Introduction
Let me ask you a question: why does the media matter?
Simple. I believe it is the vessel which allows for efficient short-term and long-term public communication between the human race.
Now, its access is not always equal, evident through the Digital Divide, due to not just socio-economic inequality but people’s lack of digital skills. For my generation, we grew up with the Internet and so we are more than accustomed to technology’s basic conventions. However, my parents and grandparents have vastly different relationships with using this tech, since my parents understand it to a moderate degree and my grandparents barely can use their mobile phones.
Instead, they grew up with prior media forms, such as print and broadcast. Regardless, its effects are still just as pervasive.
Disclaimer: The following article will be a two-parter, with this article focusing on media & communication. I will link the second article here, which will focus on journalism.
How does the media function within society?
Firstly, the media sheds light on important events. COVID, the Israel-Gaza conflict, BLM, #MeToo. It allows for moments of resonance, by encouraging viewers to personally identify with media personalities, using them as tools to construct their identities.
A series of networks which bind us together, while also driving us apart. It reflects social inequalities and inequity, through documentaries, films and newspaper articles. Through consuming the media, we as members of society can evaluate ethical dilemmas and crises, alongside more light-hearted concepts, such as trends and memes.
Grisewood, Cohen and Agenda-setting:
In 1968, Harman Grisewood stated that within reporting, programmes needed to ‘discriminate in favour of what is vital’. This hints at the foundation of agenda-setting theory, which is an explanation for how the news affects what topics people think about through selective exposure. Bernard Cohen was the first to express this idea, doing so in 1963 via his book The Press and Foreign Policy. In this, he stated that the press:
“may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about” (pg.13).
Irving Fang also alludes to agenda-setting by depicting our current societal state as the Information Highway. For more information on Fang’s ideas, check out my History of Journalism article here.
Within this, information is controlled and influenced by journalists and other writers for popular media; Witold Rybczynski in his 1983 book Taming the Tiger: The Struggle to Control Technology calls them the “ragmen of information”.
Through this, he recognises that the media is one of the dominant institutions that determines people’s learning, with these ‘ragmen’ influencing public perception, particularly concerning technology. This is likely due to technology becoming easily convoluted and complicated in terms of understanding, which the average person may struggle with comprehending. Thus, this gives them the power to successfully manipulate.
For more on agenda-setting theory explained clearly, check out here.
Digital agenda-setting – example:
To clarify this, think of any digital media outlets you may read from. Any news or topics exposed to you during a session is carefully engineered through the computational power of website programmers and the precision of digital authors, who ‘gatekeep’ content. This subjectivity is all designated to tailor to their audience demographics.
Let us take a recent article I did discussing the petition for UoL students to disaffiliate with NUS UK. An example of me gatekeeping content would be me withholding the NUS’ right of reply. That content has the potential to exist but I could just as easily hide this information from you the public. This is part of what happens every day with lots of media outlets. It is a rarity to be provided with the full story from a single source. Be it intentionally or otherwise.
How did we study media & communication?
- People began studying communications all the way back in Ancient Greece; Aristotle was among the first to study rhetoric (persuasive communication), where he claimed that it hinged on 3 things = ethos|credibility, pathos|emotions & logos|logic
- Studies of the media emerged within the late 19th Century/1800s, taking the form of British histories of the press
- In the USA during the 1920s-1930s, contemporary studies of media were conducted to examine film and radio’s effects on audiences. They nicknamed it ‘communication studies‘ and was led by a group of sociologists. It was revolving around a social science lens and caused the ‘effects’ theories (e.g – Frankfurt School’s Hypodermic Needle Syringe)
History of media & communication:
This will take a look at the media’s historical context from a predominantly technological perspective, discussing the invention/development of tools/concepts and key media texts, rather than societal changes/events (this will be from my own research and personal interests). To do so, I will be addressing the following media forms:
- Print (newspapers, magazines, books)
- Broadcast (TV, radio)
- Film
- Digital (online articles, blogs, apps, videos)
- Interactive (video games)
Disclaimer: The Internet’s origin is a bit more complex than being credited to one person (like Gutenberg and the printing press), as several people conceptualised its structure long before Tim Berners-Lee wrote the code.
According to him:
“most of the technology involved in the web, like the hypertext, like the Internet, multi-font text objects, had all been designed” before “put[ting] them together”.
Therefore, it’s up to you where you think the origin of the Internet began, conceptual or computational. Furthermore, I won’t be touching really on music, since while it is a medium in its own right, it has far too much crossover with broadcast, print and digital platforms.
Timeline – Media & communication:
The following timeline is largely taken from my lecture and seminar notes, alongside my A-Level Media work and some additional research.
Like any work, this won’t cover every single event in the past:
- 105AD – Ts’ai Lun of China took the inner bark of a mulberry tree, leading to the invention of paper
- 1439 – Within a lawsuit in Strasbourg, there was mention of a European mechanised printing press in relation to Johannes Gutenberg
- 1455 – Gutenberg printed an edition of the Bible using his press
- 1540 – Town criers were used to inform the masses about current affairs
- 1650 – In Leipzig, Germany, the first daily newspaper was published; this was called Einkommende Zeitungen
- 1870s-1930s – Vaudeville (entertainment consisting of a series of short performances) emerged within the USA, taking place during the afternoon or evening
- 1876 – Scottish engineer Alexander Graham Bell patented the electric telephone
- 1884 – Paul Nipkow created a system of sending images through wires via spinning discs (this laid the foundation for DVDs)
- 1893 – World’s first telephone newspaper was created by Puskás in Hungary, titled Telefon Hirmondó; it charged a fee for subscribers to access music and news
- 1902 – Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi transmitted the first radio signal, which travelled the Atlantic Ocean
- 1913-late 1930s – The USA witnessed the Movie Palace Era (these were bigger, more expensive and comfortable than the nickelodeon, targeting more middle and upper-class audiences)
- 1920s-1960s – The BBC dominated radio
- 1923-1925 – Russian-American engineer Vladimir Zworykin filed a patent for an all-electronic TV system. He began constructing his TV system based on said patent and showcased it to several Westinghouse executives
- 1927 – Scottish inventor John Logie Baird transmitted the first TV signal in UK
- 1931–1932 – In the USA, the first iteration of pinball machines appeared via the coin-operated Baffle Ball; in 1932, Harry Williams – founder of Williams Manufacturing Co. – built on the game via “tilt mechanisms”
- 1939 – America began its first public TV broadcasts
- 1950s – TV became recognised as a definitive mass medium; moreover, the earliest incarnations of computer games premiered on huge, wall-sized computers (e.g – Bertie the Brain, Nimrod), developed from academic research labs. These games were played using light bulbs, rather than graphical monitors
- 1958 – Tennis for Two, developed by American nuclear physicist William “Willy” Higinbotham, premiered; this is largely credited by historians as the first ever designed video game
- 1960s – Whilst working with the US Air Force at RAND (a non-profit research organisation), Polish-American engineer Paul Baran proposed a decentralised network; he proposed the idea of distributed networking, which would allow network access points to communicate with one another and keep access to data, if the main point was damaged/destroyed.
Moreover, pirate radio stations became popular with the younger demographic, who opposed the BBC’s monopoly over the industry
- 1961 – American computer scientist Leonard Kleinrock released a paper on his packet-switching theory; this suggested that an online network could be made by allowing computers to communicate through info ‘packets’ rather than circuitry
- 1962 – American psychologist and computer scientist JCR Licklider developed a vision of globally interconnected computers allowing people to access data and programs from different sites; he called it the Galactic Network.
Furthermore, the team at MIT – such as main developer Steve “Slug” Russell – completed their creation of Spacewar!, with Alan Kotok and Robert Saunders designing isolated ‘control boxes’ (these can be classified as among the world’s first ever wired video game controllers). It became one of the world’s first popular video games played in different locations, due to appearing in several institutions such as Stanford University and University of Utah
- 1965 – 2 computers within MIT’s Lincoln Lab (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) communicated for the first time
- 1967 – Sanders Associates gave electronics engineer Ralph Baer permission to begin working on his envisioned concept of a home video game console; with help from Bill Harrison and Bill Rusch, he worked on prototypes before he pitched his idea. The invention was nicknamed the Brown Box.
Moreover, the battle between the BBC and pirate radio ended
- 1969 – The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) became the precursor to what we now know as the Internet; this was due to the first message between 2 ARPANET computers being sent
- 1971 – University of Utah undergraduate Nolan Bushnell developed a coin-operated version of Spacewar!, which was called Computer Space; he created this alongside his colleague Ted Dabney and they released the game under the company Syzgy Engineering
- 1972 – The first commercial video game home console released in the USA: the Magnavox Odyssey. 28 games were made for this console, containing no sound – the Odyssey had no sound capabilities – but appearing on 11 different game cards (these game cards were printed circuit boards which would plug into the console, rather than typical software such as games on modern consoles; all of the game’s data was stored in the dedicated hardware). The console lacked a microprocessor, meaning scores couldn’t be tracked and it couldn’t understand game logic
- 1973 – The Magnavox Odyssey released in Europe (after being acquired by Philips) and eventually was imported into Japan.
In addition, commercial radio was introduced into the UK
- 1974 – The protocol TCP/IP became public access, developed by Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn; a protocol is a rule set which allows devices to communicate. TCP/IP transfers information across the internet and around most LANs (Local Area Network) & WANs (Wide Area Networks)
- 1975 – Japan received its first video game home console when Electrontennis by Epoch released overseas
- 1977 – Apple released its computer Apple II, which initially lacked good sound technology as it was incredibly draining on its CPU, meaning video game developers had to use audio sparingly
- 1977-1980 – In Japan, Nintendo released five single game consoles, known as the Colour TV-Game series
- 1980s – This ushered in the Golden Age of video games, done so within the arcades; NAMCO also released Pac-Man, becoming the first video game mascot. In addition, Ken and Roberta Williams of On-Line Systems released the first graphical adventure game called Mystery House. This genre helped differentiate PC gaming from home consoles, alongside MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons | these were inspired by the role-playing game/RPG Dungeons & Dragons)
- 1983 – ARPANET and the Defense Data Network transitioned to using the protocol TCP/IP, which many argue is when the Internet was born; simultaneously, Central America suffered a video game crash, with stores liquidating their gaming inventory and retailers discontinuing video game sales.
EA became the first video game publisher to license athletes in video games
- 1984 – Tetris became the first video game to be exported from the USSR to the USA
- 1989 – British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee proposed the idea of the World Wide Web.
The first “city-building” simulator was SimCity, which released on Amiga and Macintosh. This would spawn spin-offs and bring about The Sims games, which defined the life–simulator genre.
- 1989-1990 – On April 21st 1989, Nintendo’s Gameboy launched in Japan; it released in the USA on July 31st and in Europe the following year on September 28th
- 1990 – Berners-Lee created the world’s first website, known as info.cern.ch, viewable at CERN.
Nintendo debuted the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in Japan. Moreover, this period began a trend of realistic video game graphics and mature content
- 1991 – Limited public use of the World Wide Web.
Capcom’s Street Fighter revived the once thriving business of arcades, attracting gamers of all ages; additionally, Nintendo released the SNES in the USA on August 23rd
- 1992 – Mortal Kombat released
- 1993 – The World Wide Web entered into general widespread use, by entering the public domain and after Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first version of the programming language HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language)
- 1994 – The PS1 debuted in Japan on December 3rd. Sega released its online distribution service of Sega Channel, which offered access to a plethora of Sega Genesis titles, game tips, demos and some exclusive game editions
- 1995 – The PS1 released in Central America on September 9th.
Moreover, DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) launched
- 1996 – A smaller version of the handheld Gameboy called Gameboy Pocket released, becoming the most popular handheld system with interchangeable cartridges (a case containing something used in a machine; e.g – film roll within a camera). The Nintendo 64 also released, offering 3D graphics to a Nintendo home console
- 1997 – AOL (an American Internet Service Provider) pioneered Internet chatting with AIM (AOL Instant Messenger)
- 1998 – Sega Channel was discontinued
- 1999 – Blogger.com and LiveJournal launched, causing a blog popularity explosion
- 2000 – PS2 released
- 2001 – GTA III released, to instant controversy; this was due to allowing the player to embody the criminal lifestyle – including the ability to pay for prostitution to recover player health, whilst being able to kill civilians, officers and military. Additionally, the original Xbox released to compete with Nintendo’s GameCube and the PS2
- 2003 – Possibly the original social media platform, MySpace was born. Although still around today, it is no longer a social media platform; additionally, Facebook debuted as ‘FaceMash’, originally aimed at US students attending elite colleges
- 2004 – Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook as we know it today.
Additionally, when GTA: San Andreas released, coders went through the game’s files and located the ‘Hot Coffee’ minigame, which allowed for interactive sex; this was triggered via CJ accepting a female character’s invitation for coffee, hence the name.
The Nintendo DS was also released, with the DS line becoming its best selling console
- 2005 – Launch of YouTube and release of Xbox 360
- 2006 – Launch of Twitter/X.
The PS3 released on November 11th and the Wii on November 19th
- 2008 – Facebook became the world’s biggest social media platform.
Additionally, the Nintendo DSi released
- 2010 – Launch of Instagram and release of Xbox 360 S
- 2011 – Nintendo 3DS released
- 2013 – Release of Xbox 360 E. The Nintendo 2DS debuted on October 12th, Xbox One on November 22nd of the same year, and so did the PS4 on November 15th
- 2016 – Launch of TikTok, initially released as a mobile app. The international version of the Chinese app was called Dǒuyīn. The Xbox One S released in August, PS VR in October and the PS4 Pro in November
- 2017 – The Xbox One X released, offering true 4K gameplay. So did the Nintendo Switch. Moreover, discussions of radio becoming exclusively digital were held, but this is yet to occur
- 2019 – Release of Nintendo Switch Lite on September 20th, which came with built-in Joy-Cons
- 2020 – The PS5, Xbox Series X and S released in November
- 2025 – Nintendo Switch 2 released on June 5th, featuring magnetic Joy-Cons with mouse controls
Conclusion
The media in its current state arguably has something for everyone, but this doesn’t mean it’s perfect.
Any questions? Feel free to contact me on johnjoyce4535@gmail.com!
Check out my last piece: Nostalgic Resolutions – Reviving the 2016 era
Or why not check out my new website! I have published a blog called Linguistics: 101, serving as an introduction to linguistics.
For more on arts & culture, click the following link:
https://www.liverpoolguildstudentmedia.co.uk/category/arts-culture
