Media Technology: A History -...
Transcript of Media Technology: A History -...
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.