COM 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Mass Media
Document Summary
The tribal era: oral cultures bonded by stories and rituals, reliance on spoken word made hearing the dominant sense, prevailed until ~2000 b. c. The literate era: phonetic alphabet invented, for the first time, select individuals have access to mass messages, linear written communication cultivated linear thinking, prevailed until ~1450 a. d. The print era: printing press invented, for the first time, nearly everyone has access to mass messages, mass produced written communication cultivates homogeneity, prevailed until ~1850 a. d. The electronic era: telegraph perfected; leads to telephone, radio, and television, global village is created 600 million see. 1st moon walk, 2. 5 billion see diana"s funeral: new technologies improve ability to multitask, but erode ability to focus attention. Agenda setting theory: mass media sets the public agenda it doesn"t tell us what to think, it tells us what to think about, gatekeepers / filters / editors, omission as important as inclusion.
