1. Communication History MIT 2000f 10/7/2015 MIT20001

2. Course Content O http://faculty.fims.uwo.ca/robinson/mit2000f/default.aspx http://faculty.fims.uwo.ca/robinson/mit2000f/default.aspx O Syllabus O Lecture slides O Assignments 10/7/2015 MIT20002

3. Memory/Writing 10/7/2015 MIT20003

4. Writing to Present/Future Self O “Grown Ups Read Things They Wrote as Kids” (Dan Misener, CBC Radio) O https://www.youtube.com /watch?v=QyvUR1dCBbk https://www.youtube.com /watch?v=QyvUR1dCBbk O “Personal Time Capsules” 10/7/2015 MIT20004

5. Memory O http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=TNr_ MiqCahE http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=TNr_ MiqCahE O USA Memory Championship 10/7/2015 MIT20005

6. Memory Palace 10/7/2015 MIT20006 O Simonides of Ceos, 5 th century BC O Banquet-Hall Collapse O Memory Palace O Childhood homes, etc. O Architectural Digest O Spatial/Visual O Peter of Ravenna

7. Memory: Spatial, Visual 10/7/2015 MIT20007 O Terrain O Personal Spaces O Faces O Joshua Foer: Moonwalking with Einstein

8. Epic poems of Rajasthan, India 1. Oral Tradition 2. Bhopas 3. Epic Poems 1. Mahabharata 2. Dev Narayan 3. Thousands of stanzas long 10/7/2015 MIT20008

9. Bhopas/Oral Tradition  Memory  Endurance of Epic Poems  Bhopas  Sacred works  Healing powers  Challenge to Oral Tradition  Literacy  Other media 10/7/2015 MIT20009

10. Oral Society (W. Ong) 1. Words as evanescent “events” 1. Hebrew: “dabar” (“word” and “event”) 2. Power of spoken word 1. Language as mode of action 3. Interlocutor 1. Memory/knowledge 4. Cognitive structure/way of thinking 10/7/2015 MIT200010

11. Oral Society and Recall 1. How do spoken words become memorable thoughts? 2. Mnemonics and Formulas 1. Rhyme, proverb, alliteration 2. “To error is human, to forgive is divine” 3. Serious thought requires memory systems 4. Experience intellectualized mnemonically 5. “Know what you can recall” 10/7/2015 MIT200011

12. Oral Tradition 1. Rich in metaphor 1. multi-sensory 2. Homer 1. illiterate 2. 9 th century BCE 3. Iliad/Odyssey 10/7/2015 MIT200012

13. Oral Society 10/7/2015 MIT200013 O Jongleur (Middle Ages - itinerant minstrel) O Memorize hundreds of lines of poems/texts O Aide-memoires/ Rhyme O Trained Memory/Worldly Mind

14. Theory/Orality/Harold Innis 1. theorist of communication/culture 2. historical relationship between society & technologies of communication 3. Time/Space 10/7/2015 MIT200014

15. Innis: Time-Biased Media 1. Orality 2. Stone, Clay (durable media) 3. Community, continuity 4. Practical knowledge 5. Geographically confined Griot (West African storyteller) 1. Repository of oral tradition 10/7/2015 MIT200015

16. Innis: Time-biased Media 1. Hierarchical social order 1. Theocentric 2. Vulnerable to “light” media challenge 10/7/2015 MIT200016

17. Innis: Space-Biased Media 1. Papyrus, paper, printing press, TV 2. Large capacity/less enduring 3. Administration 1. territorial control 4. Cultural homogenization 10/7/2015 MIT200017

18. Innis: Space-Biased Media 5. Secular 6. Commodification 7. Monopolies of Knowledge 8. Weaken Tradition “spatialize time” 10/7/2015 MIT200018

19. Innis: Orality 1. “my bias with oral tradition” 2. spirit of Greek civilization 1. dialogue, Socratic method 2. intellectual exchange 3. Inhibit tyranny 4. Balance of Time-Space Media 10/7/2015 MIT200019

20. Innis/ “Grown ups Read Things…” O Private, Personal Writings O Elapsed Time O Child to Adult O Public “Live” Spoken Reading O Communal Setting O Community/Continuity 10/7/2015 MIT200020