Mass Media Chapter 2

Books: The First and Most Respected Mass Medium

Evolution of Written Documents -- Background

• Discussion on p. 30– What do you know of the

current transformation to digital books?

• Purpose (32)– Systematic info

storage• Requires a medium (31)– Device by which a sender can

move physical information thru time/space so that another can receive

– List 3 examples

• Ideas through graphic symbols (31)– A carved, written, or printed

mark, picture, character, or letter associated with a culturally agreed-upon meaning

– Ex: white fabric – worn vs. waved

Evolution of Written Documents – The Progression

• No writing, only oral/physical – Ex: hair, skin, clothes, etc

• Cave paintings 15000 yrs ago• Cultural conventions 4500 BCE

– Ideographic (33) – thought writing– Benefit – new systematization– Drawback – too many characters

• Chinese scholar – 50,000!• Results in high illiteracy rates

• From pictographs to phonographs (34)– A graphic symbol linked to a specified

sound by a cultural convention or rule that prevails among those who speak

– English alphabet from Greek/Roman alphabets over 2000 years • 3000 BCE Sumerians invent cuneiform

(named for wedgelike writing utensil) – symbols for sounds, much simpler than

previous• 500 BCE Greeks perfect

– Promotes literacy, formal educaiton and learning

– Makes it easy for historians– Alphabet vs. phonetics

International Phonetics Website• Concrete to portable

– Sumerians had heavy clay tablets– 3000 BCE Egyptians have papyrus

• Tall reed of the Nile, eventually bound into scrolls

– Short supply leads to parchment (sheep/goat skin) and vellum (young calf skin)• Very expensive – one animal only produced

a few pages