Overheads: Week 1
Purposes of Media History
Understanding the present by knowing how the present came to be.
Provide comparisons to assess and evaluate the past and present.
Provide insight into origins of present practices and beliefs.
Sharpen critical thinking about media in the present.
History simplified
What happened?
Why?
What does it mean?
The Past? What has
happened. History?
Was it recorded? How?
Is it still available?
Has anyone selected
it for examination?
Why or why not?
What does it mean?
Interpretation: What
someone in the future
thinks about it.
History: A selection
of the recorded past
framed by what people
in some future time
think about it
Todays quotation
"Truths about the past are possible, even if they are
not absolute, and hence are worth struggling for."
Source: Appleby, Hunt and Jacob, "Telling the Truth
about History"
Avoiding presentism:
The tendency to judge
historical events by present-
day standards.
Solutions:
Consider the past in the
context of its own times -
the past has value in itself,
not just as a stepping
stone to the present.
Ask yourself: Are there
better ways way to frame
the history of communications
than as a journey of glorious
progress to the present -
or as a slide downhill from
some mythical "golden age"?
Goal: To try to understand
communications as it was in
the minds of people at the
time - not merely a crude
model of what it has
become.
True or False
The Revolutionary-era press in America provided
the model for freedom of the press, objectivity and other important
aspects of the role of the media in a democracy.
Amendment I (Ratified 1791)
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment
of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging
the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress
of grievances.
Legacy of Freedom of the Press, 1752-1801?
Questions:
Was there more/less freedom of the press 200 years ago
than today?
Was the press in this era more neutral or more
argumentative?
Which of today's political media would be more familiar
to the founders -- broadcast commentators or "information"-based
newspapers?
U.S. Supreme Court: Interpreter of the constitution since 1803
Theory of ‘Original Intent: What did the Founders say, and what
did they mean??
Criteria to consider:
Available documentation?
Context of events?
Use of language?
Events timeline
American Revolution, 1776-1783
Constitutional Convention, 1787
Bill of Rights Debate, 1789-1793
Alien and Sedition Acts, 1798
QUOTATION
‘AMERICANS! Forever bear in mind the Battle of Lexington –
where British troops, unmolested and unprovoked, wantonly in a most
inhuman manner, fired upon and killed a number of our countrymen,
then robbed, ransacked and burned their houses! Nor could the tears
of defenseless women, some of whom were in the pains of childbirth;
the cries of helpless babes, nor the prayers or age old, confined to
beds of sickness, appease their thirst for blood – or divert them
from their design of murder and robbery.’
Massachusetts Spy, May 3, 1775
Printers and the American Revolution
Quotation
John Adams, Revolutionary and second President: "The
Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was
in the hearts and minds of the people."
Communication: Printed essays, letters, pamphlets, newspapers,
speech
Information networks: Committees of Correspondence, organized
by Samuel Adams and the Sons of the Liberty (Boston)
Importance of press to Founders
Founders realized:
Public opinion was central to the success of the American
Revolution, and to implement public policy.
Public opinion was shaped by communications, the newspapers and
magazines of the day.
Political leaders needed to use the power of the press to shape
public opinion.
To accomplish this, leaders such as Alexander Hamilton and
Thomas Jefferson sponsored partisan newspapers to promote their views
and to criticize those of their opponents.