This document provides an orientation for a course on the history of revolutions in communication from the printing press to the digital age. It introduces the instructor, Bill Kovarik, and the textbook for the course. The course will examine four major revolutions: printing, imaging, electronics, and digital. It will consider the technologies, people, and historical context behind these revolutions. The goal is for students to understand how communication has changed over time, who drove these changes, and what might come next. Students will read assignments, ask questions, participate in discussions, and conduct research on historical topics.
This document provides an orientation for a course on the history of revolutions in communication from the printing press to the digital age. It introduces the instructor, Bill Kovarik, and the textbook for the course. The course will examine four major revolutions: printing, imaging, electronics, and digital. It will consider the technologies, people, and historical context behind these revolutions. The goal is for students to understand how communication has changed over time, who drove these changes, and what might come next. Students will read assignments, ask questions, participate in discussions, and conduct research on historical topics.
This document provides an orientation for a course on the history of revolutions in communication from the printing press to the digital age. It introduces the instructor, Bill Kovarik, and the textbook for the course. The course will examine four major revolutions: printing, imaging, electronics, and digital. It will consider the technologies, people, and historical context behind these revolutions. The goal is for students to understand how communication has changed over time, who drove these changes, and what might come next. Students will read assignments, ask questions, participate in discussions, and conduct research on historical topics.
This document provides an orientation for a course on the history of revolutions in communication from the printing press to the digital age. It introduces the instructor, Bill Kovarik, and the textbook for the course. The course will examine four major revolutions: printing, imaging, electronics, and digital. It will consider the technologies, people, and historical context behind these revolutions. The goal is for students to understand how communication has changed over time, who drove these changes, and what might come next. Students will read assignments, ask questions, participate in discussions, and conduct research on historical topics.
Communication Media History from Gutenberg to the Digital Age
Slides based on the Bloomsbury book by Bill Kovarik
Orientation Welcome from the author Bill Kovarik, PhD Professor @ Radford University, a public college in Virginia, USA
Media history is fun
Meet amazing people Learn about great ideas Find lots of history still unexplored
Gort says hello too (from the
movie “Day the Earth Stood Still.”) Course Orientation http://www.revolutionsincommunication.com
Textbook:
1st edition – 2011 2nd edition – 2016
Our textbook: Revolutions in Communication International scope Technology framework Comprehensive (all disciplines) ◦ Printing (books, papers, magazines) ◦ Images (photo, cinema, pr, advertising) ◦ Electronics (radio, tv) ◦ Digital (computers, networks) Written for all Comm students Low cost to encourage student use This course … Is organized through the Web site: ◦ revolutionsincommunication.com The web site has … Slide shows & flash cards Reading & viewing assignments Updates for each chapter For mass communication, It is the best of times, it is the worst of times…
It is the age of information,
it is the era of ignorance … It is the age of devolution It is the age of revolution We all need to understand How we got to this point Who got us here Why it happened And what may be next And what we could do about that We’ll study four revolutions Printing ◦ Moveable type – 1455 Associated with religious revolution 1500s – 1700s ◦ Industrial scale printing Associated with political revolutions 1700s – now Imaging ◦ Engraving, photography and cinema ◦ Advertising and PR as image making Both associated with cultural revolutions Electronic – radio, TV, satellites Associated with nationalistic revolutions Digital – computers, networks Associated with emerging global culture We’ll meet some of the world’s most interesting people As a student you will … Read & listen & participate Ask lots of questions Watch some classic cinema Listen to programs from the Golden Age of Radio Form research groups to answer historical questions Questions:
Where do you get your basic
information?
Do you listen to radio or watch TV
the same way your parents did? Do we live in an Information Age?
When did it start?
How is it different from living in the industrial age? What are the top five technologies over the past 1,000 years? Do technologies have ethical implications? What are some of the concerns about the impact of mass media worldwide? Are technologies mostly on their own course, or are they mostly shaped for human needs? Do we get to choose our technologies? Should we? Why were these Bibles smuggled in barrels? Next: Chapter 0.1b Introduction to history
