I'm also looking for authors that have written books specifically about communication and the role communication methods had on society at their respective times. Specifically, I'm wondering if there is a book that covers such things as the Pony Express, the invention of the telegraph, the radio, the telephone, the internet and how the various introduction of new technologies affected previous technologies (how were older services forced to change? What driving forces eventually led to their demise?)
Are there any good authors that have written about the role of communication technology with respect to global society and how new advances helped to change society?
Here are some topics I'd like answered by a well-known author:
Is there a book that answers these questions?
(If any of the regular contributors to this sub have any answers to the above questions, I'd love to hear your thoughts!)
I've not fully read the book (and not that far in), but there is a chapter in James Gleick's book The Information on the introduction of the telegraph. The book is on the exchange of information in general (from smoke signals to the internet) and it is fascinating.
I've read books which touch on various aspects of this development of communication, so some possible others:
One early use of the telegraph was connected to the Stock Market in the form of the ticker tape. The speed of getting stock information has always been paramount and so it was an early short-range use. I read about this in a chapter of 'The Battery', by Henry Schlesinger, another fascinating book that gets into the development of telegraphic technologies because the battery was a centrally important aspect of making telegraphs work. The cost and upkeep of the battery being a key part of the affordability of the telegraph.
I recall vaguely that young Edison worked in pre-telegraph information transfer on trains (as a newspaper boy) and also became a telegraph operator early on, so a good biography of Edison's early life might help here.
Another aspect of early telegraph uptake was its use in weather prediction, and I believe there's discussion of this in Predicting the Weather by Katherine Anderson.
As for the American Civil War, I'm sure I've read something on the telegraph's use in it but I can't remember which book or article it was.
Hope this is some help!
Jurgen Osterhammel's book "The Transformation of the World: A Global History of the Nineteenth Century," has a couple excellent sections on telegraphy - Cabling the World & Hierarchy and Subversion in Telegraphy - in the chapter "Networks".
Some relevant excerpts addressing your questions:
"Although the telegraph probably changed private lives less radically than the telephone and Internet did in later periods, its importance for commercial, military, and political activity cannot be underestimated. As far back as the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln directed his troops by means of what have been called his 'T-mails.'" (Osterhammel, 721).
Because of the nature of the telegraph (machines were in central locations in cities and towns, not - like the telephone - eventually found in every home and business) the telegraph was, even though cheaper and more widely-used over time, never as utilized by the ordinary person as telephony would be. Instead, the development of a network of telegraphic nodes was a boon to administration and communication of large businesses and governments. According to Osterhammel, the telephone (except in America, which saw extensive and unprecedentedly early adoption) did not have the impact or penetration of the telegraph elsewhere in industrialized countries till after World War I, and was not affordable/ubiquitous for long-distance telecommunication until perhaps the 1960s.