CH01: History of Media psychology and sociology
1949: The Life of Winston Smith
o Telescreens in every building, accompanied by microphones and cameras
o People were afraid to be arrested for thought crime
➔ Afraid of losing privacy (critic on living in isolation like in Big Brother)
2017: People use trackers to voluntary share their experiences with others. (for example today,
STRAVA)
Media psychology uses the lens of psychology to study and understand the complex relationship
between humans and the evolving digital environment.
Media sociology uses the lens of sociology to study and understand the complex relationship
between society and the evolving digital environment.
Media psychology is the scientific study of human behaviors, thoughts, and feelings experienced in
the context of media use and creation.
Behavior, thoughts and feeling: direct observable and non-direct observable
Scientific study: measurable: describing, explaining, predicting
Methods: observation, interviews (closed and open), survey techniques, experiments…
Media use (web 1.0.) and media creation (web 2.0)
The social credit system of China
People get credit when they behave good. Question is, what is good and what is bad?
2022: Will the Chinese Social credit system enter EU? Italy became the first European country that
works with the social credit system (difference between Italy and China is that the system is
voluntary and only rewards)
1. Pre-web era
1890: photography and the newspaper (first photo in a newspaper)
Will privacy – as a social construct survive?
In 1920: Market research companies (Charles Coolidge Parlin)
➢ Research on consumer behavior and motivations
➢ Independent of academic institutions
➢ World War II: The use of mass media -> social psychology and communication science.
,’70 & ’80: Personal computer: a shift from a world in which people consume media, created by a
few, to a world in which people consume and produce. -> erase button most important button on a
key board.
➢ 1970: Douglas Engelbart
➢ April 4th 1975: Microsoft (Bill Gates and Paul Allen)
➢ November 20th 1985: Microsoft Office: a graphical operating system
The software contributed to the expansion and democratization of modern
storytelling.
➢ 1986: APA founded a media psychology ‘Division 46’
Focus on how to use media to distribute psychological information.
e.g. accurate representation of mental illness and psychological treatment ..
Media psychology and sociology: an interdisciplinary field of (social) psychology, sociology,
communication sciences, visual studies, cultural studies.
2. Web 1.0
➢ 1992: US government divested itself of its military and scientific network called ARPANet
➢ 1998: Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded GOOGLE.
Disadvantage of Web 1.0.
➢ Web 1.0. temporarily returned power to the technicians.
Advantage of Web 1.0.
➢ Hypertext: weblinks gave us our “click here, go there’ narrative culture
➢ The ability to scan the entire Web in a single search
➢ Parallels with Gutenberg’s printing press:
Democratic access to information
Differences with Gutenberg’s printing press:
• Internet is free, instantaneous and more far-reaching
• Information is spread simultaneously rather than linear
➔ 1999: Media psychology (first journal) – Taylor and Francis
➔ 2003: the first media psychologist doctoral program in the USA
➔ 2003: ‘Psychology of the Media’ by David Giles
3. Web 2.0
September 26th 2006: Facebook was opened to everyone at least 13 years old with a valid email
address
2007: introduction IPhone by Steve Jobs, describes it as a three-in-one product
- User experience (easy to use)
- Revolutionary UI (user interface)
-
➢ The read/write Internet
➢ Promotion of human agency
- Social media shifted power to the people
, - People have locus of control
Customers and consumers add value
- Individuals have on demand access to information from different fields (economy,
psychology, sociology…)
Content production:
4. Web 3.0.
Also called the semantic Web: a response to a problem that is unique to the digital age: information
overload (fake news, for example inauguration of Trump vs Obama).
Deepfakes -> journalists be aware
Web 3.0.:
➢ A recording of the Web so that the information it holds is identifiable on a word-by-word and
datum-by-datum basis
➢ Detecting the emotional underground of words.
5. Web 4.0.
Web 4.0.:
➢ Augmented reality, Artificial Intelligence, nanotechnology, robotics, second life, avatars,…
Mandatory Literature:
Isbouts, J., & Ohler, J. (2015). Chapter 02. Storytelling and media narrative models from
Aristotle to augmented reality. In K. Dill (Ed.) The Oxford handbook of media psychology
(p. 28-42). Oxford: University Press
, SV: Storytelling and Media: Narrative Models from Aristotle to Augmented reality.
Stories volgens Aristotle: narrative patterns (vertelpatronen) with a distinct beginning, middle and
end that appeal to both our emotional and intellectual faculties.
Some stories -> myths (= an expression of the way a community tries to make sense of itself and its
place in the world.)
Narratives have the ability to activate human faculties- such as feeling, empathy and affinity that
remain mostly dormant with intellectual rhetoric and learning. Stories can impart not only
information, but also meaning.
Until the late 19th century all storytelling was overwhelmingly oral in nature. Only a very small
percentage of the population in Asia and Europe was literate then.
The adoption of the printing press in the Renaissance Europe multiplied the production of books, but
did not necessarily boost literacy rates, at least not outside the circle of social elites.
1843: the invention of the rotary printing press (roterende/draaiende drukpers) combined with
steadily improving educational systems on both sides of the continent, that newspapers, magazines,
and books slowly began to supplant oral transmission as the conduit for narrative material.
Growing literate mass market in the 19th century. The novel became not only as a medium for
entertainment, but also as a platform for couching politically controversial or even subversive ideas
in fictional form.
Novelists was a louche category in the 18th century, became a respectable class in the 19th century.
A proper story, or so the Aristotelian model hold, should focus on a single plot line, involving a
consistent group of protagonists, without competing subplots, segues, or ancillary characters.
Monomyth – concept of Campbell: Stories must have a clear beginning, middle and end, but their
progression must also be motivated by a consistent and clearly articulated narrative thread.
In the 20th century, Aristotle’s model faced challenged by a new medium called cinema. The
difference with live theater is that film was the first medium capable of composing its story
asynchronously, by shooting scenes over many days, dictated not by narrative chronology but by the
availability of locations, lighting, actors, or props + inviting secondary plots and characters.
After WOI emerged the wireless in Britain and radio in the United States. During the Golden Age of
radio, the medium began to experiment with a range of indigenous program formats, from farm
reports and news boradcasts to quiz shows…
The Jazz-singer, first motion picture (film with sound). First sound cartoon Steamboat Willie by Walt
Disney.
The 1936 Olympic Games were the first major international event to be televised, as part of
Goebbels’ effort to project an image of Nazi Germany as a stable and peaceful society.
In Europe, radio and television were considered public utilities for the common good. In America a
small group of corporate entities, RCA/NBC, CBS and ABC (NBC blue).
Serialization: the idea of replicating a narrative episode with the same or similar plots and characters
week after week, so as to build a loyal and committed audience segment that could be sold to the
highest advertising bidder. Episode end most of the time with a cliffhanger.
1949: The Life of Winston Smith
o Telescreens in every building, accompanied by microphones and cameras
o People were afraid to be arrested for thought crime
➔ Afraid of losing privacy (critic on living in isolation like in Big Brother)
2017: People use trackers to voluntary share their experiences with others. (for example today,
STRAVA)
Media psychology uses the lens of psychology to study and understand the complex relationship
between humans and the evolving digital environment.
Media sociology uses the lens of sociology to study and understand the complex relationship
between society and the evolving digital environment.
Media psychology is the scientific study of human behaviors, thoughts, and feelings experienced in
the context of media use and creation.
Behavior, thoughts and feeling: direct observable and non-direct observable
Scientific study: measurable: describing, explaining, predicting
Methods: observation, interviews (closed and open), survey techniques, experiments…
Media use (web 1.0.) and media creation (web 2.0)
The social credit system of China
People get credit when they behave good. Question is, what is good and what is bad?
2022: Will the Chinese Social credit system enter EU? Italy became the first European country that
works with the social credit system (difference between Italy and China is that the system is
voluntary and only rewards)
1. Pre-web era
1890: photography and the newspaper (first photo in a newspaper)
Will privacy – as a social construct survive?
In 1920: Market research companies (Charles Coolidge Parlin)
➢ Research on consumer behavior and motivations
➢ Independent of academic institutions
➢ World War II: The use of mass media -> social psychology and communication science.
,’70 & ’80: Personal computer: a shift from a world in which people consume media, created by a
few, to a world in which people consume and produce. -> erase button most important button on a
key board.
➢ 1970: Douglas Engelbart
➢ April 4th 1975: Microsoft (Bill Gates and Paul Allen)
➢ November 20th 1985: Microsoft Office: a graphical operating system
The software contributed to the expansion and democratization of modern
storytelling.
➢ 1986: APA founded a media psychology ‘Division 46’
Focus on how to use media to distribute psychological information.
e.g. accurate representation of mental illness and psychological treatment ..
Media psychology and sociology: an interdisciplinary field of (social) psychology, sociology,
communication sciences, visual studies, cultural studies.
2. Web 1.0
➢ 1992: US government divested itself of its military and scientific network called ARPANet
➢ 1998: Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded GOOGLE.
Disadvantage of Web 1.0.
➢ Web 1.0. temporarily returned power to the technicians.
Advantage of Web 1.0.
➢ Hypertext: weblinks gave us our “click here, go there’ narrative culture
➢ The ability to scan the entire Web in a single search
➢ Parallels with Gutenberg’s printing press:
Democratic access to information
Differences with Gutenberg’s printing press:
• Internet is free, instantaneous and more far-reaching
• Information is spread simultaneously rather than linear
➔ 1999: Media psychology (first journal) – Taylor and Francis
➔ 2003: the first media psychologist doctoral program in the USA
➔ 2003: ‘Psychology of the Media’ by David Giles
3. Web 2.0
September 26th 2006: Facebook was opened to everyone at least 13 years old with a valid email
address
2007: introduction IPhone by Steve Jobs, describes it as a three-in-one product
- User experience (easy to use)
- Revolutionary UI (user interface)
-
➢ The read/write Internet
➢ Promotion of human agency
- Social media shifted power to the people
, - People have locus of control
Customers and consumers add value
- Individuals have on demand access to information from different fields (economy,
psychology, sociology…)
Content production:
4. Web 3.0.
Also called the semantic Web: a response to a problem that is unique to the digital age: information
overload (fake news, for example inauguration of Trump vs Obama).
Deepfakes -> journalists be aware
Web 3.0.:
➢ A recording of the Web so that the information it holds is identifiable on a word-by-word and
datum-by-datum basis
➢ Detecting the emotional underground of words.
5. Web 4.0.
Web 4.0.:
➢ Augmented reality, Artificial Intelligence, nanotechnology, robotics, second life, avatars,…
Mandatory Literature:
Isbouts, J., & Ohler, J. (2015). Chapter 02. Storytelling and media narrative models from
Aristotle to augmented reality. In K. Dill (Ed.) The Oxford handbook of media psychology
(p. 28-42). Oxford: University Press
, SV: Storytelling and Media: Narrative Models from Aristotle to Augmented reality.
Stories volgens Aristotle: narrative patterns (vertelpatronen) with a distinct beginning, middle and
end that appeal to both our emotional and intellectual faculties.
Some stories -> myths (= an expression of the way a community tries to make sense of itself and its
place in the world.)
Narratives have the ability to activate human faculties- such as feeling, empathy and affinity that
remain mostly dormant with intellectual rhetoric and learning. Stories can impart not only
information, but also meaning.
Until the late 19th century all storytelling was overwhelmingly oral in nature. Only a very small
percentage of the population in Asia and Europe was literate then.
The adoption of the printing press in the Renaissance Europe multiplied the production of books, but
did not necessarily boost literacy rates, at least not outside the circle of social elites.
1843: the invention of the rotary printing press (roterende/draaiende drukpers) combined with
steadily improving educational systems on both sides of the continent, that newspapers, magazines,
and books slowly began to supplant oral transmission as the conduit for narrative material.
Growing literate mass market in the 19th century. The novel became not only as a medium for
entertainment, but also as a platform for couching politically controversial or even subversive ideas
in fictional form.
Novelists was a louche category in the 18th century, became a respectable class in the 19th century.
A proper story, or so the Aristotelian model hold, should focus on a single plot line, involving a
consistent group of protagonists, without competing subplots, segues, or ancillary characters.
Monomyth – concept of Campbell: Stories must have a clear beginning, middle and end, but their
progression must also be motivated by a consistent and clearly articulated narrative thread.
In the 20th century, Aristotle’s model faced challenged by a new medium called cinema. The
difference with live theater is that film was the first medium capable of composing its story
asynchronously, by shooting scenes over many days, dictated not by narrative chronology but by the
availability of locations, lighting, actors, or props + inviting secondary plots and characters.
After WOI emerged the wireless in Britain and radio in the United States. During the Golden Age of
radio, the medium began to experiment with a range of indigenous program formats, from farm
reports and news boradcasts to quiz shows…
The Jazz-singer, first motion picture (film with sound). First sound cartoon Steamboat Willie by Walt
Disney.
The 1936 Olympic Games were the first major international event to be televised, as part of
Goebbels’ effort to project an image of Nazi Germany as a stable and peaceful society.
In Europe, radio and television were considered public utilities for the common good. In America a
small group of corporate entities, RCA/NBC, CBS and ABC (NBC blue).
Serialization: the idea of replicating a narrative episode with the same or similar plots and characters
week after week, so as to build a loyal and committed audience segment that could be sold to the
highest advertising bidder. Episode end most of the time with a cliffhanger.
