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

2. 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. 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. 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. 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. 6 Clay vs. paper Evolution of writing surfaces: –Soft clay tablets –Woven papyrus plants –Parchment (sheep, goat) –Paper from tree bark pulp

7. 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. 8 The Middle Ages 6 th 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. 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. 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. 11 Technology and Cultural Change Technological Determinism –The belief that technology drives historical change

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

13. 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. 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. 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. 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. 17 CAPTURING THE IMAGE: PHOTOGRAPHY AND MOTION PICTURES Advances in the field of chemistry allowed photography and motion pictures to develop

18. 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 16 th Century: camera obscura 1830s: daguerreotypes 1830s: ability to store images 1890: box camera

19. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 26 Television 1950s –Following World War II, television’s growth surged Sales of TV sets Amount of time watching TV

27. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.