History 280B. Transitions in Media. Spring 1999 Mary Kay Duggan
Question: Do transitions in media create revolutions?
Product: contrast a genre ms-print-digital transition.
In class: Bible, anatomy, geometry, maps, newspaper, journal, illustrated works, e-mail, dictionaries, circulating libraries, glossed texts
Characteristic: choose a characteristic of communication and apply to a media transition.
Standardisation: Print allowed the control of certain texts by the state, church, etc., but nevertheless a transition from Latin to the vernacular occurred and new secular authors emerged.
Print newspapers are disappearing and mega-publishers control the press and web, while at the same time Drudge appears and Berkeley gets a new print paper, Daily Planet.
Techniques: choose a technique that presents a challenge to media.
Color, glossing or adding commentary, interactivity, hypermedia, illustration
Audience: discuss the reader/user and how it changes with media transition.
Pinpoint moment, discuss numbers, literacy. We discussed 1500, 1999 stats.
Lisa: One can visualize media use in layers, in which digital media are merely one layer along with oral, written, print, wave, video, etc. There are layers of digital media: published, private, virtual (chat room where identity is hidden).
Author: New media permit entry of new authors.
15th century: single sheets of woodcut propaganda, anonymous (Ulm, c.1470; 20,000 pop., impt. trading center, free city) lead to woodcut books (blockbooks), all vernacular
16th century: Rabelais
Yahoo, Stanford students; Drudge; mailing list participants
Publishing: discuss the persistence of publishers and/or the emergence of new publishers as the medium changes.
In class: 1450, publishing moved from the monastery and university to the city merchants, though liturgical publishing became a monopoly of the pope, Calvin, etc.
Patrons, or capitalists, can be identified. Duke of Urbino, ms map text of Ptolemy 1471 leading to 4 print editions in 1470s. Www.bluemountain.com, 10th most visited web site, free (greeting cards)
Requirements: More than one medium most be discussed and compared. The project must demonstrate originality. The project must demonstrate a familiarity with the literature on the subject which can be in print or digital. The topic and outline or abstract must be approved by the instructor.