Navigating Technomedia by Sam Han covered a few main topics in a relatively short amount of writing. He spoke about a ‘digital divide’ between areas with different technological capabilities, discussed three historical eras of technomedia, and he spoke about the real time capabilities of broadcasting.
One main point Han makes is that there is a ‘digital divide’ between people who have access to the newest technologies and those without access to them because of their more rural location. This issue was even discussed by nations in Sweden during the United Nations’ World Summit on the Information Society in 2003.
The next main point Han presents in the chapter is regarding three eras of technomedia and their histories. The mechanical era refers to print media, printing presses, alphabet letters versus characters, and photography; he presents moralist photographers and scientist photographers as the two ‘brands’ that existed. Even film is included in the mechanical era. The next era of technomedia was the electric era. This era includes telegraphy, which first allowed text to defy distance and time by instantly being transmitted, the telephone, and even personal computers. The final era is the broadcast era; the era includes radio and television broadcasts.
An interesting subject Han discusses is in regards to static during broadcasts. The broadcast era brought with it live feed with real time capabilities, so even if the broadcast wasn’t live, seeing static made the audience believe what they were viewing was live.
~T
No comments:
Post a Comment