Media Technology: A History

Fionn Ross

(name of college removed)

Introduction

• Fang’s Six Revolutions

• The Bias of Communication

• Monopolies of Knowledge

Fang’s Six Revolutions

• Writing - the First Revolution

• Printing - the Second Revolution

• Mass Media - the Third Revolution

• Entertainment - the Fourth Revolution

• The Toolshed Home - the Fifth Revolution

• The Highway - the Sixth Revolution

History of Writing

• Historical accounts concentrated on increased

efficiency

• Efficiency a product of limited and manageable set

of graphs

• Gelb identifies four evolutionary stages

– picture-based writing

– word-based writing

– sound-based syllabic

– Greek invention of the alphabet

History of Writing (2)

• The alphabet is a model of analytical thinking

• Capable of conveying subtle differences in

meaning

• Requires little of the reader beyond familiarity

• Allows the deciphering of newly encountered

words and permits invention of spellings

• Explicitness allows distinction between

deciphering and interpreting

History of Writing (3)

Dangers purported:

• Vulnerability of evolutionary approach

– Historicist view: forecasting based on trends

– Teleological: changing towards some goal

• Does this mean people do not need to do

anything about problems within their own

societies?

History of Writing (4)

• Always tended to be conservative

• Origins attributed to divine sources

• Changes always met with great

hesitation/resistance

• Innovations occurred when one people borrowed a

system from another people (e.g. Akkadians

adapted syllabic portion of Sumerian logo-syllabic

system, kept the logograms to use as shorthand)

Printing

• Originated in China in the 2nd century

• All three elements present: paper, ink and surfaces

bearing texts carved in relief

• Europeans adopt Chinese method of block printing

in 1423

• Great demand for books

• Printing press invented by Gutenberg in c.1450

Printing (2)

• Expanded opportunities for learning

• Led to radical changes in the way people

lived

• Contributed to the growth of:

– individualism, the Reformation, rationalism,

scientific inquiry, regional literatures reflecting

nationalism

Telegraph

• Electricity discovered in 18th century

• Research into electrical signals over long

distances

• First telegraph invented in the 19th century

• Quadruplex telegraph developed by Edison

in 1874

• Modern offshoots: teletype, telex, fax

The Telephone

• Early systems communicated letter by letter

• Early appliances appeared in 1850s and 1860s

capable of transmitting sound but not speech

• Bell patented the first electric telephone in

1876

• Edison working on ways to record and

reproduce sound waves (phonograph)

Mass Media

• Discovery of electromagnetic waves by

Hertz (1887) led to wireless telegraphy

• First wireless signal sent across the Atlantic

in 1901 by Marconi

• Television: systems of transmitting images

has many roots

• The invention of a scanning disk by

Nipkow in 1884

Mass Media (2)

• The iconoscope and kinescope for transmitting

and receiving images over a distance was invented

by Zworykin in 1923

• Mass penetration increased after the war

• What are the figures now?

• Further manifestations: satellite, cable, CCTV,

video recording (for storing, retrieving and

transmitting information)

The Rise of the PC

• Watch the “Triumph of the Nerds”!!

• Processing power increases every 18

months while prices drop (Moore’s Law)

• Growth in the UK is at 26% every year

• Multimedia PCs available in three stages

• MMX technology handling extra

instructions

Laser Technology

• Important to the future of communications

• Modulated beams transmit much larger number of

messages at a time than telephone systems

• Prototype laser communications networks are

already in operation

• May replace radio waves in telephony

• Also ideal for use in space for satellite

communications systems

Further information

Check out the

• Media Waves web site

• Media and Communications Studies Web

site

Bias of Communication

• Innis (1951) believed that relative stability

of cultures depends on balance and

proportion of their media

• Key to social change is found in

development of communication media

• Each medium embodies a bias in terms of

organisation and control of information

Bias of Communication (2)

• Any empire/society is concerned with

duration over time and extension in space

• Two types of media in this respect:

– time-biased media

– space-biased media

Time-Biased Media

• Durable and heavy

• Do not encourage territorial expansion

• Longevity encourages empire extension over time

• Associated with the customary, sacred and moral

• Speech is time-biased

• Examples: stone, clay

Space-Biased Media

• Light and portable

• Can be transported over large distances

• Associated with secular and territorial societies

• Facilitate the expansion of empires over space

• Example: paper (readily transported; short

lifespan)

Bias of Communication (3)

• Empires appear to follow one of two

models

• Time biased is militaristic and concerned

with the conquest of space

• Space biased is religious and concerned

with conquest of time

Bias of Communication (4)

• Media supporting militaristic conquests

have been lighter, lessening long distance

constraints

• Media supporting theocracies had relative

durability as a major characteristic so they

could support concepts such as eternal life

and endless dynasties

Bias of Communication (5)

• Balance achievable?

• Change always came from the margins of society

where people developed own media

• New media allowed development and

consolidation of power which ultimately

challenged the centre’s authority (e.g., Latin

written on parchment, the medium of the Church,

was attacked by vernaculars written on paper)

Monopolies of Knowledge

• Extended economic concept of monopolies to

culture and politics

• Societies - networks of communications - nodes

for storing and transmitting information

• Organisations have tended to monopolise certain

types of information , e.g. universities and

professional bodies

• If knowledge is monopolised one can also say

what is legitimate knowledge (e.g. the Church)

Monopolies of Knowledge (2)

• Monopolies derive power from several

sources:

– mastering complexity: creates a hierarchy of

professional and amateur

– control of raw materials for media: buying up

archives, e.g.

– performativity: being able to predict events

(Nile, elections)

Monopolies of Knowledge (3)

– speed: advantages accrue to those who have the

knowledge first (Moore’s Law)

– ability to afford high costs: Hollywood digital

FX

• Foucault analyses how the confessional has

been used to establish mechanisms of

control.

• This has been passed on to psychoanalysis

Monopolies of Knowledge (4)

• MoK tend to polarise into ignorant and

knowledge elite

• Encourage centralisation

• Controllers have power to define reality

(Gulf War)

• Competitors looking for ways to subvert it

Monopolies of Knowledge (5)

• Final word: Foucault throughout his

writings on the dynamic relationship

between knowledge and power, insisted that

neither is, in fact, a commodity even though

it is often treated as such - one cannot own

power; power is a process which must

continually be reasserted for its

continuance.