Evolution of Traditional Media to New Media

Learning Objectives

• By the end of the lesson, learners should be able to:

  • Discover and describe the complete history of communication.

  • Identify every major medium employed throughout each historical period.

  • Explain clear distinctions between traditional media and new (digital) media.

  • Appreciate how the step-by-step evolution of communication shapes culture, society, and day-to-day life.

Why Communication Matters

• Opening thought experiment: “Imagine a world wherein communication and the transfer of information is not possible – it would be a struggle to survive, share knowledge, or build relationships.”

• Humanity’s central drive: to send ideas, warnings, stories, and data from one mind to another as efficiently, safely, and memorably as possible.

Master Timeline (Bird’s-Eye View)

• Pre-Industrial Age → Industrial Age → Electronic Age → Information Age → Contemporary New-Media Ecosystem.

• Each era adds speed, reach, and interactivity to message exchange.

Pre-Industrial Age (Ancient Times – pre-1700s)

Prehistoric & Tribal Communication

• Cave paintings (≈ 130{,}000\,\text{BCE} ; Homo sapiens):

  • Pigments from fruit juice, berries, minerals, animal blood.

  • Recorded daily life, hunting scenes, spiritual symbols.

• Storytelling around fires: first oral medium; preserved myths & survival knowledge.

• Drums & smoke signals:

  • Pros: travelled long distances.

  • Cons: alerted enemies/predators; weather-dependent.

Early Writing & Surfaces

• Egyptian papyrus (≈ 2500\,\text{BCE}): pressed papyrus plant → proto-paper for state records.

• Clay tablets in Mesopotamia: wedge-shaped cuneiform marks.

• Woodblock printing (China, 7^{th} century CE): carved mirror-image text ↔ ink ↔ cloth/paper.

Proto-Newspapers / Government Gazettes

• Acta Diurna (Rome): literal “daily acts”; posted in public forums.

• Dibao (Imperial China): court newsletters for officials.

• Mayan Codices: folded bark books; linked ritual dates to astronomy.

First Printed Book in Philippine History

• Doctrina Christiana (1593): catechism in Tagalog & Spanish; printed with xylography; authored by Fray Juan Plasencia.

Industrial Age (≈ 1700s – 1930s)

Manuscript Culture → Mass Publishing

• 7–13 th c.: religious manuscripts dominate learning.

• Johann Gutenberg (1448) invents movable metal type + oil-based ink.

  • Gutenberg Bible: proof of concept for precise large-scale duplication.

• Industrial-era improvement: steam-powered rotary presses → thousands of pages per hour.

Telegraph Revolution

• Telegraph (patented 1837): electrical pulses across wire.

• Morse Code (refined 1838 by Alfred Vail): dots (•) & dashes (—) representing letters, numbers, punctuation.

Telephone

• Alexander Graham Bell, 1876: converts acoustic vibrations into electric signals → reassembled as sound.

Radio

• Wireless milestones:

  • Nikola Tesla demonstrates radio, 1893.

  • Guglielmo Marconi gets first patent, 1896; trans-Atlantic signal 1901.

• Usage shift: WWI short-wave → home entertainment & news by 1920.

Photography

• Early 1800s: chemical “negatives” record reverse colors → reproducible positives.

• George Eastman (Kodak, 1888): roll film + slogan “You press the button, we do the rest.”

• Polaroid instant camera: develops picture on-the-spot; metaphor of “one-step memory.”

Motion Pictures

• Lumière Brothers (Cinématographe, 1895): camera + projector + developer in one; called Fathers of Cinema.

Television

• Public debut: New York World’s Fair 1939; mass adoption post-WWII when prices fell.

Mobile Telephony

• Martin Cooper (Motorola DynaTAC 8000x, 1973): first handheld call; compared weight “like a brick” to modern slim phones.

Philippine Newspaper Boom

• La Esperanza (1846): first daily.

• Diario de Manila (1848–1898): suppressed for revolutionary printing.

• Boletin Oficial de Filipinas (1852): official notices + serialized novels.

• Revolutionary press: Ang Kalayaan (KKK, 1896) & reformist La Solidaridad (published in Spain, 1889).

Electronic Age (≈ 1930s – 1980s)

Key Enabler: Transistor

• Tiny semiconductor switch (Bell Labs, 1947) → shift from bulky, fragile vacuum tubes to compact, energy-efficient electronics.

Mass Broadcast & Storage Devices

• Videotape recorder (VTR, 1950s): magnetic tape → time-shifting TV shows.

• Floppy disk (diskette, 1970s): portable magnetic storage; capacities from 80 KB to 1.44 MB.

• Apple I (1976): hobbyist-built PCB; beginning of personal computing.

Rise of Philippine Television

• James Lindenberg (Bolinao Electronics, 1946): “Father of PH TV.”

• Partnership with Antonio Quirino → Alto Broadcasting System (ABS); first telecast 23\, Oct\, 1953.

• Later merger: ABS-CBN (Alto + Chronicle Broadcasting Network).

Information Age (≈ 1980s – 2000s)

World Wide Web & Browsers

• Tim Berners-Lee (CERN):

  • 1989 – proposes linked “hypertext” system.

  • 1990 – codes three core standards: HTML, URL, HTTP.

  • 1991 – releases first website & public domain spec.

• Gopher (Mark McCahill, 1991): text-menu campus network search.

• Mosaic (Marc Andreessen, 1993): first graphics-capable browser → mainstream adoption.

Search Engines

• Yahoo & Lycos (both 1994): hierarchical directories + keyword search.

• Google (Larry Page & Sergey Brin, 1996 prototype; official 1998): PageRank algorithm evaluates inbound links to score authority.

Five Core Types of New Media

1. Blogs – frequently updated web logs; informal voice; mix of text, photo, video.

2. Digital Games – rule-based interactive entertainment; single or multiplayer.

3. Digital Newspapers – online editions with comment threads & multimedia.

4. Social Media – user-generated content & networking (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.).

5. Virtual Reality (VR) – computer-generated immersive environments; requires headsets/controllers.

Social Media Milestones

• Six Degrees (1997): first to let users create profiles & friend lists (named after “six degrees of separation”).

• First blogging platforms (1999) appear.

• Friendster (2002): enhances social networking; testimonial culture.

• MySpace (2003): adds audio uploads → musician hotspot.

• Facebook (Harvard launch 2004, global 2006), Twitter (micro-blog 2006), Instagram (photo-centric 2010), etc.

Philippine Internet Landmarks

• Bulletin Board Systems (BBS): text-based menus for chat & file-share; first PH BBS list December 1990.

• Benjie Tan connects Philippines to global Internet 29\, Mar\, 1994 at 01{:}15\,\text{AM} via PLDT/Cisco router.

• First PH website & newsgroup: cyberbayan.org.

• ILOVEYOU virus (May 2000): VBScript attachment "LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs" crashes e-mail systems worldwide; highlights cybersecurity stakes.

Traditional vs. New Media (Key Contrasts)

Ethical, Philosophical & Practical Implications

• Democratization vs. information overload: easier voice for citizens, but harder fact-checking.

• Privacy erosion in social networks; user data monetization.

• Cultural homogenization: global memes vs. preservation of local tradition.

• Responsibility: Dave Willis reminder – “Don’t use social media to impress people; use it to impact people.”

Quick-Reference Glossary

• Movable Type – reusable metal characters arranged in frames.

• Morse Code – alphabet of timed dots & dashes.

• Transistor – semiconductor switch; building block of modern electronics.

• PageRank – Google’s link-analysis algorithm PR(A)= (1-d) + d\sum{i=1}^{N}\frac{PR(Ti)}{C(T_i)}.

• Virtual Reality – computer-simulated environment sensed as real through stereoscopic headsets.

Sample “Check Your Understanding” Matrix (Partial Answer Key)

Study Hacks

• Create flashcards for dates and inventors.

• Build a comparison chart of speed, reach, and interactivity across ages.

• Re-tell the “Imagine no communication” scenario with modern tech removed (no texting, GPS, streaming) to internalize importance.