Week 6 – Radio Days

This week’s readings focus on the introduction of the radio in the 1920’s and it’s affect on society as a mass communication medium.

Again, Crowly & Heyer (2011) discuss how the radio was a medium used to communicate news ‘as it happened’, further reinforcing the increasing human demands of faster technology as a result of being able to access more information, more quickly.  Crowly & Heyer elaborate, “It enabled people to experience distant events as they occurred” (2011, p. 184).

Stephen Kern’s article “Wireless World”, tells the story of how radio was used to communicate to the world the sinking of the infamous Titanic as it happened (Kern 2011).  The radio aided in advising other ships to come to Titanic’s rescue, however unfortunately, it was also found to be miss-used (Kern 2011).  Susan Douglas’ article “Early Radio” explains how authorities later found that amateurs had intentionally advised rescue crews that all passengers were safe and being taken to land, when in fact this was not the case (Douglas 2011).  This is an example of the trust and reliability that individuals place on the radio as a delivery of news and current affairs.

Kittross & Sterling’s (2011) article titled “The Golden Age of Programming” further highlights human’s trust in the radio, with the broadcast of the fictional story “War of the Worlds” (Kittross & Sterling 2011).  Thousands of listeners mistakenly believed the world was being invaded by aliens, which caused mass panic and kaos on the streets (Kittross & Sterling 2011).  The radio was regarded as a powerful and influential medium at the time, which is why so many believed what was being aired by the CBS network was a true story (Kittross & Sterling 2011).  A journal published by Brewer & Pritchard, explains how radio stations establish trust and credibility with their audiences, by engaging with them and following a consistent routine (Brewer & Pritchard 2008). 

This is evident in today’s society with the news programs that are aired on several mainstream radio stations, such as the ABC and Triple J.  Our expectations of a radio station are the delivery of news consistently (every half an hour or hour), with up to date and breaking news as it unfolds.  Again, the need for constant ‘feeds’ of information by humans is evident in this channel of communication.

Reference List

Brewer, P R, Pritchard, D 2008, Ideology and Public Trust in Radio as a Source for Local News, Journal of Radio & Audio Media, Milwaukee.

Crowley, D & Heyer, P 2011, Communication in history: technology, culture, society, 6^th edn, Pearson, Sydney.

Douglas, S 2011, “Early Radio”, in D Crowley and P Heyer (eds), Communication in history: technology, culture, society, 6^th edn, Pearson, Sydney.

Kern, S 2011, “Wireless World”, in D Crowley and P Heyer (eds), Communication in history: technology, culture, society, 6^th edn, Pearson, Sydney.

Kittross, J M, Sterling, C 2011, “The Golden Age of Programming”, in D Crowley and P Heyer (eds), Communication in history: technology, culture, society, 6^th edn, Pearson, Sydney.

Week 4 - Electricity creates the wired world

This week, the revolution of electricity and the invention of the telegraph was examined.  Standage (2011, pg. 105) explains how the growth of the telegraph network became “…nothing short of explosive; it grew so fast that is was almost impossible to keep track of its size”.  It could be argued that the widespread popularity and expansion of this technology was driven by the demand of people for faster technology.  With the introduction of the telegraph, messages could now be delivered faster than the traditional means of a messenger traveling to deliver the message (Crowley & Heyer 2011). 

The need for wanting things more quickly is evident in today’s society.  We are a culture which rely on instant messages and emails as a way communicating quickly, more so than the traditional slower method of a letter in the post for example.  From this angle, it is easy to see how the introduction of faster technology feeds our desire for time saving inventions.  New technology is becoming faster, and as a result, humans are adapting and coming to expect faster communication mediums.  Dorf (2001) confirms this theory, describing our demands of technology innovation, “Not only do we expect sustained progress, but we expect is faster”.

Telegraph operators, in a desire to translate telegram messages more efficiently, often recorded messages using abbreviations and short hand (Standage 2011).  This further illustrates how humans adapted their behaviour in order to “keep up” in a fast pace working culture of this time.

An example of a telegram from 1986 of my father, Mr Michael Pyziakos has been provided below to show how a job was offered via telegram to a successful applicant at the time (Pyziakos 2015):

                                                                                            

Reference List

Crowley, D & Heyer, P 2011, Communication in history: technology, culture, society, 6^th edn, Pearson, Sydney.

Dorf, R 2001, Technology, Humans, and Society: Towards a Sustainable World, Academic Press, California.

Standage, T 2011, “Telegraphy – the Victorian internet”, in D Crowley and P Heyer (eds), Communication in history: technology, culture, society, 6^th edn, Pearson, Sydney.

Week 3 – The Print Revolution

Arnold’s article discusses printing technology and book production in the late 1800’s in Australia and in particular, the advancements of the printing press (introduction of the Linotype machine) which resulted in the redundancy of hundred of workers of the superseded cylinder press machine (Arnold 2001).  In the same token however, new improvements to printing illustrations, resulted in a demand for workers in the packaging industry:

In 1901 there were only 285 people employed in the making of paper boxes and paper bags in New South Wales; ten years later there were almost a thousand more.

Arnold 2001, pg. 108.

This is interesting, as it demonstrates how improvements in technology resulted in changes in the demands in employment, thus affecting working culture at the time.  A variety of jobs were created in order to keep up with technology developments (Arnold 2001).

Crowley & Heyer (2011, p. 65) discuss aspects of the print revolution and how the introduction of printed books bought other changes to society, “Rapid silence reading, a rarity in the Middle Ages, became widespread”.  Reading material was changing in the way it was printed - gradually various publications were being printed to be read silently, rather than read allowed (Crowley & Heyer 2011). Traditionally, the sharing of news and public affairs were the reason people gathered, however silent reading changed this social scene; coffee shops, bookshops and reading rooms became the new gathering places (Crowley & Heyer 2011).

This is rather ironic when examining the mobile phone and how the above social changes are prevalent in society today.  The mobile phone originally introduced as a way to increase communication, is now a cause for lack of physical communication between people.   Often you will see in a coffee shops or restaurant, two people out to “socialize”, both staring down at their mobile phones, not interacting with each other.  The innovations of the mobile phone (becoming a smart phone and a cause of distraction) has resulted in a changed social scene much like silent reading did for people of the nineteenth century.  People today are silently reading their mobile phones. 

Reference List

Crowley, D & Heyer, P 2011, Communication in history: technology, culture, society, 6^th edn, Pearson, Sydney.

Arnold, J 2001, “Printing technology and book production”, in M Lyons and J Arnold (eds), A history of the book in Australia 1891-1945, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia.

Week 1 - The Media of Early Civilisation

This week’s readings focus on the media of early civilization, in particular, the specific communication mediums used centuries ago. The communication mediums examined for this discussion is the Egyptian Civilization, which included etchings into stone, and ink on papyrus (Crowley & Heyer 2011).

Crowley & Heyer (2011) explain how the various mediums used by ancient civilizations, were dependant on what was readily available to them at the time, in their environment. For example, the Egyptians living on the Nile River had access to an abundance of reeds, enabling the production of papyrus as a writing canvas (Innis 2011). 

Prior to the use of papyrus, the Egyptians etched symbols and pictures into stone, which was not only a time consuming process, but also had the disadvantage of being a heavier material to work with compared to writing on papyrus (Crowley & Heyer 2011).  Papyrus however, due to its availability and convenience, increased in popularity, which resulted in the transition of using stone to using papyrus (History World 2001).

In comparison to communication mediums in current society, it can be argued that the availability and advancement of various communication genres today, such as email and the fax machine, has an affect on the way people communicate.  To elaborate, approximately 10-15 years ago, fax machines were most popular (compared to today’s advancement of email for example), and it was commonplace for most Australian businesses to transact using this medium. Now, traditional fax machines are considered obsolete and seen as the technology of yesterday (Jones 2013). Businesses (and individuals) have adapted to these changes/advancements in technology and use systems that are more readily available – such as email (also seen to be a more productive means of transacting). 

This has affected the cultural and social interaction between individuals and businesses today; email is gradually superseding the traditional fax machine due to its convenience and availability.  This is technological determinism at play.  

Reference list

Crowley, D & Heyer, P 2011, Communication in history: technology, culture, society, 6^th edn, Pearson, Sydney.

HistoryWorld 2001, History of Writing Materials, viewed 17 March 2015, http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?ParagraphID=ady2

Innis, H 2011, “Media in ancient empires”, in D Crowley and P Heyer (eds), Communication in history: technology, culture, society, 6th edn, Pearson, Sydney.

Jones, P 2013, “How evolving technology will change the business world”, The Telegraph, 11 September 2013, viewed 17 March 2015, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/technology/business-technology/10298682/future-workplace-technology.html