I enjoyed the content for class on Tuesday. The focus of this post is on the Sell and Spin video. I never thought that town criers would be the earliest form of advertisements and commercials. Moving forward in time, the fact that every person sees upwards of 3,000 ads per day is shocking. With this, the idea that almost everything we see is an ad in and of itself is a captivating point to stop and think about. We live in a culture of consumption driven by advertisements everywhere, and personalized ads have revolutionized the selling market. Everyone participates in consumption, but it is up to us to step back and think about the product’s source and the ethics of personalized advertising.

Sell & Spin A History of Advertising (1999):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPBf7km7NAkLinks to an external site.

https://www.canva.com/design/DAFajmQbM6M/czjqMzCs3S1N-zaGC-vZOA/edit

The three main questions I used to guide my infographic were what is the telegraph, how it works, and what inspired it? These questions framed the way I approached the information layout. Once I was done with that, I added images and worked on the spacing of information.

Sources: 

Samuel Morse: Famous People, Incredible Lives. Films On Demand. 2010. Accessed February 14, 2023. https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=98103&xtid=65504. 

PBS. “The Telegraph.” YouTube video. May 22, 2019. Accessed February 14, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HOLzShLPoQ

Pictures:

“Morse code.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Accessed February 15, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_code

“Telegraph Key.” ClipArt Etc. Florida Center for Instructional Technology, 2023. Accessed February 15, 2023. https://etc.usf.edu/clipart/1500/1524/telegraphkey_1.htm

I found the cave painting activity incredibly fun! Of our two choices, we chose the more entertaining option, “a dangerous squirrel attacking people by the lake.” Our creation method was discussing it first and deciding which person would draw what. Additionally, we looked up pictures of cave paintings to get inspiration. I was disappointed because I could not find an example of a squirrel. Looking at the cave painting was still helpful in thinking about how to draw people. Our biggest challenge was how to convey that the squirrel was killing people. After discussing, we used Sarah’s tablet to create an example drawing for class. Overall, I was happy that the class was able to guess our phrase, even though it took a few minutes. I found this activity interesting because it allowed us to think about how pictures can be used as a form of communication and how to depict a phrase.

This is the example that I found:

“Serra da Capivara, Piauí, Brazil. Dated to: 28,000 to 6,000 B.C. | In this national park, paintings of jaguar, tapir and red deer (shown here, c. 10,000 B.C.) interact with human figures in scenes that include dancing and hunting. Niède Guidon / Bradshaw Foundation” (Marchant, 2016).

Sources:

Marchant, Jo. “A Journey to the Oldest Cave Paintings in the World.” Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian Magazine, 2016. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/journey-oldest-cave-paintings-world-180957685/

I found the TED talk about coffeehouses very interesting. I think it is imperative to discuss this topic in relation to social changes within our society. Nowadays, people typically go to coffeehouses to work or spend time with friends, not to talk to random people. I do think that the modern ‘equivalent’ is a bar or brewery — just like Dr. McClurken brought up in class. I never really thought about those spaces as somewhere to converse with people outside of your social circle, but I do think this is true. It’s very easy to strike up a conversation with people at these places. 

Sources: 

I found that reading Downey was helpful in understanding technological change over time. The book was easy to read and understand. I think reading Downey at the beginning of the semester was a great idea because it provides a frame for the class and the information we will be learning. I am excited for what is to come! 

I really enjoyed the in class activity where we created an infographic about a chapter of Downey. This allowed us to talk with our groups and better understand Downey as a whole. We also learned that Canva has a collaboration feature which allowed all of us to work on the infographic at the same time. I also enjoyed the meme creation assignment! 

Sources: 

Downey, Gregory John, American Historical Association, and Society for the History of Technology. Technology and Communication in American History. Washington, DC: American Historical Association, 2011.

A project that I would love to participate in this semester is something about oral histories. I am somewhat familiar with the idea of oral history and traditions, as I’ve touched on it in some preservation classes and Native history courses with Professor Sellers. Another interesting project idea is recreating cave paintings ourselves. I think this would be a fun in class project or an interesting take home assignment that would be good for individual work. 

The project I am most interested in is creating a podcast or documentary. It would be nice to use some class time (if time permits) to brainstorm ideas for the podcast/documentary and begin writing a script or basic notes to guide the conversation. Then, we could find a time outside of class to record the podcast in the HCC studio as well as spending time editing it if needed. Lastly, I think it would be beneficial for groups to listen to other podcasts created in the class and then have a discussion about the different approaches taken for the podcast/documentary. I think this is a great way to get into the more creative sphere of learning and would make a wonderful group project. 

I created a simple timeline with 3 entries. https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1Tyge2z9PkGT-xIsrStsyYAqasSnaGyvrkNyhG_4iNTU&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=650

The two introductions I decided to read were The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood by James Gleick and Media Technology and Society by Brian Winston. I found that these two articles were very different from each other in many ways. Winston approaches the topic much more theoretically, making it difficult to fully understand at times. While Gleick’s article reads more like that of any other history article, it is easy to follow and understand the points he is trying to make. 

Winston sets up the article by talking about what an information revolution really means and argues that ‘revolution’ is the wrong word to use. He goes on to state that “there is nothing in the histories of electrical and electronic communication systems to indicate that significant major changes have not been accommodated by preexisting social formations” (Winston, 2). This statement made me think about how technology has changed over time and its impact on people. Specifically, I think that Winston is trying to say that before there were telephones, people wrote letters, etc., and therefore who are we to say that their forms of communication were ineffective or that new inventions resulted in a revolution. Throughout the article, he uses a model to explain his points, which I found interesting. I would like to discuss this more in class so I can better understand his model. 

Gleick’s article explains that information is at the forefront of the world, as it is what everything is based on. He discusses how the transistor came about by John Pierce at Bell Labs and how it sparked a “revolution in electronics” (Gleick, 3). Moving forward, he talks about Claude Shannon and the invention of the word “bit” to quantify information. With this, he compares the information revolution to the scientific revolution, which I thought was an interesting way to explain how the information age has impacted the world around us. My favorite statement in the article is, “We have information fatigue, anxiety, and glut” (Gleick, 11). This makes me want to explore this idea of “information fatigue” and what it means for our society today. 

Gleick, James. The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood. New York: Pantheon, 2011.

Winston, Brian. Media Technology and Society: A History From the Telegraph to the Internet. Re-issue. London: Routledge, 1998.

I decided to take this class because it is not something I would normally take, and I am excited to learn about the history of the information age, especially because my generation experienced the increase in social media and readily available information at any second of the day. 

I am interested in doing a broadcasting project, either radio or live tweeting of historical events. I feel like this will be a really fun project that allows us to be creative to captivate the audience. 

One piece of advice that I will be thinking about this semester is having fun with the projects and in-class activities. I often find myself caught up with perfectionism and what others will think of me in class. I believe that reminding myself that learning is meant to be fun and not just academic will benefit my performance in this course.