1. Always precursors that lead to new technology

2. Inferiority of new technology

a. not always dependable

b. newness is dependable virtue

3. Slow Diffusion - takes awhile for i to be widely used

4. Economic/institutional limitations

outcomes of technological changes are usually different from orignial expectations

-  physical properties and how they are used are changed through completion and once they are completed how they are used can not officially be determined

the way and physical medium that is delivered create the idea and environment more than the message itself

- changes in communication technology happen for their effects on the evolution of social and political order

• media are not simply neutral channels for conveying information between 2 or more environments, but are rather environments in and of themselves.

McLuhan (medium theory) -

4 major communication epochs?

Hot media?

Cold Media?

Epochs: Oral, Writing, Printing, and Electronic

"Hot Media" - extend a single sense in HIGH definition- for example print, radio, and film

"Cold MEdia" - LOW in definition and require audience participation (speech, telephone, TV)

theorists met to discuss theories there in Toronto

Innis founded it and focused mostly on large scale social organization and culture

TIME VS SPACE were huge parts of his work and study

Space vs Time Bias - Innis

Believed that different media exhibit an inherent bias towards either space or time, and these biases are reflected in the character of civilizations

SPACE (easier to transport things - papyrus/paper) - lighter and more portable and tend to support expansionist empires characterized by large secular institutions

TIME (harder to transport - clay/stone) - leads to cultures that are mostly tradition oriented, and give great emphasis to custom and continuity over change

1. presence of sophisticated (digital) technologies of networked communication and information management - form basic infrastructure mediating an increasing array of social, political and economic practices

2. Reproduction and institutionalization throughout those societies of networks as the basic form of human organization and relationship across a wide range of social, political, and economic configurations and associations

Networks can be comprised of three main elements

Nodes, Ties, Flows

Nodes: distinct point connected to at least one other point, although it usually acts as a connection between two or more other points

Ties: connect one node to another

Flows: what passes between and through nodes along ties

Example: group of friends=network, each friend is a node, ties are regular contacts between these friends either in speech or other activities, flows is the love, help, gossip that is exchanged

Three Domains of Communication - Print, Common Carriage, Broadcasting

- new communication technologies dont have same legal freedoms that old ones had

PRINT: truly has 1st amendment freedom of speech - supreme court backed 100 of cases

COMMON CARRAIGE: (telephones, telegraph, postal systems, computer networks) - policies applied to ensure universal service and fair access by the public to the facilities of the carrier. - serve all on equal terms without discrimination

BROADCASTING: highly regulated regime has been established by congress and the courts

- changes in technologies occur, but the INSTITUTIONS that are set up in society hinder the direction and pace

- the market and the people, not the technology itself, sets most the limits

1. Definition of the domain in which the policy operates

2. Availability of Resources

3. Organization of access to resources

4. Establishment and enforcement of norms and controls

5. Problems at the system boundaries

3 reasons why Catholicon written by GUTENBERG is important

"500 years of printing"

- smaller type than the bible, which means more economical, which led to cheaper book production

- was a popular encyclopedia, therefore spread knowledge

- has a written colophon

great and long lasting invention because of new ability to edit and correct a text in every copy - just write one proof read and then mass produce...

- fulfilled the need for more and cheaper reading matter by using machine instead of handwriting

language before printing - before it was standardized

(Steinberg)

vernacular - language other than latin spoken in a specific region

Until printing was invented, spelling was phonetic (everyone wrote and spelled words how they heard and interpreted the sounds

- regions were then unified through the standardization of languages

Printer and Publisher Relationship

(early book trade - printer central figure)

printer hired an engraver

he chose the mannuscripts to print/edit, how many copies to make

then he sold to customers and transactions went through the ledger

Printer and Publisher Relationship

(publisher soon became top of book trade)

publishers picked authors

then book and subject

chose the printer and the type and paper

fixed the priced and organized the channels of distribution