News Services of Charted Space

Perhaps the most important commodity of all within Charted Space has always been and continues to remain: Information.

• The News Services of Charted Space are controlled and/or regulated by many different actors on the interstellar relations stage: polities, megacorporations, various sophont races, and vast array of interest groups.
• All of these different actors hold different values, relationships with data, and priorities.
• A few of these actors believe in traditional values of bringing the facts to the people to prepare them to make their own decisions.

Description (Specifications)

Even in a galaxy where FTL star travel is a way of life, information travels relatively slowly throughout Charted Space. Instantaneous communication, a long-held dream, has never been achieved by any known race. Thus communication is usually limited to the speed of packets, couriers, and other types of message-laden starships. Lesser frequented spaceways might only receive mail transmissions, physical mail packages or letters, and other communications once every few weeks. While the more frequented trade routes most often receive messages several times a subjective Terran-standard 24-hour period (day).

Regardless, the great stretches of Charted Space are vast, and it can take months or even years for information to pass from one end of civilization to the other.

Media Formats

Nearly every World-System contains media specific to its locality with local news prevailing as the primary news content. But while there are literally thousands of various news sources, a very few, perhaps a hundred or so across Charted Space dominate the newsways and they are actively sought out by discerning sophonts everywhere.

Holovid Datanet

Holovid is the preferred media technology of the more advanced worlds of the Third Imperium. Advanced high definition TL-15 Holovid programming and services are only available on the most discerning worlds:

Among the best known Holovid networks and providers are:

• Daryen News Network
• Solomani Confederated News Service
• Sylean News Network
• Traveller News Service (TNS)

Periodicals

No information yet available.

• Magazines
  • The Emperor's Eye
  • Mora World Review
  • Travellers' Digest

Hard Copy Publications

One might think that in a world capable of TL-15 technology, physical data formats might have been declared obsolete long ago, but the lasting value of these classic formats never has.

• Books
• Data crystals

Data Transfer Protocols

Due to the vast differences in technological capability amongst the many worlds of Charted Space, the IISS long ago set up I/O data transfer protocols by TL for Imperium wide usage. It is often a point of great pride for a world to upgrade its communication net to a higher technology level.

History & Background (Dossier)

Charted Space contains a vast variety of technological information systems. While standard exists, news is typically formatted into a number of different media based upon bandwith, locality, TL, and a variety of other criteria. Despite all of these differences, basic plaintext data bursts in common binary computer codes still predominate amongst news agencies using FTL starships for news transfer. These basic data transferences have the advantage of being usable by worlds of very different levels of technology mastery.

More complicated data involving sound, graphics, and video files can be added to these basic binary data bursts for the more prosperous markets that can afford larger and more expensive news data files.

• For additional information, please see the following AAB article: News Media

Network Sizes & Polity Reach

News networks operate anywhere were there is a market to support them. They generally grow in the following sequence:

• Subplanetary
• Planetary
• Subsector
• Sector
• Multi-Sector
• Very Large Networks

Even the largest networks can only move information at the speed of travel. Some news networks with adequate funding run X-boat like systems to move news.

While most news data has broad appeal to most sophonts, entertainment programming is much more species and region specific. Some polities closely control the news and rigorously censor it.

Media Technologies of the Second Millenium

No information yet available. Reckoning by Imperial calendar of the Third Imperium

• Auditory Media
  • Music Crystals
  • Radio Shows
• Database Media
  • Data network
  • Datapaks
  • Datapads
  • Wafer
  • Wireless communication
• Visual Media
  • Television
  • Tri-D
  • Holotainment
• Media Transport & Transmission
  • Laser communications system
  • Radio
  • Satellite communication networks
  • Xboat
  • Military courier

References & Contributors (Sources)

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• TBD Agent of the Imperium
• Author & Contributor: Mitchberg
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science