ABSTRACT
The Middle East has been a laboratory for experimenting with and introducing many of the technological developments on a broad scale. In fact, technology has been an equal partner with the human participants in shaping the type and structure of news gathering and dissemination. Although telex facilities had arrived, many print reporters used expensive telegram cables to transmit their dispatches. Many print reporters were able to use the new telephone system if their home office had stenographers. European newspapers found that it was cheaper to use a telephone and stenographer than to send copy by cable or telex. To cope with the inadequacies of the domestic telephone system, journalists eventually were permitted to acquire walkie-talkie systems that covered the country. Technical development changed the nature of access to news for journalists. Small, portable police and army radio band monitors enabled journalists to listen in to the transmissions of the security services anywhere in the field.
