Marc Raboy

Behind so much of what we take for granted in the world of instantaneous communication towers Guglielmo Marconi. Thanks to his wireless system, which came into full use about a century ago, the cables that had constrained communication, slowing the exchange of news and information,disappeared. News and information could be transmitted almost everywhere, instantaneously. Ships could communicate with other ships (which saved at least some of the passengers on the RMS Titanic), financial markets could coordinate with other financial markets, and military commanders couldmaintain contact with front-line troops. Through a combination of skill, luck, vision, and timing, Marconi popularized-and, more critically, patented-a radio system that profoundly and irrevocably changed the way the world communicated. As Marc Raboy shows in this engrossing and encyclopedic work, Marconi very early envisaged a world of seamless communication and then set out to create it. Born to an Italian father and an Irish mother, Marconi was in many ways stateless. After a demonstration of his wireless apparatus using"Hertzian waves," as radio waves were called, in London at the age of 22 in 1896, he established his Wireless Telegraph and Signal Co. Between that moment and his death in 1937, Marconi was at the heart of every major innovation in electronic communication, including radio transmission, and wascourted by powerful scientific, political, and financial interests. He was decorated by the Czar of Russia, named an Italian Senator, knighted by King George V of England, and awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics--all before the age of 40. Based on original research and unpublished archival materials in four countries, Raboy's biography offers the entirety of Marconi's story, from his early days in Italy, to his groundbreaking experiments in transatlantic communication, to his role as a diplomatic go-between. Raboy also exploresMarconi's relationships with his wives, lovers, mistresses and children, and examines in detail the last ten years of the inventor's life, when he returned to Italy and became a leading pillar of Benito Mussolini's fascist regime. Comprehensive, authoritative, and compelling, Marconi reveals theorigins of our networked world and the man who first realized it.

The Man Who Networked the World

Marconi

Jeremy Shtern

Canada is at a critical juncture in the evolution of its communications policy. Will our information and communications technologies continue in a market-oriented, neoliberal direction, or will they preserve and strengthen broader democratic values? Media Divides offers a comprehensive, up-to-date audit of communications law and policy. Using the concept of communications rights as a framework for analysis, leading scholars not only reveal the nation’s democratic deficits in five key domains – media, access, the Internet, privacy, and copyright – they also formulate recommendations, including the establishment of a Canadian right to communicate, for the future.

Communication Rights and the Right to Communicate in Canada

Media Divides

The biography of a radical young idealist, her determination to make a difference in the world, and her disappearance in 1976, revealing the human cost and undying legacy of Argentina’s descent into rightwing madness. It started with a coincidence — when Marc Raboy happened to discover that he shared a surname with a young left-wing Argentinian journalist who in 1976 was ambushed by a right-wing death squad while driving with her family. Alicia’s partner was killed on the spot, and their baby daughter was taken and placed in an orphanage. The child was ultimately rescued, but Alicia was never heard from again. In Looking for Alicia, Raboy pursues her story not only to learn what happened when the post-Perón government in Argentina turned to state terror but also to understand the lives of those who risked everything to oppose it. Author and subject share more than a surname and a distant ancestral connection; their lives were both marked by youthful rebellion, journalistic ambition, and the radical politics that were a hallmark of the ’60s and ’70s. Raboy reassembles Alicia’s story using family archives, interviews with those who knew her, secret diplomatic correspondence recently made public by the U.S. State Department, and transcripts from the trial of former Argentine security forces personnel involved in her disappearance. Examining Alicia’s and his own different choices and circumstances, he attempts to discover how their lives diverged — and what drives people like Alicia to face death in the pursuit of their ideals.

The Unfinished Life of an Argentinian Rebel

Looking for Alicia

The life and legacy of a young Argentinian woman whose disappearance in 1976 haunts those she left behind It started with a coincidence--when Marc Raboy happened to discover that he shared a surname with a young leftwing Argentinian journalist who in June 1976 was ambushed by a rightwing death squad while driving with her family in the city of Mendoza. Alicia's partner, the celebrated poet and fellow Montonero Francisco "Paco" Urondo, was killed on the spot. Their baby daughter was taken and placed in an orphanage. Her daughter ultimately rescued but Alicia was never heard from again. In Looking for Alicia, Raboy pursues her story not simply to learn what happened when the post-Perón government in Argentina turned to state terror, but to understand what drove Alicia and others to risk their lives to oppose it. Author and subject share not only a surname--a distant ancestral connection--but youthful rebellion, journalistic ambition, and the radical politics that were a hallmark of the 1960s. Their destinies diverged through a combination of choice and circumstance. Using family archives, interviews with those who knew her, and transcripts from the 2011 trial of former Argentine security forces personnel involved in her disappearance, Raboy reassembles Alicia's story. He supplements his narrative with documents from Argentina's attempts to deal with the legacy of the military dictatorship, such as the 1984 report of the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons, Nunca Más ("Never Again"); as well as secret diplomatic correspondence recently made public through the U.S. State Department's Argentina Declassification Project. Looking for Alicia immerses readers in the years of the so-called "Dirty War," which, decades later, cast their shadow still. It also gives an unforgettably human face to the many thousands who disappeared during that dark era, those they left behind, and the power of the memories that bind them.

Robin Mansell

The Handbook of Global Media and Communication Policy offers insights into the boundaries of this field of study, assesses why it is important, who is affected, and with what political, economic, social and cultural consequences. Provides the most up to date and comprehensive collection of essays from top scholars in the field Includes contributions from western and eastern Europe, North and Central America, Africa and Asia Offers new conceptual frameworks and new methodologies for mapping the contours of emergent global media and communication policy Draws on theory and empirical research to offer multiple perspectives on the local, national, regional and global forums in which policy debate occurs

Marc Raboy

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