An overview of twelve aspects of media technologies, including print, photography, motion pictures, advertising and public relations, telegraph and telephone, radio, television, computers, Internet, and globalization. We will examine the technical development of each technology, the function of each, and the impact each had on the cultures adopting it.
This course will be conducted remotely over the Internet.
All course material is available on the course website at https://juanmonroy.com/mediatechnologies. Assignments are are available on Google Classroom. We will not be using Blackboard.
All learning activities will be asynchronous, meaning that students complete learning activities on their own time by the deadlines noted on this course website.
This course consists of twelve modules on media technologies. For each module, there will be:
After four modules, there will be an exam on the material you covered.
Although the course is asynchronous, you must complete each module, each quiz, and each exam by the deadline specified on this syllabus and on Google Classroom.
Juan Monroy
Office Hours will be held remotely on Google Meet by appointment only.
Log into a Google account, preferably not your QC Google Account, and sign up for an appointment at https://juanmonroy.com/qcofficehours. Appointments are available at the following times:
Use the Google Meet in the email to connect to the conference— do not use the Google Meet link in Google Classroom.
Please complete all of the assignments by the date noted on this schedule.
Required readings, listed in the course schedule below, are available in the textbook:
You can buy or rent a print book or ebook from Textbookx or Amazon.
For each module, I will post a link to the video recordings. Each one corresponding to a part of the course material. The links will be available on this course schedule below and on Google Classroom.
After watching each recorded lecture and reading the relevant chapter from the textbook, you will take a quiz. Each quiz consists of a mix of true-false and multiple-choice questions. The quiz will be available on Google Classroom as a Google Form.
Note the quiz deadlines. No late quizzes will be accepted.
All twelve quizzes are required and constitute 40% of your final grade.
There will be three exams. Each exam will consist of subjective questions, requiring answers in the form of explanations. Your answers to the exam questions should synthesize what you learned in the recorded lectures and the textbook readings.
Exam are available and due on Google Classroom, according to the following schedule:
All three exams are required and constitute 60% of your final grade.
As this course is asynchronous, you may complete each module as your schedule permits. However, the due dates for each assignment—including quizzes and exams—are firm and must be completed on-time in order to receive credit. Please plan accordingly.
Gutenberg launches a print revolution in Europe that ultimately leads to several other revolutions: the Protestant Reformation, the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, the Free Press, and the American and French Revolutions, as well as the Partisan Press.
The introduction of steam power to the printing presses at the beginning of the 19th century radically changes the nature of print, its scale, and the content to reach a mass audience like never before possible.
Print would serve as a muckraker, a reformer, a war correspondent, a tool of authoritarian governments, the voice of the marginalized, a watchdog, and finally, a way to wrap fish.
In the nineteenth century, inventors improve how to use chemicals to expose light and record it on various media; thus bringing photography to existence. Since then, photography would move from the portrait studio, to the battlefield, and to our own pockets.
Exam 1 covers the material for the Modules 1–4 and is available on Google Classroom.
The development of motion pictures in the nineteenth century has made possible an entire industry and new form of entertainment that has captivated us—in different ways—in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Advertising and Public Relations rise with print and broadcasting to persuade the public throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century and, of course, using digital technologies in the twenty-first century.
The telegraph and telephone both emerge in the nineteenth century, inaugurating the electronic communications era, and both building immense corporate, communication empires in the process.
The discovery of electromagnetism in the nineteenth century opened new possibilities: wireless telegraph, wireless telephone, broadcast radio, and even other uses—from Wi-Fi to podcasting.
Exam 2 covers the material for the Modules 5–8 and is available on Google Classroom.
The invention of electronic televisions creates a new communications empire for radio companies in the United States.
The development of digital computers since the mid–20th century had made it possible to expand what we as humans can do.
Digital networks that developed in the post-World War II era and the proliferation of computers offered to extend the possibilities of what humans can do with computers and their networks. But who would control these networks?
The global digital revolution—made possible by the communications technology and global social networks—has brought us back to rethink how communication can change our world and how we have to protect the freedom to communicate.
Exam 3 covers the material for the Modules 9–12 and is available on Google Classroom.