CMST 1A03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Commodification, Cotton Gin, Mass Production

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Communication Studies
• Course: CMST 1A03
• Professor: Christine Quail

Document Summary

Influenced the speed of development in new industries. Telegraphs were set up around the railroad routes. People moving from rural communities to newly developing cities by the water. Shift from bigger extended family to just the parents and child(ren) Taylorization --> assembly line system which segments skills to one small task (e. g. mcdonald"s) Photography: created connections to people and events in far-away places. Allowed people to see things in new ways, impact people differently. Motion picture: niche among urban workers with newfound leisure time and disposable income. Films developed as cheap --> for the new, urban working class; not rich people. Celebrity: close-ups in films, photography, magazine led to modern celebrity. Commodification: (karl marx) the process of transforming use value into exchange value. Commodification of communication and info - a key factor in economic growth (+) and a barrier between haves and have nots (-). Journalists - unbiased reporting (social reforms - need to cover them fairly)