MH BJCM 2108: MEDIA HISTORY

A survey of the four great revolutions in human communication: orality (speech), literacy (writing & reading), typography (print & mass literacy), & the electronic media (telegraph, telephone, photography, & film, radio & television, computers, & communication satellites. Different forms of communication have emerged within and against different social, economic, perceptual, and semiotic conditions that are specific to different historical moments. Only by thinking carefully about transitions and interactions among media and culture in the past can we hope to understand the pace, direction, and character of changes today. In addition, we examine how latter forms of communication deeply affect the former through combination and overlap.