Media Timeline

My group members and I got thinking of the media timeline, and it didn’t take too long on what we felt to be considered an accomplishment to today’s society. We felt that electricity, the printing press, the Internet, the alphabet, and the telephone to be effective forms of media communication in today’s society.

Our lovely timeline begins with the alphabet.

The alphabet doesn’t just create itself over night, but instead it took a series of steps. It began with the use of symbols as a form of written communication. As far as we’re concerned, the very first use of symbols between each other was through early caveman paintings, where pictures and symbols were drawn out. Progressing after that, the early Egyptians used hieroglyphics to communicate. This was around 3200 BC, and the Ancient Egyptians were able to establish the first pictographic writing.

Next in our media timeline is the printing press. The printing press was invented in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg. He established to turn our language into a form of communication technology. This gave everyone the new ability to learn how to read rather than resort to verbal communication. This form of communication created the means needed to learn how to visually teach ourselves a different way to learn. The Catholic Church had a bittersweet encounter with the Gutenberg’s invention. The upside to Catholicism at the time was that numerous Holy Bibles were printed, enough for almost every family to have in their home. The downfall was when indulgences were printed and stacked ready to be signed by priests. At the beginning stage of the printing press, there was very limited knowledge they were able to print at the time (only the Holy Bible and indulgences). Today, the printing press has evolved to providing us with newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, and books filled with knowledge. Since the invention of the printing press, we were able to teach ourselves to read and write the alphabet and turn our speech into a visual means of communication

Electricity can be transformed into light and heat, as it is a form of energy. Alessandro Volta is responsible for inventing the battery. The battery was the first source of continuous electric current that was contained within an object. This form of energy source evolved into detachable energy providers to portable devices, such as automobiles, telephones, laptops, and cameras.

Our next remarkable invention is the telegraph. Samuel Morse invented the first telegraph in 1837. He created a way to travel signals through wires to reach a lengthier distance between two people. This form of communication. It was only until the late 1870’s where Alexander Graham Bell found a way to transmit verbal speech through what was called the telephone. Just a year later, Thomas Edison improved the quality of the sound in the telephone and made it popular to have.

The Internet now closes our media timeline. In1969, the Internet was first invented through the use of modems and a phone line. Today it has grown into the popularity where we use it as a source of information, entertainment purposes, email, instant messengers, and even blogs =).

"Electricity." Canada Science and Technology Museum. 10 Nov. 2007 http://www.sciencetech.technomuses.ca/english/schoolzone/Info_Electricity.cfm.

"History of the Printing Press." The Great Idea Finder. 1 May 2007. 10 Nov. 2007 http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/printpress.htm.

"Telephone History." Private Line. 10 Nov. 2007 http://www.privateline.com/mt_telephonehistory/.

"The Birth of the Alphabet." CedarSeed. Joumana Medle. 10 Nov. 2007 http://www.cedarseed.com/water/alphabet.html.