From the first attempts at pressing symbols into clay, to the latest software available on the Net, our efforts to communicate, share our culture, and drive social agendas have depended on the tools we've developed for getting our ideas to others. However, our commonplace notions of communication and media regularly overlook the role of the material technologies that are so crucial to them. Yet our beliefs as to how and why we communicate have shaped the technologies we design; in turn, those technologies have shaped our efforts to communicate, and the consequences of those efforts. This course will consider the technologies of media (including printing, photography, film, telegraph, telephone, radio, television, and computer networks) as an opportunity to think about the intersection of technology and its social context.

Course Requirements:

The most important assignment is to complete all of the reading assigned; comprehension of the arguments is crucial to your success in this course. Attendance at the films is also required. There will be three short papers (3-4 pp. each, 20% of grade each) during the semester that will ask you to consider specific questions dealt with in the course. The final project (40% of grade) will be a "paper" that analyzes a particular communication medium -- created in that medium; this will be discussed further in class. Further explanation of these assignments will be provided in class.

Materials:

There are two required books for the course, available at the Cornell bookstore:

• Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe
  
• Adrian Johns, The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making
       [[ Johns is also available as an e-book through the Cornell Library catalog ]]

JAN 26

(introduction)

JAN 28

- Merritt Roe Smith, "Technological Determinism in American Culture" in Smith and Marx eds., Does Technology Drive History? The Dilemma of Technological Determinism, (1-35)      [[ available through Cornell library catalog ]

JAN 30

- Roger Silverstone, Television and Everyday Life, Ch 4 (78-103)

 

FEB 2

- EISENSTEIN, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe Ch 1 www.HowStuffWorks.com: the Book www.HowStuffWorks.com: Off-Set Printing

FEB 3 -- MOVIE: Name of the Rose

FEB 4

- EISENSTEIN, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe Ch 2

FEB 9

- EISENSTEIN, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe Ch 3

FEB 11

- EISENSTEIN, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe choose Ch 5, 6, or 7

FEB 13

- JOHNS, The Nature of the Book, pp. 1-48

FEB 16

- JOHNS, The Nature of the Book, pp. 58-136

FEB 17 -- MOVIE: The Insider

FEB 18

- JOHNS, The Nature of the Book, pp. 160-200

FEB 23

- JOHNS, The Nature of the Book, pp. 200-230

FEB 25

- JOHNS, The Nature of the Book, pp. 230-265 meet at Olin Library for a visit to Special Collections

FEB 27

- Alberto Manguel, A History of Reading, Ch 9 (125-147) - Paul Duguid, "Material Matters", in Nunberg, ed., The Future of the Book

MAR 1

- Lisa Gitelman, Scripts, Grooves, and Writing Machines, Ch 2 paper due, Monday, March 1

 

MAR 2 -- MOVIE: Blow Up

MAR 3

www.HowStuffWorks.com: Camera www.HowStuffWorks.com: Film - Reese Jenkins, "Technology and the Market: George Eastman and the origins of mass amateur photography" - Pierre Bourdieu, Photography: A Middle-brow Art

MAR 8

- Richard Dyer, White, excerpt from Ch 3 (82-103) - William J. Mitchell, "How to Do Things with Pictures"

MAR 10

- Jane Gaines, Contested Culture, Ch 2

MAR 12

www.HowStuffWorks.com: Movie Projector - W. Bernard Carlson, "Artifacts and Frames of Meaning: Thomas A. Edison, His Managers, and the Cultural Construction of Motion Pictures" in Bijker and Law, eds., Shaping Technology / Building Society      [[ available as an e-book through Cornell library catalog ] and, explore one of the following websites: Chronophotographical Projections Origin of American Animation Edison Motion Pictures

MAR 15

- Jean-Louis Comolli, "Machines of the Visible" in de Lauretis and Heath, eds., The Cinematic Apparatus

MAR 16 -- MOVIE: Visions of Light

MAR 17

www.HowStuffWorks.com: Blue Screen - Stephen Prince, "True Lies: perceptual realism, digital images, and film theory."

SPRING BREAK

MAR 29

- Daniel Czitrom, Media and the American Mind, Ch 1 - James Carey, "Time, Space, and the Telegraph" in Crowley and Heyer, eds., Communication in History

MAR 31

- Tom Standage, The Victorian Internet, Chs 2, 6

APR 2

www.HowStuffWorks.com: Telephone - Michael Gorman and W. Bernard Carlson, "Interpreting Invention as a Cognitive Process: The Case of Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and the Telephone" Science, Technology, and Human Values v15 (131-164)      [[ available through Cornell library catalog ]]

APR 5

- Claude Fischer, "Touch Someone: The Telephone Industry Discovers Sociability" Technology and Culture, v29n1 (1-31) - Howard Rheingold, "Look Who's Talking"

 

APR 6 -- MOVIE: Network

APR 7

www.HowStuffWorks.com: Radio www.HowStuffWorks.com: Radio Spectrum - Thomas Streeter, Selling the Air, Ch 3 paper due, Wednesday April 7

APR 12

www.HowStuffWorks.com: Television - Raymond Williams, Television: Technology and Cultural Form, Chs 1-2

APR 14

- Lynn Spigel, "Television in the Family Circle" (36-72) (multiple pages)

APR 16

- Horace Newcomb and Paul Hirsch, "Television as a Cultural Forum" in Newcomb, ed., Television: The Critical View, 6th ed. - Todd Gitlin, "Prime Time Ideology: The Hegemonic Process in Television Entertainment" in Newcomb, ed., Television: The Critical View, 6th ed.

APR 19

- Margaret Graham, "The Threshold of the Information Age: Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures Mobilize the Nation" in Chandler and Cortada, eds, A Nation Transformed by Information

 

APR 20 -- MOVIE: You've Got Mail

APR 21

www.HowStuffWorks.com: The Internet - Janet Abbate, Inventing the Internet, Ch 1 (7-42)      [[ available through Cornell library catalog ]]

APR 26

- Langdon Winner, "Mythinformation" in Zerzan and Carnes, eds. Questioning Technology - Dan Schiller, "Killer Applications" paper due, Monday April 26

APR 28

- Thomas Streeter, "Reflections on Textual Authority beyond the Printed Page." - Henry Jenkins, "Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars? Digital Cinema, Media Convergence, and Participatory Culture" in Thorburn and Jenkins, eds., Rethinking Media Change

APR 30

- Jan Fernback and Brad Thompson, "Virtual Communities: Abort, Retry, Failure?" then read one of the following: - Rebecca Blood, "Weblogs: A History and Perspective" (blogging) - Julian Dibbell, "A Rape in Cyberspace", Village Voice (online groups and violation) - Andrew Boyd, "The Web Wires the Movement", The Nation (online activism) - Howard Rheingold, "Smart Mobs", Edge (collective action through mobile media)

MAY 3

- National Research Council, The Digital Dilemma, Ch 1

MAY 4 -- MOVIE: The Matrix

MAY 5

www.HowStuffWorks.com: File-Sharing - Mark Stefik, "Trusted Systems" Scientific American v276n3 - Pamela Samuelson, "DRM {and, or, vs.} the Law" Communications of the ACM - Peter Biddle, Paul England, Marcus Peinado, and Bryan Willman, "The Darknet and the Future of Content Distribution"

 

Media project due during exam week (date TBA)