Báo chí truyền thông - Chapter 3: Historical and cultural context

Historical and Cultural Context Chapter 3© 2009, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.1CHAPTER OUTLINELanguageWritingPrintingConquering Space and Time: The Telegraph and TelephoneCapturing the Image: Photography and Motion PicturesNews and Entertainment at Home: Radio and Television BroadcastingThe Digital RevolutionMobile MediaConcluding Observations2LANGUAGEMajor development in evolution of human raceOral cultures required good memoriesKnowledge and information base grew slowlyAccuracy was a challengeRecord keeping was difficult3WRITINGAs the need for better record-keeping grew, two problems needed to be solved:What symbols to use to represent sounds/ideasOn what surface to record these symbols4Sign Writing vs. Phonetic WritingSign writing Graphic symbols represent objects, sounds, ideas Chinese pictographs; Egyptian hieroglyphicsPhonetic writingSymbols represent sounds, grouped to make words, grouped to make sentencesPhoenician alphabet5Clay vs. paperEvolution of writing surfaces:Soft clay tabletsWoven papyrus plantsParchment (sheep, goat)Paper from tree bark pulp6Social Impact of WritingNew social division based on ability to readUnequal access to power via knowledgeBirth, growth, maintenance of powerful empiresAccumulation and preservation of knowledgeCodification of laws, consistently applied7The Middle Ages6th century: demand for books rose but supply was low, and copies had errorsMonks hand-copied each manuscriptNo standard filing or cross-referencing systemBy 1150: more need to store informationDevelopments include trade routes, universities, strong central governments, secularization of books, widespread introduction of paper, scriptoria (writing shops)8PRINTINGChina: Paper; Block printing (oldest surviving book 9th Century); Movable typeKorea: Metal movable type (15th Century)Germany: Gutenberg (15th Century) movable metal type printing pressGutenberg’s use of movable metal type revolutionized communicationCommunication could be cheap, quick, error-free9Effects of the Gutenberg RevolutionStandardized and popularized vernacular languages; spawned growth of nationalismMore accessible informationLiteracy increasedNew schools of thought (Luther’s Protestantism)Encouraged explorationIncreased growth of accumulated knowledgeLed to development of concept of “news”10Technology and Cultural ChangeTechnological DeterminismThe belief that technology drives historical change11CONQUERING SPACE AND TIME: THE TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONEThese two related technologies foretold many features of today’s media world12Development of the TelegraphSpeed of communication increased from 30 mph to 186,000 miles per secondTelegraph: Greek for “to write at a distance”Digital technology: dots and dashesMorse code13Cultural Impact of the TelegraphBy 1850, most Western frontier cities were linked with other cities1866: trans-Atlantic cableThe telegraph affectedHow we moved goodsHow we coordinated servicesStandardization of market pricesNews flow and news story length14Government and MediaSome countries saw telegraph as extension of postal serviceU.S. followed model of private ownership and commercial development of the telegraph15A Change in PerspectiveThe telegraph changed how we thought of distanceMarshall McLuhan’s Global VillageSoon after the telegraph, the telephone began linking peoplePeople didn’t need to understand telegraphic codesThe telephone industry became dominated by big business16CAPTURING THE IMAGE: PHOTOGRAPHY AND MOTION PICTURESAdvances in the field of chemistry allowed photography and motion pictures to develop17Early Technological DevelopmentTwo things needed to permanently store imagesA way to focus light rays from a subject onto a surfaceA way to permanently alter the surface16th Century: camera obscura1830s: daguerreotypes1830s: ability to store images1890: box camera18Mathew BradyBrady was the first to capture war extensively on filmU.S. Civil War photographs gave accurate record of warPhotography also affected artArtists freed to interpret the world in new waysPhotography became its own art form19Photography’s Influence on Mass CultureAllowed people to keep permanent records of personal historiesCreated profession of photojournalismPhotographic news as timesaving deviceChanged definition of newsCell phone cameras: privacy concerns20Pictures in MotionDemand for film entertainment helped byIndustrializationUrbanizationImmigrationNickelodeons: 1900s crude store-front theatersHelped create motion picture industry21Motion Pictures and American CultureLarge 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 culture1930s: Payne Fund studied media effectsThrough 1950s: Newsreels continued to influence broadcast news reporting22NEWS AND ENTERTAINMENT AT HOME: RADIO AND TELEVISION BROADCASTINGRadio was first medium to bring live entertainment into the homeWorld War I: Radio seen as useful to warfare23BroadcastingBy the 1930sBroadcasting was a national crazeRadio boomed, leading to creation of Federal Radio Commission (FRC)FRC is precursor to current FCCTwo national radio networks emerged (later 3)Content moved to mass appeal programsProfessionalism and appeal increasedRadio became more important news source than newspapers24Cultural Impact of RadioPopularized different kinds of musicIntroduced new entertainment genre, the soap operaIntroduced mass content for childrenSaw children as viable commercial marketIntroduced situation comediesRadio news came of age in 1930s-40sRadio personalized news, created news celebritiesRadio changed how people spend free timeBecame prime source of entertainment25Television1950sFollowing World War II, television’s growth surgedSales of TV sets Amount of time watching TV26Cultural Impact of TVTelevision is in 99% of householdsSet is on over 8 hours per dayThird-largest consumer of timeOnly sleep and work consume more timeTransformed almost every aspect of our cultureWe expect live coverage of events from anywhere, at any timeWe can share a national or global consciousness27THE 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 transmitDigital revolution affected mass media, business owners, audience members28THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION (2 of 2)Social/cultural implications of the digital ageRethink notion of communityEveryone can be a mass communicatorEffects on politicsIs a true direct democracy possible?Effects on the artsInformation glutDigital divide29MOBILE MEDIA (1 of 2)Cell phones, laptop computers, PDAs (personal digital assistants)Wireless technologyPortable, allowing access to information from anywhereInterconnectedBlur distinction between mass communication and interpersonal communication30MOBILE MEDIA (2 of 2)Serve some of traditional media functionsSurveillanceEntertainmentLinkageCultureMobile parentingTime softeningDownsidesDriving distractionsPrivacy issuesInterfere with interactionsCost31CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONSPredicting the ultimate use of any new medium is difficultAny new communication advance may change, but does not make extinct, the advances that came before.32