CTVA Ch. 4

Print media. The origins lie in the "typographical era" of the Middle Ages.

• A communication scholar who claim that reading printed words has changed the way we think.
• McLuhan wrote Understanding Media and The Gutenberg Galaxy.
• He is most famous for creating the "global village" metaphor regarding electronic media.

Print helps us develop solid critical-thinking skills and teaches us how to build arguments using logic.

• 1. Transmission of culture
• 2. The diffusion of ideas and knowledge
• 3. Entertainment

• Yes. Often kowledge & values are intertwined.
• Textbooks can even transfer values by what they omit vs what they contain.

• Great literature can elevate our senses and make us feel new emotions as memorable characters come to life.
• Readers that don't know much about how our legal system works, can learn a lot when reading legal thrillers or military action stories.

• 3500 BCE - marks pressed into wet clay tablets (Sumerians).
• 2500 BCE - animal skins were being used to publish books in scroll form (Asians).
• 1800 BCE - papyrus paper in scroll form (Egyptians).

• Between 1st century BCE and 6th century CE, the Codex or manuscript replaced scroll form.
• Made up of bound individual pages.
• Established the modern book form.

• In 1455 in Germany, Johannes Gutenberg.
• Gutenberg's invention employed oil-based ink on paper using a converted wine press.

• The scribes were trained monks who worked in writing rooms called monastic scriptoria. Scribes copied religious & classical works.
• This promoted the ideas of the Catholic Church.

The Gutenberg Bible, aka forty-two-line Bible, was published in 1455 and was considered the first mechanically printed works in Europe.

• The printing press played a role in
• 1. the Growth of the Renaissance culture,
• 2. the sharing of scientific discoveries,
• 3. the spread of religious beliefs,
• 4. helped increase literacy among the populace
• 5. laid the foundation for the rise of mass communication in the Western world.

• No. Large numbers of Europeans and Americans remained illiterate until the 19th century.
• Education was not available to everyone, only the wealthy, until th 1800s.
• Public education was increased in the early 1800s.

• The New England Primer published in 1690 by Benjamin Harris.
• The textbook introduced children to the English Alphabet, the rudiments of reading, and basic Christian religious values.

• Noah Webster's book called A Grammatical Institute of the English Language (1783).
• Written as a reaction to all the imported textbooks from England which taught English cultural values.
• Provided tutorials on language, religion, morals, & domestic economy.

• The standard reading books for schoolchildren throughout the 19th century.
• First Published in 1836

• 1. Publish a book that many people will want to buy and read, which usually means books that will entertain.
• 2. Make the book affordable enough for many people to buy.
• Dime novels and mass-market paperbacks satisfied both criteria.

• 1860 by Irwin P. Beadle & Company. 1st paperback book form.
• First one was written by Ann S. Stephens, called Malaeska: The Indian Wife of the White Hunter
• Within a year of publication, Malaeska sold more than 300,000 copies.
• The 1870s saw an expansion of dime novels to include melodramatic fiction, adventures, detective stories, romances, and rags-to-riches tales.

• In 1939 by Robert de Graff's company Pocket Books.
• Pocket Books, kangaroo mascot
• Plastic-laminated books priced at 25 cents each.
• Small enough to be carried in a back pocket.

Baby boomers who were the students of the 50's and 60's.

• Print-on-demand (POD) was a development in printing that began in the late 90's.
• It employs low-cost technology to enable writers to publish using printers who specialize in the technology & to have their paperback books avail online or some bookstores.
• High-quality laser printing & binding machines can print a book in a few minutes at a fraction of the cost.

• 1. Mergers & consolidation enable publishers to reduce operating costs & thus increase profit margins.
• 2. Book-publishing industry is intertwined with the global media & the entertainment industry
• 3. Book sales & distribution are being transformed by the emergence of online booksellers, electronic books, and on-demand printing.

• 1. Surveillance - to inform the public of important events taking place.
• 2. Correlation - provides interpretations and meanings of events & issues.
• 3. Entertainment

• 1. New York Times - known as the paper of record, as well as the "Old Gray Lady". Offers strong coverage of international events and issues.
• 2. USA Today - offers a strong mix of general-interest news packaged in well-designed, colorful, easy-to-read sections. Transformed the look and feel of most newspapers in the U.S. Took 10 yrs to become profitable.
• 3. Wall Street Journal - the nation's leading newspaper covering business and finance.

• Publick Occurences, Both Foreign and Domestick.
• It was first published on September 25, 1690 in Boston.

• Political papers and Commercial papers.
• Physically small, usually no more than 4 pages, and 10"x15" in size.
• Sold by subscription, about $8 to $10/yr = about $0.06 per issue.
• Examples of names: Boston Daily Advertiser, the Daily Mercantile Advertiser, Federal Gazette, Federal Republican, etc.

Partly a result of British tax law placing a tax on the number of pages contained. Most colonies were subject to this tax.

• From the 1830's to 1930 newspapers exerted their greatest influence on American society.
• In 1830, the technological development of steam-powered printing presses greatly increased mass printing & circulation.
• In 1930, the arrival of electronic mass communication; radio & t.v. decreased demand & circulation.

• The first penny press, a daily newspaper sold each day for one cent. News for the masses.
• Published in September 1833 by Benjamin Day.

Approximately 70%.