{"id":1002,"date":"2020-09-17T19:20:18","date_gmt":"2020-09-17T19:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-publicspeaking\/?post_type=chapter&p=1002"},"modified":"2020-12-04T06:28:34","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T06:28:34","slug":"technologies-of-public-communication","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-publicspeaking\/chapter\/technologies-of-public-communication\/","title":{"raw":"Technologies of Public Communication","rendered":"Technologies of Public Communication"},"content":{"raw":"
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Learning Objectives<\/h3>\r\nIdentify how new technologies change the context of public communication.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

The Medium Is the Message<\/h3>\r\nIn 1964, Canadian communication theorist Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase \"the medium is the message.\" Medium<\/em>, in this case, is the singular of a word we're used to seeing in the plural: media<\/em>. What he meant was that we tend to focus on the content of the message (the words being said or the images shown), but we really need to look at the medium<\/em>, or the channel through which the communication is taking place. According to this line of thinking, the television is more important for the way it makes us see the world than for any given program it might carry.\r\n

Media Ideologies<\/h3>\r\nIn the introduction to her book\u00a0The Breakup 2.0: Disconnecting over New Media<\/em>, Iliana Gershon discusses what she calls \"media ideologies\"\u2014a concept which is essentially a more modern reframing of McLuhan's idea of the medium and the message:\r\n

People\u2019s ideas about the medium shape the ways that medium will deliver a message. No matter what is actually said, the medium becomes part of what is being communicated. Sometimes the medium is in synch with the message, and sometimes it is so out of synch with the message that the message is undercut. . . .<\/span>\u00a0That is to say, what people think about the media they use will shape the way they use media.[footnote]Gershon, Ilana. The Breakup 2.0: Disconnecting over New Media<\/i>. Cornell University Press, 2012,\u00a0p. 3[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\nAs Gershon discovered, one of the quickest ways to reveal our often invisible media ideologies is to ask the question, \"is it acceptable to break up with someone via text message?\"\r\n\r\nAs you think about the history of media since the 15th century, consider the ways in which media ideologies evolved alongside an ever-growing assortment of options for sending and receiving messages.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_969\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"238\"]\"Photograph Recreated Gutenberg press at the International Printing Museum, Carson, California. Johannes Gutenberg invented (or perfected) the printing press around\u00a01440.[\/caption]\r\n

c. 1440\u2013now: The Printing Press<\/h3>\r\nThe printing press<\/strong> made written materials much easier to copy and reproduce rapidly. This made text readily available to the masses through newspapers, books, and pamphlets, which sparked a rise in literacy rates and forever changed the ways people learned and communicated.\r\n\r\nDespite the increasing availability of print media, public oratory remained an important source of news, information, secular and religious teaching, and political persuasion in Europe and America.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_964\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"231\"]\"Bronze The Fireside Chat<\/em>, bronze sculpture by George Segal at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, Washington, DC.[\/caption]\r\n

1900\u20131944: The Radio<\/h3>\r\nThis period brought many changes to the political landscape, with new technologies beginning to significantly alter the communication of political messages. On June 14, 1922, Warren G. Harding<\/strong> became the first president to be heard on the radio.[footnote]\u201cWarren G. Harding Becomes the First President to Be Heard on the Radio.\u201d History.com<\/i>, A&E Television Networks, 16 Nov. 2009, www.history.com\/this-day-in-history\/harding-becomes-first-president-to-be-heard-on-the-radio.[\/footnote] The medium of the radio was put to extremely effective use by\u00a0President Franklin D. Roosevelt<\/strong>, whose Fireside Chats<\/strong> between\u00a01933 and 1944 allowed the President to speak directly to Americans about topics of national interest, from economic recovery to the rise of fascism in Europe.\r\n
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To Listen: FDR<\/h3>\r\nIn this Fireside Chat from April 14, 1938, Roosevelt spoke to the nation about unemployment and economic recovery. Listen to the first minute or two of the broadcast, and think about the way the medium of the radio allows the President to speak directly to the individual listener.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yWBc7aMXI60\r\n\r\nYou can view the transcript for the first two minutes of \"1938, April 14 - FDR - Fireside Chat #12 - On Economic Conditions - open captioned\" here (opens in new window)<\/a>.\r\n

What to watch for:<\/h4>\r\nNotice how Roosevelt addresses the listener directly, starting with the first line: \"My friends. . . .\" He also acknowledges that the listener may be busy in the week leading up to Easter (note the tacit assumption there about the religion of the audience), but insists that \"what I want to say to you, the people of the country, is of such immediate need and relates so closely to the lives of human beings and the prevention of human suffering that I have felt that there should be no delay.\"\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nWhen you think about our focus on politics, much of our assessment of political communication came from the work of scholars in the early 20th century. They focused on propaganda analysis, political themes in public communication (magazines, textbooks, etc.), and public opinion research that explored the opinions of society at large on major political and social issues. If you follow politics, you\u2019re obviously familiar with political polls that try to determine people\u2019s beliefs and political values. Political polling is influenced by the early works of Walter Lippman<\/strong> who is considered the father of public opinion analysis. Similarly, Harold Lasswell<\/strong>\u2019s pioneering work on propaganda set the foundation for studying how mass communication influences the social conscious of large groups of people.\r\n

1945\u20132000: The Television<\/h3>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1550\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"]\"Black In 1960, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon faced off in the first televised presidential debate.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nAfter World War II, an improved form of black-and-white TV broadcasting became popular in the United States and Britain, and television sets became commonplace in homes, businesses, and institutions. During the 1950s, television was the primary medium for influencing public opinion.[footnote]Diggs-Brown, Barbara. Strategic Public Relations an Audience-Focused Approach<\/i>. Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012.[\/footnote] The 1960 debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon made it clear that television would transform persuasion politics in the U.S.\u00a0Chris Matthews describes this debate, the first that had ever been televised:\r\n

[More] than either contestant\u2019s words, it was their images, projected on millions of black-and-white Admiral and General Electric televisions, that affected the American judgment. Each time Kennedy spoke, Nixon\u2019s eyes darted toward him in an uncomfortable mix of fear and curiosity. . . .\u00a0When Nixon was on, Kennedy sat, sometimes professorially raking notes, at other moments wearing a sardonic expression as he concentrated on his rival\u2019s answers. Sargent Shriver would note that it was his brother-in-law\u2019s facial language, more than anything he said, that decided the results of the Great Debate. By raising an eyebrow at Nixon, he had shown he had the confidence to lead the country.[footnote]Matthews,\u00a0Chris.\u00a0Kennedy & Nixon: The Rivalry that Shaped Postwar America<\/em>. Free Press,\u00a02011.[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Tellingly, while radio listeners felt that Nixon won the debate, television viewers overwhelmingly thought Kennedy did.[footnote] \u201cSept. 26, 1960 | First Televised Presidential Debate.\u201d The New York Times<\/i>, The New York Times, 26 Sept. 2011, learning.blogs.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/26\/septe-26-1960-first-televised-presidential-debate\/.[\/footnote]<\/span><\/div>\r\n
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To Watch: Ronald Reagan<\/h3>\r\nOne of the masters of television was President Ronald Reagan. In the following excerpt from his famous 1987 speech in Berlin, he challenges Soviet premier\u00a0Mikhail Gorbachev to \"tear down this wall.\"\r\n\r\n