MSTU4016-08/Discuss 12

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Hi! Charles Taylor, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at McGill University and Templeton Prize-winning author of A Secular Age (and of the Social Imaginary reading from History of Communications), will be lecturing at Columbia as part of The Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life. The lecture is titled The Secular Age in a Global Context. It will be on Wednesday November 19th, 6:15 pm to 8:15 pm at the International Affairs Building, Room 1501. I didn't know where else to place it before Wednesday's class... Please feel free to delete it after the talk is finished. Thanks. Dino.

November 19
Interrogating the Media II: Communication and Systemic Change, circa 1930

Discussion Question
Discussion leader: Tina Yuan
Required Readings
Supplemental Reading


Contents

[edit] About the author--Ernest W. Burgess

Burgess played a central role in defining the urban research program of the "Chicago school" of sociology. Burgess and his fellow researcher, Robert E. Park, developed a theory of urban ecology which proposed that cities were environments analogous to those found in nature, governed by many of the same forces of Darwinian evolution that affected natural ecosystems.

Here is the Wiki link to Burgess' brief introduction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Burgess.

[edit] Introduction

Society may fairly be said to exist in communication. -John Dewey

Under the exactly identical title, “Communication,” Burgess depicted in these three journal papers in a row the portraits of the contemporary communication technologies and transportation within the “modern” society. During this period, transportation was surpassed by communication, which served to be the indices of social changes. From these different temporal contexts, we can perceive how quickly a certain technology had gained and lost its supremacy within only couple of years and how the older and new technology coordinate and integrate to form a new mode of application.

[edit] The development of transportation and communication and their importances

[edit] 1928

Modern social organization is formed and reformed by means of communication. Changes in communication may afford indexes of wider and more complicated changes taking place in society (p.118).

  1. Tranportation
    1. Railroads: Railroad was deemed to promote the social contacts, either by accelerating movement or determining the distribution of population. Although the peak of railroad building had long passed, the total miles of journey in the first quarter of the 19th century grew steadily. The number of passengers suffered steadily decline after 1920 because electric railroad, motor bus, and the automobile appeared and took up the short-ride transportation. Meanwhile, railroad was still in charge of long-distance rides.
    2. Automobile: The prevalence of automobile unprecedentedly brought the idea of mobility to the public and changed the social life of all communities (p.120). Great differences in the distribution of automobile exited.
    3. Aviation: Aviation caught public attention due to remarkable transoceanic flights in 1927. During this year, it was used mostly for commercial and postal services. The establishment of airports grew more and the first all-American aircraft was displayed. However, Burgess held speculations towards the effects of aviation upon social changes.
  2. Communication
    1. Telegraph: Telegraph introduced actual changes in the means of communication itself and reorganization of economic, cultural and political aspects in social life upon the basis of instantaneous transmission of news (p.122). With the invention of ocean-cable telegraph systems, the newspaper was allowed to enter the realm of world events that was previouly remote and unknown. The number of messages transferred by land and ocean telegragh cables grew immensely.
    2. Telephone: While the telegraph was in charge of public communication, the telephone took the area of personal intercommunication. It was considered another instrument of personal mobility in the sense of long-distance conversation. Burgess conservatively predicted that telephones and telephone calls would grow in a smaller rate than that in the initial stage. Parallelling with the automobile, the telephone brought personal mobility in the area of long-distance conversation to the public.
    3. Radio: Compared with phonograph, radio transmited present and living events in wireless telephony. The content covered not only entertainment but news, which forecast its influence. Along with the progress of television, the possibilities opened up for the combination of long-distance hearing and seeing (p.125).
    4. Printing: The ecology of newspaper and periodicals changed a lot. The circulation of weekly papers didn’t meet the increase of population at that period and was replaced with daily and Sunday papers because the latter were more prompt and allowed more special features. Quarterly journals catered to specialized interest groups and the monthly magazines targeted at national advertising (the number of magazines issued in 1925 equaled to that of the population).

--> The relationships between population and transportation/communication: The use of railrod remained close to the trend of population. The line of daily newspaper rose sharply above while that of automobile and radio were most marked.

--> Although the telephone, the automobile, and the radio had revolutionized the rural life more than ever since the 1920s, the progress of transportation and communication didn't always bring uniformity either nationally or internationally.

[edit] 1929

After dealing with the quantitative changes amassed by the numbers in 1928, Burgess shifted his attention to the qualitative changes of the transportation and communication. The focus of this year was on social changes, the decline of customary neighborhood control and enlarged freedom of individual, brought by the introduction of newer forms of transportation and communication. The social transformations occasioned problems of social adjustments. Besides, through newer forms of transportation and communication, the individual was participating imaginatively and actually more and more fully in the great society.

  1. Automobile & social disorganization and reorganization: It resulted in disorganization of old rural order and determining new territorial radius of reorganization. The personal mobility was increased and the social control of neighborhood was destroyed.
  2. Motion pictures & changing mores: According to Burgess, the motion picture was only one of the devices of communication which were at work undermining and modifying the mores and traditional forms of conduct (p.1075), even, resulting in the "Americanization" of the world. Contents of motion pictures had aroused parents’ concern for the bad effects on the youth; as a result, censorship had been established ostensibly. Talking films (movies) with synchronized sound tracks were introduced this year. However, the potential of movies was still doubted and the equipment for the motion pictures were not popular.
  3. Aviation and international relations: Practices of aviation took roots in transportation, in communication, and in international relations.
  4. Radio, politics & governmental regulation: It became an indispensible instrument of communication in political life. It was used in political campaign, was said to increase the popular vote, served to check upon newspapers, and allowed citizens to participate democracy. Relative regulations of radio transmission were enacted, and those who live in the rural areas benefitted the most among all the population. Due to its popularity, Burgess predicted that it would supersede daily papers as the chief channel of political communication.
  5. Communication & Social control: The pertinent question is whether man and society are to be conditioned by these new technoques of movement and contact or are to limit their scope and direct their expression (p.1080). These new techniques of movement became indispensable instruments for the functioning of a world-society.

[edit] 1930

It was a year of integration and coordination. Devices of transportation and communication originally considered hostile to each other now co-ordinated and integrated. Those in control of the older form of transportation and communication recognized that the new instruments had secured a permanent and growing place in the economic and social life of the country (p. 991). Combination of different means of transportation facilitated the connection of the world.

  1. Transportation:
    1. Railroads: Railroad transportation still sufferred decline facing the competition of other means of transportation.
    2. Motor Vehicles: The number of cars and the use of them incresed rapidly. The motor coaches and trucks co-ordinated with railroad lines.
    3. Aeroplanes: With the aid of telephone and radio for navigational purposes, the aviation safety was enhanced.
  2. Co-ordination & Integration:
    1. Motion Picture & other forms of communication: The motion picute became the integral part at the end of 1929. Weekly picture theater attendance even closely paralleled the population of the United States (p.995). The inventions and discoveries of telephone research labs, such as recording and reproduction sounds, were adapted to sound pictures.
  3. The Newspaper, Radio and Advertising:
Radio was an integral factor in the economic and social organization of the country: it became the instrument of police work, schoolroom uses, and weather forecasting. Radio broadcasting increased the visible attendence as well as invisible audience, as a result, radio advertising expenses increaed a lot. Newspaper showed no decline as Burgess predicted in 1929 but became interrelated with radio. The vertical integration within the mass media appeared: twenty broadcasting stations were owned by daily newspapers and radio news and advertising were prominent features of newspapers.

[edit] Discussion questions

  1. What is the significance of the number of population when assessing the development of transportation and communication?
  2. “The pertinent question is whether man and society are to be conditioned by these new techniques of movement and contact or are to limit their scope and direct their expression (1929, p.1080).” This question is still valid and unanswered today. Moreover, the relationships between transportation and communication devices were more complicated. How would you define the quantitative and qualitative social transformation of this era?
  3. Most of the devices of transportation and communication analyzed here were invented and mass adopted in the US. As a result, the social changes were most prominent here. For example, motion pictures were depicted to bring the “Americanization” of the world. Is this the precursor of “globalization” later on? What is your opinion about this global transformation?
  4. “Radio, allowing people to intelligently participate in a democracy, served to check upon the newspaper.” Does radio serve to best provide public sphere to boost deliberative democracy? What are the possible affordances and limitations?
  5. Media are often used in the political campaign. Tocqueville said that “nothing but a newspaper can drop the same thought into a thousand mind. (1835, p.119)” And looking back to the history of US politics: Roosevelt Jr. took the advantage of the radio and won the election, J. F. Kennedy the television and Obama the Internet. What do you think the role and the affordances of different media in this specific end?
  6. When devices of transportation might weaken the local communities, those of communication help to form a virtual one. Through the newer forms of communication, the individual is participating imaginatively and actually more and more fully in “the great society.” How does the radio or any of devices of communication to which you would like to address bring this assertion into reality?
  7. How would you predict some of the contradictory means of communication, such as the newspaper and the internet, cooperate in the future?
  8. Also, the computer could serve as the function of television, radio, etc. Is it a form of co-ordination or integration? Or will computer, along with the Internet, supplant all the other means of communication one day?
  9. According to the structural-functionalist's point of view, to make segmented society organized, "systemness" and integration are needed. Do you think the radio or the telephone bring the society "systemness" and integration? or the other way around? What about the computer and the internet?
  10. The older form survived by transforming its function. Even, the vertical integration within mass media appeared. However, sometimes certain media contents or forms of performance would better survive in one medium than the other. When talking about the influence of the radion, it reminded me of one movie, Winchell (Here is the link to the movie trailer: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1843527961/). Walter Winchell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell) was a top notch journalist during the 1920s and he really nailed it when he was on air. But after the television won over public attention, he seemed to lose his edge. In this case, not all the media afford to integrate or co-ordinate. Is there any pre-requisite that allows integration or co-ordination happen?

[edit] Key Terms

  • Communication devices
While machine and factory meant routine and repression, new devices of communication bring adventure and freedom (1929, p.1080).
  • Mobility
  • Social transfomation
  • Systemic changes
  • Integration
  • Co-ordination
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