Brief lectures in Media History

1. Brief lectures in Media History Introduction Media history and technology

2. Topics • About history • Historians and their motives • Social histories and critiques of media • About media technology • Four revolutions in mass media • Harold Innis – empire and communication • Marshall McLuhan – theories of media change and influence

3. What is history? • Collective memory • Allows broad questions – when and who, but also why and how … • Not a search for exact answers • Not science, not social science • Duty to accuracy and truth • Same facts / different interpretations • Historians often have different motivations

4. Why do historians write history? • Herodotus (484–420 BCE) preserve the memory of great heroes • Often in conflict with the next idea: • Thucydides (460–400 BCE) learn the lessons of the past as a guide to the future • George Santayana (1863–1952), “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

5. Is history objective? • Leopold Von Ranke (1795–1886) said that historians should take a “scientific” approach and report “the way things really were. • Moral and progressive historians – Charles Beard, Lord Acton • Acton said – Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. ) • Is objectivity a “noble dream” as Peter Novick said?

6. Is objectivity the problem? • Herbert Butterfield (1900–1979) objected to “whig” history • Whig history honors the heroes, emphasizes progress, ignores the roads not taken, de-emphasizes minorities, and generally glorifies the inevitable present. • Whig history is what happens when the winners get to write history.

7. End of history • Francis Fukuyama (1952–present) and Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) • End of the idea of progress • Abandonment of utopian visions shared by both the right- and left-wing political ideologies

8. Social history – Lippmann • Walter Lippmann • 1922 book, Public Opinion • Press should be part of a system of checks and balances • This is “the original dogma of democracy” • Not working – press is too weak • Media and historical change • Authoritative (censored) • Partisan (political parties) • Commercial (often sensationalistic) • Organized intelligence (future development)

9. Other social historians • Upton Sinclair -- The Jungle, The Brass Check, Muckraker, press critic 1900s – 1930s • A. J. Liebling -- New Yorker media critic 1940s • I. F. Stone, also George Seldes • Independent editors and press critics 1950s – 70s • Ben Bagdikian – 1970s – 90s • Media Monopoly, press concentration • Neil Postman -- 1980s - 90s • Amusing Ourselves to Death

10. Critical media theory • Sociologists -- Max Weber and Michael Schudson • Ideational model helps observe the clash of ideas around social reform • Communications theorists -- Michel Foucault • Discourse analysis to understand the information content and structure of mainstream cultural products and “subjugated knowledges.” • Critical theorists • Frankfurt School -- Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin and JürgenHabermas • Conflict of classes / Marxist analysis • Mass media is structured to subvert identity and assimilate individuality into the dominant culture • Noam Chomsky “libertarian socialist • propaganda model – media supports ruling elites.

11. Four media 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 • Ads and PR as image making • Both associated with popularization of media • Electronic – radio, TV, satellites • Associated with nationalization of media • Digital – computers, networks • Associated with emerging global culture

12. Media technology & history • To what extent is media technology at the center of human history? • Two theorists – Innis & McLuhan • Harold Innis (1894 – 1952) • Empire and Communications • Stressed balance between: • Durable, time – binding media (including oral culture) • Flexible, space – binding media • Both needed for “empire building” but lack of balance led to loss of empires

13. Media technology & history • Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) • Technical change in media (the Tetrad) • What does a new media enhance, obsolete, retrieve, and reverse? • Medium is the message • Deterministic view of media type as shaping the content of a message • Hot and cool media • “Hot” media immerses audience and allows less participation – cinema • “Cool” media requires involvement and thought • -- printed media, possibly radio

14. Useful basic concepts • Determinism versus social construction • Does the technology advance due to its own properties or do social, political and economic forces shape the technology? • Utopians versus Luddites • Will a new technology improve things or make them worse? • Technological fallacies • Predictions about future uses for technology that turn out to be off base

15. Next: the printing revolution