Class notes
Media History class notes
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These notes are for CMNS 210 at SFU which is a media history class. It covers all the weeks of the class in it.
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Media HistoryWeek 1
main questions for the course
● What is the relationship between society and technological change?
● What can we learn from studying historical communication technologies during their moments of "newness"?
● How do basic human communication practices change, or stay the same, as new technologies are adopted?
Communicating at a distance (with someone who is far away
● The telegraph
○ Invented in the 1840s in use until the 1970s
○ Used to send texts of long distances along wires, sent it as electronic pulses
○ Telegraphs use a code, where each letter in the alphabet corresponds to dots and dashes
○ International morse code
○ Didn't allow for intimacy but it was almost instant messaging
○ Message called telegram device called telegraph
○ Tele: over a distance; graph: inscription of writing meaning in greek
● Who sends telegrams and why
○ People who need to send something urgent and to multiple recipients
○ Business people, middle class, rich people
○ People who are invested in logistics. Ie. Government and military
○ All white all men wants to send telegrams but it was sent primarily by women
● How the telegraph revolutionized the way we communicate
○ Communicating at a distance (with someone who is far away)
○ Telephone popular use begins 1890s
○ Texting (SMS) on the original phone, 2007
Week 2
Lecture
● Outcomes:
● Explain what is meant by a cultural analysis of media history
● Be able to compare and apply the two theories of technology (Technological determinism vs Social construction
of technology)
● Communications media
○ Media: the channels or technologies of communication (e.g. television, telephone, paper, MP3, text
messages)
○ Etymology of media means "In between" two people to communicate especially over a distance
● A cultural approach to communication by James Carey
○ Media are:
■ Symbolic/representational: they construct how we understand, exist in and talk about our
realities
■ Social: their meanings are created in practice, through the ways we use and talk about them
○ "to study communication is to examine the actual social process wherein significant symbolic forms are
created, apprehended, and used." (Carey, 24)
, ● Looking at Media in their Historical Moments of Newness
○ According to Lisa Gitelman, Looking at media in their moments of newness (when they are first
introduced and taken up by publics) is the most interesting time to understand them
○ "…looking into the novelty years, transitional states, and identity crises of different media stands to tell
us much, both about the course of media history and about the broad conditions by which media and
communication are and have been shaped"
○ When we look back at media when were new we can see how they are negotiated and adapted by
society
● "I define media as socially realized structures of communication, where structures include both technological
forms and their associated protocols, and where communication is a cultural practice, a ritualized collocation of
different people on the same mental map, sharing or engaged with popular ontologies of representation"
(Gitelman, 7)
● Technology: objects, devices, or systems that extend particular practices
○ Ex: a pen is a technology that extends our ability to think through ideas, remember, and communicate
with others (writing)
○ The pen is a technology of inscription. There are many other technologies throughout history that have
been used for inscription see gitelman pg. 20
● How can we think about the relationship between technology and society or culture?
○ Two major models for doing this:
○ Technological determinism: theory that the internal dynamics of technologies (how they are designed,
how they operate, etc.) are the driving force behind social change
○ Simple version: technology shape culture and behavior
○ Example: FitBits make users obsessed with their fitness and bodies by constantly providing datified
feedback about steps, heart-rate, sleep, etc.
○ Social Construction of Technology (SCOT): theory that technologies are effects of social change and
humans create and control technology to achieve practical ends
○ Simple version: Humans shape technology
○ Example: the FitBit is designed to fulfill the human desire for knowledge about the body and
competition. We use the device towards these ends
● The truth lies somewhere in the middle. Yes, in out cultures, people want data about their bodies and that is a
socially constructed value, but also, the fitbit is designed to ramp this up to the next level, with regular reminders
that you are not walking enough, or by being physically strapped to your wrist
● Lisa Gitelman argues that either of these theories on their own are too reductive. We need to combine them to
understand the complexity of media history
● "I define media as socially realized structures of communication, where structures include both technological
forms and their associated protocols, and where communication is a cultural practice, a ritualized collocation of
different people on the same mental map, sharing or engaged with popular ontologies of representation"
(Gitelman, 7)
Week 3
Lec: Writing, Paper, and Techniques of Inscription
● Outcomes for this lecture
○ Connect writing and printing factor to concepts of modernity, enlightenment, and progress?
, ○ Understand that writing and print played a role in colonization here in Canada
● Progress narratives in media history
○ Describes the ways that media histories are often told as the story of how humanity moved toward
modernity. Progress narratives draw simplistically on technological determinism and do not question
how and for whom "progress" is defined (i.e. who benefits)
● Writing VS. Printing
○ Writing
■ Inscriber words or symbols on some kind of surface or parchment (bark, paper) in order to
record or communicate ideas
■ Involves the development of a shared script, and shared literacy with that script
■ First purpose was accounting
■ Oldest examples are Egypt (3100 BC), China (1200 BC), and Central America (600BC)
■ Example: Zapotec Codice, Central America, 500-600 BC
■ Glyphs: Drawings that are writing represent a code somewhat like an alphabet
■ Lewis Mumford reading: the slow speed of copying by hand constructs the illuminated
manuscripts as a rarefied object
■ Technologies used to automate the reproduction of writing on a larger scale
■ Can be rudimentary, like block printing, or fast and technically complex, like the movable type
printing press
■ Allows written information to be mass produced
■ Comes along with more widespread transitions to literacy and Western ideas about modernity
■ Oldest example of printing: Chinese Woodblock, 220AD
■ Labor and speed compared to writing
■ Mumford, The Invention of Printing
■ Guttenberg Press, German, 1440, Johannes Guttenberg
■ Fast, efficient way of print many copies of document
■ Key technology in histories of western superiority
■ Moveable type
■ Slugs or metal letters arrange into a page
■ The Guttenberg press
■ Printing press is primary technology in histories of the European enlightenment (17th-19th
century)
■ Science and reason over religion
■ Spread of literacy
■ Better sanitation and public health
■ Migration to cities
■ Rise of governments and democracy over monarchy
■ Pamphlets 1869: early example of printing used for "enlightenment"
■ From the History channel "7 ways the printing press changed the world"
■ "But most historians believe Gutenberg's adaptation, which employed a screw type wine
press to squeeze down evenly on the inked metal type, was the key to unlocking the
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