MDSA02H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Telepathy, Walter J. Ong, Pbs
Document Summary
The history of sound recording stretches back to 1877 when thomas edison irst demonstrated the phonograph in his nyc oices. The lisa gitelman and jeremy morris readings give background on either end of the history of sound recordings. Technological determinism is the idea that technological innovaions determine the direcion of the culture. Social determinism is the idea that society determines the direcion of the culture, including technological development, social structures, and values. If we consider early sound-recording devices in their contemporary milieu, the telos toward mass producion of prepackaged recordings appears as only one of many possible futures. (sterne 158) Both inventors and marketers hedged their bets, promoing phonographs as both machines with which a family could produce its own culture and mass-produced commodiies that would put their users in touch with a larger public. (sterne 159) The history of media and technology is oten told by as a history of inventors, established professionals, and social insituions.
