This is “Media, Technology, and Communication”, chapter 15 from the book A Primer on Communication Studies
(index.html) (v. 1.0).
This book is licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/
3.0/) license. See the license for more details, but that basically means you can share this book as long as you
credit the author (but see below), don't make money from it, and do make it available to everyone else under the
same terms.
This content was accessible as of December 29, 2012, and it was downloaded then by Andy Schmitz
(http://lardbucket.org) in an effort to preserve the availability of this book.
Normally, the author and publisher would be credited here. However, the publisher has asked for the customary
Creative Commons attribution to the original publisher, authors, title, and book URI to be removed. Additionally,
per the publisher's request, their name has been removed in some passages. More information is available on this
project's attribution page (http://2012books.lardbucket.org/attribution.html?utm_source=header).
For more information on the source of this book, or why it is available for free, please see the project's home page
(http://2012books.lardbucket.org/). You can browse or download additional books there.
i
, Chapter 15
Media, Technology, and Communication
We live in a media-saturated world and rely on a variety of old and new media for
information, entertainment, and connection. The beginnings of mass media and
mass communication go back 560 years to the “print revolution” that occurred in
Europe in the fifteenth century. As we progressed through the centuries, mass
communication evolved from a mechanical process to electronic transmission,
which paved the way for the digitized world of today. While technological advances
are an important part of the narrative regarding media, the effects of media are
also important to consider. In this chapter, we will discuss some functions and
theories of mass communication and some of the key ethical issues related to media
and communication.
857
,Chapter 15 Media, Technology, and Communication
15.1 Technological Advances: From the Printing Press to the iPhone
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Summarize the technological advances of the print, audiovisual, and
Internet and digital media ages.
2. Identify key effects of various mass media on society.
3. Discuss how mass media adapt as new forms of media are invented and
adopted.
It is only through technology that mass media can exist. While our interpersonal
interactions are direct, our interactions with mass media messages are indirect, as
they require technology or a “third party” to facilitate the connection. As you’ll
recall from Chapter 1 "Introduction to Communication Studies", mass
communication involves transmitting messages to many people through print or
electronic media. While talking to someone about a movie you just watched is
interpersonal communication, watching the Academy Awards on a network or in
clips on the Internet is mass communication. In this section, we will trace the
development of various forms of technology that led to new channels (media) of
communication and overview the characteristics of some of the most common mass
media.
As we trace the development of different forms of mass media, take note of how
new technologies and competition among various media formats have made media
messages more interpersonal and personalized. In short, the mass media that
served large segments of the population with limited messages evolved into
micromedia that serve narrow interest groups.Charles C. Self, Edward L. Gaylord,
and Thelma Gaylord, “The Evolution of Mass Communication Theory in the 20th
Century,” The Romanian Review of Journalism and Communication 6, no. 3 (2009): 29.
The brief discussion here of these recent changes in how media operate in our lives
will be expanded more in the following chapter on new media and communication.
It is also interesting to note the speed with which technologies advanced. As we
move closer to our current digital age of media, we can see that new media formats
are invented and then made available to people more quickly than media that came
before. For example, while it took 175,000 years for writing to become established,
and about 1,000 years for printing to gain a firm foundation as a medium,
audiovisual media (radio, television, and movies) penetrated society within a few
decades, and digital media gained prominence in even less time.Marshall T. Poe, A
History of Communications: Media and Society from the Evolution of Speech to the Internet
(New York: Cambridge, 2011), 164.
858
, Chapter 15 Media, Technology, and Communication
Print Mass Media
The printing press and subsequent technological advances related to paper
manufacturing and distribution led to the establishment of print as the first mass
medium. While the ability to handwrite manuscripts and even reproduce them
existed before the print revolution, such processes took considerable time and skill,
making books and manuscripts too expensive for nearly anyone in society except
the most privileged and/or powerful to possess. And despite the advent of many
other forms of mass media, print is still important as a channel for information and
as an industry. For example, in the United States, about 3.1 billion books, 1,400 daily
newspapers, and 19,000 magazines are published a year.Marshall T. Poe, A History of
Communications: Media and Society from the Evolution of Speech to the Internet (New
York: Cambridge, 2011), 133. Let’s now look back at how we progressed from writing
to print and trace the birth of the first mass medium.
The “manuscript age1” is the period in human history that immediately predated
the advent of mass media and began around 3500 BCE with the introduction of
written texts and lasted until the printing revolution of 1450 CE.Marshall T. Poe, A
History of Communications: Media and Society from the Evolution of Speech to the Internet
(New York: Cambridge, 2011), 73. Of course, before writing emerged as a form of
expression, humans drew cave paintings and made sculptures, pottery, jewelry, and
other forms of visual expression. The spread of writing, however, as a means of
documenting philosophy, daily life, government, laws, and business transactions
was a necessary precursor to the print revolution. Physical and technical
limitations of the time prevented the written word from becoming a mass medium,
as texts were painstakingly reproduced by hand or reproduced slowly using
rudimentary printing technology such as wood cutouts. The high price of these
texts and the fact that most people could not read or write further limited the
spread of print.
The German blacksmith and printer Johannes Gutenberg, often cited as the
inventor of the printing press, didn’t actually invent much, as most of the
technology needed to print, such as movable type, already existed and had been in
use for many years. In fact, the mass reproduction and distribution of texts began in
East Asia around 700 CE, more than 700 years before Gutenberg, as the Chinese used
a wood-block printing method to mass produce short Buddhist texts.Marshall T.
Poe, A History of Communications: Media and Society from the Evolution of Speech to the
Internet (New York: Cambridge, 2011), 103–5. However, Gutenberg’s use of a press to
1. The period of human history
mash the paper against the typeset, as opposed to the Chinese method of manually
that immediately predated the
advent of mass media and rubbing the paper against the typeset, made the process faster and more effective.
began around 3500 BCE with Additionally, the rise of printing in East Asia didn’t become a “print revolution,”
the introduction of written because the audience for the texts was so limited, given low literacy rates.
texts and lasted until the
printing revolution of 1450 CE.
15.1 Technological Advances: From the Printing Press to the iPhone 859
(index.html) (v. 1.0).
This book is licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/
3.0/) license. See the license for more details, but that basically means you can share this book as long as you
credit the author (but see below), don't make money from it, and do make it available to everyone else under the
same terms.
This content was accessible as of December 29, 2012, and it was downloaded then by Andy Schmitz
(http://lardbucket.org) in an effort to preserve the availability of this book.
Normally, the author and publisher would be credited here. However, the publisher has asked for the customary
Creative Commons attribution to the original publisher, authors, title, and book URI to be removed. Additionally,
per the publisher's request, their name has been removed in some passages. More information is available on this
project's attribution page (http://2012books.lardbucket.org/attribution.html?utm_source=header).
For more information on the source of this book, or why it is available for free, please see the project's home page
(http://2012books.lardbucket.org/). You can browse or download additional books there.
i
, Chapter 15
Media, Technology, and Communication
We live in a media-saturated world and rely on a variety of old and new media for
information, entertainment, and connection. The beginnings of mass media and
mass communication go back 560 years to the “print revolution” that occurred in
Europe in the fifteenth century. As we progressed through the centuries, mass
communication evolved from a mechanical process to electronic transmission,
which paved the way for the digitized world of today. While technological advances
are an important part of the narrative regarding media, the effects of media are
also important to consider. In this chapter, we will discuss some functions and
theories of mass communication and some of the key ethical issues related to media
and communication.
857
,Chapter 15 Media, Technology, and Communication
15.1 Technological Advances: From the Printing Press to the iPhone
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Summarize the technological advances of the print, audiovisual, and
Internet and digital media ages.
2. Identify key effects of various mass media on society.
3. Discuss how mass media adapt as new forms of media are invented and
adopted.
It is only through technology that mass media can exist. While our interpersonal
interactions are direct, our interactions with mass media messages are indirect, as
they require technology or a “third party” to facilitate the connection. As you’ll
recall from Chapter 1 "Introduction to Communication Studies", mass
communication involves transmitting messages to many people through print or
electronic media. While talking to someone about a movie you just watched is
interpersonal communication, watching the Academy Awards on a network or in
clips on the Internet is mass communication. In this section, we will trace the
development of various forms of technology that led to new channels (media) of
communication and overview the characteristics of some of the most common mass
media.
As we trace the development of different forms of mass media, take note of how
new technologies and competition among various media formats have made media
messages more interpersonal and personalized. In short, the mass media that
served large segments of the population with limited messages evolved into
micromedia that serve narrow interest groups.Charles C. Self, Edward L. Gaylord,
and Thelma Gaylord, “The Evolution of Mass Communication Theory in the 20th
Century,” The Romanian Review of Journalism and Communication 6, no. 3 (2009): 29.
The brief discussion here of these recent changes in how media operate in our lives
will be expanded more in the following chapter on new media and communication.
It is also interesting to note the speed with which technologies advanced. As we
move closer to our current digital age of media, we can see that new media formats
are invented and then made available to people more quickly than media that came
before. For example, while it took 175,000 years for writing to become established,
and about 1,000 years for printing to gain a firm foundation as a medium,
audiovisual media (radio, television, and movies) penetrated society within a few
decades, and digital media gained prominence in even less time.Marshall T. Poe, A
History of Communications: Media and Society from the Evolution of Speech to the Internet
(New York: Cambridge, 2011), 164.
858
, Chapter 15 Media, Technology, and Communication
Print Mass Media
The printing press and subsequent technological advances related to paper
manufacturing and distribution led to the establishment of print as the first mass
medium. While the ability to handwrite manuscripts and even reproduce them
existed before the print revolution, such processes took considerable time and skill,
making books and manuscripts too expensive for nearly anyone in society except
the most privileged and/or powerful to possess. And despite the advent of many
other forms of mass media, print is still important as a channel for information and
as an industry. For example, in the United States, about 3.1 billion books, 1,400 daily
newspapers, and 19,000 magazines are published a year.Marshall T. Poe, A History of
Communications: Media and Society from the Evolution of Speech to the Internet (New
York: Cambridge, 2011), 133. Let’s now look back at how we progressed from writing
to print and trace the birth of the first mass medium.
The “manuscript age1” is the period in human history that immediately predated
the advent of mass media and began around 3500 BCE with the introduction of
written texts and lasted until the printing revolution of 1450 CE.Marshall T. Poe, A
History of Communications: Media and Society from the Evolution of Speech to the Internet
(New York: Cambridge, 2011), 73. Of course, before writing emerged as a form of
expression, humans drew cave paintings and made sculptures, pottery, jewelry, and
other forms of visual expression. The spread of writing, however, as a means of
documenting philosophy, daily life, government, laws, and business transactions
was a necessary precursor to the print revolution. Physical and technical
limitations of the time prevented the written word from becoming a mass medium,
as texts were painstakingly reproduced by hand or reproduced slowly using
rudimentary printing technology such as wood cutouts. The high price of these
texts and the fact that most people could not read or write further limited the
spread of print.
The German blacksmith and printer Johannes Gutenberg, often cited as the
inventor of the printing press, didn’t actually invent much, as most of the
technology needed to print, such as movable type, already existed and had been in
use for many years. In fact, the mass reproduction and distribution of texts began in
East Asia around 700 CE, more than 700 years before Gutenberg, as the Chinese used
a wood-block printing method to mass produce short Buddhist texts.Marshall T.
Poe, A History of Communications: Media and Society from the Evolution of Speech to the
Internet (New York: Cambridge, 2011), 103–5. However, Gutenberg’s use of a press to
1. The period of human history
mash the paper against the typeset, as opposed to the Chinese method of manually
that immediately predated the
advent of mass media and rubbing the paper against the typeset, made the process faster and more effective.
began around 3500 BCE with Additionally, the rise of printing in East Asia didn’t become a “print revolution,”
the introduction of written because the audience for the texts was so limited, given low literacy rates.
texts and lasted until the
printing revolution of 1450 CE.
15.1 Technological Advances: From the Printing Press to the iPhone 859
