have today. Many new devices have come out as an outcome of the radio. For example, cell phones and telephones. The purpose of a phone is solely based on communication, which it gained from the radio. The radio developed into a two-way radio, which was a way for a person with the device to speak to someone on the other line of the device, just as we do with modern day phones. Another example of an invention that was created because of the radio was the television. The television was created as a source of entertainment. The radio was not intended just for entertainment, but it sure did heavily influence it. Radio broadcasters always broadcasted shows such as The Fat Man and The Family Theater. In 1927, 26 years after the invention of the radio, an American inventor by the name of Philo Taylor Farnsworth created and released the first ever television, which was the radio, brought to life.

Only difference being that the radio was entertainment through sound, but the T. V. was entertainment that was physically shown through a screen. Even though there are many inventions that were brought from the radio, the last one I chose to cover is the radar. The radio and radar may seem nothing alike, but the if it weren’t for the radio, the radar would not even be a thought. All radars use radio waves to figure out the range, angle, and velocity of certain objects. The only was for this to happen back when the radar was invented in 1935, was for the radio to be disassembled and put back together into a radar. This soon helped revolutionize warfare and even helps us from day to day as the GPS is a form of radar. Now we all know everything changes over time without a doubt, but the radio has gone through some of the biggest changes. First big change is frequencies. From the 20’s to now, radio frequencies have been through many tests and have in the end been able to reach farther distances and reach different more distant channels that couldn’t have been reached before. The next big change I researched was the demographic. The demographic has changed drastically, when the radio first came about, it was mainly listened to by a rich adults or business men/women. The radio was expensive at the time and mainly hosted shows that covered political and economical issues. As time went on, they began to broadcast shows for families and kids, and even began to play music over the radio. So people of all ages found use of the radio. As it became more popular, the price depreciated as more units were sold. By 1934, 60% of the households in America owned a radio. Besides age, the demographic also changed globally as units were being shipped across the ocean and other countries began to make their own radio broadcasts. The next change I saw was the design. Radio designs have been changed hundreds of times.

The original radio design was big, bulky, and bland, looking lifeless with its two colors, brown and black. Current radios come in all shapes and sizes, but are most commonly known for being hand-held or “pocket size” and coming in all sorts of colors. Even though it has changed greatly over time, it still has the same use and stature. The radio put a real big impact on people’s everyday lives in both good and bad ways. One of the positive impacts was that it had a huge impact on the news media. News was spread around using verbal communication from one another or newspaper. The invention of the radio shot that out of the sky and introduced a whole new medium of news reporting. As radios became more and more popular in households, so did news. Everyone began to hear the news and it became a form of mainstream media. Another positive impact it had on the world was that it gave a source of entertainment to households. There was not much to do back in the day for entertainment besides outside play. The radio brought along a whole new outreach of entertainment. Radio shows kept families laughing and entertained. Music radio shows kept people on their feet listening to new music and dancing along with their friends. The biggest influence of music in the radio was the years following World War 1, after tough times took place during the years of war, the best way to bring some light back into the world was music. Another huge positive impact the radio had was on companies as they began to start using the radio for advertising giving them more coverage and more customers/business. The radio made a huge difference in the economy and commercials over the radio were very successful and made most companies sales and profits skyrocket. One of the negative impacts I researched was propaganda. Propaganda was a huge ordeal and still is to this day, but it was majorly spread through the radio. On September 26th, 1938, Adolf Hitler addressed a speech in front of 15,000 German citizens, this speech was also broadcasted live to dozens of countries spreading the word of Nazi Germany and collecting new members. Hitler also used the radio to broadcast hate speech against select groups for 11 hours a day in English to “educate” German folks to learn the English language, but in reality was just used to get under the Americans skin. The next negative impact I researched is fake news. Fake news has been a thing for ages and is still around to this day. One of the biggest fake news stories to date is “The War of the Worlds” by Orson Welles in 1938. Orson Welles was a radio broadcaster from Chicago.

As a source of entertainment, he wanted to read some of the book, “War of the Worlds” (a story about Martians taking over Earth) out to the public over the radio. The problem was, he never announced that he was going to read from the book, so everyone tuning in thought they were getting live news that Martians from space were coming out too take over the world. The sent out a national distress as people believed it was true, many families kissed each other goodbye, and some people took to the streets with weaponry preparing to fight alien life. Days later all was cleared up by Welles and no harm was done. One negative outcome of the radio is a bigger problem today than it was before, and that is the way that the radio causes a huge distraction to most workers and students. A study at Harvard University conducted by The Derek Bok Center For Teaching And Learning showed that out of 6 different universities, 92% of the college students admitted to using their phones during class. “In one survey at six different universities, college students reported using their phones an average of 11 times per day in class. 92% of college students reported using their phones to send text messages during class”. This has been a huge problem through the years and is still being worked on to this day. The last negative impact I researched was the fact that radio frequencies were causing people to get nauseous. At first when the radio was invented, balancing and containing radio waves was not the easiest task since the technology wasn’t up to par. Was even said to cause types of cancer. Over the years the problem was slowly and slowly resolved. Current day, we do not have this problem any more, but if radio frequencies do get too high, they can still cause us pretty sick. “Exposure to airborne ultrasound - high frequency sounds beyond the range of human hearing - from public address systems, loudspeakers and door sensors may be making people ill, a new study has claimed”. These are just some of the pros and cons of the radio. Warfare has been an ongoing, growing issue since the beginning of time.

Nothing made war a game changer like the radio. One of the biggest changers brought to war was the radar which spanned out from the radio. The radar introduced a whole new level of tactics and strategies to armies and their generals. The radar was a piece of technology that uses radio waves to detect and figure out specific angles, ranges, and velocities of certain objects. It can be used to locate planes, ships, space crafts, missiles, vehicles, and even weather and terrain. The radar really came into play during WW2 after German scientist Heinrich Hertz developed the big-disc radar to help detect incoming French aircrafts. Them detecting their aircrafts helped put them one step ahead of France and ended up helping occupy them. Radars were also used by submarine ships and marine soldiers on their boats to navigate underwater missiles and bombs. The radio also assisted the military by helping them communicate. During WW1, military leaders and generals found use of the radio in communicating with infantries, naval bases, planes, and naval ships at sea. A very popular saying in the 1920’s was “No Comms, No Bombs”. This really meant that most attacks and airstrikes were not allowed to go off unless generals told their armies to do so over the radio. Warfare would never have been as advanced as it is today. The invention of the radio hit a hard point in the effects of mass media. Mass media is the various types of media technologies that go out to reach a large amount of audience through mass communication. The different ways mass media can be transmitted are through television, films, music, and most importantly, the radio. Years after the radio was created, it was no longer used just for news and music, the radio gained a whole new meaning to it. Broadcasters began to use it just for the sole purpose of communication. Reaching out to their audiences and informing them on basically whatever they wanted. “These messages promote not only products, but moods, attitudes, and a sense of what is and is not important. Mass media makes possible the concept of celebrity: without the ability of movies, magazines, and the news media to reach across thousands of miles, people could not become famous”. In the source I used, the author is stating that the media is used in basically everything and has shaped who people are today.

For example, The Rush Limbaugh Show is a midday radio show that has about 15 million weekly listeners. Limbaugh uses the platform to communicate to his audience and give them advice, even letting people call him live. He also uses it to host comedy bits, ads, and even conspiracy theories. Just goes to show how crazy the reach is for media through the radio, if one man can host 15 million people for one show, imagine how many more people the radio can reach through mass media in general.