Tuesday, March 30, 1999
Communications revolutions
1. Writing
2. Printing Press
What you should know by the end of today's lecture:
Why was the invention of the printing press a revolution in communication?
Before the Printing Press
1. Limited number of texts
2. Hand written
3. Monasteries: centers of civilization
4. Religion
5. Preserving the word of God
6. Threat of extinction
7. Race against time
8. Working conditions
9. Which texts to save?
Christian monasteries:
New, old testament, Epistles, ancient Greek texts, writings of the earlier leaders of the church/doctors of the church.
Jewish centers of learning
(Spain, Northern France, Mainz, Rome)
Old Testament, Jewish law/Talmud, Commentaries on the law (Tosaphists)
Printing Press
1. Wood/metal type
2. Multiple impressions
3. Output comparisons
1 hand written Bible/ 1,000 printed Bibles
330AD to 1450 AD (1120 years): same number of texts produced as the first 50 years after the invention of the printing press (roughly, 1450 to 1500)
Wednesday, March 31, 1999
1. Representatives of:
Oral culture
Brilliant speaker
Political Dissident
Written Culture
Brilliant writer
Political Dissident
1 book
Print Culture
Brilliant writer
Political Dissident
Printer
1,000+ books
Wednesday, March 31, 1999
Today’s lecture:
1. Controlling communication in print culture
Why, how
2. Bias of communication in Tudor England
3. Style of Early American newspapers
4. Politicization of American press during Revolution
Control of Communication
1. Oral culture
Components:
Speaker, listeners
Characteristics:
Shared time, space
Distribution -- local only
Control:
Disband audience
Close hall
Seize speaker
2. Written Culture
Components
Text, readers
Characteristics
Across time: unlimited
Across space: limited by small volume of texts
Control
Seize texts (not difficult due to small volume)
Punish readers (not difficult, due to small volume)
3. Print culture
Components
Texts, readers
Characteristics
Across time, space
Control
Difficulty: Both texts, audience dispersed.
So:
England, 1500-1600
1. Prior to 1500
Civil War
2. c. 1500.
3. Henry VIII.
You are Henry VIII.
1. Any concerns about the printing press?
What, why?
2. Do you want to control it?
3. How to control?
4. Could you use the printing press to help you carry out your policies?
England, c. 1500-1600.
Controls on press
1. Restrict use of presses
Licenses
(Prior restraint)
Force:
Punish unlicensed printers
Suasion:
Licenses to loyal printers
2. Punish criticism
Seditious libel
(criticism of government)
3. Index of Banned Books
4. Proclamations: List of banned topics
5. Pro-active publications
Material favoring king’s policies.
Bias of communication
1. Who controls communication process?
Tudor monarchs
2. What is their agenda?
3. How does communication reflect their agenda?
Thursday, April 1, 1999.
Today’s Lecture
1. How/Why Press Advocacy Emerged
(American Revolution)
2. Why advocacy made sense
3. Bias of communication
Early American communication
1. First Newspaper c. 1700
Why so late?
2. Character of early Press
Boston New Letter (1704)
2. American Revolution:
Press politicized
Stamp Act, Nov. 1, 1765.
Tax on paper products.
Impact: printers,
lawyers, merchants
Resistance, boycott:
Sons of Liberty
Editors’ dual role
Advocacy in print
Activism outside office
Repeal of Stamp Act
Emergence of Press
as leader in public opinion,
editors as partisan activists