By: gfesadmin on November 17, 2012
I flew into Jakarta early this week for a gender training of trainers workshop. While engaging in the workshop during the day, I read the second half of Briggs and Burke’s Social History of the Media at night. I couldn’t help but filter much of the information through the gender lens that I had donned.…
By: gfesadmin on November 16, 2012
In the past two weeks I read the book „A social history of the media. From Gutenberg to the internet“ by Asa Briggs and Peter Burke. Last week I concentrated more in the impact different early inventions like the printing press had on communication, media and our absorbing social behavior. This week now, we are…
By: gfesadmin on November 16, 2012
Centuries ago, Gutenberg took center stage with the printing press which allowed the masses access to books and articles that only the wealthy and affluent could afford. With such tools, now that the common people had an opportunity to be persuasive and use their knowledge as a powerful resource in their daily business transactions, social…
By: gfesadmin on November 15, 2012
We get all of our information through some form of media. Most people feel there is a bias and have a degree of skepticism. Reactions to media we do not agree with can be intense. Some think there is a subversive conspiracy. We may think a few powerful people seek to control society. The long…
By: Joy Mindo on November 15, 2012
This week the first railway line was opened by the president of Kenya. The last railway line was built in the 1930s. The new railway line has been built for commuters from the city center in Nairobi to the main international airport, 30km away. As I read the chapters on new processes and patterns, on…
By: gfesadmin on November 15, 2012
A Social History of The Media is a history book. It’s stated aim is “to show the relevance of the past to the present by bringing history into media studies and the media into history.” Overall, I enjoyed reading the book. Both Asa Briggs and Peter Burke wrote in a clear, understandable, and enjoyable style,…
By: gfesadmin on November 15, 2012
It is a day of great celebration in India and I hear the sounds of random fireworks. Millions of Indians all over India and the world are celebrating one of the most popular annual festivals of Hindus. It is Deepavali or ‘Diwali’ in short, the “festival of lights”. India knows how to celebrate a festival. …
By: gfesadmin on November 15, 2012
In the second half of A Social History of the Media, Briggs and Burke shift to an analysis of the more recent methods of communication. In the late 1800’s there was a move towards the blending of information and entertainment creatively called infotainment. Informing the public was (and is) a worthy goal for the…
By: gfesadmin on November 15, 2012
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” – that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. – John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn Jean-François Lyotard in his groundbreaking The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge spoke of the “computerization of society” and how this shift would highlight the connections and relations…
By: gfesadmin on November 15, 2012
There was devotion and dedication. There was love and passion. There was craving and yearning. We could see it in the faces of our neighbors and friends. A surprise at first, but after some time, we too began to experience the same sensations! And it happened each night. Six nights a week! It was our…
By: gfesadmin on November 15, 2012
Recently, I watched the new James Bond movie “Skyfall.” One specific scene (please see attached video clip) reminded me of the book my cohort and I are reading for our doctoral program; and particularly chapter 8 “In and Out of Cyberspace.” The book is called A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the…
By: gfesadmin on November 15, 2012
It was like Christmas morning. Out of nowhere my parents decided to surprise my brother, sister and I on a whim. For six months we had been asking, not really, more like begging our parents to buy us an Atari 2600. As a ten year old in 1982, I thought it was the coolest game…
By: gfesadmin on November 10, 2012
The first four chapters of the Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet proved to be an interesting and fascinating read. I was drawn to the writings on the Media and the Public Sphere in Early Europe. I was struck by the many parallels between the role of the media during the…
By: gfesadmin on November 9, 2012
I have a love-hate relationship with books. Early in my career as a pastor, I collected books of many kinds. Books are the tools of the trade for pastors which include Biblical commentaries, dictionaries, encyclopedias, Greek and Hebrew language tools, sermon illustrations etc. As I grew in my trade I added books on history, biographies,…
By: gfesadmin on November 9, 2012
Within the last 24 hours, several dozen teenagers have expressed to me their feelings about the recent presidential election. While some came across angry and disappointed, others were excited and hopeful, and still others could care less either way. Maybe one of the most striking similarities in each group was that the majority of the…
By: gfesadmin on November 9, 2012
“Kissing a painting or a statue was a common way of expressing devotion…” states Briggs and Burke in A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet. (p. 7) Visual and tactile are the icons and statues of Christianity. There are no words needed when an illiterate individual experiences the emotions of beloved…
By: gfesadmin on November 8, 2012
#dminlgp: “A Thread Between A Social History of The Media” dminlgp: A Social History of the Media by Briggs and Burk is a detailed historical account of the many changes in communication media. It provides an account of modern forms of communication covering its massive sweeps and every significant wave of change from the print…
By: gfesadmin on November 8, 2012
A Social History of the Media by Briggs and Burk is a detailed historical account of the many changes in communication media. It provides an account of modern forms of communication covering its massive sweeps and every significant wave of change from the print revolution to the Internet. The chapter on Media history may be…
By: Joy Mindo on November 8, 2012
The impact of Media in society in Kenya has been revolutionized by the mobile phone. It is used for verbal conversation, to send text message but most importantly it is a great tool in economics. Most of the money transfers are performed using mobile money technologies. It is common to see churches giving the mobile…
By: gfesadmin on November 8, 2012
When studying the scriptures, one learns as an important step to evaluate the development of the bible, the different traditions, that collected the numerous parts of the bible to the extent and canon that we oversee today. Before entering the analysis of the written text, scholars always research old oral traditions, the underlying spoken histories…
