Transcript Perspectives on Human Communication – 2005

Perspectives on Human
Communication – 2005
Wednesday 1/12/2005
Historical Framework
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Why some media history?
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Won’t get much of it in many communication
courses
Need to connect to larger context of communication
and our humanity.
Not clear in Trenholm (when was (moveable type)
Printing invented?)
So: We cover historical issues of
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1. determinism;
2. asking about consequences;
3. quick periodic overview: 1. oral, 2. written, 3.
typographic, 4a electronic 1, & 4b electronic 2
Media History
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Essentialism – is a medium a ‘thing’ ; do media have the same
consequences? –writing, telephones – “Does TV rot brains?”
Technological Determinism
 Hard – always the same result
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Marshall McLuhan (1960s) – “The Media is the message” and environment;
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media as extension of senses (“from ear to eye”;
brings communication research to public attention,
but aphoristic generalizations discredited;
brings some discredit to study of media history itself.
Soft – usually the same, varies with culture
Cultural Determinism
 Hard- ‘categorize the new [medium] in terms of the old [medium]’
 Soft- how to read a movie? Learning the movie ‘grammar’
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Will the “train” leave the screen? Where did the chickens go?
Uncapher - “Resource Theory of Media History”
Media Technologies – Good, Bad, or
Neutral?
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E.g. “Steel Axes for Stone-Age Australians' – Lauriston
Sharp's study of the Yir Yorant who depended on their
stone axes.
 Axes were traded among men and initiates
 Cultural destruction with the best intentions
E.g. Bombadier snowmobiles among Lapp –
 Mechanical hunting depletes herds and leads to a
cash economy among nomads
E.g. Green Revolution in India –
 Rich get richer; who gets the fertilizer
Communication Technology Overview –
One perspective: 4 Factors of any media technology –
An evolution/revolution tends to change one of
these:
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Replication – how do we make more copies of a
message?
Storage – how do we keep a message over time?
Transmission – how do we transmit a message from one
person or place to another?
Interpretation – How do we make sense of the
message?
Media History Overview
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Historical Periods
I.
Oral (3 million - 3500 bce.)
includes dance, etc.- question is how info transmitted
and stored; how is culture transmitted & formed
II.
(Hand) Written
a. glyphic, syllabic, etc (3500 bce. - 750 bce. approx.)
b. alphabetic (750 bce. - 1450 ce.)
III. Typographic (1450 - 1830 ce.)
printing press- mass media, newspapers
IVa. Electronic I (1830s- 1940s approx.)
telegraph, telephone, electric light
info become independent of space; short
IVb. Electronic II (1945- present)
(interactive) computers, multi-media fusions