Government Fostered Ownership
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The United States government fostered monopoly or oligopoly ownership throughout radio’s history to ensure tight information control as well as military security, initially what was seen as an effort to improve national security turned out to be a drive of individual based profit seekers which in turn shaped the modern state of Radio within the country and around the world today. This stemmed from the two most important international issues affecting radio in the 1900’s, which was ship radio requirements and signal interference. This crucial period in radio saw the Congress pass the Wireless Ship Act in 1910 as well as the Radio Act of 1912. The Wireless Ship Act of 1910 required all U.S. vessels with more than 50 passengers aboard and traveling about 200 miles off the coast be equipped with a 100-mile-range wireless equipment while the Radio Act of 1912 was established in an effort to reduce the cramming of the airwaves by amateur radio operators which was an increasing problem during the period.
With World War One in the horizon in 1914, the U.S. Navy posed a question if it was wise to defer so much leverage to a foreign controlled company as American Marconi the U.S. subsidiary of British Marconi had a good reputation within the wireless industry. This led to a series of events that shaped the state of radio from then on with United States interest in emerging as an international force to be reckoned with, control over communications such as the wireless communication equipment and so on was undoubtedly one of the first waves of defense in staving off foreign espionage and infiltration.
The policies within this period were advantageous to the United States in the sense that it generally helped define the role of the nation as a pioneer in mass communication as well as guaranteed the nations’ control over equipment that could have otherwise proved to be useful to foreign countries and in turn prove to be the United States demise if foreign countries could have been able to land some of the equipment they requested. Another positive impact policies within this period had was the impact it had on the nation’s military force, which eventually led to the countries stamp as one of the world’s super powers today as envisioned by President Woodrow Wilson and eventual President, Franklin Roosevelt. On the other hand it hampered the growth of this period and of subsequent periods after this period, in the sense that it restricted the growth of the industry as well as created a lot of tyranny and piracy in the application of the policies within the period. This eventually led to numerous modified policies.
The disadvantages and advantages of government fostered ownership in radio or any other industry for that matter varies and they both affect the society tremendously.