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Media History from Gutenberg
to the Digital Age
Slides based on the Bloomsbury book by Bill Kovarik
Revolutions in
Communication
Orientation
Welcome from the author Bill Kovarik, PhD Professor @ Radford
University, a public college in Virginia, USA
Media history is fun Meet amazing people Learn about great ideas Find lots of history still
unexplored
Gort says hello too (from the movie “Day the Earth Stood Still.”)
Course Orientation
Textbook:
1st edition – 2011
2nd edition – 2016
http://www.revolutionsincommunication.com
Our textbook: Revolutions in Communication International scope Technology framework Comprehensive (all disciplines)
◦Printing (books, papers, magazines) ◦Images (photo, cinema, pr, advertising) ◦Electronics (radio, tv) ◦Digital (computers, networks)
Written for all Comm studentsLow cost to encourage student use
This course … Is organized through the Web
site: ◦revolutionsincommunication.com
The web site has … Slide shows & flash cards Reading & viewing assignments Updates for each chapter
For mass communication, It is the best of times, it is the worst of times…
It is the age of information, it is the era of ignorance …
It is the age of devolution
It is the age of revolution
We all need to understand How we got to this point Who got us here Why it happened And what may be next And what we could do about that
We’ll study four 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 ◦ Advertising and PR as image making
Both associated with cultural revolutions Electronic – radio, TV, satellites
Associated with nationalistic revolutions Digital – computers, networks
Associated with emerging global culture
We’ll meet some of the world’s most interesting people
As a student you will … Read & listen & participate Ask lots of questions Watch some classic cinemaListen to programs from the
Golden Age of Radio Form research groups to answer
historical questions
Questions:
Where do you get your basic information?
Do you listen to radio or watch TV the same way your parents did?
Do we live in an Information Age? When did it start? How is it different from living in the industrial age?
What are the top five technologies over the past 1,000 years?
Do technologies have ethical implications?
What are some of the concerns about the impact of mass media worldwide?
Are technologies mostly on their own course, or are they mostly shaped for human needs?
Do we get to choose our technologies? Should we?
Why were these Bibles smuggled in barrels?
Next: Chapter 0.1b Introduction to history
