1. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1 Joseph R. Dominick University of Georgia-- Athens

2. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 2 Part I The Nature and History of Mass Communication

3. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 3 Chapter 3 Historical and Cultural Context Chapter Outline  Seven Milestones in Human Communication Seven Milestones in Human Communication  Language Language  Writing Writing  Printing Printing  Telegraph and Telephone Telegraph and Telephone  Photography and Motion Pictures Photography and Motion Pictures  Radio and Television Radio and Television  Computers and The Internet Computers and The Internet  The Next Revolution The Next Revolution  Concluding Observations Concluding Observations

4. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 4 Seven Milestones in Human Communication Language   Writing   Printing   Telephone and Telegraph   Photography and Motion Pictures   Radio and Television   Computers and The Internet

5. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 5 Seven Milestones Timeline [Insert Figure 3-1 here] Figure 3-1 Media Time Line

6. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 6 Language  Made oral-based societies possible  Members needed exceptional memories  Older people acted as “memory banks”  Limit to “stored and accessible” knowledge  Challenges:  How to keep information accurate  Passing knowledge from one generation to next  Difficulty keeping long-term records

7. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 7 Writing   Sign Writing vs. Phonetic Writing  Graphical Symbols representing objects  Chinese Pictograms  Egyptian Hieroglyphics  Abstract Symbols (alphabets)  Phoenician 24-character alphabet  Roman-modified 26-character Greek alphabet

8. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 8 Writing   Clay vs. Paper  CuneiformSumeriawedge-shaped clay tablets  PapyrusEgyptwoven papyrus plants  ParchmentGreecesheep/goat hides  PaperChinapressed wood / fiber pulp

9. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 9 Writing   Social Impact of Writing  Social divisions: literates vs. illiterates  Access to information  Access to power  Enabled administration of ancient empires  Changed nature of human knowledge  Laws – codified and universally administered

10. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 10 Writing   Writing in the Middle Ages  After fall of Rome: 6 th C A.D.  Hand-copying limits supply of books  Mistakes were cumulative  Libraries were isolated  No formal filing system or indexing  Content: religious  lay, esp. admin  Trade spreads, universities begin, AD 1150  European Scriptoria (writing shops) flourish

11. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 11 Printing   China  Paper  Block printing (oldest surviving book 9 th C)  Movable type  Korea  Metal movable type 15 th C  Germany  Guttenberg – 15 th C  Movable metal type printing press

12. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 12 Printing   Effects of Guttenberg’s printing press  Sped development of vernacular language  Encouraged growth of literacy  Transformed relationship of church and culture  Luther’s Ninety-five Theses  Vernacular Bible  Facilitated scientific research  Development of “news”

13. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 13 Printing  Technological determinism is the belief that technology drives historical change.

14. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 14 Telegraph and Telephone   Telegraph   : from 30 mph  Experiments late 1700s, workable systems 1830s  Samuel Morse: “What hath God wrought?”  Cultural Impact  By 1866 U.S. cities and Europe linked together  Stabilized market prices  Military tool in the Civil War  “Wire services” began  186,000 mph

15. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 15 Telegraph and Telephone   Western Union, not U.S. Post Office   The Telephone  No special keying skills required  Development of the switchboard  No intermediary party  Domination of AT&T  Development of global real-time ELSEWHERE HERE

16. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 16 Photography and Motion Pictures   Two inventions required  Focus light rays onto surface  1500s pinhole device, camera obscura, solves problem  Way to permanently store images  Daguerreotypes (glass plates) 1830s  Talbot invents film paper same time  Mathew Brady’s photos of Civil War – 1860s  George Eastman’s “Brownie” – 1890s

17. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 17 Photography and Motion Pictures   Popularization of photography  Advent of photojournalism  Life magazine  News becomes what can be shown  Context of advent of motion pictures:  Industrialization  Urbanization  Immigration  Nickelodeons  10,000 store-front theaters by 1910s  Help create film industry infrastructure

18. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 18 Photography and Motion Pictures   Large motion picture companies  Could afford feature-length films  By 20s dominated movie…  Production  Distribution  Exhibition  Lindsay’s The Art of the Moving Picture (1915)  Payne Fund Studies (early 1930’s)  Newsreels – the beginnings of broadcast news

19. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 19 Radio and Television   Radio development accelerated by WWI  Navy controls essential patents  Returning Signal Corps soldiers  Amateur radio clubs  Radio’s one-to-many format: “broadcasting”  Mass communication directly into each home  Technical regulation by the FRC (1927)  Depression of the 1930s helped radio programming

20. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 20 Radio and Television   Cultural impact of radio  Promotion of music  WSM’s “The Grand Old Opry”  Advent of soap opera and children’s shows  “Captain Midnight”  “Amos ‘n’ Andy”  Worldwide live news coverage  World leaders: Hitler, Chamberlain  Commentators became radio personalities  Prime source of entertainment by the 40s  “Prime time” programming

21. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 21 Radio and Television   Television Development  Beginnings in 20s  Benefited by advances in electronics in WWII  “The Appliance to Get” post-WWII  Cultural Impact of TV  USA saturated with television 7h/day  Transformation of politics  Standardization of popular culture  “Annihilator of time and space”  Reservoir of communal experience

22. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 22 Computers and The Internet   Computers  Make use of digital technology  Can be connected into networks  The Internet  The interconnection of millions of computers  Worldwide distribution of information  Transformation of  Business  Filmmaking  Politics  Community  Inequality

23. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 23 The Next Revolution  Coming portable wireless device combines Cell phone Laptop computer Personal digital assistant Still camera Video camera Pager  Will continue transformation of media and culture  Mobility  Interconnection  Access to information

24. © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 24 Concluding Observations   It’s difficult to accurately predict the ultimate use of any new communication medium.   It appears that the emergence of any new communication technology changes, but does not make extinct those advances that came before it.