History of Media

This course introduces students to media ecology as an approach to the history and analysis of media as “environments” within which particular possibilities for social life, culture, and power relations take shape. Based on this perspective, we will explore a history of social and cultural development as seen from the perspective of transformations in communication, symbol systems, and media technologies from orality to mass media. We will orient our discussions not only to an understanding of the past, but as a way of understanding our present media situation in greater depth and wider perspective.