Co-Sponsored by the History Department of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Roosevelt University, Illinois Institute of Technology, and Northwestern University's School of Communications

Friday, April 28, 2006, 3:30-5:00pm
The Newberry Library

From Security to Globalization:American Diplomacy and the Cold War Quest for Live Trans-Atlantic Television
James Schwoch, Northwestern University

This presentation discusses American interests regarding the devlopment of communication satellites in the 1960s. Details include Telstar (1962), the first satellite capable of sending a live transatlantic TV signal, and INTELSAT, the first satellite network capable of world-wide live TV signal distribution. INTELSAT became globally operational only 19 days before the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing. Set against a background of Cold War telecommunications policy and global media activities that began during the Allied occupation of postwar Germany, the paper also argues that American interests in developing a central position in global television, as well as a wide array of global electronic information networks, is evident from the earliest days of the Cold War, concluding this interest is bound up in American visions of both east-west security as well as an emergent vision of globalization. The presentation will include computer projection of several maps and images, and a short video clip of the Telstar launch.

All papers are pre-circulated. For a copy of the paper, e-mail Ginger Shulick at scholl@newberry.org, or call 312.255.3524.