Media History 1

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Media History

Overview and 1st session

Steen [email protected]

What is this course?

Basic knowledge of media history in English-speaking nations

The convergence of media, media products and the movements of cultural history

The connection between media and media technology

Placing a media product in both a media historical context and a cultural historical context

Understanding the context and meaning of media products

Exam essay

Six page assignment

Choose one from a list of questions

Last session will be an exam workshop

Sample questions

Give a brief outline of the history of the domestic sitcom and also give a more detailed description of a notable series from this genre. Your answer should also contextualize the development of this genre within the cultural history of the family.

Questions by Jrgen Riber and Paul McIlvenny

Sample questions

Describe the monster figure through the history of horror. Try to explain how the monster changes against the background of history and cultural history.


Sample questions

How does the Web 2.0 concept relate to the earlier history of the Internet?


Sample questions

Describe an example of subsequent (in later times) mediations of Shakespeares original texts, and relate the mediation to the period in which similar mediations were produced.


Definitions and questions

What are media?

What is history?

What is media history?

What are media?

Communication tools

Technology

Extensions of man (McLuhan)

What is history?

Description

Explanation

Cause and effect

What is media history?

The realization that context is significant

Mass media and its impact (CT: 224)

Implies a fear of the masses / hegemony (CT: 164)

Culture industry and ideology (CT: 103)

Democratizing and increasing freedom

The press as watchdog

Increased contact with the world

Media history as description and explanation

Chronology

Listing events is a description

It does not explain

Provides overview but not insight


Causality

Causality begins to locate the causes and reasons for change

Explanation rather than description

Individual causes

Great men of history

Groups causes

Institutions, movements, schools


Influence

Influence is a broad, vague term but does not imply plagiarism

It emphasizes structures and patterns across time

It also emphasizes developments and improvements

It connects to intertextuality but in a broader way than simply texts.

The Vertigo shot re-used in Jaws and since then in many, many other movies.


Trends and generalizations

Trends are smaller developments that never form movements or schools

They come from a desire to generalize and gain a view of the big picture


Periods

Periods are man-made, they are not natural

They are useful, however, to describe changes


Significance

Intrinsic

It is a great work of art and has intrinsic value

Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy

Influence

The media product had a huge impact on later products

The Flintstones

Typicality

Maybe not the best or even good, but a good example of the genre or type

Zombie Flesh Eaters

Explanatory frameworks

Biographical

Industrial or economic

Aesthetic

Technological

Socio-cultural

History of the book and its impact on society

Books didn't arise with printing, earliest books were hand-written

Writing was craftmanship, not art and scribes were not regarded as special

Oral culture was the dominant


Johann Gutenberg invented moveable type which allowed for fast printing presses

Before, specific blocks had to be carved


The printing press changed many things.

Quick, poor-quality copies were disseminated of new works, which meant there was little reason for printers to produce books.

This required legislation and publishers soon gained control over book printing.


However, in 1710 in England, rights were given to authors rather than publishers

This is what lead to copyright protection and formed the basis of all copyright law since then.

The Reformation and its impact

The printing press allowed for easier production of pamphlets and translated Bibles

It also meant that it was difficult to silence Martin Luther

The information monopoly is slowly destroyed

Propaganda and censorship becomes part of print culture

Privatizes the religious experience to reading at home

Early public sphere

critical public debates of political matters (Jurgen Habermas)

Public opinion is shared by reading pamphlets aloud

People engage in the political process, but the earliest public sphere was religious

Effect of book technology

Print requires that written language becomes standardized

Books also establish linearity, from beginning to end

Books also establish authority

Hand-writing begins to take on significance as something original

Wiliam Shakespeares First Folio

No original manuscripts of Shakespeares have ever been found

The Folios vary in content, and allows for the possibility of tampering

More than one Shakespeare?

Books and gender

Early novels are seen as invading private space

Women read novels and stop doing their chores

Novels are clearly dangerous and no good

Female writers often have to use pseudonyms to write

George Elliot

Books become popular

Dime novels

Books published in magazines, one chapter at a time

Dickens

Reading becomes a popular passtime

Books and technology

The introduction of the typewriter changes the book

Hand-writing and hand-written manuscripts lose their currency

The process of writing becomes different

Jack Kerouacs original scroll

Books become literary culture

With the advent of radio and TV, books gain a different status

They become prestigious, in the right formats

Books become a special, separate field with awards, juries and bestsellers

Books become literary culture

Literary culture

The death of the novel is proclaimed several times over

Authors begin to experiment with typography, images, color, paper, etc

More and more books are produced fewer, and fewer are read

Self-publishing becomes popular

Kindle and other devices try to replace the book

Copyright becomes an issue again

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Media History 1

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