THE EVOLUTION OF MEDIA

Objectives:
At the end of the lesson the students should be able to:

1.Identifies traditional media and new

media and their relationships;
2.Editorializes the roles and functions of
media in democratic society;
3.Searches latest theory on information and
media.
TRUE OR FALSE
1. A person highly exposed to media is a highly
media literate individual?
2. In the ancient times, people were not able to
communicate effectively.
3. The print medium revolutionized the literacy of
human beings.
4. The television is the most powerful medium in
history.
“Young People do not
read newspaper
anymore; they visit
online sites”
Analyze the following images.
Describe each according to your own
understanding.

The image is from the book (brilliant creation)

Marshall McLuhan (1960) – provides a clear story on
how media evolved and define technology
determinism.
Technology determinism is a theory that believes
technology is a steering factor in how a society
develops its structure and values.
 McLuhan believe that various technologies causes
social change and “no aspect of culture is
untouched by communication technology”.
 Technology brought a multitude complex in political,
economic, and social changes.
 Communication between families and friends
separated by geographical hindrances is made easier
and faster.
 Paying bills and other banking transactions are now
made online.
 Media are critical forces or compelling influences that
shape how an individual think, feel, and act and how
societies organize themselves and operate.
 Media greatly affect other things, resulting to many
changes in the lives of it users.
McLuhan subdivided the history into
four ages.

A. Tribal Age
B. Age of Literacy
C. Print Age
D. Electronic Age
Tribal Age
(acoustic era)
Tribal Age (acoustic era)
 Characterized by the prevalence of oral
communication.
 Prehistoric people relied on face-to-face
interactions, primarily through their auditory senses
(ex. Hearing/Speech) as a method of
communication.
 “dominant auditory sense of life”.
 Dependent on speech and word-of-mouth, who lives
in a world of “acoustic space”.
 Acoustic space
 Is organic and integral, perceived through
the simultaneous interplay of all senses,
whereas “rational” or pictorial space is
uniform, sequential and continuous and
creates a closed world with none of the
rich resonance of the tribal echoland.
Ex. Use of multiple senses
Age of Literacy
Age of Literacy

 Mcluhan describes the introduction of phonetics.

 Human beings learned to read and write
(hieroglyphs).
 Members of the tribes from the previous age
were pushed from their groups, becoming more
visual and rational.
 Use of papyrus to paper
Print age (industrial age)
 Print age (industrial age)
Johann Gutenberg (1394-1469)
invented the printing technology
that would eventually called the
movable type in the 15th century.
He invented the printing press.
The Bible was one of Gutenberg’s
earliest and most famous
creations.
 This period was characterized by the
further dominance of visual space and
logical thinking.
 Sharing ideas become faster and
acquiring information became easier.
 Printing Press contributed to the
nationalistic identity of the people.
 Homogeneity
 Electronic age
 Thedominance of media such as telegraph,
radio, film telephone computer, and
television.
 1830sstarted an electronic revolution that
diminished the role of the print media.
 Mcluhan also argued that this electronic
age “retribalized” people by restoring
their sensory balance.
 Television was the newest form of media
 Global Village
 New Media / Information age
 Technological advancement profound changes
in the field of communication and media.
 Improved the way how people communicate.
 Products and services that provides
information or entertainment using computer
or the internet. (Cambridge dictionary)
 Digitally produced as interactive, and requires
at least a two way communication.
 Dr. James Potter (2008)
He enumerated three(3) key innovations that led to the
development of this new mass medium:

1. Affordable personal
computers
2. Digitization of information
3. The internet
Affordable personal
computers
 The Computer
 was invented in 1940’s, which was
several hundred times larger, slower,
and more expensive than the typical
desktop computers today.
 The first computers were very big that
they occupied rooms and were only
affordable to the government and to
rich businesses.
 Today computers come as small as a
smart watch.
Digitization of information
 Digitization of Information
 Allbits of information (e.g pictures,
words, and sounds) are now
transformed into codes that can be
easily shared across all forms of
media, with the internet.
 Almost anyone can access unlimited
quantities of information.
The Internet
 All
other traditional media, Potter explains,
were channels to deliver uniform, intact
messages from senders.
 New media changed this landscape.
 Itmarked a major turnaround in
communication, transforming the end users
of media from being mere ”receivers” of
messages into “senders” who are also able
to CREATE content themselves.
 Hot and Cool Media

 Print, photos and motion pictures are

HOT – are high definition and require
little work on part of viewer; tend to be
highly visual
 COOL – cool media draw a person in,
requiring high participation to fill in
the blanks. Television is cool, low-
definition.
Picture Analysis
 Thank you for
your attention.
Activity: Briefly describe each
stage in the history of media.

1.Tribal Age – Group 1

2.Age of Literacy – Group 2
3.Print Age – Group 3
4.Electronic Age – Group 4
5.Information Age – Group 5