Final Exam: Readings Flashcards
David Nye: technological prediction
- best design does not always win
- technological prediction is very difficult
- technological prediction: predict unknown, forecast possibilities, project possibilities
Nye: Invention
- a completely new technology
- very rare
Nye: Innovation
- new way to make previous technology useful
Nye: Diffusion
- technology spreading to other classes, cultures, societies etc.
- projection
- new uses
- work of designers, marketers, or innovators
Nye: Prediction and Forecasting
- prediction –> invention
- forecasting –> innovation
Einstein
scriptorium and scribal culture
- scriptorium is a room set apart for writing
- scribal culture was so thin that it placed reliance on oral transmission
Einstein: Incunabula
- a book printed in Europe before 1501
- production ranged from 200-1000 copies
- first book printed was the Bible
Einstein: Books after printing press
- books weren’t sold before the printing press
- printing press led to the end of scriptoriums
- merchants sold book after 1500
Einstein: Mass literature Audiences
- people became more literate
- political ideas and beliefs could be published
- created pop culture
- threats to control the church
Neil Postman
Childhood and literacy
- children were seen as helpless and needed things done for them
- emergence of literature created the idea that childhood is a stage of life and children are like mini adults
- television resulted in the disappearance of childhood and erased boundaries between child and adult
Postman: social condition pre and post press
- alphabetic writing system
- long lasting manuscript tradition
- people could learn to read and write
- printing press brought back classical culture, growth of commerce, world exploration, and the ability to rise in social and economic class
Postman Article: printing press
- printing press shaped cultures
- different societies had different levels of access
- power of press is similar to internet today
Carter
Chinese Block Printing
- paper and block printing were invented during the Tang dynasty
- allowed for increase in text production
- early block printing was for religious use
- began to be used for official documents and private books under Song dynasty
- spread to Islamic countries and Europe
Graff: Early Modern Literacies
Reformation and Printing Press
- 2 significant developments of reformation were the printing press and vernacular
- church encouraged not to read vernacular because it may lead people to leave the church
John Thompson
changing patterns of communication
- print development changed patterns of communication in Europe
- periodical publication
Thompson: 4 types of print communication networks
- church controlled
- established by political authorities
- business owned
- network of merchants
Tom Standage: “The Victorian Internet”
Pony Express
- mail delivered by house
- ended by the invention of the telegraph
Standage: Postal Service
- first postal service was in France in 1464
- partial postal service increased rapidly from the 15th to 17th century
- individual services linked up for “common carrier service”
Standage: Building underwater and printing press
1st underwater telegraph
- rubber coat around wire
- could send messages across NY
- rubber deteriorated too quickly
2nd underwater telegraph
- gutta-percha replaced rubber
- was more expensive
- wire had to be clamped down so that it could sink
- first SMS sent from England to France came out as gibberish because water changed electrical properties
3rd underwater telegraph
- cables were tougher, heavier, and thicker
- sent first successful message from England to France
James Carey: “Time, Space and the Telegraph”
Developments of Telegraph
- could now communicate without using an object to deliver message
- allowed for symbols to move quickly across land
Carey: Telegraph and Financial Markets
- changed the use of time contracts
- enabled new kinds of business practices
Sousa and Edison
- John Philip Sousa felt the phonograph was awful and that it would destroy American music taste
- Edison invented the phonograph to record and reproduce sounds
- Edison and Sousa discussed ways to use phonograph for educational purposes
- could be used to create better understandings of history, music, and culture
Keller: “Photojournalism”
early photojournalism
- 1820s: technology of camera photography
- 1890s: photojournalism emerged
photography was used as a tool for documentation
Sontag: “On Photography”
Photography’s integration into family life
- don’t need to be literate
- consent is very important
Sontag: Truth, Experience, and photography
- industrialization led to mass production of cameras creating larger demand
- digital age shifted photography from an art form to an industry
- became a tool for advertising, manipulation, and surveillance
Stephen Kern: “Wireless World”
Wireless and the Titanic
- wireless telegrapher allowed the titanic to connect with other boats and land through morse code
- people could be saved if stranded
Kern: Simultaneity of Experience
- telephone made it possible to be in two places at once
- talk to others over great distance
- Kern believed it would be possible to by physically present in two places
Claude Fisher: Early Telephone
- invented in 1876
- relatively useless when invented because two phones were needed
- initially used by businesses and doctors
- Bell became a monopoly by using licenses, flat rates and message rates
Susan Douglas: Early Radio
Crystal Sets
- sets without electricity, just needed headphones to get sound
Douglas: Emergence of Chain Broadcasting
- radio broadcasting became more centralized
- outline the different ways people use the radio
- first standardized mass entertainment
Czitrom: Early Motion Pictures
Birth and early formation of film culture
early 1900s
- infrastructure was used for production, longer films, larger audience, mass viewing
early 1900s: Nickelodeons
- smaller and cheaper venues
- to see a variety of movies
- dangerous environment
early 1900s: France
- center of film production
- more prestigious level film
Lynn Spiegel: Making Room for TV
- believed to bring families together
- changed the ways families interacted
- TV began to replace piano and fireplace
- was used to take away trauma from WWII
From Lecture
Strategies of radio in tv age (Edison)
- Motion Picture Patents Company founded by Edison
- owned the market and patents
- made it illegal to make your own films, buy different projectors, or play anything that wasn’t produced by them
limited European imports - Blind booking: made cinemas play their movies
- Block booking: paying for multiple shows even if you only want to see one
Bolter and Grusin
Remediation
making new use from old technology
- email –> postal service
- library –> databases
- Diary –> blog posts
- radio –> Spotify
Manovich
the rise of computers
- first computer appeared in the 1800s
- the first computer was the Hollerith Tabulator which was used for counting population
- IBM made first tabulator that could add and subtract
Tom Standage
Relationship between new media, old media, and really old media
new media is very similar to old media
- power given to single companies
- reliant on advertising
- social media allowed for easy communication like the printing press, telegraph and telephone
Standage: anomaly
- short era of mass media aggregating mass passive audiences
