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Why study the history of communications? Institute of Communications Studies

Delve into the evolution of communication to comprehend its impact on society, media, and culture. Explore the multidisciplinary aspects and influence of historical lessons on future decisions.

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Why study the history of communications? Institute of Communications Studies

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  1. Prof. Philip M. Taylor, History of Communications Why study the history of communications?Institute of Communications Studies

  2. BECAUSE IT’S GOOD FOR YOU!!! • So why teach it backwards? • If you were interested in history, you would be in a history department, wouldn’t you? • Well you are! PLUS + sociology, politics, technology, psychology, art, languages (zeros and ones), visual culture – i.e. we are MULTIDISCIPLINARY in approach • History informs our understanding of communications, the press and journalism, television, radio, cinema and new media

  3. The importance of communication(s) • Comes from the Latin ‘communicare’ = to impart, share or make common • It is to the 21st century what oil and gas were to the 20th – the engine that drives politics, economics, education, military affairs, culture and entertainment • It is two-way, although it is linked to rhetoric (or oratory as a form of developing logical, ordered arguments to achieve wisdom)

  4. Perception Meaning Sense Understanding What are Perceptions? Dissemination Reception Perception

  5. Begin to form a perception (or re-form an old one) Perception formed ...drives decision making and action Orient Observe Decide Act THE ‘OODA’ LOOP

  6. Point-to-point and point-to-multipoint • P2P is a private conversation, a telephone call, an email, text message i.e. between a single sender and a single receiver • P2MP is a movie, radio or television programme, a web 1.0 web page, a newspaper i.e. between a single source (which may be one or many people) and many receivers (who may be in different locations) • 21st century (web 2.0) communications is interactive (i.e. two way in which the receiver can also be active and not passive)

  7. Why study the history of communications? • Because without an understanding of where it comes from, how it has been used and abused, the lessons of the past cannot inform the decisions of the future • It is what makes our age back to our grandparents unique in human history, like no other period before the age of mass communications • Mediated communication makes us as individuals dependent on others (e.g. journalists) for our view of the world, for the ‘pictures inside our heads’ (Walter Lippmann), beyond our personal experience • Common experience (e.g. of a movie) does not remove individual perception nor guarantee ‘shared visions’

  8. Communication does not operate within a vacuum • It is about communicating something (via a medium) – body language, signal, gesture, image(s), message(s), information, misinformation, opinion(s), news etc • To be effective, it must be attractive or desired in terms of CONTENT • It therefore requires RESEARCH (i.e. Substance) as well as good technique

  9. Lasswell’s model • “Who (says) What (to) Whom (in) What Channel (with) What Effect.” • We add the question ‘Why’? (especially useful for propaganda and the spectrum of communications) • Propaganda What to think • Standing on the shoulders of giants…. Education How to think

  10. ‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.’ (L P Hartley) • Is this true for the media and communications? - From cave drawings to holography - From still photography to moving images, from silent cinema to digital surround-sound full colour and hi-def TV - From print journalism to 24/7 rolling news - From Morse code radio signals to i-pod(casts) - From Old Media to New Media and Now Media • A difference in technology or technique (or both)?

  11. One intellectual framework • The Tofflers’ three waves of societal development: • First wave is agrarian (simple, basic communications) • Second wave is industrial (mass communications) • Third wave is post-industrial or ‘post-modern’ or informational (computer mediated communication, mobile communications and Web 2.0) • The way states generate wealth in peacetime is reflected by the way they wage war • Some states experience all three waves simultaneously (e.g. Burma/Myanmar or Iran) • Hence Information Society and Information Warfare today

  12. Reality check • How do we know that what we see or hear via media is ‘real’ (i.e. an accurate representation of the world as it is)? RESEARCH (AGAIN) • ‘Seeing is believing’ (?); ‘the camera never lies’; ‘a picture paints a thousand words’?

  13. World Trade Center hoax photo.

  14. Shark attack hoax photo

  15. The Matrix • To inform, educate or entertain (BBC)? = • News, current affairs, soaps/reality TV • How much can be shown? • Censorship or self-censorship or regulation? • How much do you want to see? Why? • How much don’t you want to see? Why not? • What does this tell you……? • …….about you?

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