Lecture 1

Memory/Writing

­ Picture of guy trying to memorize things, for USA memory championship

o Memory is not as important as it was 2000 years ago

­ Picture of 12 file folders with each month to remember things

o Rely on paper system to help remember things in the future

­ Taking notes = reliable source to remember things

Memory

­ Simonides of Ceos, 5th century BC

­ Banquet hall collapse

­ Memory palace

o Childhood homes

o Architectural digest

o Visually picture things to remember

o Construct memory palaces to remember things

Memory: Spatial, Visual

­ Spatially we memorize things

­ Remember faces of friends

­ Not good at memorizing names and numbers

­ Spatially lay out things we don’t remember into memory palaces

o Make them memorable in a weird way

Epic Poems of Rajasthan

1. Oral tradition

2. Bhopas

a. Poets, they have epic poems

3. Epic poems

a. Mohabharto à 100,000 stanzas

b. Dev Narayan

­ Poems have carried on for thousands of years

­ Techniques to memorize them

­ Endurance of epic poems

o Seen as sacred telling the stories

o Healing powers

­ Challenge to oral tradition

o Literacy

o Those who learned to read had a harder time memorizing

o Mass media makes it harder to remember

Oral Society

1. Words are evanescent “events”

a. Hebrew word davar = word + event

2. Power of spoken word

a. Language as a mode of action, produces knowledge

3. Interiocutor

4. Cognitive/way of thinking

Oral Society and Recall

­ How do spoken words become memorable thoughts?

o Mnemonics

­ Mnemonics and formulas1. Rhyme2. Proverb3. Alliteration

­ Serious thought – memory systems

Oral Tradition

1. Rich in metaphor = visually graphic

a. Multi-sensory

2. Homer

a. Illerate

b. 9th Century BCE

c. Poems are full of similes + metaphors, which are visually graphic

Oral Society

­ Jongleur (middle ages)

­ Memorized hundreds of lines of texts

­ Trained memory/worldly mind

Theory/Orality/Harold Innis

1. Theorist of communication/culture

a. How do people mainly communicate?

2. Historical relationship between time and communication

Time Biased Media

1. Orally

2. Stone, clay

3. Community, continuity

4. Practical knowledge

5. Geographically confined

­ Griot (West African Storyteller)

o Repository of oral tradition

Time Biased Bedia

­ Hierarchal social order

o Kings at top

­ More Vulnerable to “light” media challenge

Spaced Biased Media

1. Papyrus, paper, printing press, tv

2. Large capacity for information

3. Administration

a. Territorial control, less democracy

4. Cultural homogenization

5. Secular

6. Commodification

7. Monopolies of Knowledge

Orality

1. “My bias with oral tradition”

2. Spirit of Greek civilization

a. Dialogue, Socratic method

b. Intellectual exchange

c. Skeptical of dogma

3. Inhibit tyranny, imperialism

Origins of Writing: Sumeria

1. 3200 BCE Mesopotamia

2. Accountancy

a. Economy

b. Outstripping $

3. Pictographic Script

Sumerian

­ Rebus principle

­ Pictographic symbol used for phonetic value

Sumerian/Cuneiform/Clay

1. Abstract Concept

a. Texts

b. Objects and ideas

2. Cuneiform

a. Pictography to formal patterns

b. Ideographic symbols

Writing: Alphabetic

­ Phoenicians

o 1500 BCE

o 22 letters

­ Hebrew, Latin

­ Phoenetic/Pictographic/Schematic

­ Alphabetic helps you sound out words, its standardized

­ Easier to learn, read and write

Greek Alphabet

­ Adopt Phoenician alphabet (vowels)

­ Easier to read and write

­ Precise meaning

Ancient Greece

­ Craft to democratic literacy

­ Devalue memorization

­ New statements/models

­ Eric Havelock = “pre scientific, pre literary, pre philosophical”

Writing (Ancient Greece)

­ Objectify texts

­ Disembodiment

­ Abstraction

Literacy/Orality: Greek ideas, Innis

­ Oral tradition

­ Alphabetic literacy

­ Brake on knowledge monopolies

Writng/Limitations

1. Scarcity/Expense writing material

a. Stone, clay, parchment, papyrus

2. “Calligraphy as enemy of literacy”

a. Handwriting becomes an art form

Tutorial 2

Now that we have started to write with a limitation of 140 characters, what does this mean for the future of memory?

Due to technological advancements, we have the ability to remind ourselves of everything we have to do. Because of this, is it possible where our will completely diminish and will have to fully rely on these technologies?

Spaced Biased Media

­ Produce a lot but want to last long, can travel over long distances

­ Attempt to capture space

o Example: telegraph

Long distance communication

Time Biased Media

­ More durable, things that stay, local, rituals, traditions, memory, something you cant necessarily change

­ * Based on the bias of the media, it affects the social values and dynamics of it

o Ex: rituals vs a telegraph

Lecture 2

Scribal Culture

1. Scriptoria

a. Dark/middle ages

2. Book production

3. Hand copying

4. Parchment

5. Dictation – every monk had different writing

* Person would yell out what to write. This is how copies of books were made.

a. On parchment

6. Hybrid

a. Writing/Orality

7. Holy Scripture

a. Transcribing holy texts, spoken prayer has meaning when said alous

• Was common for words to be said aloud, from books/holy texts, savour divine wisdom

o Reading = meditation

• In 1200s, there were lay stationers, which were copying operations in the universities

Oral Society – Middle Ages

­ Legal proceedings – courts place importance on oral testimony

­ Aura of spoken word1. Letters read aloud2. Spoken prayers

­ Logographic = writing based

­ Phonogrphic = Oral forms of language

Printing Press (1450s)

­ Johann Guternberg (1400-1468)

­ Wooden hand press

o Used before to make wine

­ Moveable type = imprints

­ Paper (Rag-based)

o No more parchment

Gutenberg Bible (1455)

­ 42 line Bible

­ Print runs (200-1000 copies)

­ His book was the 1st most influential book at the time

­ Huge technological innovation at this time

o Alphabet system works best

­ Much of what was published was Bibles

Impact of Printing

­ Reduce costs: speed production

­ Greater quantity/dissemination

­ Shift in writing from Latin to Vernacular

­ Sacred texts being made from press

­ Gossip/Scandal sheets also being made

­ Martin Luther saw printing press as something helpful to “get the word out”

­ Press = “God’s highest gift of Grace”

Impact of Printing (Einstein)

- Hearing Public1. Communal

- Binding2. Local embrace3. Direct participation4. Pulpit news5. Religious (?)

- Reading Public1. Atomistic

- Fragementing2. Distant embrace3. Victorous partic

- Imagined communities4. Printed news5. Secular (?)

Continued Orality

­ Typography

o “Conveyed to the ear, not the eye”

­ Book learning: oral/literate hybrids

o Sermons

o Lectures

o Village reader

o Coffee houses/salons

8 Mile Movie

­ Connecting with the immediate community

­ Power of the spoken word

­ An event that blasts at you, then it is over

­ Working class culture would also have the capacity to speak up

­ Emphasis on orality

­ Communication depends on audience

o People coming together to watch them battle each other

Print, News and Newspaper

Print/Modes of Reading

1. Individualism

a. Silently

2. “Bangers” of private reading

3. Octavo-mobile reading

4. Silent/Vocalized reading

5. Middle/Upper classes – working classes

Women Readers

­ Fear unleashed emotions

o Novels/fiction – women would be so emotionally swept up

­ Should only read bible/devotional works

­ Challenge to social structure, patriarchal authority

Modes of Reading

­ Development of critical reading

o Sacred texts had auras, worshipped texts

­ Books less sacred now

­ Intensive to extensive reading

­ Now we are much more likely to skim a book, not read it

­ Format changes

o Into chapters, notes

Print Culture

1. Fixity of texts

2. Accumulation of knowledge

a. Bigger library, acquire knowledge

3. Destabilizing knowledge

4. Addictive not substitute

Reformation/Printing (1520’s to 1640’s)

­ Martin Luther launched reformation

­ Used printing to get word out

­ Printing press not “casual”

o Bias/not determinist, presents a bias which has a certain change

­ Variety of printed matter

­ Illiterates were apart of this because they can see a poster

­ Vernacular Bible

o 1. German

o 2. Catholic Prohibition

­ Bible reading/personal salvation/protestants

­ Counter-reformation

­ Military/Propoganda war

­ Publishing in people’s language allows you to win them over because they really understand

Tutorial 3

­ Newspapers started out as being for educational purposes

o Has changed to more flashy, news as opposed to boring articles

­ At the beginnings, newspapers were read by people of higher education, specifically men

­ The postal service highly subsidized newspapers so it would get out to many people

­ Front page was selling point of newspaper, most interesting and relevant

o What sold to the people

­ Headlines were bold and stood out, to attract readers

o News sections were added s that more people were interested

­ Newspapers had to listen to what the public wanted in order to sell and be successful.

Lecture 3

Censorship

­ Catholic church has index of prohibited books

o Protestant theology

Censorship Effects

1. Interest in banned titles (created desire)

2. Clandestine publishing and communication – underground, publishing outside

3. Printing abroad

4. Allegory

a. Analogy

Pre-newspaper/Printing Press Communication Networks

­ Catholic church

­ State/Political authorities

­ Commerce

­ Itinerant pedlers

o Merchants, entertainers

o Sell news they had

­ Slow and overlapping form of communication

News Communication Networks (15th/16th century)

­ Postal services

o France, 1464 – Royal Post

o England, 1500s

o Very slow

o 1700s : networks throughout Europe

Printed News (late 1400s)

1. Leaflets, broadsheets, posters

2. Distant news, not local

a. Probably knew what was going on around you because of small towns

3. Hawkers

Early Newspapers

­ Corantos

o Started off as weekly journals in Germany

o Summaries of what’s going on

­ Postmaster as news providers

­ Thomas Archer

English Civil War and Newspapers

1. 1640-1660

2. Press Freedom

a. Growth of papers

3. Pamphlets

4. Domestic and political news

5. Restoration (1660) and press control

6. Monopolies of knowledge/dialectic

British Newspapers

­ Samuel Buckley, Daily Courant

­ Specialized papers

­ By 1750 = 5 dailies, 5 weeklies

o Some with 100,000 and circulation

o Postal/countryside

­ Coffee houses, taverns

o Readership and circulation

o Public sphere = Habermas, place for debate and discussion

Stamp Act/Press Freedom/US

­ Stamp act/UK, 1712-1855

­ Can be challenging to people in power to have information shared to everyone

­ Freedom of the press

o 1st amendment of constitution

­ First Newspaper in Canada = Halifax Gazette in 1752

Upper Canada, 19th Century

­ 1815-1860 growth

o Immigration, economic development

­ Growth of towns with newspapers

Lecture 5

Innis Medium Theory

­ Economist and a historian, who wrote a history of the world through the lend of the materiality of communications media

Background of Innis

­ born in 1894 in Ontario on a farm

­ Returned to write masters thesis on soldiers

­ Hones his focus on power balance

­ Interested in material

­ Php at Uni of Chicago and history of CP rail

­ Wrote the history of the fur trade and relations with First Nations

­ Way we understand Canada is dictated by demands of empire “elsewhere”

The Staples Thesis

­ Canada’s economy is governed by the production of 1 specific resource exploited and extracted by the technologies and interests foreign to those who live there

­ Canada will always be an unstable and dependant nation, on the periphery of the main powers and dedicated to the maintenance and exploitability of her natural resources

­ Canada as “in between” allowing us to develop potent conceptual and technological hybrids in terms of comm. Media

­ Innis always looked for balance in his theories

History of Communications Media

­ From 1940-1952, he focuses on the history of comm. Media

­ The formal structured and material realities of different media of communication in interaction with their social, political, economic context

o Work to shape of influence how we think, etc.

Materiality of Media

­ Not just physical characteristics, but the cognitive, institutional and perceptual consequences and forms of organizations attached to different methods of communicating

­ Talking about gadgets, how they operate, how it is more difficult, what worlds have we made as a result or our media communication?

­ Innis gives us a relationship between media and power

­ Interested in media and other parts of society

­ What forms of power does media facilitate

­ Technology determinist term

­ Reducing it to 1 factor

­ Hated Marxism

o Thought was taken out of context and put in wrong context

The Bias of Communication

­ Each medium – stone, clay, papyrus, etc. – tend to engender a bias in terms of forms of social and political organization and the control of information

­ Different media fosters different communities

­ Bias in media helps us come up with a bias in culture

Bias for Time

­ Durable media = clay or stone

­ Don’t encourage territorial expansion

­ Maintain longevity of a territory or empire

­ Maintains memory: values and rituals

­ Encourage hierarchy and decentralization

­ Power of spoken word

­ Concerned with moral aspects of life

­ Speech = time biased

o Oral culture, this is important

­ Binds media together

­ Balance of time and space balance culture

o Too much is not good in a culture

Bias for Space

­ Light and portable

­ Encourage colonization, administration and expansion

­ Ex: paper

­ Associated with centralized governments

­ Secularism, linear thought

­ Ride of science and technical knowledge

Imbalance in communication media bias leads to social instability

­ “the waring tension at the heard of the media of communication

­ Innis as nostalgic

­ Fan of ancient Greece

­ Looks to Greeks as a Utopia, having balance between space and time biased media

­ Not just orality

­ Model to look at with balance

­ Try to preserve Greek balance

Space bias in Contemporary Media

­ Cannot capture in their efficiency the complexities, diversity, and elasticity of oral tradition, time-biased culture

­ Produces utilitarian, short-term, ‘present-mindedness’

­ Newspaper “dumbed” down

­ Militarism is a product of time biased

Technological Habitat

­ Refers to the shaping influence of a medium of communication on our perceptual, institutional and cognitive capacities

­ Enable tendencies toward certain kind of capacities, identifies communities and gives rise to psychologies, attitudes and social relations and practice

­ Could argue social media is space biased and not as much time biased

Monopolies of Knowledge

­ Innisian concept

­ Society as a cluster of expressive forms mediated by material modes of communication

o Look for key institutions

­ All knowledge stored outside the body, any kind of recorded information permits the monopolization of information

The University

­ Under the sway of space bias media, universities have become mere mechanisms for disseminating information, rather than contextualizing knowledge

­ Education dumbed down so that students and staff will enjoy it, rather than be challenged

­ Innis addresses the University

o Space biased society

­ Education is dumbed down

­ Concerned with specialization of subjects and programs

o Where we belong

­ Constant push to figure out where we are supposed to be