Note that we meet on Thursday this week. We are definitely holding class tonight. The storm is over. I will be there. You should be too.
Continuing Blackboard Assignment
If you haven't logged into the Blackboard site yet and said hello on the discussion group, do so.
Reading Due Today
Chapter 2, Books. Don't forget to bring in two questions, written on one side of an index card, from the readings. Be sure to bring your textbooks to class today.
Think Assignment
What was your favorite book before you could read? What was your favorite book in elementary school? what was your favorite book in high school? What is your favorite book today?
Note: We have class on Wednesday next week. Wednesday is a Monday at Brooklyn College.
Mini-lecture: New Media - Invention and Change
New Media: Invention and Change
Books were once a "new medium"
Like many "new" media, they incorporated prior media, including:
Scrolls, which had previously often been referred to as "Books"
Codexes, which were sometimes collections of "Books"
The Bible is an example
Letters, which are often collected to create early books
All were hand written
Three developments make "books" as we know them possible
Paper manufacturing, first with rags and later with wood pulp
Printing Presses, starting with hand presses and later rotary presses
Efficient transportation systems that enable broad distribution of manufactured books
Other developments matter as well
Development of an effective publication and editing process
Development of efficient means of publicity
Development of systems in support of writing
Development of book structures
Development of types or genres of books
In response to audience needs
Development of practices associated with the use of books
In response to problems
All this happens within the context of a process of invention and structuration that all media must work through
The emergence and evolution of new media
Media exist and evolve as a system and process
Five spheres of invention locus of invention, ripple system where media are invented and evolve
Two evolutionary cycles engine of change feed forward and feedback within system
Genre
Media
The evolution of media - The Hammer becomes a drum
Mediators
Components from which media are build and the ways in which they are organized
Elements which receive, store, transmit, shape, modify, direct and deliver messages infinite possibilities create possibilities
Example face to face communication
Modalities sight and sound
Carriers light and air
System elements language, memory, filters
Characteristics
The essential qualities of a communication system
Characteristics of modality, message, production, performance, participants, speed, feedback, storage, transmission, and mediator
Characteristics allow for certain uses
Emerging media are compared to established media
Media with similar characteristics will compete for uses
New medias success depends on its differentiation from existing media
Uses
The purposes to which a medium is actually applied
Example paintings capture images, recreate feelings, make political statements, and reshape the way we see the world
A medium dies when its uses are replaced
Media remain as long as sufficient use continues
Different users can have different uses
A mediums success depends on the number of uses and the extent of effects on participants and world
Effects
The actual impacts which the use of a medium has
Two types of effects
Application effects - desirable results of successful use of a medium to achieve a goal
Outcome effects undesirable results of a mediums use
A given result might be desirable for one person and undesirable for another
Perception, not reality, is critical element of effect so that it influences the development of the system
Practices
The patterns of behavior that participants within a medium adhere to when using a medium
The constraints that communicators adhere to when using a medium
Two types of practice
Generic practice forms used to maximize desired effects best practices
Application driven
Message components, structure, contexts, ideals
Develop through imitation
Regulative practice (constraining practice) norms and rules
developed to minimize undesirable effects
Rules oriented and effects driven
Govern practice through rights, responsibilities, norms, ethics, policies, rules, laws, roles
New mediators established to regulate, enforce, sanction
A media system
There are no practices without effects
There are no effects without uses
There are no uses without characteristics
There are no characteristics without mediators
Media evolve continuously as a function of use
Emerging media can reshape established media
New mediators can reshape capabilities of a medium
Technological innovation can create or alter mediators
Cycles of development
Cycles are the primary feed forward and feedback relationships between spheres
Cycle of media the engine of change in the early stages of media invention media is created and developed, new media develop from the old
Cycle of genre primary engine of change during the evolution of a medium, as users seek to optimize use, new applications specific uses that develop in a stable medium
Media are dynamic, and are evolved by their users to meet specific needs
Mini-Lecture: Extended Chapter Notes
Extended Chapter Notes
A Brief History of Books
Begins with storage materials
Human memory
We have no record of over a million years of human development
Except for the tools they made ... in exactly the same way for hundreds of thousands of years at a time
Early humans had to remember how to make these tools and pass the memories on to their children
We can presume, from what we know of primitive cultures, that much of this knowledge was passed via storytelling
Oral history is maintained through the use of:
Rhyme
Rhythm
Generic story structures
Incidentally, we have evidence that whales use Rhyme and Rhythm in their communication
Oral culture is built, fundamentally, on human memory
Stone
Our oldest human records are written on the walls of caves and carved in stone
Wood
Used in different ways in China and meso-America
Carved "totem" poles
Bundled wood strip "books"
Clay Tablets
Papyrus: the first paper
single sheets and long scrolls
Letters and books
Probably the first real national monopoly (held by Egyptians)
Parchment
An alternative to Papyrus, but much more expensive and time consuming to make
More Flexible than Papyrus, which was too brittle too fold
Scrolls and Codexes
Codexes have the form of modern books, but are written by hand
Best known as the material used by monks to produce illuminated manuscripts in the "middle ages"
But also the material used in many early Biblical scrolls.
Manufactured paper
Initially in China: rice paper
Process eventually travels to Europe
Durable rag paper is an inexpensive alternative to parchment
Enables scriptoriums, widespread letter writing, formal written contracts, the development of a precedent based judicial system, and mass production
With paper, the principle driver becomes processes
Rice paper enables wood block printing in China
Gutenburg's movable type printing press enables rapid document preparation and printing
The printing press enables far more than books, but we'll keep our focus there
Magazines and newspapers are next time
The printing press evolves
From printing one sheet at a time slowly
To printing thousands of pages a minute
Steam-powered high speed rotary press
Linotypes make hand typesetting unnecessary in the 1880's
To printing books one at a time on demand
But we're getting ahead of ourselves
The next important set of developments surround the publishing process
Editorial processes
Distribution
Discount postal rates for newspapers and magazines is written into the constitutions
Extended to books in 1914
Book Clubs
"Periodical Distribution"
Via mail
With magazines
Format
Paperbacks
Chapbooks
Dime (or pulp) novels (1860s)
Mass market paperbacks (1939)
Human interest story
Sexy cover
Catchy cover descriptions
Low prices
Mass distribution
Public domain or fixed flat fee royalties
Genre paperbacks
Action-Adventure
Romance
Reprints of Classics
Trade paperbacks
Paperback books in hardcover quality
Larger pages
Higher quality covers
Introduced officially in the 1970s
But preceded by trade format publication of the Bible and Boy Scout Handbook
The bible is always a best seller
In trade format the Boy Scout Handbook becomes the world's second best selling book
Marketing
Bookstores
Advertising
Catalogs
Book clubs
Newsstands
Cover art
Radio and television appearances
Management
Small presses
Large conglomerates
The book in America
We have a long history of being educated
In 1645 America was probably the best educated place in the world
Many publishers came to the U.S. seeking the freedom to print what they wanted free of government interference
Bay Psalm Book
Chapbooks
The first public library was opened here, by Franklin in 1731
Unless otherwise noted, the contents of this page
were written by participants on the Media Space Wiki, operated by Davis Foulger,
and should be cited accordingly. For example (APA): Foulger, D. and other
participants. (August 27, 2008). Intro2 Mass Media Spr2007 Sn03. MediaSpaceWiki. Retrieved on from
http://evolutionarymedia.com/wiki.htm?Intro2MassMediaSpr2007Sn03.
MediaSpace Wiki