Why is media history important?

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Why is media history important?

The study of media history is vital in the understanding of, people and there societies. Through the study of the past we gain an understanding of what and why things happened. History gives you back your past. In the same way as individual people need memory to shape identity and plan for the future, communities need history to give dimension and meaning to the present. Without an understanding of the past, the present doesn't make much sense. As Shannon Bohan writes “History can broaden one’s horizons and open the doors to endless possibilities. The study of history can not only enlighten the mind, but it can prove instrumental in preventing the repeat of past mistakes. Without history, there can be no future."(Shannon Bohan '04).

The media plays an integral part to people’s lives. From the moment we wake up we are engulfed in a media-centric world. The study of media history is important because it helps us understand the past, present and future. Through an understanding of where the media came from, we can predict things by seeing how they happened before. The study of media history also gives us an identity. The media presents us with images of the world all the time. We understand cultures and ideologies through the media. The media shapes are beliefs, hence by looking at the history of media we understand culture in a way that know other source of material can.

To understand the history of media it’s important to see how others have studied it. The problem with the study of media history is that “media history tends not to illuminate the links between media development and wider trends in society because it is often narrowly focused on the content or organisation of the media” (Curran, J. 2002). The reason for this is that it is preoccupied with “institutional development” (Curran, J. 2002). Media has a huge effect on society, by not looking at the media’s impact, you can’t understand how and what the media is.

Modern historians suffer from only looking at the technology of media. “Media studies have given more attention to technological determent version of media development” (Curran, J. 2002) Historian's tend to look at the technological advancement as being the critical points in media history. Historians tend to look at media history beginning in the 1920’s. “The arrival of radio broadcasting to set alongside the popular press and mass cinema going…first generated discussion about the media in mass society”(pg1reader). However the media grew to meet the demands of the new culture of those living in the nineteenth century.

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The demands of meeting a new culture began with the rise of the radical press. The radical press was born from an industrialized, urbanised working class. They had no political power, and no ways of expressing their opinion. In 1831 the Poor Mans Guardian was set up, unstamped, meaning that it became very cheap to purchase. It contained mainly letters from working class individuals who were voicing there concerns about the society in which they live. The poor Mans Guardian was very much a working class newspaper; it gave a voice to the previously ignored.

The respectable press ...

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