The Media Landscape 3 Flashcards
week 3
Milestone 1
1450s Printing press: Moveable type, ink, and paper allow printed copies
(used to be handwritten).
Why is it important?
1. Literacy
2. Empowerment
3. Oral tradition
4. Mass audience
1605, the first weekly newspaper
Milestone 2
1830s, The Telegraph:
Using electrical signals to transmit (coded) text. Near-instantaneous transfer of information and long distances covered went from “two weeks to two minutes.”
Why important?
* Electric telegraph allowed:
same info to reach multiple markets, quickly
* Possible effect: homogenization of
information/audiences?
Remember: Postman’s critique; dazzling stories from afar
Loss of interest in local affairs, community?
* Impossible q: Is the global availability of information
a good thing?
(1840s photography in journalism, 1870s Telephone)
Milestone 3
1870s Sound recording: 1878, Thomas Edison
patents the cylinder based phonograph
* 1st sound-recording &
playing device
* Originally intended for
dictation
* Music (quickly)
became primary use
Why important?
Focus moves from live to recorded performances
From public to private
(eventual) implications for musical priorities
Milestone 4
1890s Film: 1895, Lumière brothers (France)
Parallel developments in film & cinema
Europe (France)
* Creative development
* Feature-length films
* Well-known actors
versus U.S.A.
* Short films, NYC “Film Trust”
cartel
Patents & price-setting
20 minutes, uncontroversial
* Blocked imports
* Hollywood as independent
producer outpost !
Milestone 5
1900’s Radio: Uses “public airwaves” to broadcast (audio) signals
* Originally intended as wireless telegraph
but amateur operators quickly took over
live and ‘free’ content, in own homes
[advertising quickly flourishes in US at this time]
* Why important?
displaces social/public entertainment – moves home; mass
audiences & shared experiences?
airwaves limited, so fights for control, regulation
Europe: strong Public Service Broadcasting develops early
Milestone 6
1950s TV: 950s wide-spread adoption in many countries
milestone 6: TV (1950s)
* Why important?
* Vast new industry potential
* Mass audiences, advertising,
shared cultural programming
Milestone 7
1990’s the Internet: Network of interconnected computer networks
developed over second half of 20th C
user-friendly “World Wide Web” launched in 1991
* Why important?
4 key characteristics, unique for (mass) media:
1. Open/public, decentralized infrastructure
2. Designed for user control
3. Embodies digitization & convergence (see week 1)
4. Global system; governance unclear
Three Takeaways
1) Fear versus celebration
-Pessimism versus optimism
2) Rate of innovation & adoption has skyrocketed
3) Societal & regulatory contexts are essential
Neoliberalism
The first long-term consequence of the WWII is the rise of neoliberalism, the philosophy that “human needs are best served by an unregulated ‘free market’”; trade unions delegitimized,
Deregulation wins “information society” as central; science & technology, info as competitive edge.
Shifts in business strategies
The second long-term consequence is shift in business strategies
a) manufacturing ➞ service industries
Production ➞ Consumption
(remember also: use value to symbolic value!)
Many jobs shift from producing/manufacturing/delivering
goods to the less tangible service industries.
4 Unique characteristics of the internet
- Open/public, decentralized infrastructure
- Designed for user control
- Embodies digitization & convergence (see week 1)
- Global system; governance unclear
