CS100 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Papyrus, Orality, Phoenician Alphabet
CS100
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Lecture 2
Communication, Signs, Symbols, and Representation
● Com: for the latin meaning “with” or “together with”
● Unio: for the latin meaning “union”
● Therefore communication is understood as “to union with” or “to union together with”
● Signs e.g. red = stop, green = go (we make them for certain purposes)
● Signs → direct or immediate representation (stop sign), symbol → more abstract (rose)
Communication in Pre-History
70 000 - 8000 BCE - ice age
30 000 - 10000 BCE - paleolithic
10000 - 8000 BCE - mesolithic
8000 - 3000 BCE - neolithic
*3000 BCE - development of writing
3000-300 BCE - ancient civilizations of mesopotamia, egypt and the aegean (greece)
Writing
8000 - 5000 BCE - clay tokens used by sumerians (early system of record keeping)
3100 BCE - cuneiform in mesopotamia ***
● Cuneus = wedge, forma = form
● Object > pictogram > sideways > cuneiform
● Pressing wedge into clay
● Developed by sumerians
● Demand for record keeping and information, pictographs become inefficient
3100 BCE - hieroglyphics in egypt ***
● Hieros = sacred, glyphein = carve
● Had to remember symbols
● Stone → papyrus
1000 BCE - phoenician alphabet
● Simple visual symbols that stand for elementary sounds, connected and combined
● Need for a more standardized language
730 BCE - greek alphabet
Rosetta Stone shows different scripts to allow for translation
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Quipu: used before any kind of european settlers, separate system of communication that
functioned in a very different way (notes on this in reading)
Innis and the Bias of Media
Harold Innis
● Founding and important figure in Communication Studies (especially in Canada)
● Fought in Vimy Ridge
● Books on railroad, fur trade, etc
● Focused on staples
● Shifted from economics to communications and media
● Argued that if you want to understand history, look at communication and media
● Focused on monopolies of knowledge… knowledge come to be controlled by small
group (religious groups, political rulers)
● Time binding:
○ Have limited distribution potential
○ Function in transmission of culture and values from one generation to the next
(focus on past, memory)
○ Responsible for sense of community
○ Durable heavy media (stone, clay, parchment)
○ (Speaking based cultures)
● Space binding:
○ Concerned with expansion and control (present and future) → spread
○ Institutions and techniques for governing given territory
○ Favour establishment of commercialism and empire
○ Favour secularization, abstract knowledge
○ Light portable media (paper, electronic media)
● MEDIUM rather than media
● Innis saw history of west as something moving towards a space bias
● “Thought gained lightness” in move from stone-papyrus
○ Information can spread, but so can power
○ Loss of sense of community
“The medium in a civilization is often derived from a substance that is common and abundant in
its environment...Each kind of material calls forth a somewhat different set of abilities” (Ascher
and Ascher 25).
Marshall McLuhan
“The medium is the message”
● Platform is extremely important
● Many researchers study content, but medium is important (access/date/control) → many
new questions
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Com: for the latin meaning with or together with . Therefore communication is understood as to union with or to union together with . Signs e. g. red = stop, green = go (we make them for certain purposes) Signs direct or immediate representation (stop sign), symbol more abstract (rose) 70 000 - 8000 bce - ice age. 3000-300 bce - ancient civilizations of mesopotamia, egypt and the aegean (greece) 8000 - 5000 bce - clay tokens used by sumerians (early system of record keeping) Object > pictogram > sideways > cuneiform. Demand for record keeping and information, pictographs become inefficient. Simple visual symbols that stand for elementary sounds, connected and combined. Rosetta stone shows different scripts to allow for translation. Quipu: used before any kind of european settlers, separate system of communication that functioned in a very different way (notes on this in reading) Founding and important figure in communication studies (especially in canada)
