Office Hours:Before Or After Class:Mon 12:00-14:00

History of Communication63-002-18

Dr. AvitalPilpel

Course:BA Seminar

Year:2019Semester:2ndCredit: 1

Office Hours:Before or After Class:Mon 12:00-14:00

Office hours will be held at the departments' meetings room.

Email:

A.Course objectives and purposes:

We will learn how communication media, from writing to the internet, changed our society (e.g. how writing made empires possible) but also how it changed our entire worldview (the way people consider their online "persona" as part of them in the time of the internet. We will also show how social events (e.g., WWI) affected the development of communication methods (e.g., radio) and how different modes of communication effected each other (e.g., TV's effect on newspapers). We will critically consider various theories for these views.

The Student will be able to:

Chronologically arrange different modes of mass communication and note when they are dominant.
Understand in detail how each method of mass communication affected the social structure and events of its time.
Understand how the properties of each method of mass communication changed society's values and invidivuals' Weltschauung (worldview).
Critically analyze different theories about how communication effects society.

B.Course Topics:

Generally, reading will be given before class and a powerpoint presentation given in class that will add to the reading, in particular in terms of trying to understand the philosophical and worldview significance of the new medium discussed during every point of the course.

Lesson 1: Introduction. Why communication history is the history of civilization as such. Invention of Language. The differences between mass and "private" media.

Lessons 2-3: Mass communications in the ancient world: the invention of writing. Sumeria, Babylon, Egypt, China; later developments – Greece and Rome. Technology of writing: from tokens and clay tablets to papyrus, paper, and ink.

Lessons 4-5: Losing our minds and coming to our senses. The "dark ages" after the fall of Rome – ages without mass communications, without writing. The high and late middle ages as a return to sanity – the reemergence of writing, reemergence of national and international communication routes.

Lessons 6-8: Print and its effects. The invention of the printed book, the magazine, and the newspaper. Developments in print: the newspaper from the age of the broadsheet to the age of the internet site; the 19th century industrial revolution and its effect on print (the steam press, the paperback); new developments – ebooks, the internet as a text. Print as a source of knowledge: the academic journal, readers' communities.

Lessons 9-10: The "Long 19th century" (1789-1914): Annihilating distance with the telegraph and the telephone; the photograph. The telegraph, telephone, and their precursors – tum tum drums, semaphore, bonfires on hilltops, smoke signals. What was their effect on society in war and peace? The history of photography – from the early photographs to the digital camera: the invention of the negative, the film, color photography, digital photography. How the photograph and the telegraph became power—multiplying mass communication forces through the newspapers.

Lessons 11-12: Radio, television, and movies: the end of the Gurenberg Galaxy. Radio – from Hertz, Maxwell and Marconi to satellite radio. The radio as a "global village".Movies – silent films, talkies, color films, 3D, Imax, etc. The fight with TV. Movies – the new mythology? TV – black and white, living color, satellite transmission, cable TV, HDTV. Effect on society – "Amusing ourselves to death", "57 channels and nothing's on" (Bruce Springsteen). Is TV really that bad?

Lessons 13-14: The internet. Beginnings; email; HTML invention of the web; the new internet of social networks and mobile devices. Kirkegaard about the internet – is it worldview changing effect on us the same as the one mass printing had before? How "old" media reacted to the internet.

C.Prerequisites:

None

D.Course Requirements:

Students will be required to attend class regularly, participate in the class' discussion, after reading and summarizing the required reading for the current class. Reading will be uploaded to the course's web site at least a week before class.
Students are required to present a final work, comparing and contrasting two media which were dominant in different time periods (e.g. print and writing, radio and television), or analyzing the influence of the same medium through different theoretical lenses (e.g., a modern vs. postmodern analysis of the influence of television).
Students are required to take a final exam.

E.Final Grading:

Attendance Mandatory:

10% of grade.

Final Test:

The final test will include:

Mandatory readings taken from the course's textbooks.
An implementation of the material through written questions.

45% of grade

Final work:

45% of grade.To be submitted on the last day of exam period.

F.Bibliography

Lesson 1

Mandatory

Dominick, J. (1999). Historical and Cultural Context. In Dominick, J. Dynamics of Mass Communication: Media in Transition (pp. 51-53). Columbus, OH:McGraw-Hill.

302.23 DOM d4 (217152) – 4th ed., 1993 – Translation library

302.23 DOM d3 (154171) – 3rd ed., 1990

Poe, M. T. (2011). Homo Loquens., in Poe, M. T. History of Communications: Media and Society from the Evolution of Speech to the Internet (pp. 26-52). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

302.209 POE h (1208663)

McLuhan, M. (1966). Media hot and Cold. In McLuhan, M. Understanding Media: The Extension of Man, pp. 38-45 New York: Signet.

Reserved under MAC-LUH (185000)

Recommended

Wade,N. (2011). Phonetic Clues Hint Language is African-Born. New York Times, April 14th, p. A1

Lesson 2

Mandatory

Dominick, J. (1999). Historical and Cultural Context. In Dominick, J. Dynamics of Mass Communication: Media in Transition, pp. 51-53. Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill.

302.23 DOM d4 (217152) – 4th ed., 1993 – Translation library

302.23 DOM d3 (154171) – 3rd ed., 1990

Fischer. S. R. (2001). From Notches to Tables. in Fischer, S. R. A History of Writing,pp. 22-35. London, UK: Reaktion Books LTD.

N/A

Fischer. S. R. (2001). Talking Art. In Fischer, S. R.A History of Writing,pp. 42-67. London, UK: Reaktion Books LTD.

N/A

Lesson 3

Mandatory

Poe, M. T. (2011). Homo Scriptor. In Poe, M. T. History of Communications: Media and Society from the Evolution of Speech to the Internet,pp. 66-84. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

302.209 POE h (1208663)

McLuhan, M. (1966). The Gutenberg Galaxy: The making of typographic man, pp. 11-28.Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.

001.51 MAC-LUN g (385622) – Economics library

Lesson 4

Mandatory

The Talmud, old manuscripts, etc., selections TBA

Poe M. T. (2011).Homo Scriptor. in Poe, M. T. History of Communications: Media and Society from the Evolution of Speech to the Internet, pp. 91-94. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

302.209 POE h (1208663)

Lesson 5

Mandatory

McLuhan, M. (1966). The Gutenberg Galaxy: The making of typographic man, pp. 82-99. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.

001.51 MAC-LUN g (385622) – Economics library

Lesson 6

Mandatory

McLuhan, M. (1966). The Gutenberg Galaxy: The making of typographic man, pp. 124-128. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.

001.51 MAC-LUN g (385622) – Economics library

McLuhan, M. (1966). The Gutenberg Galaxy: The making of typographic man, pp. 161-174. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.

001.51 MAC-LUN g (385622) – Economics library

Lesson 7

Mandatory

Poe, M. T. (2011). Homo Lector. In Poe, M. T. History of Communications: Media and Society from the Evolution of Speech to the Internet, pp. 115-151. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

302.209 POE h (1208663)

Lesson 8

Mandatory

Dominick, J. (1999). Historical and Cultural Context. In Dominick, J. Dynamics of Mass Communication: Media in Transition,pp. 55-58. Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill.

302.23 DOM d4 (217152) – 4th ed., 1993 – Translation library

302.23 DOM d3 (154171) – 3rd ed., 1990

Dominick, J. (1999). Newspapers. In Dominick, J. Dynamics of Mass Communication: Media in Transition, pp. 81-93. Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill.

302.23 DOM d4 (217152) – 4th ed., 1993 – Translation library

302.23 DOM d3 (154171) – 3rd ed., 1990

Lesson 9

Mandatory

Dominick, J. (1999). Communication: Mass and Other Forms. In Dominick, J. Dynamics of Mass Communication: Media in Transition, pp. 3-28. Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill.

302.23 DOM d4 (217152) – 4th ed., 1993 – Translation library

302.23 DOM d3 (154171) – 3rd ed., 1990

Dominick, J. (1999). Newspapers. In Dominick, J. (1999). Dominick, J. Dynamics of Mass Communication: Media in Transition, pp. 81-100. Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill.

302.23 DOM d4 (217152) – 4th ed., 1993 – Translation library

302.23 DOM d3 (154171) – 3rd ed., 1990

Lesson 10

Mandatory

McLuhan, M. (1966). The Photograph: The Brothel without Walls. in McLuhan, M. Understanding MediaThe Extension of Man, pp. 173-181. New York: Signet.

Reserved under MAC-LUH (185000)

Daguerreotype to Digital. A Brief History of the Photographic Process.

McLuhan, M. (1966). The Telegraph. In McLuhan, M. Understanding MediaThe Extension of Man, pp. 327-232. New York: Signet.

Reserved under MAC-LUH (185000)

Lesson 11

Mandatory

Dominick, J. (1999). Radio. In Dominick, J. Dynamics of Mass Communication: Media in Transition, pp.149-155. Columbus, HO: McGraw-Hill.

302.23 DOM d4 (217152) – 4th ed., 1993 – Translation library

302.23 DOM d3 (154171) – 3rd ed., 1990

Donimick, J. (1999). Broadcast Television. In Dominick, J. Dynamics of Mass Communication: Media in Transition, pp. 225-232. Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill.

302.23 DOM d4 (217152) – 4th ed., 1993 – Translation library

302.23 DOM d3 (154171) – 3rd ed., 1990

Recommended

Jackaway, G. (1995). The Press-Media Battlein Jackaway, Gwenyth L. Media at War: Radio's Challenge to the Newspapers 1924-1939, pp. 11-34. West Port: Prager Publishers.

Troy, Gil. The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials/ 1952-2004. Journal of American History 91(4).

Lesson 12

Mandatory

McLuhan, M. (1966). Television: The Timid Giant & Radio: The Tribal Drum.In in McLuhan M.Understanding MediaThe Extension of Man, pp. 259-294. New York: Signet.

Reserved under MAC-LUH (185000)

Poe M. T. (2011). Homo Videns. in Poe, M. T. History of Communications: Media and Society from the Evolution of Speech to the Internet, pp. 153-201. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

302.209 POE h (1208663)

Rozack, T. (1966). The Summa Popologica of Marshal McLuhan.In New Politics(sept. 1996), 22-29.

N/A

Recommended

Postman, Neil (1987). Amusing Ourselves to Death: public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. London: Methuen. Selections TBA.

Hoikalla et al. (1987). Wait a Minute Mr. Postman! Acta Sociologica (30), 1:87-99.

Lesson 13

Mandatory

Poe, M. T. (2011). Homo Somnias. In Poe, M. T. History of Communications: Media and Society from the Evolution of Speech to the Internet, pp. 222-250. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

302.209 POE h (1208663)

Lesson 14

Mandatory

Kirkegaard, S. (au.) and Dru, A. (trans.) (1962).The Present Age. New York : Harper & Row, [1962].

198.9 KIE p (446373) –English & Philosophy libraries

Dreyfus, H. (1999). Kierkegaard on the Internet: Anonymity vs. Commitment in the Present Age. In Kirkegaard Studies Yearbook1999(1): 96-109.

N/A