"The rise of the telegraph, Linotype machines, photography all seemed to point toward a new media landscape." #readingToday

Twain's business acumen may not have matched his literary abilities, but that he could envision something like an electric telescope at the beginning of the twentieth century suggests that the basic contours of the modern electronic information ecosystem were already coming into view. The rise of the telegraph, Linotype machines, and photography all seemed to point toward a new kind of media landscape: fluid, participatory, and potentially overwhelming. The emerging mass media had already started to shift the economics of knowledge production, creating a new class of professional writers and editors trying to cater to the interests of a large and increasingly literate general public.

Cataloging the World, Alex Wright