1 A history of media development

2 1844: Innocenzo Manzetti suggests the idea of a ‘speaking telegraph’ but doesn’t pursue the concept.

3 1876: Alexander Graham Bell is awarded the patent for the first electric telephone.

4 1878: David E. Hughes notices that sparks can be heard in a telephone receiver. After disinterest from the Royal Society, he abandons his research.

5 1885: Thomas Edison patents his electrostatic coupling system between elevated terminals.

6 1892: Nikola Tesla demonstrates the principles of wireless communication.

7 1895: Guglielmo Marconi builds the first long range radio transmission system, capable of transmitting at a distance of up to one and a half miles.

8 1906: On Christmas Eve, Reginald Fessenden makes the first radio broadcast programme. Ships at sea hear him reading a passage from the Bible and playing O Holy Night on the violin.

9 1920: The first college radio station opens in America, broadcasting Thursday night concerts to a 100 mile radius. The first sports broadcast followed a month later.

: Scots inventor John Logie Baird demonstrates the transmission of moving silhouette images. 1926: Baird transmits moving black and white images – the first true television pictures.

: Edwin Armstrong invents FM radio.

: Pictures of the Berlin Olympics are broadcast to television stations in Berlin and Leipzig, where members of the public could watch the events live.

: Sony produces the first portable transistor radio, small enough to fit in someone’s pocket.

: Music Television (MTV) is launched in America. The era of the pop video is born.

: 2 billion people across 60 countries watch the Live Aid concert.

: The Internet is made open to commercial use. In the late ‘90s, Internet use grows by an estimated 100% each year.

: There are over 2 billion Internet users worldwide – over 30% of the world’s population.