Origins of American Media

But of all other stupendous inventions, what sublimity of mind must have been his who conceived how to communicate his most secret thoughts to any other person, though very far distant either in time or place? And with no greater difficulty than the various arrangement of two dozen little signs upon paper? Let this be the seal of all the admirable inventions of man.

Galileo

Nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse. Sophocles

What was the first medium?

Chauvet caves in France, 30,000 years ago

• Harold Innis• The Bias of Communication (1951)

Sumerian tablet tallying sheep and goats, from southern Iraq

Stele of Hammurabi,circa 1780 BC

Hammurabi (1728-1686 BC)

• Uniform legal code• Standardization of written symbols, calendars,

weights and measures• Enhances scale/scope of political authority• The communication/transportation nexus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TAtRCJIqnk

Papyrus plant and Nile River delta

Papyrus scroll of the Book of Isaiah

Scroll of the Book of Esther

Codex Benedictus – 11th century

Codex Gigas – early 13th century

The Problem with Parchment

• “Monopolies of knowledge” (Innis)• Transition from papyrus to parchment

Battle of Talas (751)

Xativa, Spain (a), site of early paper mill (circa 1120)

   200 BCE: earliest evidence of papermaking in China 105 CE: Cai Lun makes paper from bark, hemp, silk, fishnets 610 CE: Paper spreads to Japan 751 CE: Paper spreads to Middle East  1120 CE: Early European paper mill in Xativa, Spain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWipm4vbYA8

The Emergence of Print

• What did the pre-print landscape of Europe look like?

• How did people get information?

The Pre-Print Landscape

• Manuscripts – Literacy, parchment confined to church,

monasteries• Letters (epistolary networks)• Postal services• Ballads• Bells

Printing Changes the Scene

• Johannes Gutenberg (1439)• Lowered costs, increased speed• Contributed to religious schism of

Reformation• Threatened political authority

But…

• Still capital intensive• Problems of production, marketing• Literacy• Poor transportation• Censorship

Limits

• The Church• Monarchy• Guilds

Coming to America

American Origins

• Postal service• Newspapers• Book publishing, pamphlets• Schools, colleges, churches – civil society• “The Atlantic World”