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Brief lectures in Media History
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Transcript of Brief lectures in Media History
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