Media Culture in Transformation
01 Speech and Print
How (not) to make sense of historical transformation in media culture? - caution
Writing is a media technology
Plato - "Secondly, Plato's Socrates urges writing destroy memory. Those who use writing will
become forgetful, replying on an external resource for what they lack in internal resources"
o Plato assumes writing destroys memory
o He assumes that a technology (writing) determines human behavior and cognitive
faculties (memory)
o Called technological determinism, the reductive assumption that a society's
technology determines the development of its social structure and cultural values
Reductive in the sense that it reduces the complexity of historical
developments
Technological determinism - technology is the single cause for individual and
social behavior
Social determinism - social interactions, cultural traditions -> individual and
collative use of e.g. technology
Main point: instead of deterministic explanations (where one cause explains
everything), we look for the various causes, conditions and factors
SPEECH - PRINT
The change of acoustic communities, or oral cultures, to literate cultures (societies which are
ordered to read and write)
Early Modern Period vs Modern Period
Early modern
o 1500-1800
o Various periodization set the beginning at 1491, the Fall of Constantinople or the
Renaissance
o Important developments: mercantilism, reformation, colonialism, experimental science
Modern
o 1800-1970's
o Various periodization set the beginning at 1789, the Enlightenment, Industrial
Revolution
o Important developments: capitalism, secularization, industrialization, urbanization,
modern nation-states
o Not to be confused with modernism
Acoustic communities (Garrioch)
o Speech (voices) = the most important medium of communication
o Are characterized
Orientation towards hearing (instead of seeing)
Face to face communication (instead of telecommunication)
Impermanence (instead of permanence, storage) - was hard to store
information
Urban sounds as a system of collective communication - e.g. bells can signify
the start of religious mas
Decline of acoustic communities
, o 1500-1800: gradual decline of acoustic communities
o Especially 1700-1800: the contexts and uses of sound change
o New sources of information e.g. clocks, watches, maps, newspaper
o Population growth - too many different sounds for it to be meaningful, sounds
became noise
Different sub cultures with different sound systems
Acoustic communications lost their efficiency
o Other forms of communication was formed - e.g. churches started using clocks to
tell the time
o Slow transformation from an acoustic to visual culture
Before the invention of print
o There is a difference between writing and print
Writing existed long before print
Impact of writing in Europe ca. 1000 BC
But access to writing was very restricted
Latin = international language of Church, administration, elite (e.g.
aristocrats, scholars, diplomats)
Catholic Church controls writing and knowledge - made it easier to
govern people
The invention of Print
o Ca. 1440: Johannes Gutenberg invents his printing press
o What is special about this press?
Used a new hand mold to quickly create metal type - making a metal type
for ever letter, each letter can be moved around on a matrix
Metal type is movable, reusable and durable
This allowed for the quick creation of a full print matrix (something that
holds all the letters)
The press could very quickly produce large quantities of prints
Drastically reduced the cost of printed material, especially books
o Benedict Anderson's general hypothesis
Print capitalism contributes to the rise of national consciousness
Print capitalism - the exchange (for profit) of print as commodity
Contributes to - is one factor among many for (the rise of national
consciousness) -> no determinism
The rise of national consciousness - the development of the 'nation'
defined as an imagined political community
Very short history of print culture
o Reformation changed how people lived together
Reformation
1517 - Martin Luther publishes his 95 theses against the abusive
practices of the clergy (=religious authorities)
Print allowed for the quick reproduction and distribution of Luther's
these
This led to a pamphlet war with other religious authorities
Ultimately led to the Reformation the break up of the Christian
Church into Catholicism and Protestantism
o Bibles in vernacular languages
Luther translated the Bible
, 1534 - Luther Bible = first full German translation of Bible
1539 - "Great Bible" = first authorized translation of Bible into English
Now people didn't need priest or pastor to read Bible - empowered people
o Scientific Revolution
Scientific advancements are usually incremental (happen in many, very small
steps)
Before print, knowledge was written down and copied, but to a very limited
degree
A lot of scholarship was lost due to accidents, warfare etc.
Print helped reproduce, disseminate and store knowledge across vast areas -
allowed for the establishment of an international network of scholars
o Political changes
1215 - Magna Carta = important political document that defines the rights of
Englishmen and restrains the power of the king
17th-18th century - printed versions of the Magna Carta are circulated
widely in the American colonies
The printed legal document gave support the opponents of the
English crown and became important reference point for Declaration of
Independence
Print was a catalyst for movement of political emancipation - allowed for
people to know their rights and talk about them
o Modern newspaper
1800's - new printing technology was invented: cylinder press, rotary press,
automatic binding, cheaper paper (made from wood pulp)
Printed material becomes a lot cheaper and more widely available
New print genres and aesthetics e.g. travel guides, comic strips, illustrated
newspaper (photographic etching)
o Anderson's hypothesis
Nationalism in 1800's benefits from three developments "extraneous" to
(=separate from) print capitalism
Latin became more elitist and esoteric (=understandable to very few
people) -> Hence, its use declined
Reformation pushes use of vernacular languages
(Regional) vernacular languages function as instruments of
administration
The "how" question
It creates "unified fields of exchange and communication below Latin and
above the spoken vernaculars" -> people can understand each other across
distances (pg. 44)
It creates "language of power" that dethrone earlier administrative
vernaculars which were regional -> this limit the importance of smaller
domains of power (pg. 45)
It gives a "new fixity to language" (pg. 44) and slows down language change -
> language becomes more homogeneous and reliable
Language changes much fast if its not written down -> print slows down the
change of language
In conclusion:
Print capitalism contributes to the rise of nationalism because it contributes
to emergence of
A large reading publics
01 Speech and Print
How (not) to make sense of historical transformation in media culture? - caution
Writing is a media technology
Plato - "Secondly, Plato's Socrates urges writing destroy memory. Those who use writing will
become forgetful, replying on an external resource for what they lack in internal resources"
o Plato assumes writing destroys memory
o He assumes that a technology (writing) determines human behavior and cognitive
faculties (memory)
o Called technological determinism, the reductive assumption that a society's
technology determines the development of its social structure and cultural values
Reductive in the sense that it reduces the complexity of historical
developments
Technological determinism - technology is the single cause for individual and
social behavior
Social determinism - social interactions, cultural traditions -> individual and
collative use of e.g. technology
Main point: instead of deterministic explanations (where one cause explains
everything), we look for the various causes, conditions and factors
SPEECH - PRINT
The change of acoustic communities, or oral cultures, to literate cultures (societies which are
ordered to read and write)
Early Modern Period vs Modern Period
Early modern
o 1500-1800
o Various periodization set the beginning at 1491, the Fall of Constantinople or the
Renaissance
o Important developments: mercantilism, reformation, colonialism, experimental science
Modern
o 1800-1970's
o Various periodization set the beginning at 1789, the Enlightenment, Industrial
Revolution
o Important developments: capitalism, secularization, industrialization, urbanization,
modern nation-states
o Not to be confused with modernism
Acoustic communities (Garrioch)
o Speech (voices) = the most important medium of communication
o Are characterized
Orientation towards hearing (instead of seeing)
Face to face communication (instead of telecommunication)
Impermanence (instead of permanence, storage) - was hard to store
information
Urban sounds as a system of collective communication - e.g. bells can signify
the start of religious mas
Decline of acoustic communities
, o 1500-1800: gradual decline of acoustic communities
o Especially 1700-1800: the contexts and uses of sound change
o New sources of information e.g. clocks, watches, maps, newspaper
o Population growth - too many different sounds for it to be meaningful, sounds
became noise
Different sub cultures with different sound systems
Acoustic communications lost their efficiency
o Other forms of communication was formed - e.g. churches started using clocks to
tell the time
o Slow transformation from an acoustic to visual culture
Before the invention of print
o There is a difference between writing and print
Writing existed long before print
Impact of writing in Europe ca. 1000 BC
But access to writing was very restricted
Latin = international language of Church, administration, elite (e.g.
aristocrats, scholars, diplomats)
Catholic Church controls writing and knowledge - made it easier to
govern people
The invention of Print
o Ca. 1440: Johannes Gutenberg invents his printing press
o What is special about this press?
Used a new hand mold to quickly create metal type - making a metal type
for ever letter, each letter can be moved around on a matrix
Metal type is movable, reusable and durable
This allowed for the quick creation of a full print matrix (something that
holds all the letters)
The press could very quickly produce large quantities of prints
Drastically reduced the cost of printed material, especially books
o Benedict Anderson's general hypothesis
Print capitalism contributes to the rise of national consciousness
Print capitalism - the exchange (for profit) of print as commodity
Contributes to - is one factor among many for (the rise of national
consciousness) -> no determinism
The rise of national consciousness - the development of the 'nation'
defined as an imagined political community
Very short history of print culture
o Reformation changed how people lived together
Reformation
1517 - Martin Luther publishes his 95 theses against the abusive
practices of the clergy (=religious authorities)
Print allowed for the quick reproduction and distribution of Luther's
these
This led to a pamphlet war with other religious authorities
Ultimately led to the Reformation the break up of the Christian
Church into Catholicism and Protestantism
o Bibles in vernacular languages
Luther translated the Bible
, 1534 - Luther Bible = first full German translation of Bible
1539 - "Great Bible" = first authorized translation of Bible into English
Now people didn't need priest or pastor to read Bible - empowered people
o Scientific Revolution
Scientific advancements are usually incremental (happen in many, very small
steps)
Before print, knowledge was written down and copied, but to a very limited
degree
A lot of scholarship was lost due to accidents, warfare etc.
Print helped reproduce, disseminate and store knowledge across vast areas -
allowed for the establishment of an international network of scholars
o Political changes
1215 - Magna Carta = important political document that defines the rights of
Englishmen and restrains the power of the king
17th-18th century - printed versions of the Magna Carta are circulated
widely in the American colonies
The printed legal document gave support the opponents of the
English crown and became important reference point for Declaration of
Independence
Print was a catalyst for movement of political emancipation - allowed for
people to know their rights and talk about them
o Modern newspaper
1800's - new printing technology was invented: cylinder press, rotary press,
automatic binding, cheaper paper (made from wood pulp)
Printed material becomes a lot cheaper and more widely available
New print genres and aesthetics e.g. travel guides, comic strips, illustrated
newspaper (photographic etching)
o Anderson's hypothesis
Nationalism in 1800's benefits from three developments "extraneous" to
(=separate from) print capitalism
Latin became more elitist and esoteric (=understandable to very few
people) -> Hence, its use declined
Reformation pushes use of vernacular languages
(Regional) vernacular languages function as instruments of
administration
The "how" question
It creates "unified fields of exchange and communication below Latin and
above the spoken vernaculars" -> people can understand each other across
distances (pg. 44)
It creates "language of power" that dethrone earlier administrative
vernaculars which were regional -> this limit the importance of smaller
domains of power (pg. 45)
It gives a "new fixity to language" (pg. 44) and slows down language change -
> language becomes more homogeneous and reliable
Language changes much fast if its not written down -> print slows down the
change of language
In conclusion:
Print capitalism contributes to the rise of nationalism because it contributes
to emergence of
A large reading publics
