Media+Through+History

=Preagricultural Society=

toc In preagricultural societies, people lived in small groups of hunters and gatherers. In this point in time, people depended primarily on oral communication to transmit information, messages, and ideas between generations. Some cultures still depend on the spoken word for communication.

=Agricultural Society=

In agricultural societies, most people worked on farms or in resource extraction. Written language started being used in early agricultural societies and was considered a special function because most people could not read or write.

The people who first became specialized in written communication were people involved in the religious order and merchants. They usually specialized in corresponding, keeping records, and copying manuscripts. At this time, couriers were also considered communication specialists because of their skill of memorizing long oral messages.

In early-agricultural societies, the main mass medium was the hand-copied book; however its circulation was very limited because the ruling classes did not want the masses to be exposed to new ideas. For this reason, most books were produced only for literate high-class scholars and priests.

=Industrial Society=

The industrial revolution is sometimes dated back to the invention of the steam engine in 1712, and sometimes dated back to 1455 when the Gutenberg Bible was published. Movable metal type improved speed of book production and eliminated the need for hand-copying books. Mass production allowed thousands of copies of a book to be printed inexpensively.

Mass production was applied to the manufacture of all types of products and the production was centered in big cities. Because of this, there was a mass migration from the country to the city and from agricultural jobs to manufacturing jobs.

Industrialization encouraged people to learn to read and write mainly because of the more complex job requirements. In the 1830, the first true mass medium became popular; this popularity surfaced because of urbanization, the increase of literate people, and the need to advertise manufactured goods on a mass scale. Shortly after, film, radio, and television were invented to entertain the urban masses.

You can read more about the industrial society here.

=Information Society=

The information society is a society where the creation, distribution, and manipulation of information dominates social, cultural, and economical activities. The transition to an information society was marked by the point where information ruled the workforce. Knowledge, creativity, and innovation is valued in an information society. The dominant medium in the information society is the computer because it helps to create, store, and process information. Additionally the proportion of information workers has leveled off at just under half the workforce.

Further Reading - Impact of Media

=Related Pages=

History of Communication

=Works Cited=

Straubhaar, Joseph, and Robert LaRose. __Media Now: Understanding Media, Culture, and Technology__. USA: Wadsworth, 2004.

“Information Society”. __Wikipedia__. February 18th, 2006 < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_society >