1 / 32

Historical and Cultural Context

Historical and Cultural Context. Chapter 3. © 2009, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. CHAPTER OUTLINE. Language Writing Printing Conquering Space and Time: The Telegraph and Telephone Capturing the Image: Photography and Motion Pictures

betty_james
Download Presentation

Historical and Cultural Context

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Historical and Cultural Context Chapter 3 © 2009, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. CHAPTER OUTLINE • Language • Writing • Printing • Conquering Space and Time: The Telegraph and Telephone • Capturing the Image: Photography and Motion Pictures • News and Entertainment at Home: Radio and Television Broadcasting • The Digital Revolution • Mobile Media • Concluding Observations

  3. LANGUAGE • Major development in evolution of human race • Oral cultures required good memories • Knowledge and information base grew slowly • Accuracy was a challenge • Record keeping was difficult

  4. WRITING • As the need for better record-keeping grew, two problems needed to be solved: • What symbols to use to represent sounds/ideas • On what surface to record these symbols

  5. Sign Writing vs. Phonetic Writing • Sign writing • Graphic symbols represent objects, sounds, ideas • Chinese pictographs; Egyptian hieroglyphics • Phonetic writing • Symbols represent sounds, grouped to make words, grouped to make sentences • Phoenician alphabet

  6. Clay vs. paper • Evolution of writing surfaces: • Soft clay tablets • Woven papyrus plants • Parchment (sheep, goat) • Paper from tree bark pulp

  7. Social Impact of Writing • New social division based on ability to read • Unequal access to power via knowledge • Birth, growth, maintenance of powerful empires • Accumulation and preservation of knowledge • Codification of laws, consistently applied

  8. The Middle Ages • 6th century: demand for books rose but supply was low, and copies had errors • Monks hand-copied each manuscript • No standard filing or cross-referencing system • By 1150: more need to store information • Developments include trade routes, universities, strong central governments, secularization of books, widespread introduction of paper, scriptoria (writing shops)

  9. PRINTING • China: Paper; Block printing (oldest surviving book 9th Century); Movable type • Korea: Metal movable type (15th Century) • Germany: Gutenberg (15th Century) movable metal type printing press • Gutenberg’s use of movable metal type revolutionized communication • Communication could be cheap, quick, error-free

  10. Effects of the Gutenberg Revolution • Standardized and popularized vernacular languages; spawned growth of nationalism • More accessible information • Literacy increased • New schools of thought (Luther’s Protestantism) • Encouraged exploration • Increased growth of accumulated knowledge • Led to development of concept of “news”

  11. Technology and Cultural Change • Technological Determinism • The belief that technology drives historical change

  12. CONQUERING SPACE AND TIME: THE TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE • These two related technologies foretold many features of today’s media world

  13. Development of the Telegraph • Speed of communication increased from 30 mph to 186,000 miles per second • Telegraph: Greek for “to write at a distance” • Digital technology: dots and dashes • Morse code

  14. Cultural Impact of the Telegraph • By 1850, most Western frontier cities were linked with other cities • 1866: trans-Atlantic cable • The telegraph affected • How we moved goods • How we coordinated services • Standardization of market prices • News flow and news story length

  15. Government and Media • Some countries saw telegraph as extension of postal service • U.S. followed model of private ownership and commercial development of the telegraph

  16. A Change in Perspective • The telegraph changed how we thought of distance • Marshall McLuhan’s Global Village • Soon after the telegraph, the telephone began linking people • People didn’t need to understand telegraphic codes • The telephone industry became dominated by big business

  17. CAPTURING THE IMAGE: PHOTOGRAPHY AND MOTION PICTURES • Advances in the field of chemistry allowed photography and motion pictures to develop

  18. Early Technological Development • Two things needed to permanently store images • A way to focus light rays from a subject onto a surface • A way to permanently alter the surface • 16th Century: camera obscura • 1830s: daguerreotypes • 1830s: ability to store images • 1890:box camera

  19. Mathew Brady • Brady was the first to capture war extensively on film • U.S. Civil War photographs gave accurate record of war • Photography also affected art • Artists freed to interpret the world in new ways • Photography became its own art form

  20. Photography’s Influence on Mass Culture • Allowed people to keep permanent records of personal histories • Created profession of photojournalism • Photographic news as timesaving device • Changed definition of news • Cell phone cameras: privacy concerns

  21. Pictures in Motion • Demand for film entertainment helped by • Industrialization • Urbanization • Immigration • Nickelodeons: 1900s crude store-front theaters • Helped create motion picture industry

  22. Motion Pictures and American Culture • Large film companies survived and dominated film production, distribution, exhibition. • Film industry altered concept of leisure activities. • Hollywood produced cultural icons, helped bring about concept of popular culture • 1930s: Payne Fund studied media effects • Through 1950s: Newsreels continued to influence broadcast news reporting

  23. NEWS AND ENTERTAINMENT AT HOME: RADIO AND TELEVISION BROADCASTING • Radio was first medium to bring live entertainment into the home • World War I: Radio seen as useful to warfare

  24. Broadcasting • By the 1930s • Broadcasting was a national craze • Radio boomed, leading to creation of Federal Radio Commission (FRC) • FRC is precursor to current FCC • Two national radio networks emerged (later 3) • Content moved to mass appeal programs • Professionalism and appeal increased • Radio became more important news source than newspapers

  25. Cultural Impact of Radio • Popularized different kinds of music • Introduced new entertainment genre, the soap opera • Introduced mass content for children • Saw children as viable commercial market • Introduced situation comedies • Radio news came of age in 1930s-40s • Radio personalized news, created news celebrities • Radio changed how people spend free time • Became prime source of entertainment

  26. Television • 1950s • Following World War II, television’s growth surged • Sales of TV sets • Amount of time watching TV

  27. Cultural Impact of TV • Television is in 99% of households • Set is on over 8 hours per day • Third-largest consumer of time • Only sleep and work consume more time • Transformed almost every aspect of our culture • We expect live coverage of events from anywhere, at any time • We can share a national or global consciousness

  28. THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION (1 of 2) • Nicholas Negroponte: Digital revolution is the difference between atoms (material goods) and bits (electronic 0s and 1s) • Digital technology: system of encoding information as series of off-on pulses (0, 1) • Digitized information is easy to copy and transmit • Digital revolution affected mass media, business owners, audience members

  29. THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION (2 of 2) • Social/cultural implications of the digital age • Rethink notion of community • Everyone can be a mass communicator • Effects on politics • Is a true direct democracy possible? • Effects on the arts • Information glut • Digital divide

  30. MOBILE MEDIA (1 of 2) • Cell phones, laptop computers, PDAs (personal digital assistants) • Wireless technology • Portable, allowing access to information from anywhere • Interconnected • Blur distinction between mass communication and interpersonal communication

  31. MOBILE MEDIA (2 of 2) • Serve some of traditional media functions • Surveillance • Entertainment • Linkage • Culture • Mobile parenting • Time softening • Downsides • Driving distractions • Privacy issues • Interfere with interactions • Cost

  32. CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS • Predicting the ultimate use of any new medium is difficult • Any new communication advance may change, but does not make extinct, the advances that came before.

More Related