Brief lectures in

Media History

Introduction Media history and

technology

Topics About history

◦Historians and their motives ◦Social histories and critiques of media

About media technology ◦Four revolutions in mass media ◦Harold Innis – empire and

communication ◦Marshall McLuhan – theories of media

change and influence

What is history? Collective memory Allows broad questions – when and

who, but also why and how … Not a search for exact answers Not science, not social science Duty to accuracy and truth Same facts / different interpretations Historians often have different

motivations

Why do historians write history? Herodotus (484–420 BCE)

preserve the memory of great heroes ◦Often in conflict with the next idea:

Thucydides (460–400 BCE) learn the lessons of the past as a guide to the future ◦George Santayana (1863–1952),

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Is history objective? Leopold Von Ranke (1795–1886)

said that historians should take a “scientific” approach and report “the way things really were.

Moral and progressive historians – Charles Beard, Lord Acton ◦Acton said – Power corrupts, absolute

power corrupts absolutely. )Is objectivity a “noble dream” as

Peter Novick said?

Is objectivity the problem? Herbert Butterfield (1900–1979)

objected to “whig” history ◦Whig history honors the heroes,

emphasizes progress, ignores the roads not taken, de-emphasizes minorities, and generally glorifies the inevitable present.

◦Whig history is what happens when the winners get to write history.

End of historyFrancis Fukuyama (1952–present) and

Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) End of the idea of progress Abandonment of utopian visions

shared by both the right- and left-wing political ideologies

Social history – Lippmann Walter Lippmann

◦ 1922 book, Public Opinion Press should be part of a system of

checks and balances◦This is “the original dogma of democracy”

Not working – press is too weak Media and historical change

◦Authoritative (censored) ◦Partisan (political parties) ◦Commercial (often sensationalistic) ◦Organized intelligence (future development)

Other social historians Upton Sinclair -- The Jungle, The

Brass Check, Muckraker, press critic 1900s – 1930s

A. J. Liebling -- New Yorker media critic 1940s

I. F. Stone, also George Seldes ◦ Independent editors and press critics 1950s – 70s

Ben Bagdikian – 1970s – 90s ◦ Media Monopoly, press concentration

Neil Postman -- 1980s - 90s ◦Amusing Ourselves to Death

Critical media theory Sociologists -- Max Weber and Michael Schudson

◦ Ideational model helps observe the clash of ideas around social reform

Communications theorists -- Michel Foucault ◦ Discourse analysis to understand the information

content and structure of mainstream cultural products and “subjugated knowledges.”

Critical theorists ◦ Frankfurt School -- Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin

and Jurgen Habermas Conflict of classes / Marxist analysis Mass media is structured to subvert identity and assimilate

individuality into the dominant culture◦ Noam Chomsky “libertarian socialist

propaganda model – media supports ruling elites.

Four media revolutions Printing

◦ Moveable type – 1455 Associated with religious revolution 1500s – 1700s

◦ Industrial scale printing Associated with political revolutions 1700s – now

Imaging ◦ Engraving, photography and cinema ◦ Ads and PR as image making

Both associated with popularization of media Electronic – radio, TV, satellites

Associated with nationalization of media Digital – computers, networks

Associated with emerging global culture

Media technology & history To what extent is media technology

at the center of human history? Two theorists – Innis & McLuhan

◦Harold Innis (1894 – 1952) Empire and Communications Stressed balance between:

Durable, time – binding media (including oral culture)

Flexible, space – binding media Both needed for “empire building” but lack of

balance led to loss of empires

Media technology & history

◦Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Technical change in media (the Tetrad)

What does a new media enhance, obsolete, retrieve, and reverse?

Medium is the message Deterministic view of media type as shaping

the content of a message Hot and cool media

“Hot” media immerses audience and allows less participation – cinema

“Cool” media requires involvement and thought -- printed media, possibly radio

Useful basic concepts Determinism versus social

construction ◦Does the technology advance due to its

own properties or do social, political and economic forces shape the technology?

Utopians versus Luddites ◦Will a new technology improve things or

make them worse? Technological fallacies

◦Predictions about future uses for technology that turn out to be off base

Next: the printing revolution