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Lecture I:

Lecture I:. Communication in History. Johan Lindell, Ph. D. Student Media and Communication Studies Karlstad University Johan.lindell@kau.se. Lecture outline. Course outline for the first 3 weeks What is communication? Introduction to ’Medium Theory’ Communication in History.

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Lecture I:

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  1. Lecture I: Communication in History Johan Lindell, Ph. D. Student Media and Communication Studies Karlstad University Johan.lindell@kau.se

  2. Lecture outline • Course outline for the first 3 weeks • What is communication? • Introduction to ’Medium Theory’ • Communication in History

  3. 1. Course outline for the first three weeks: • Thematic focus: How to understand social change due to changes in media landscapes • A ’crash course’ in ’Medium Theory’ • Take-home exam: Three overarching questions related to topics covered in class and course literature (15% of overall grade)

  4. 2. What is communication?

  5. Shannon & Weaver, 1949

  6. Gerbner, 1956

  7. Let’s settle for: ”A social exchange of meaning whose outcome is the measure or mark of a social relationship” (Mosco, 2009)

  8. Among many other things, communciation can be: • Oral: Face-to-face dialogue, a speech • Appearance: e.g. haircut, clothes, jewelery, cars etc etc. (means of presenting the self – thus establishing a relationship with ones audience; see Goffman, 1956) • Massmedia: e.g. Newspapers, television, radio (means of reaching a unanimous mass-audience) See e.g. Fiske, 1990; Flew, 2007; Goffman, 1956

  9. Before proceeding we can establish that: • Communication appear on all levels in society, in infinite shapes • Communication is vital to social life: Communication IS social life? • It is therefore important to study the implications and nature of communication in a given society

  10. 3. ’Medium Theory’ • Given this background we can safely conclude that: changes in the ’media landscape’ (the conditions in which we communicate) has implications for society at large • Medium theory is the name describing research on the particular characteristics of a medium and its impact on society (Meyrowitz, 1985) • Canadian school of thought. 1950 – 1985 Prime period • Focus on large-scale social change: not production, content or audience as the majority of media and communication scholars do • Controversial: techno-determinist, non-empirical, poetic in style

  11. Examples of ’Medium Theory’ • ’The bias of communication’: different media have different ’biases’; space-biased or time-biased. (Innis, 1951) • ’The medium is the message’ (McLuhan, 1964) • ’The global village’ (McLuhan, 1964) • ’No sense of place’ (Meyrowitz, 1985)

  12. 4. Communication and History

  13. Where does the history of communications begin? • Johann Gutenberg – A.C.1400, Germany • Inventor of the mechanical printing press • Mass-distribution • Democrataization of literacy • Translation of the bible • The nation-state

  14. However…. • As we learned in the beginning of this class: communication is vital to social life: • ”If people where all naked and mute, we would not have a social heirarchy, only a biological one based on shape, size, muscle, and impulse” (Meyrowitz, 1985) • …so where there is social life, there is communication. • The history of mankind

  15. ’The Art and Symbols of Ice Age Man’ (Marshack in Crowley and Heyer (2007) • According to many, history began with writing, around 5000 B.C in Mesopotamia, Egypt and parts of Asia • 25 000 B.C, Ice Age, Neanderthal. Symbolic, ritual communication: ”These images and symbols were apparently used as we use images and symblos today – to mark rituals and ceremonies, to indicate differences in age, sex and rank /…/” (Marshack, 2007)

  16. Thus… • Communication in general played the same role 25 000 years ago, as they do now? • What has changed – How do we use media differently today? Do we?

  17. Communication in History

  18. References and Reading Tips Anderson, Benedict. (1983). Imagined Communities: Reflections of the Origins of Nationalism. Verso Crowley, David & Heyer, Paul. (2007). Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society. Pearson Education Inc. Flew, Terry. (2007). Understanding Global Media. Palgrave McMillan. Fiske, John. (1990). Introduction to Communication Studies. Routledge Goffman, Erving. (1956). The Presentation of Self in Everyday life. Anchor Books, Doubleday Innis, Harold. (1951). The Bias of Communication. University of Toronto Press McLuhan, Marhsall. (1964). Understanding the Media: The Extensions of Man. Gingko Press Meyrowitz, Joshua. (1985). No Sense of Place. Oxford University Press Mosco, Vincent. (2009). The Political Economy of Communication. SAGE Publications

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