The Communication Revolution

Catalog description

We say we live in the Information Age as if such an age never existed before. But throughout time, the introduction of new forms of media and communication technologies have had a transformational effect on existing social, political, and economic life, creating new perceptual pathways to our understanding. This course examines history through the prism of these communication “revolutions,” beginning with the arrival of the spoken word, the development of writing systems, the spread of the printed word, the age of electricity, before focusing on the modern era of digital media. It is through our investigation of these previous revolutions that we may come to some greater understanding about the promise, and consequence, of our own technological age. Readings from: Tom Standage, Writing on the Wall; Plato’s Phaedrus; Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy; Neil Postman, Technopoly; and Sherry Turkle, Alone Together.