History of Communication
Kovarik describes history as
"civilizations memory." Without a sense of the past...we are merely groping blindly into the future.
What is the pre-literary to literary?
(Greece, 8th century B.C.; convergence of the phonetic alphabet [from Phoenicia] and papyrus (from Greece);700s BC
Mass media revolution
(in Western Europe and Eastern U.S. mid-19th century; 1850s ; advances in paper production and printing press methods, the advent of telegraphy, photography, telephone, typewriter; development of modern advertising; growth of public schools, libraries, literacy for the masses, etc.);
Information Highway
(late 20thC on; convergence of computer, broadcast, satellite & visual technologies).
Literary to print
(mid-15th century to last half of 19th century; 1440s -1840s) stimulated by the development of paper in China, distributed through the Moorish cultures, and Gutenberg's printing system; in Europe, led to the Reformation, Renaissance, mercantilism and the end of feudalism, the start of the modern world... It affected the Protestant Revolution and the development of a Modern Society and Capitalism.
Communication Toolshed
1) Communication Toolshed (mid-20th century; 1940sish ) home becomes central location for information and entertainment; telephone, broadcasting, recording, print technology improvements, cheap universal mail services; media become inseparable from our lives.. .private - Just before the digital age, in the 2nd half of the 20th Century... "Golden Age" - Phonograph, recorded music (radio, books at home, newspapers, magazines, postal delivery, TV, direct mail, cable pay-per-view, VCR/DVD, rentals, computers, home shopping tv, electronic games - Isolating from outside world... (crime up; costs up).... Even isolating within the home - Politics / economy invade the home (commercials, direct mail...) - Sedentary life - health issues Mediated events = more entertaining than live
What are Irving Fang's information revolutions? (+ 1 more from Kovarik)
1) Pre-literary to literary, 2) literary to print, 3) mass media revolution, 4) entertainment revolution, 5) communication toolshed, 6) information highway, 7) global culture/new media
What does Kovarik say motivates historians?
1) remember and honor history's heroes, 2) learn the lessons of history
Highlights of Friedman's The World is Flat
10 Forces that FLATTENED the World -͞10 Flattening Effects͟ The Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) tipped the balance of power from authoritative to democratic, free-market o The web changed the perception of the Internet - instant information, entertainment, connections • Outsourcing (save $) • Off Shoring - selling to other countries (make $ elsewhere) In Sourcing (make $ here in U.S. - Wu quotes Ed Whitacre, "It's all about scale and scope" (184) - This is where Wu & Friedman agree closely - regarding the role of corporations in affecting cultural shifts
When was the Gutenberg Press invented?
1440 (literary to print phase)
Crowley, D. & Heyer, P. Communication in history: Technology, Culture and Society Highlights
A) Chapters 1-6: What are the basic distinctions between preliterate and literate culture & what influenced these changes? • Stories no longer "had" to be communicated orally. • The major effects of the evolution of writing and literacy = redistribution of power: resulted in equality, democracy and the emergence of new religions CHapter 5 - Havelock • What may have been lost? o The personalization of the story o Use of hieroglyphs - although now coming back: o Signs on highway, at airports, maps, weather forecasts, clothes labels, on keyboards, in text messaging... o Aligns with Wolf's Proust & the Squid - symbolization o The evolution of "the new Journalism" - • The 2 journalisms of the 1890's (113)... • Entertainment news vs. info./factis o Lead to different types of newspapers/magazines for different audiences/classes o Entertainment = middle/working class o Info. = educated/upper class
What were Lippman's four formative stages of the press (entertainment revolution era) ?
Authoritarian, Partisan, Commercial, Organized Intelligence
What is historiography?
Cairns defines historiography as the "writing of history" according to the Greek.
What does Carr say about the way that the internet is changing our brain?
Carr, in his book, How the Internet is Changing Our Brain, makes a similar argument about today's technology which studies show is forging new pathways so that those we used years ago to retain information are no longer viable.
What is the difference between determinism and social construction of media technology?
Determinist view is seeing technologies as path dependent, inevitable and predictable. McLuhan was a determinist, he saw technology as having a great deal of social impact Beard said that technological determinism "marches from one ruthless revolutionary conquest to another" Social constructivists see technologies as influential in economics, politics, culture, etc.
Historical study is...
Discovering, collecting and testing data about the past.
What brings the information revolutions together?
Each involved the invention of multiple new tools of communication in order to take place Political, social and economic changes in the particular era or cultures stimulated the development of the communication technologies
What is McLuhan's tetrad of technology change?
Enhance, Obsolesce, Retrieve, Reverse
History can only be known by...
GOD. Man can only truly know the existential historical event in which he participates" (Cairns, p.20).
What is the media ecology approach/understanding to history?
Innis said that "Flexible or durable communications media had implications for the organization of empires." Technology allowed us the convenience to literally transport to transmitting information (p.8). McLuhan's concepts of "hot and cool" media may be too vague for today's overlapping experiences of mediated communication. Jenkins (2006) for example seems to contradict McLuhan's original research, through showing that technologies in today's world united a diversity of mediums and redefine the overall environment itself. Media Ecology Association elevate the "interactions of communication media, technology, technique and processes within human feeling, thought, value and behavior"
Highlights of Peter's Speaking into the Air
Peters' Speaking into the Air used a cultural perspective to study this part of history, where he suggests that print aligned with Jesus' view of disseminating the Good News to the masses. Peters' commentary on communication described a new process that reaches one to another. Gone were the days when evangelists were limited by their own legs to physically reach one person at a time—this invention would elevate the body of Christ toward the high calling of multiplying the message! Some of the most successful televised shows and podcasts today are scripted and would not be possible without the groundwork of this age.
What did Plato say about literacy?
Plato was against literacy as he viewed language as being inflexible and ruining memory.
What are some key highlights from Kovarik's Revolutions in Communication: Media History from Gutenberg to the Digital Age? Talk about each information phase
Preliterary to literary - 700s BC People in oral culture think in concrete, practical ways rather than through abstract concepts Make decisions by consensus (groups) Oral cultures are still important today with speeches being made by government leaders, juries making decisions, sermons at church (rhema word) Literary to print - 1440s - 1840s Printing was huge because it regrouped people and their skill sets (similar to what we see in virtual teams today), Rise of Protestant Revolution, Martin Luther nailed the 95 these to the cathedral of Wittenberg Germany in 1517 Mass Media Revolution - 1850s The steam press meant more work for everyone, New York times becomes the national paper of record, (Raymond founded the New York Times in 1851), Entertainment Revolution - 1860s - 1930s The rise of tabloid journalism Around the World in Seventy-two Days - Nelly Bly according to Kroeger, was asserting herself in a time when American women sought to shape history itself! Lippman saw the penny press as a means to promote democracy Communication Toolshed - 1940s Information HIghway - 1970s Globalization- Early 21st century
What did Becker and Beard believe about history?
Resisted the scientific school and Beard said history was relative, and thus a product of the historian's conditions and interpretations. Reconstruction of the past will never live up to what the past really was.
Highlights of Wu's Master Switch
The Cycle: the oscillation between open and closed information industries (5) Separations Principle (p. 300) - Excellent treatment of the cyclical nature of 20th Century Chaotic communication as societies͞struggle͟ to determine how information, the dissemination of it and the effects of it should be controlled... if at all Shifts in culture = result of a power struggle... rise & fall of centralized power Shifts in power = shifts in paradigms of ownership creates the idea that power is no longer monopolized; power is in the information-holder and is no respecter of persons he important role ͞patent͟ plays in the Cycle (30), which justify rewards for invention, but he also points out the ͞limitations͟ placed by ͞the cost of entry,͟ (48), which pits the big guy in an unfair position... especially when backed by gov͛t agencies. (Battle to bring products to market)oEXAMPLE: Juxtaposing stories of Bell system (owned by a private corporation) with that of the Internet (owned by no one). oPowers that Sustain vs. those that are ͞disruptive͟...the latter of which powers the Cycle by fueling ͞the Kronos effect͟ where ͞a dominant company consumes its potential successors in their infancy͟ (25 Think about corporate colonization theory Which is mightier: the radicalism of the Internet or the inevitability of The Cycle? oWhile this is where Wu ended his discussion - with a ͞wait and see͟ response in regards to this New Era, It is exactly here that Friedman starts the focus of his writing in Ch. 2... with a retrospection of the events that lead to the Internet Age... like they are in a relay race and Wu handed off the stick to Friedman. The evolution from self-centeredness of the Internet to the interconnectivity that started with email, helped lead to this age of ͞personal empowerment.͟ Questions of assembly, civic duty and exclusivity vs. inclusivity are thrown into sharp focus... historical research is needed to identify a pattern or cycle that we can follow for the future as we try to create order from chaos Wu writes in Master Switch that there were constant cultural disruptions between concentrated and dispersed power. Battle between the inventor and the distruptor.
Highlights of Walter Ong's Orality and Literacy
Transformation of the mind/culture Writing has never existed without Orality (p. 8)oCould not look anything up - had to recall it... Literary culture/writing has destroyed memory. ͞Calculators weaken the mind͟ (78) Culture was more communal in nature Sight isolates, sound incorporates. (most public facing age) Flattening- things unfold before our eyes Writing heightens consciousness͟ (81) Without writing, the literate mind would not and could not think as it does, not only when engaged in writing but normally even when it is composing its thoughts in oral form͟ (77) Secondary orality - primarily writing and print
Final Paper Topic and highlights - Road to Doomsday
When the pending Y2K crisis was announced, the narrative of a nationwide head-on-collision became a call to action. This high-speed metaphor became fodder for automotive journalists seeking to cover Y2K industry issues. This study examines Automotive News articles that editorialized the year leading up to 2000. With symbolic convergence theory as a framework, fantasy theme analysis shows that dramatized language heightened fear and created a rhetorical vision of an inevitable auto-technological crash of doom. September 6, 1993 is a day that will forever live in tech-media infamy. Peter de Jager, a then niche-popular tech consultant, authored a mere guest post for Computerworld that shook American businesses and public life to the core. In his article Doomsday 2000, De Jager asked readers one simple question, "Have you ever been in a car accident?" His inquiry followed with a vivid narrative of a potential road crash at the curve of the new millennium, a metaphor for an unavoidable collision of information systems (IS). Y2K—the global quandary of computer systems' inability to correctly code for the standard date format for year 2000, was predicted to ignite an international catastrophe. Y2K research The years leading up to 2000 represented a distinct Y2K media narrative, motivated by the discourse of "global digital networking." Major characteristics of this discourse included: (a) expansion of computer networks and subsequent media production, consumption and circulation, (b) networks as an increasingly more democratized, global information environment, and (c) digital communication technologies as channels that connect people of all walks of life (Mouffe, 2000; Care 1989; Best, 2003). The vast number of news warnings about the potential technological failure of the millennium touched nearly every aspect of media—including religious media communities. Media researchers analyzed Y2K-related themes in Christian television broadcasts and found that messages characterized the pending crisis as "apocalyptic" and a sign of the "end times" as referenced in biblical texts. Schaefer (2004) studied orations from prominent religious figures such as Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Pat Boone, among others and subsequent Christian print and electronic news messaging that echoed these themes of Y2K. The study found that fascination with Y2K was also paired with several other societal issues (such as AIDs, terrorism, Ebola virus, etc.) that heightened public anticipation of the disaster (pp.98-100). To analyze themes in Automotive News, the study used symbolic convergence theory, also referred to as "fantasy-theme analysis" to better understand how collective ideas and perceptions formed through coverage of Y2K Y2K: A Fast-lane to Destruction A Y2K Bombing: Surviving the War A global fight: Signs of International Auto Vulnerability The Hidden Enemy: Blindspots on the Road to Y2K Media history scholar Kovarik (2011) noted that in the history of technology and innovation "vision precedes reality" (p.378). This was especially true in the rhetorical vision of Y2K Era Automotive News. Fantasy themes emerged through imaginative narratives, repeating scenes of an auto fast-lane toward destruction. Automotive organizations were fantasized as having been thrusted into a dangerous war for survival—from America's corporate offices to the local auto stores.
Marx and Comte said that history is...
a science.
What are the 5 I's of Cairns' God and Man and Time?
incident, information, induction, interpretation, impartation
Entertainment revolution
late 19th century Europe and America;( 1870s to 1930s )development of stored sound; affordable cameras; motions pictures; radio, etc.; an entertainment-minded culture develops);
What is the media?
various methods for communicating and storing information
Stuart Ewen's PR: A social history of spin.
• 18thC - middle-class actualized itself - economically and politically... democratic marketplace • By late 19thC, private, industrial fortunes were being built, in large measure, through the crushing and absorbing of local, small-scale enterprises (relates to Wu's theories of power struggle... big business vs. independent) o House of Have's (like Rockefeller) vs. Have-Nots o Immigrants came in - affected middle-class o = rise in Democracy and PR (Ong said literacy = switch from authoritative to democracy) o "The New Public" - Near religious commitment to "privacy" (as Fang points out - technologies of "the toolshed" helped this happen) = defense against hostile powers of society (including costs & crime). ♣ Isolated Spectatorship... started in early 1900's... • Newspapers = mental connections to the world • Magazines = interest in culture. 1900-1912: circulations increased 1M • SHIFT: Middle class can NO longer reason o Experts = scientific thinkers... their job to save society from its inherent unreasonable nature (SHIFT IN POWER) ♣ NO longer distribution of factors, information and reasoned opinion = best o A theater of stirring symbols = primary tool of persuasion (hieroglyphs, symbols = Ong, Wolfe...) ♣ We now engage with the world through pictures in our head - not proximity to events ♣ = A public driven by instinct o Walter Lippmann & Edward Bernays = KEY in this era ♣ Lippmann - (151) Modern leadership requires specialists who would formulate how the press would cover a given issue • manipulate; press restriction; perception management • pictures = key • photos = authority... people Identify with photos ♣ Bernays affected by Lippmann RE: Social psychology, modern media system & manufacturing of consent. • Bernays made Lippmann's theories applicable • Not press agent - COUNSEL of PR... credibility of authorities • Duty to regiment the public mind
Czitrom, Daniel (1982). Media and the American mind.
• Ch. 1 = dev. & evolution of ... annihilator of space and time .. o Affected all areas of life... from news dissemination (and evolution fo the modern day press) to politics and commerce o Met with exhilaration and fear • Radio Broadcasting of the 1920s o Added a totally n ew dimension to moderncommunication - bringing the ouside world INTO the home o AT&T, Western Electric, CA, GE o The Fourth Dimension of Advertising (Frank Arnold) o Content - news, politics to variety shows, music, drama talk shows, comedy... o Trived in the 1930s until radio news reports became the impoortant focus during the "depression, the New Deal and the impending European crisis" o Media that emphasize time = more durable (written on clay, stone). This temporal culture = concerned with faith, afterlife, moral order, ceremony. o Media that emphasize space = less durable and light in character (written on parchment or paper)... this spatial culture = more concerned with secular, scientific, materialistic and unbounded. Innis thought that broadcasting was stepping up the spatial bias of the modern era. o ALL civilizations exist by controlling areas of space & stretches of time • Issue with Innis' theory for modern day: Things can now be saved, stored and accessed more easily. Information will stand the test of time, but is also focused on saving space... permanence is key... so no bias on either?... focus on BOTH?....
Gabler, Neal (2011). Life: The movie: How entertainment conquered reality.
• Entertainment and celebrity culture is pervasive & it has influenced every aspect of our society including politics. This is due to a sort of fundamental (maybe even foundational) need by Americans to long for and seek after entertainment. • Even the church became more fixated on entertainment and amusement o He goes as far as to say that life is a medium just like radio or television and who have all become performers of sorts. These movies were referred to as "lifies." These lifies are the most realistic and most exciting forms of entertainment that exists. • Celebrity = "human entertainment." o Their lives are basically narratives that we find interesting. o Even celebrities had to continue to play the role of their most popular characters even when they were off the clock....to become the character in the eyes of the public. • Sensationalism. o Television took this to another level - news stories became popular, cultural events. • The emergence of graphics brought about more gratification to the viewer. • You must become a part of the ever growing entertainment machine or risk being obsolete and invisible.
McLuhan and the issues of the media discussion
• Marshall McLuhan ... followed the work of Innis... • (Czitrom, Ch. 6): Unlike Innis who focused on relationship between communication and social organizations, McLuhan focused on the IMPACT of media ON the human Senorium. • Doctrine of media determinism... "The deconstructionist notion that culture is actually a collectively scripted text, and so much of the general perspective we call postmodernism" (Gabler, loc. 153)... helps us understand the world in which we live: postreality. o "The medium is the message" • Media environment as a basic force shaping modern sensibility (p. 165)... These media are not just the bridge between man and nature - they are nature. Focus on analogy between preliterate and post-literate cultures (like Ong, Peters)
Media ecology (definition)
• Media ecology - focuses on how "the structure and content" of each and all medium(s) affect culture o Harrold Innis initiated the study of media ecology (see: Czitrom - Ch. 6 summary below) o Neil Postman defines media ecology as "the treatment of media communication (books, radio, TV, film, etc.) as an environment (how it affects human perception, understanding, feeling, value and behaviors) (source: Media Ecology Assn. Web Site)
Proust and the squid: The story and science of the reading brain
• Reading illuminates how the brain learns new skills and adds to its intelligence The brain's design made reading possible and reading's design changed how the brain works • The alphabetic principle - the brain's uncanny ability to learn to connect and integrate at rapid-fire speeds what is sees and what it hears to what it knows (p. 8)... Ong • Symbolization exploits and expands two of the most important features of the human brain: • Our capacity for specialization • Our capacity for making new connections among association areas (p.29)
Cairns, Earle (Week 2 PDF) God and Man in Time
• historiography - the gathering of documents • The historian can be a scientist, philosopher and/or "artist" • Dr. Keeler pointed out here that this reading "should cause us to really wrestle with the many ways our Christian faith may have a bearing on our perceptions of history and historical scholarship." • For God there is no time • All truth relates directly to God • God's truth into every historical event, tool/artifact and story reminds us that "a happening" can ONLY "be known by God alone because for Him there is no time in the sense that there is for man" (p. 12). • Going back to Scripture, written in the Bible is just as valid a foundation for interpretation as using stories and artifacts, if not "more" valid because it is in writing - the word of the Lord.
