Inventor of remote control dies

Eugene J. Polley, the man who invented the wireless remote control and changed the way we watched television, died last week.

Polley was an engineer at Zenith when the company was one of the leading TV manufacturers. In 1950 the company developed a remote control that attached to the set by a cord.  Five years later, Polley came up with the idea of a wireless device that sent light beams to receptors on the set to change channels and turn the set on and off. 

With a price tag of $100, the Flash-Matic, as it was known, initially was a luxury device for most consumers.  And since there were only three TV networks, there was no great need for the luxury.  But with the explosion of cable channels starting in the 1980s, the remote soon became ubiquitous. We have Eugene Polley to thank for that.

Penn State wins national championship

Penn State's College of Communications won its first-ever national championship in the overall intercollegiate writing-broadcasting-photojournalism-multimedia standings in the Hearst Journalism Awards Program.

Penn State finished first in writing; fourth in photojournalism; seventh in multimedia; and eighth in broadcasting. The college captured seven individual top-10 student finishes in writing; two top-10 individual finishes in photojournalism; one top-10 individual finish in radio; and one individual top-10 finish in multimedia.

The annual Hearst Journalism Awards Program in writing, broadcasting, photojournalism and multimedia is open to students from the country’s 108 nationally accredited mass communication programs.  Now in its 52nd year, the competion draws more than 1,000 student entries each year. 

Congratulations to all the talented students who made this a historic year for the college.

Pictorial correspondents of the Civil War

The current issue of National Geographic has an interesting article about Civil War sketch artists. The article is written by Harry Katz, who with co-author Vincent Virga, has published a new book, Civil War Sketch Book: Drawings from the Battlefront.  I have written about sketch artists in my book, Civil War Journalism, which will be published later this year.  As Katz notes, the stories of the dedicated sketch artists, which included the likes of Alfred Waud (pictured above), Edwin Forbes, Henry Lovie, and Winslow Homer, have largely gone overlooked. Fortunately, that is changing.

The Times and the Titanic

I can't let the month end without noting the 100th anniversary of the sinking of Titanic.  But instead of joining the chorus of eulogies for one of the worst disasters in maritime history, I want to note the outstanding news coverage of the event by the New York Times.  The Times devoted remarkable resources to cover the accident in which 1,514 passengers died.  The coverage is chronicled in Meyer Berger's history of the newspaper.

Daily Collegian Goes Old Style

The Daily Collegian, Penn State's student newspaper, celebrated its 125th anniversary today by returning to its roots.  In a historic nod to its predecessor, The Free Lance, which was born on April 18, 1887, the Daily Collegian copied the newspaper's old look.  The nameplate, headline fonts, column rules and other design elements mimic the The Freelance.  It's a clever way for the Daily Collegian to remember where it came from. Kudos to editor Lexi Belculfine and the staff.

Sara Ganim wins Pulitzer Prize

Congratulations to Penn State journalism graduate Sara Ganim and the Patriot-News for winning the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. Sara, who is just 24 years old, and her colleagues were honored for their outstanding reporting of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal. The Department of Journalism is extraordinarily proud of Sara.

Another pat on the back to the Philadelphia Inquirer for winning the Pulitzer Prize for public service for its series on the pervasive violence in the city's schools.  During a year in which the newspaper has gone through so much ownership turmoil, it's great to see the Inquirer recognized.

An April Fool's Joke to Remember

The media has pulled plenty of memorable pranks on April Fool's Day, but perhaps none was better than the "Taco Liberty Bell" advertisement in 1996.  The fast food chain placed advertisements in several leading newspapers announcing that it had purchased the Liberty Bell to "reduce the country's debt" and renamed it the "Taco Liberty Bell." Thousands of people protested before Taco Bell announced that it was a hoax.

The prank was the brainchild of PainePR, a public relations firm.  The advertisements cost $300,000 but generated an estimated $25 million in publicity for Taco Bell. The White House even got in on the joke. The same day press secretary Mike McCurry told reporters that as part of its ongoing privatization efforts, "Ford Motor Co. is joining today in an effort to refurbish the Lincoln Memorial. It will be the Lincoln Mercury Memorial."