Narratives of Media History Braudel: Event-> conjuncture (decade(s)) -> historical era (less than 100yrs, Nuclear Age) -> historical epochs; long duree (middle ages, etc)
How has history of communications fundamentally shaped directions of human endeavor and social life? :Concepts of time, space, and consciousness Dynamics of social relationships Questions of control, regulation, and power structures Oral Cultures o Preliterate (not necessarily a written form, at least as a norm) o History couldn't be recorded o Practiced through oral storytelling, performance: legend, myth Focused on local area/community/culture/civilizations, couldn't be global like it is today Public, things happened in groups (agora) Enhanced social relationships; communal/collective Couldn't memorize things verbatim: memorized themes, but each performer put own twist to story Focused on present: no real facts from past Writing cultures o Started off with images, pictograms Paper developed in ancient China 3000 yrs ago 0 Egypt developed hieroglyphics Ancient roman waxed tablets, stylus o Stories become less public o Shift in how time is perceived: past was readable o Less emphasis on collectivity: one person could be considered author Prize one single version of text as authority Power began to structure societies Those in leadership positions used writing technology to further their positions Not everyone knew how to write o Collection of knowledge because it could be recorded now Print cultures o Gutenberg's printing press: things could be mass produced - Had movable type one could rearrange More available to poorer people (cheaper because it takes less time)...allowed society as a whole to access information Belief in education o 1400s-1800s o Important to spread of civilizations o Lessens gap between rich and poor
No longer specific class of people taught to write, more literacy Those in power now have less control over what is printed Copyright laws...stamp of Pope to maintain only originals being distributed in some cases Other ideas about power/gov't/spirituality/church, counter to views of those in power...now can be expressed Everyone has right to print/distribute ideas Books "ruining households and relationships" Women reading means they will be "leaving husbands & children"
Electronic Culture Communication now independent from speed of human transportation : Instantaneous now o News could now be transmitted from afar over telegraph, cable, radio White middle class most directed audience o Information becomes even harder to regulate Utopian Dreams & Moral Panics o First telegraphic message depicted as carried by an angel - will make society better First transcontinental telephone line depicted as "Making a Neighborhood of a Nation": the triumph of science Technological Determinism Belief that technology is the principal (if not only) cause of historical change Marshall McLuhan; "the medium is the message" Raymond Williams; "we need to restore human motivation & intention to our understanding of how technologies are created" - Takes television as example: television as a concept had been around for much longer, but wasn't until 20th century until it became real Certain social concepts that shaped what TV would be before actual technology particularly developed Medium shaped by what message imagin