Evolution of Media and Information Literacy

Learning Objectives

• Goal 1: Examine the technology or resources available during the prehistoric age, the industrial age, the electronic age, and the new or digital age.
• Goal 2: Identify the devices used by people to communicate with each other, store information, and broadcast information across the different ages.

Case Study: Communication and the RMS Titanic

• The Scenario: The RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Titanic sank on April $14, 1912$, in the Atlantic Ocean.
• Historical Communication Method: During that time, the news reached people in England and New York through the telegraph and telegrams.
• The Technology: Developed in the $1830s$ and $1840s$ by Samuel Morse ($1791$-$1872$) and other inventors, the telegraph revolutionized long-distance communication. It worked by transmitting electrical signals over a wire laid between stations.
• Modern Comparison: If the Titanic sank today, news would be received or read in various digital formats, including social media (e.g., YouTube), specialized news apps, and instant global broadcasts.

1. Pre-Industrial Age (Before 1700s)

During this era, people discovered fire, developed paper from plants, and forged weapons and tools using stone, bronze, copper, and iron.

• Cave Paintings ($35,000\,BC$):

  • Defined as parietal art involving the application of color pigments on the walls, floors, or ceilings of ancient rock shelters.
  • Monochrome Paintings: Pictures made using only one color, usually black. Examples are found at the Chauvet Cave.
  • The Chauvet Cave: One of the most famous prehistoric rock art sites in the world, located in the Ardeche region of southern France, along the bank of the river Ardeche near the Pont-d'Arc.

• Papyrus in Egypt ($2500\,BC$):

  • Initially used only in Egypt. By about $1000\,BC$, people across West Asia began using it as it was more convenient (less breakable and heavy) than clay tablets.
  • Manufacturing: Made in small sheets that were then glued together to form larger pieces.

• Clay Tablets in Mesopotamia ($2400\,BC$):

  • Called "tuppu" in Akkadian, these were the writing medium for the Ancient Near East.
  • Used for Cuneiform writing during the Bronze and Iron Ages.
  • Cuneiform characters were imprinted on wet clay with a stylus made of reed (reed pen).

• Acta Diurna in Rome ($130\,BC$):

  • Translated as "Daily Acts" or "Daily Public Records."
  • Daily Roman official notices or gazettes carved on stone or metal.
  • Presented on message boards in public places like the Forum of Rome. The first forms appeared around $131\,BC$ during the Roman Republic.

• Dibao in China ($2nd$ Century):

  • Recognized as the earliest and oldest newspaper in the world.

• Codex in the Mayan Region ($5th$ Century):

  • Maya codices (singular: codex) are folding books written in Maya hieroglyphic script.
  • Written on Mesoamerican bark cloth (huun-paper).
  • Developed around the same time the codex became more popular than the scroll in Rome.

2. Industrial Age (1700s–1930s)

This age was characterized by the power of steam, development of machine tools, iron production, and mass manufacturing, including the printing press.

• Printing Press ($1440$ / $19th$ Century):

  • A device for applying pressure to an inked surface on paper or cloth.
  • Invented in the Holy Roman Empire by German Johannes Gutenberg around $1440$, based on existing screw presses.

• The London Gazette ($1640$):

  • One of the official journals of record of the British government.
  • Claims to be the oldest surviving English newspaper.

• Telegraph ($1830s$–$1840s$):

  • Developed by Samuel Morse and others to transmit electrical signals over wires between stations.

• Telephone ($1876$):

  • Inventor: Alexander Graham Bell (received patent March $7, 1876$).
  • Device name: "Large Box Telephone," an apparatus for transmitting vocal sounds telegraphically.
  • First words spoken: "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you."

• Typewriter ($1800$ / $1868$):

  • First commercially successful version invented in $1868$ by Americans Christopher Latham Sholes, Frank Haven Hall, Carlos Glidden, and Samuel W. Soule in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
  • Note: Sholes later disowned the machine and refused to recommend or use it.

• Motion Pictures ($1890$):

  • Initially a fairground novelty, it became a vital communication and entertainment tool in the $20th$ century.
  • Chronophotography: Eadward Muybridge shot photographic sequences of animals in motion at the Palo Alto race track ($1878$-$1879$). He published "The Attitudes of Animals in Motion" in $1881$.
  • Sound Film: Synchronized sound coupled to images. First public exhibition in Paris in $1900$, but commercial short films using sound-on-film technology emerged in $1923$.

• Punch Cards ($1890$ / $1950s$):

  • Invented by Herman Hollerith.
  • Initially used for vital statistics by the New York City Board of Health and later for the $1890$ US Census.

3. Electronic Age (1930s–1980s)

The invention of the transistor ushered in this age, leading to transistor radios, electronic circuits, and early computers, making long-distance communication more efficient.

• Transistor ($1930$ / $1947$):

  • The catalyst for the electronic age and the creation of other media tools.

• Television ($1941$):

  • Emergence of electronic visual broadcasting.

• Transistor Radio ($1947$ / $1954$):

  • Small, portable radio receiver using transistor-based circuitry. Following their $1954$ development, they became the most popular electronic communication device in history.

• Overhead Projector (OHP) ($1950$):

  • A variant of the slide projector used to display images to an audience.

• UNIVAC 1 ($1951$):

  • Universal Automatic Computer; a line of electronic digital stored-program computers produced by Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation (later Remington Rand).

• IBM 704 ($1960$):

  • First mass-produced computer with floating-point arithmetic hardware.
  • Designed for scientific and engineering calculations. In $1961$, it was the computer that reproduced the song "Daisy Bell."

• Personal Computers:

  • Hewlett-Packard 9100A ($1968$): An early programmable calculator/computer.
  • Apple 1 ($1976$): Designed and hand-built by Steve Wozniak. Steve Jobs suggested selling it. Released by Apple Computer Company.

• Floppy Disk ($1970$):

  • Removable magnetic storage medium used for moving information between computers.

• Walkman ($1980$):

  • Originally used for portable audio cassette players.

4. Information Age (1900s–2000s)

Also known as the New or Digital Age. The Internet paved the way for social networking and faster communication. Microelectronics led to mobile devices and wearable technology.

• Web Browsers:

  • Mosaic ($1993$): Popularized the World Wide Web; supported multiple protocols like FTP, NNTP, and Gopher.
  • Internet Explorer ($1995$): Developed by Microsoft for Windows; abbreviated IE or MSIE.

• Blogs:

  • Typically informational websites with diary-style entries displayed in reverse chronological order.
  • Blogspot ($1999$).
  • LiveJournal ($1999$): Started by Brad Fitzpatrick on April $15, 1999$, to keep high school friends updated; later purchased by Six Apart in $2005$.
  • WordPress ($2003$): Released May $27, 2003$, by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little as an open-source CMS.

• Social Networks:

  • Friendster ($2002$): Originally a social networking site in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; later became a social gaming site.
  • Multiply ($2003$): Social network with an emphasis on sharing media like photos and videos with a "real-world" network.
  • Facebook ($2004$): Launched as "Thefacebook" on February $4, 2004$, by Mark Zuckerberg. It dropped "The" in August $2005$ and opened to everyone ($13$+ with email) on September $26, 2006$.

• Microblogs:

  • Twitter ($2006$): Uses "tweets." Originally restricted to $140$ characters; increased to $280$ on November $7, 2017$.
  • Tumblr ($2007$): Microblogging and social networking site founded by David Karp.

• Multimedia and Tools:

  • YouTube ($2005$): Video sharing platform.
  • Video Chat: Skype ($2003$), Google Hangouts ($2013$).
  • Search Engines: Yahoo ($1995$), Google ($1996$).
  • Portable Tech: Laptops ($1980$), Tablets ($1993$), Netbooks ($2008$).
  • Smartphones and Wearable Technologies.

Questions & Discussion

• Question: "If the Titanic sank somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, how do you think the news reached people in England and New York at that time?"
  • Answer: Through the use of the telegraph and telegrams, which were the fastest means of long-distance communication available in $1912$.
• Activity Reflection Questions:
  1. Given the available media that we now have in the world, what are its roles and functions in a democratic society?
  2. In what way does media affect your life (personal, professional, academic, social, others)?