An overview of twelve media technologies: writing, manual printing, mass printing, photography, telegraphy, telephony, motion pictures, sound recording, radio, television, computers, and the internet. We will examine the technical development of each technology, the function of each, and the impact each had on the cultures adopting it.
Thursdays, 1:40 – 4:30 PM
Campbell Dome
Sections: MEDST 100–01 (66132) / MEDST 100–02 (66134)
Thursdays, 6:30 – 9:20 PM
Kiely Hall, Room 244
Section: MEDST 100–03 (66669)
Juan Monroy
G Building, Room 102-D
Thursday, 12:00 – 1:00 PM
Also available remotely on Google Hangouts by advance appointment.
The following textbooks are available through online retailers and on reserve at Rosenthal Library. Note that “The Bookstore” has been ordering the wrong editions.
Electronic editions of Alphabet to Internet are available from the following booksellers:
Electronic editions of The Master Switch are also available.
Required course readings not found in the textbook are available electronically from the course website under the particular class session. You may need to use either your QC Library Card barcode or QC Google Apps for Education account login to access the reading.
Under each class, I will post on this site the following review materials:
Use these materials to prepare for the midterm and final exams.
We will not be using Blackboard for this course. Instead, consult the Course Website for the syllabus and Google Classroom for submitting assignments.
This course will use Google Apps for Education using your QC CAMS account.
You can have more than one Google account. If you use Gmail, you already have a Google Account: it is likely a personal Google account. Google offers organizations—businesses and educational institutions—to establish accounts for its users. Since you’re enrolled at QC, you have access to a QC Google Apps account.
You cannot access QC Google Apps for Education using your personal Gmail or another Google Apps account.
You can be logged into both accounts at the same time, but you will likely have to switch between accounts to access your QC Google Apps versus your personal Google Apps.
The Center for Teaching and Learning offers detailed instructions for activating (or claiming) your QC Google Apps account. The process comes down to three steps.
Access your QC Google Apps account at https://google.com/a/qc.cuny.edu.
Google Classroom is a barebones, learning management system that we will use for our course. We will not be using Blackboard. I will also post announcements to Google Classroom, instead of emailing everyone in class.
You will submit all of your assignments through Google Classroom.
I will be providing everyone a course code at the first meeting on February 4, and to your QC email account.
To add the class:
Download the Google Classroom mobile apps for iOS or Android.
We will be using several QC Google Apps in this class.
This class consists of four components. You cannot satisfactorily complete this course without all four of these.
Please be present in each class.
Each class session will form the basis of the material I expect you to know for the exams. We will cover the historical, technological, and economic context relevant to each electronic media technology. Although I will post review questions each week, they serve as poor substitutes for attending and participating in each week’s class.
Please read the assigned course material prior to each week’s class. Consult the Course Schedule (below) for the required reading assignments.
All assignments must be completed on time in order to receive full credit. Late assignments will be penalized by a 10% reduction for each 24-hour period it is late. After seven calendar days, the assignment will not be accepted and you will likely fail this class.
Exams comprise half of your course grade and are designed to reward regular attendance and diligent studying. Exams will be administered in class and must be taken at the specified date and time.
Please respect the classroom environment. You should pay attention to the lecture, take notes, and avoid digital distractions. Studies have consistently shown that students using laptops and mobile phones perform about 11% worse than students who are not distracted by these devices.
On a personal note, it’s very difficult to stay motivated as a teacher if I see students seemingly disinterested in their own education. Seriously, I’m this close to banning all digital devices in class. If I find you engaging in disruptive behavior, such as watching online videos, passing notes, instant messaging, chatting, or texting, I will remove you from the classroom and have you withdraw from the class.
Please submit your work on time. Late quizzes will not be accepted, and the Media Technologies and “The Cycle” assignment, due May 6, will be penalized by a 10% reduction for each 24-hour period it is late. After one calendar week, the assignment will not be accepted, and you will likely fail this class.
There will be no incomplete grades for this class except in the case of a documented emergency in the final weeks of the semester. If you experience such an emergency, please contact me immediately, and we will work out a schedule for you to complete the outstanding work before the beginning of the following semester.
But aside from these circumstances, no late work will be accepted and no “incomplete” grades will be granted. If you have difficulty keeping up with coursework, consider giving yourself extra time to complete assignments, reducing your overall course load, and/or taking this class at a later semester.
Academic dishonesty is prohibited in The City University of New York. Penalties for academic dishonesty include academic sanctions, such as failing or otherwise reduced grades, and/or disciplinary sanctions, including suspension or expulsion. Examples of Academic Dishonesty include cheating, plagiarism, obtaining an unfair advantage, and falsification of records and official documents.
Cheating is the unauthorized use or attempted use of material, information, notes, study aids, devices or communication during an academic exercise. Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person’s ideas, research or writings as your own. Obtaining Unfair Advantage is any action taken by a student that gives that student an unfair advantage in his/her academic work over another student, or an action taken by a student through which a student attempts to gain an unfair advantage in his or her academic work over another student.
For tips and information on how to maintain academic integrity, consult Writing at Queens document, “What is Plagiarism?”.
Please refrain from using your digital devices during class. Also remember to silence your mobile phone, or turn it off to save your battery.
It is particularly rude to use your devices in class because it distracts not only me but also the students around you. And others can see what you’re doing.
Students must surrender mobile phones, tablets, and computers on exam days.
Please use your QC email account (student@qmail.cuny.edu). This is the only way I will communicate with you, other than face-to-face meetings.
Queens College has a history of commitment to the enhancement of education of students with disabilities. The Office of Special Services for Students with Disabilities was established in 1974 to provide equal opportunities for a college education to academically qualified students with physical disabilities. The office offers comprehensive support services to students with various disabilities. Queens College prohibits discrimination against students with disabilities and it ensures full access and equal opportunity to qualified students with disabilities to all academic programs and social activities on campus.
To receive these services, a student must first register with the office in Kiely 171. To do so, you must bring proper documentation pertaining to the nature of your disability from a qualified professional. To learn more about CUNY Assistive Technology Services and the office located at Queens College, call (718) 997–3775 or visit Kiely Hall 173. For more information, visit The Office of Special Services.
For each of the twelve media technologies, you will take a quiz on the lecture and reading materials. Each quiz is due by the end of the Wednesday before the relevant class, noted below and on Google Classroom.
At the midterm exam, I will assign you one of five media technologies addressed in The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires by Tim Wu.
Write a 1,500-word of summary of how your assigned media technology follows the pattern of what Wu terms “The Cycle.” Your summary should address the timeframe of that technology and also confront at least three of the following steps of the “The Cycle”:
Follow these guidelines for formatting and submitting your paper.
The midterm exam is an in-class exam, consisting identification and short essay questions. The exam will cover the course material from the first half of the course.
The final exam is an in-class take-home exam, consisting identification and short essay questions. The exam will cover the course material from the entire course.
Activate your Google Apps at QC account.
The first media technology was writing because it allowed humans to store, transmit, and retrieve knowledge in ways that oral cultures simply could not.
As you await the arrival of your textbooks, I am providing these readings as PDFs. Use your QC Google Apps login for access.
Early print allowed information to be printed in books that were produced using manual (hand-operated) machines, such as the medieval printing press. Beginning in the fifteenth century, the printing press would shape modern Europe.
As you await the arrival of your textbooks, I am providing these readings as PDFs. Use your QC Google Apps login for access.
The steam engine and the attendant industrial revolution of the eighteenth brought mass production. The mechanical printing press brought new print forms—inexpensive books, newspapers, and magazines— and the attendant mass culture of the nineteenth century.
Beginning in the 1830s, the reproduction of light becomes a mechanical, photochemical process, that produce images that both memorialize individuals and bind together entire cultures.
Electricity and communication merge for the first time in the electromagnetic telegraph of the 1840s and annihilate space and time in the nineteenth century.
We will take our midterm exam in class today. Use the review guide to study for the exam. Also, note the test format to avoid any surprises on exam day.
Though hardly designed to do so in 1876, the telephone renders many functions of the telegraph obsolete. Throughout the twentieth century, the telephone emerges as a communication utility controlled by a monopoly.
A combination of earlier photographic technologies yields the motion picture camera in the 1890s and the emergence of a popular entertainment form in the 1900s.
In the late nineteenth century, the recording of sound evolves from preserving speech to disrupting the printed music industry and establishes a commercial industry producing musical sound recordings.
Radio emerges as the first technology to transmit an electromagnetic signal without a physical medium, potentially undermining every other communications media theretofore established.
In the 1930s, television emerges as electromagnetic motion pictures—known as video—transmitted using radio signal. Television would have cannibalized broadcast radio were it not for the radio companies developing television in the first place to cannibalize themselves.
Computers emerge as a media technology with digital media—the merger between modern media forms and computable code.
Developed as a distributed computer network transmitting binary code as packets, the Internet emerges as the connective tissue for digital media throughout the world.
Your final exam is due today on Google Classroom. Use the review guide to study for the exam.