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CS100 MIDTERM EXAM STUDY GUIDE

Fall 2018

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Lecture 2 Communication, Signs, Symbols, and Representation ● ● ● ●

Com: for the latin meaning “with” or “together with” Unio: for the latin meaning “union” Therefore communication is understood as “to union with” or “to union together with” Signs e.g. red = stop, green = go (we make them for certain purposes)

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Signs → direct or immediate representation (stop sign), symbol → more abstract (rose)

Communication in Pre-History 70 000 - 8000 BCE - ice age 30 000 - 10000 BCE - paleolithic 10000 - 8000 BCE - mesolithic 8000 - 3000 BCE - neolithic *3000 BCE - development of writing 3000-300 BCE - ancient civilizations of mesopotamia, egypt and the aegean (greece) Writing 8000 - 5000 BCE - clay tokens used by sumerians (early system of record keeping) 3100 BCE - cuneiform in mesopotamia *** ● Cuneus = wedge, forma = form ● Object > pictogram > sideways > cuneiform ● Pressing wedge into clay ● Developed by sumerians ● Demand for record keeping and information, pictographs become inefficient 3100 BCE - hieroglyphics in egypt *** ● Hieros = sacred, glyphein = carve ● Had to remember symbols ●

Stone → papyrus

1000 BCE - phoenician alphabet ● Simple visual symbols that stand for elementary sounds, connected and combined ● Need for a more standardized language 730 BCE - greek alphabet Rosetta Stone shows different scripts to allow for translation

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Quipu: used before any kind of european settlers, separate system of communication that functioned in a very different way (notes on this in reading) Innis and the Bias of Media Harold Innis ● Founding and important figure in Communication Studies (especially in Canada) ● Fought in Vimy Ridge ● Books on railroad, fur trade, etc ● Focused on staples ● Shifted from economics to communications and media ● Argued that if you want to understand history, look at communication and media ● Focused on monopolies of knowledge… knowledge come to be controlled by small group (religious groups, political rulers) ● Time binding: ○ Have limited distribution potential ○ Function in transmission of culture and values from one generation to the next (focus on past, memory) ○ Responsible for sense of community ○ Durable heavy media (stone, clay, parchment) ○ (Speaking based cultures) ● Space binding: ○

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Concerned with expansion and control (present and future) → spread

○ Institutions and techniques for governing given territory ○ Favour establishment of commercialism and empire ○ Favour secularization, abstract knowledge ○ Light portable media (paper, electronic media) MEDIUM rather than media Innis saw history of west as something moving towards a space bias “Thought gained lightness” in move from stone-papyrus ○ Information can spread, but so can power ○ Loss of sense of community

“The medium in a civilization is often derived from a substance that is common and abundant in its environment...Each kind of material calls forth a somewhat different set of abilities” (Ascher and Ascher 25). Marshall McLuhan “The medium is the message” ● Platform is extremely important ●

Many researchers study content, but medium is important (access/date/control) → many new questions

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Lecture 1 Tests Oct 17 - 15% Nov 28 - 25% Final exam - 25% Research project proposal nov 14 - 20% Tutorial participation - 15% Media History - 2 significant shifts Politics, law, religion, economics, culture (horizontal) Human civilization (vertical → different means of communication and media) Photography Daguerre - still life (open shutter leave, takes time) Muybridge - horse in motion Etiene Jules Mary - photographic gun and flying pelican Frank Gilbreth - motion studies Regulation of sport Taking pictures of sports, proof of who actually won (no more ties) Social / Economical Changes Modernisation / Industrialization: standardization, regulation, professionalization Commercialization: 1950s and 60s merger of sports and television Digitization: 1970s further advancements in precision “dimensional tolerances”: technology surpasses what we can accommodate in the natural world… sports take place in live environment, each sports regulated body has guidelines for how to build, time award results, (wiggle room because can’t make it perfect ex swimming pool size… Allowable discrepancies in length for sports) Small differences in time could be because of size of pool (dimensional tolerances) if it were to the tenth of a second it is likely because of athletic ability

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The alphabet effect Illuminated manuscripts Sound and orality Visual communication and linear perspective Rise of Western Literacy - Timeline c.(circa) 200 BCE - c.400 CE Roman empire c.400 - c.1400 Middle Ages 306-337 Constantine, Emperor 800-814 Charlemagne, Emperor New medium: parchment ● In common use by c.200 BCE (competed with papyrus and gradually took over) ● Made from skins of domestic animals (calves, sheep, goats) ● Vellum (usually reserved for more important texts) made from newborn calves ● Folded and bound together to made a codex (codices) ● More like a book whereas papyrus was a scroll ● Used throughout Europe up to c.1500 The Alphabet Effect (1) ● Phoenician alphabet c.1200-150 BCE ● Ancient Greek alphabet c.800 BCE ● Letter represents sound, sounds when compiled together make words ● According to Havelock, the alphabet allowed for novel thought: ○ Don’t have to remember all ideas, can write them down, think more thoughts, more energies available, contributing to expanse of knowledge available ●

The objectification of information, or the separation of knower from knowledge that writing permitted, encouraged abstraction, systemization, and the objectivity of scientific thought (Logan 44) → can access information that you do not know, knower is not vessel of all knowledge

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Development of numeral system → like the alphabet, it sets up a standardized system, numbers/relations/quantities will be represented using numbers 0-9

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“A mathematics notation allowed abstract mathematical operations that could never have been carried out in a person's head to emerge” Shared features of alphabet and number system (from logan) ○ Small set number of components (26 letters, 10 numerals) ○ Each is a complete set ○ Individual units are identical and repeatable (1 is 1) ○ Values depend on order/syntax

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Alphabet still just a theoretical possibility

Illuminated Manuscripts (2) ● Literacy tightly controlled by church, vast majority of population still illiterate ●

Alphabet → parchment → books

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Lindau gospels c.870-880, Vienna Genesis early 6th century, vellum, Book of Durrow c.680, vellum, Book of Kells c.800, vellum Each region develops distinct styles, not good for cross communication “Calligraphy… becomes the enemy of literacy and hence also of literature and of science” (Havelock 43) Charlemagne trying to work at reunification of ____ empire, works to make texts universal Coronation gospels c.795-819 Freising manuscripts, 10th century, showing Caroline miniscule (pictures were in class)

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Sound and Orality (3) ●

Oral culture → no writing systems, everything in spoken word (reading from ong)

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Sound is unique because: 1. It’s relationship to time: it’s ephemeral and cannot be fixed 2. It’s relationship to space: it’s tied to interiority “In a primary oral culture, where the word has its existence only in sound… the phenomenology of sound enters deeply into the human being’s feel for existence”

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Visual Communication and Linear Perspective (4) *not in text ● Linear perspective happens in Renaissance ●

Vienna Genesis (before linear perspective), early 6th century → flat

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Painting examples of how to represent real world images (3D) on 2D plane

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Visual Communication ● Linear perspective ● Sculpture and architecture The Printing Press and Moveable Type ● Social impact ○ Protestant reformation ○ Reading public ○ Art and technics and information ○ News periodicals VISUAL COMMUNICATION Linear Perspective ● Means of visual communication ● Standardized systematized way to represent something ● Render 3D scenes into 2D ● Formula: once learned, can replicate images onto flat pieces of paper Sculpture and Architecture ● In middle ages, communication still largely controlled by catholic church (in europe) ● Small number of people had access, learned through talking with people, pictures, sculptures, and architecture ●

Pilgrimages: some object deemed spiritual… saw messages in architecture (coming from church) → Tympanum of Saint-Lazare, c.1120-1135

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Still primarily illiterate culture Alphabet effect starts to take shape in 1400s in development of printing press

PRINTING PRESS AND MOVEABLE TYPE New Medium: Paper ● Invented in China in 1st century ● Pulp from mulberry bark, hemp, fishnets, rags ● Brought to Europe in 12th C. ● In wide use in Europe by 15th C. ●

Printing/movable type already existed, Gutenberg put them together

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The Gutenberg Bible, 1454-55 ○

Done in German rather than Latin → rise to spread of literacy and information as you can print in different languages

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Social Impacts: Protestant Reformation ●

Catholic church → indulgences, making money off of it

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Printing press allowed them to do it faster Catholic church increasingly becoming a mediator between God and the people

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Martin Luther nails up his 95 theses → preached for bible as sole document of truth (not as bible mediated/controlled by church)

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Shifting of balance from church to more secular areas Printing press allows for access to bible in different languages Destabilizing dominant church based hold on information

Reading Public ● More and more people able to read ● Existing channels of communication (travellers) have new information due to printing press ● Public able to read instead of just hear ● “A literary culture created by typography was conveyed to the ear, not the eye, by repertory companies and poetry readings” (Eisenstein 83). ● “Most rural villages, for example, probably belonged to an exclusively hearing public down to the nineteenth century. Yet what they heard had, in many instances, been transformed by printing two centuries earlier” (Eisenstein 83). ● “The displacement of pulpit by press is significant not only in conjunction with secularization but also because it points to an explanation for the weakening of community ties. To hear an address delivered, people have to come together; to read a printed report encourages individuals to draw apart” (Eisenstein 84). ○

Similar to time/space binding → people had to get together to read earliest forms (stone/church architecture)

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“By its very nature, a reading public was not only more dispersed; it was also more atomistic and individualistic than a hearing one” (Eisenstein 84). ○ Shift of culture moving away/changing its dynamic from community ties to more individualistic

Art and Technics and Information ● Andreas Vesalius, De human corporis fabrica, 1543 ○ First book to have human dissection ○ Example of when art and technics come together (science of anatomy, illustrations are scientific but also art) ● “Printing broke the class monopoly of the written word, and it provided the common man with a means of gaining access to the culture of the world…” (Mumford 77) ○ Loss of personal touches (handwriting), but benefits outweigh losses

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News Periodicals ● Printing press allows for publications of periodicals (daily/weekly/newspapers etc) ● Can hear about what’s going on in different communities ●

Market pressure → what will get published?

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1702 is start of first daily paper in England

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Thompson reading → free press (church/state had controlled/influenced communication, gradual development to free press)

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“The development of a commercially based periodical press which was independent of state power, and yet was capable of providing information and critical commentary on issues of general concern, entered a new phase in eighteenth-century England” (Thompson 98-99). “Statutory guarantees of freedom of expression were eventually adopted by various European governments so that by the end of the nineteenth century the freedom of the press had become a constitutional feature of many Western states” (Thompson 99).

Our experience of things that we know tends to come through mediated versions of those things (e.g. if you haven’t seen the Mona Lisa in real life)

Stone Age Cave 30 000 BCE

Ancient Egypt/Mesopotamia/Greece Hieroglyphs (stone/papyrus) Cuneiform (clay) Alphabet 3000 BCE-300BCE

Roman Empire Papyrus Paper 300BCE-100-400

Middle Ages (Europe) Monks (church) Parchment Codex Illuminated Manuscript

Renaissance Printing Press Moveable Type Paper 1400 1517 Reformation 1700 Periodicals

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Radio and the Wireless Word Screening: War of the Worlds Q & A with Dr. Paul Heyer Radio - Key Dates and Figures: Guglielmo Marconi Reginald Fessenden 1895 - Marconi transmits wireless message → radiowaves, successful short distances 1901 - Marconi sends trans-Atlantic wireless message 1906 - Fessenden sends first point-to-mass message → broadcast, Fessenden started sending things like reading and singing, whoever had receiver would get message 1912 - Titanic disaster → signal not received or ships were too far 1938 - War of the Worlds broadcast Technologically produced orality → makes people rethink what their nation is about, etc Radio shares stories within nation but in different areas Even during the Depression, people continued to buy radios → desire for connection 1922 60 000 households in US have radio, 1929 10 million households → growth War of the Worlds Notes ● Radio broadcast had people believe America was under alien attack by Mars ● Lost confidence in Radio ●

Orson Welles → The Panic Broadcast

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Oct 30 1938, eve of Halloween “Devil’s Night”

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Most people were listening to ventriloquist act, but began channel surfing and turning dial → tuned into War of the Worlds, missed announcement that it was a play

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Said there were explosions on Mars, flaming object travelling towards Earth Listeners though it was a national emergency (was 10 years after stock market crash) By 1939, radio was in nearly 80% of American homes, gave up other things during Depression but kept radios Devastating announcements one after the other, eg Hindenburg airship burst into flames, Hitler in Europe Thus, people were used to news interruptions and believed War of the Worlds

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Sounds of torture on mic, mic went dead → Orson Welles and actors holding silence

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H.G. Welles wrote story with …? about Mars attack in New Jersey → Grovers Mills

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Decided way to make the script more exciting was to use news bulletins When announced it was life from Mars, some people decided it was radio drama, others thought it was real

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Mars was previously of interest, just prior to day of broadcast life was confirmed on Mars Newspapers, radio stations and police precincts swamped with calls of people searching for relatives, etc People began to suspect Germans rather than martians Actor faked being President Roosevelt

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Network officials said listeners had to be told it was only a play → Welles delivered station break 10 minutes after it was demanded, but many listeners had already left

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Feelings of fear have very strong effect on people’s perceptions → people thought they could smell smoke, etc

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When broadcast ended, police surrounded Network employees locking up or destroying scripts Was all over papers the next day

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CBS press conference, Welles issued apology but many said he was happy with result → couldn’t believe people really accepted Mars invasion

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Was turning point in Welles career, was known as theater director and radio personality but suddenly became star, Hollywood was after him, signed contract with RKO studios FCC decided no action to be taken against CBS network

1992 BBC Ghostwatch Special Bulletin

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Final exam: monday december 19th at the athletic centre 2 hrs 830 am Few short answer One essay ● Communication media/people/inventors for short answer ● Essay will include whole course Summary of Media History ● Starts with development of cuneiform, hieroglyphs, eventually alphabet ●

Early readings showed specificity of medium (clay comes out of fertile crescent, properties of clay are important → heavy)

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Rosetta Stone 196 BCE → solved meaning of egyptian hieroglyphs

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Innis → thought gained lightness (stone-papyrus), thought became mobile

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Innis foreshadows other readings speaking of medium specificity (can/can’t do certain things) Moved into roman empire and development of alphabet, transformative potential of abstract, sort of universal language Parchment in common use by 200BCE from domestic animal skin, could make a codex (books) used in europe up to 1500, records could be compiled Despite books and alphabet, still largely oral culture, literacy restricted to wealthy = control over communication

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1400s key turning point → Gutenberg, printing press and moveable type, potential of alphabet realized, challenge of control over communication, largely controlled by church

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Printing press and protestant reformation challenges this control → more democratized

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Printing of text in vernacular (language of community), helps communicate message and develop literacy rates Eisenstein and the rise of the reading public, leads to more individualistic societies Development of periodical press (free press), gradual movement away from communication control by state or church Modernism, many communication technologies develop simultaneously Telegraphs, expansion to the West, 18 and 1900s, lays foundation for communication network Carey: economic impacts, decontextualized markets, representation, standardization At this same time, new working class, development of suburbs, commuter population

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Development of news → entertainment vs information

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Same time, development of photography and thus film begins Daguerreo...