Media in TW2000

[Blink_Dog]

I was thinking about this while reviewing posts in the Papal thread of this forum. The idea being how quickly and often would people get news about places further away.

It would be safe to assume that there are no more papers or TV stations still running. I would think that some reasonably stable ares would have shortwave and low output radio stations. Anyone ever put in a regular station that characters could receive some news?

[CDAT]

I would guess that papers would still be around, maybe not daily. More like in times of old, but I am guessing that would be one of the more common types of media.

[Silent Hunter UK]

You'd probably have some active radio hams out there relaying information and news when they could.

[ArmySGT.]

Reuters and AP News....... News collaboration efforts by big syndicates employing free lancers and a few paid correspondents. Most news from far away comes over surviving telephone cables. So faxes and teletypes are back in fashion. Cable is remarkably robust and well distributed. Cable (phone cable) would survive the nuclear exchange by routing around points of failure. Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Pacific cable would exist for the same reasons. Surviving cable would be protected by a mutual agreement not to break or destroy any cable not strictly military or government to keep trade, weather, and seismic or natural disaster warnings free flowing. Even hostile governments have trade through third parties . The U.S. bought NAZI Germany ball bearing for piston engines through Brazil and Argentina until the ball bearing factories were bombed.

[pmulcahy11b]

Reporters are untrustworthy. Kill any of them you find!:D

[.45cultist]

Reporters are untrustworthy. Kill any of them you find!:D

Channeling your inner Sherman?;)

[Legbreaker]

Of course that all assumes reporters and technicians aren't all struggling just to feed themselves like everyone else.

[Matt Wiser]

There would be areas where the media would still be up and running: France, for example, would be one. Australia another. Not to mention the Middle East: where there's still an active war going on, and you'd still have a local edition of Stars and Stripes being printed for the U.S. Military, while the local media outlets (TV, Radio, print) would also be going.

Another locale: Krakow. They may have a local newspaper or two going, maybe a radio station, and so on.

[WallShadow]

The topic brings to mind the "Black Jack" fleamarket episode of Jericho, where current news is charted up on a large hand written message board.

In a more stable environment, news can be "broadcast" by human voice to the locals, as per "town cryers" or, as in the SCA, heralds.

[Rainbow Six]

There's been at least one thread that touched on the media before (there are probably others)

http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.php?t=4580

Krakow seems to be a recurring theme...

[raketenjagdpanzer]

The internet/ARPANET would still be functioning, depending on whose hands it was in it might/might not be a reliable-ish source of news. Also, regardless of whom it was controlled by (civgov or milgov) they would likely HEAVILY censor news. Plague outbreaks would go unmentioned, reconstruction efforts would probably be overstated to keep morale up (except of course in areas where no such reconstruction was going on), "war news" would likely be heavily censored/distorted : "Today, the 5th division's offensive in Poland has finally smashed Warsaw Pact forces!" (not mentioning the 5th division was totally smashed itself in the process)...

If different subnets of ARPANet were in different hands, then I could see a LOT of CMSG attacks; in tiny, tiny ways cyberwarfare would be a thing, if only to try and win the upper hand of news control.

As to "no newspapers", I disagree. You wouldn't have copies of the NYT showing up in California on publication day but I think every surviving small town would try to get a degree of normalcy going with their own printed newspaper. Maybe a biweekly or weekly (to preserve paper).

Yes shortwave radio, absolutely. You guys think talk radio today is out of hand? Imagine some lunatic and a wind-powered generator + shortwave set going full Alex Jones at all hours of the day and night.

[Apache6]

In any environment, including T2K, various ‘governmental and other’ agencies that can are going to commit some resources to putting out news – AKA the Word. That news is very likely to be 'flavored' with the agendas and maybe outright propaganda of the 'patron' agency, but there is tremendous value in informing the population. Radio broadcasts will likely give the PCs some idea of the area they are entering into or the intentions of the rulers.

Voice of America, Radio Free Krakow and other radio stations, tend to mix 'entertainment' and 'news.' The intent being that locals might tune in to hear music and weather forecasts, but they cannot help but absorb some of the 'news' (which is likely to be highly slanted).

MILGOV remained close ties with FOX news networks who they sponsored and protected and often provided resources for. It was not an accident that their journalists were almost all tall and leggy blonds who looked great on camera and were influential and charismatic in person. They were known for being fawningly appreciative of the efforts of MILGOV to retain, and/or reestablish, some vestiges of order in a chaotic world. They mostly broadcast true information, though they would gloss over the warts. They were fairly effective in forecasting weather.

Of course CIVGOV's powerful AM radio stations was very hostile to MILGOV's efforts. They were known for having shrewish and ranting journalists who were often disconnected with the realities of life in America circa 2001. They often ranted against MILGOV's 'pet journalists' often going as far as calling them whores and traitors. CIVGOV's journalists were known for being divisive and ranting against the tyrants of MILGOV; while many who lived under the rule of CIVGOV despaired of the abusive efforts of the 'professional bureaucrats' of CIVGOV who were often rendered incapable of effective action by inane and irrelevant paper work and byzantine approval processes as opposed to MILGOV which tended to take direct and decisive action to accomplish objectives. In many CIVGOV areas the taxation system, enforced by ‘para-military IRS agents’ was notoriously punitive.

Then there was "Radio Free America" who used mobile AM radio stations to broadcast. They tried to be as honest as possible and often broadcast news unfavorable to either CIVGOV and MILGOV. They operated generally in the Southeast, and were loosely tied to Ted Turner. They were fairly influential in the eventual ceasing of hostilities, as Radio Free America broadcasts ridiculed the efforts spent by MILGOV and CIVGOV to oppose one another, while the Nation burned.

Anonymous News was a propaganda arm of New America.

The Baron of Memphis was known to support WQOX as a propaganda arm. The station was known for an eccentric collection of rock and roll and blatant propaganda. He understood the bread and circuses idea of gaining support. The broadcast of gladiatorial games, pitting prisoners against each other in fights to the death were notorious. This culminated in the use of rats, feral dogs, and occasionally lions from the Memphis zoo to finish off his political opponents. He used WQOX as the voice of his lottery system, where loyal supporters could win houses, cars, free food for a year, or a “wife," often the wife or daughter of his opponents. It was a famously rigged ponzee scheme; an egregious but widely popular method of wealth transfer, where opponents property was seized and stolen and ‘re-distributed" to his supporters. They avoided the term slave, but yes, that was one of the prizes they offered; sometimes members of his harem who fell out of favor were offered up for the lottery.

[Silent Hunter UK]

As to "no newspapers", I disagree. You wouldn't have copies of the NYT showing up in California on publication day but I think every surviving small town would try to get a degree of normalcy going with their own printed newspaper. Maybe a biweekly or weekly (to preserve paper).


If you could get hold of an old-fashioned printing press and the resources for it, you could print a paper.

[raketenjagdpanzer]

If you could get hold of an old-fashioned printing press and the resources for it, you could print a paper.

Hell, a typewriter and a mimeograph machine would do in a pinch.

[unkated]

Media in the late 20th century is technology driven.

1. Continental broadcasting (national in the US and Canada) need good communications links. These are probably not available in the post TDM time frame.

As was noted, it is likely that direct wire routes survived - but some of these may be commandeered by various governments if more tech systems cease to be available. Or, simply to have ample control of the dissemination of information...

2. Television and radio are only useful in locations/areas with widespread power available. TVs are of little value if there is no power available for viewers to run them. Cities with limited power availability will probably have their broadcast hours adjusted. Those without, will have.... no broadcast media.

Radio may have a longer reach; radio receivers can run off a smallish set of batteries - TVs need more power to make that cathode ray tube shine.

3. Newspaper are lower tech, as has been pointed out. You don't need much for a small "newspaper." There are existing (and plans for) mechanically driven presses, as well as ditto machines and mimeogrpahs (still sitting in storage rooms in schools all across America. And that will be fine until the paper runs out.

I would imagine that local/regional news will take a larger portion of coverage in any location, simply because the ability to disseminate information over distance is diminished.

You also have more of an interest for local news, as local news will be more likely to have an immediate effect (for good or ill).

Or so I think, anyway.

Fox News started in October, 1996, to a mere 10 million households, and was not available in New York or Los Angeles.

One can make a case that if they aggressively began to cover the NATO invasion, Fox News's popularity might have risen faster.

Until cable systems are destroyed by TDM.

Uncle Ted

[aspqrz]

Or you could go the old time route ...

* Acta Diurna: Public Notices (Court Cases, Decrees of assorted Magistrates etc.) and some general news, placed in the Roman Forum from the mid 2nd century BC till the government moved to Constantinople. Evidently inscribed on copper or metal plates and archived, sometimes copied by scribes and sent to Provincial Governors.

As an extension, Caesar's 'De Bello Gallico' were letters sent back to Rome to be published/read or generally made public to the Plebs to maintain support against the Patricians who, generally, hated his guts.

* Town Crier: A long tradition going back to early medieval times. A public official whose job it was to make public announcements of laws, regulations, decrees, market days etc. etc.

Don't need a lot of tech to do those things.

Getting the news in the first place would come via the usual suspects, depending on the degree of damage to comms infrastructure, but you don't really need newspapers or radio stations for basic news distribution.

Phil

[aspqrz]

And that will be fine until the paper runs out.


It's actually fairly easy to make recycled paper from roneo/mimeo/gestetner quality paper ... some water, enough power to run a blender, and a fine mesh screen (and you can probably work something out instead of the blender).

Even the ink would be relatively easy ... linseed oil and lamp black.

Phil

[WallShadow]

The most difficult component of a mimeo/spirit duplicator machine to find or manufacture would be the mimeo master blanks, which are sheets of paper that are coated in a thin coating of (usually colored) wax that a typewriter key makes an impression on. These would be the achilles heel of the system.

[Silent Hunter UK]

* Town Crier: A long tradition going back to early medieval times. A public official whose job it was to make public announcements of laws, regulations, decrees, market days etc. etc.


We still have one in my borough; he's brought out for royal births etc.

[aspqrz]

The most difficult component of a mimeo/spirit duplicator machine to find or manufacture would be the mimeo master blanks, which are sheets of paper that are coated in a thin coating of (usually colored) wax that a typewriter key makes an impression on. These would be the achilles heel of the system.

ISTR that in the 1632verse this proves to not be much of a problem. Of course, that's fiction, but the tech side of things is always (afaict) well researched.

ISTR that the problem they had was getting the wax coating thin and flexible enough ... they may even have created a flatbed rather than rotary machine to use the stencils, it was evidently simply enough to be assembled and run by locals with hand tools and not much else.

Where there's a will there's a way!

Phil

[Silent Hunter UK]

Printing presses have been around since the 15th century, BTW.

[aspqrz]

Well, in Western Europe.

Printing Presses have been around for much much much longer in China. About 1300 years longer ... and the method they used was much simpler than the initial Gutenberg style presses and successfully competed with Western style presses in China until all woodblock printing was suppressed by government fiat after the 1911 revolution for reasons of 'modernity' (hell, knowing how inherently corrupt the KMT were, they probably received kickbacks from owners of the newstyle presses to suppress the competition, as like as not).

They also used moveable type from about 1000 AD or so in China and at least the late 14th century in Korea, though neither methods were widespread because of the cost of the thousands of ceramic (or metal) ideograms necessary.

Phil

[Jason Weiser]

Folks...something germane to the discussion?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1iWKi-cwRMLdldGU0JySXVzZWs/view?usp=sharing&pref=2&pli=1https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1iWKi-cwRMLdldGU0JySXVzZWs/view?usp=sharing&pref=2&pli=1