Exam 1 Flashcards
(133 cards)
Media
Plural form of medium; a means of communication.
ex. print, radio, film, social media
History
A narrative that organizes and makes sense of the past.
- changes along with culture
- no historical narrative is comprehensible/complete
- often aspires to objectivity, but seldom achieves it
- written from a particular perspective.
History vs. The past
History is a narrative that make sense of the objects, memories, people, and circumstances that occurred previously.
Past is the objects, memories, people, and circumstances that occurred previously.
Historiography
The practice/craft of writing history.
Presentism
When history is written and judged from the perspective of the moment it was created. It often creates unfair and unreasonable expectations for the past is organizes.
AKA “historians fallacy” / Anachronism
Anachronism
“contrary to time”
- often confuse two or more time periods.
Whig History
An approach to historiography that presents the past as an inevitable progression towards ever greater liberty and enlightenment, culminating in modern forms of liberal democracy and constitutional monarchy.
Culture
The values, beliefs, and practices that mark a particular context.
- these change over time and are specific to particular settings.
- has a significant impact on how history is written.
- human creation
ex. China vs. US; California vs. Iowa; Council Bluffs vs. Iowa City; 20th vs 21st century.
Media Revolutions
Printing
Imaging
Electronic
Digital
Four Stages of Media History
- Authoritarian (censored)
- Parisan (political parties)
- Commercial / Penny Press (often sensationalistic)
- Organized Intelligence (future development)
McLuhan
A media critic who was strongly influenced by Innis and also put communication at the center of history and social life; a deterministic view of technology
McLuhan’s the Medium is the Message
States that the kind of communication - print, imaging, broadcasting, or computing - has a strong influence not only on the message itself, but on the type of thinking and the development of the culture creating the messages.
ex. A literate print culture is different from a visual or radio or tv culture.
Determinism
Determinists see technologies as path-dependent, with inevitable changes and consequently predictable impacts on society.
- Technology shapes society (to a degree)
ex. fiber optic internet
Constructionism
Social constructionists see a stronger influence for economics, politics, and culture that controls technological development.
- society shapes technology (to a degree)
ex. texting
Utopian
When people embrace technology in an extremely optimistic way
Luddites
When people reject technology in an extreme and pessimistic way
Ideology
A set of lenses that creates a way of looking at and interpreting the world and our place in it.
When historians consider how technology is developed there are often 2 basic schools of thought: what are they?
Determinism and constructionism; neither is right or wrong
Sometimes predictions for technological directions that do not occur are called?
Technological Fallacies
A new medium can ….
enhance, obsolesce, retrieve, reverse
Oral culture
Language and storytelling are innate in humans.
Use of media is learned - it does not come to us naturally (hence “learned”)
- Oral culture does not disappear as new media emerge (Radio, FRD’s Fireside Chats, Podcasts)
Written language
Not innate to humans - had to be invented.
Logographic, Syllabary, Alphabetic
Printing’s impact on Reformation
- Print amplified Luther’s dissent
- 95 thesis circulated across Europe in less than 1 month
- Crowds rushed printing houses grabbing pages still wet from the press
- how technology compliments and complicates values, practices, and attitudes
Printing’s impact on Enlightenment
b