COMS 2003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: John Stuart Mill

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Communication and Media Studies
• Course: COMS 2003
• Professor: Ira Wagman

Document Summary

3 cs in each lecture: context (historical or intellectual, content, consequences (so what?) People have always been theorizing about aspects of communication and media; they just didn"t call it that. They have been theorizing on the components of communication and the means by which one communications. Socrates says that the act of writing something down changes how we remember things, how persuasive words are, etc. Writing now represents the scattering of communication. Now the idea travels without the person, for it has been separated from the source/messenger. Orality is used to pass info from one person to the next. We are the medium and voice of communication. As such, communication is limited geographically (i. e. can"t scream to toronto from here). Characterized by speech acts: poetry (meant to be read aloud), rap, plays, etc. Literacy is grounded in things/objects (i. e. stone & paper). Literal traditions expand (can reach toronto with written word).