Sam, Stephanie and Darrylynn….the infamous media trio. Yes, the three of us joined together to create the ultimate Image Curation show. Our process began with simply tossing around a few ideas here and there. We wanted to create something showing evolution, and how far we have come in the world of media. One of our original ideas was to illustrate, within a slide show, the role of women in television. We came out with the idea of showing the evolution of media.
We collected and gathered information starting at the very beginning of time, with cave drawings. These we felt were one of the very first forms of communication and the creation of a medium. From these drawings we moved onto stone carvings and Egyptian writing, the use of pictures and images to form a language. The phonetic alphabet came next. A few quotes were incorporated here and there regarding media and its development throughout history. After the Rosetta stone and different forms of writing, we quoted Carol Burnett saying, “Words, once they are printed, have a life of their own”. This quote led into the development of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1450. Famous writer William Shakespeare was also shown, for he also gave words a life of their own.
After the printing press we sped along to images of the first telegraph, typewriter, camera and early newspapers, all in proper chronological sequence. The radio and television were our next main focus, showing early versions of the two mediums, and also influential people on the mediums such as Orson Wells, Charlie Chaplin, the American Bandstand, I Love Lucy and Marilyn Monroe. The slide show slowly came to a close as we displayed images of newspapers, magazines, televisions, cameras and radios evolving into the products we have today. Overall, it was a well-organized and well-put together sequence of events throughout media history.
I was responsible for quotes and decoration within the slide show. We all searched for and chose the images collectively, and arranged them in chronological order. Everyone shared their own ideas and input as to what the slide show should look like. It really was a group effort. Everyone came up with particular prominent figures or technologies to include.
From this experience I have learned more about the evolution of media. It was interesting to see the chronological order of different mediums because you could see what people were thinking and how they used the technology they had to advance into something else. For example, going from writing with ink, to creating a printing press, or from silent films to sound films. I found it an interesting evolution, very logical yet abstract also. The inventions all seem easy enough to society now, but when they first came about they were great ideas and wondrous inventions. Furthermore, I have learned more about the influence of technology and media. It has been an ever present and growing field of work. Slowly and slowly the media became more and more part of everyday life, and it continues to do so. From books and newspapers to television screens and radios, these mediums provide consistent news updates and daily commentary. Today I look around and I am witness to mediums always being in affect. Right now as I type this article, I have music playing. At school students listen to ipods, have magazines in their hands, television shows to watch at home and advertisements are everywhere. As we evolved our slide show, I wondered what it would have been like back when there was no consistent advertising or form of broadcasting. I imagine it would have been a very quite place.
As I look through the pictures of our final slide show I notice that all the images collected are illustrating the medium being used for entertainment purposes; Orson Wells is seen reading from War of the Worlds, American Bandstand is seen on the television, Charlie Chaplin and Marilyn Monroe were prominent figures of entertainment, the newspapers show comics or headlines of drastic events, while magazines show celebrities. As we put these images together we focused on the evolution of media and the creation of technology, I did not take into consideration why the technology was created. In our class notes, it states under “Some laws of communications media”, that “Media arises as attempts of humans to solve problems of information” (Lipton). From the images in our slide show it clearly illustrates that these mediums have been used to communicate entertainment more than anything else. They are more than just the evolution of mediums, but also of the development of a world of entertainment.
As the evolution process continues, the media world will work to form better means of communication, while also advancing entertainment. Are we using these mediums for the right purposes? I suppose only time will tell.
Lipton, Mark. “Some laws of communications media.” Mass Communications. The University of GuelphHumber, Toronto, ON. 26 September 2007.
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