THE EVOLUTION OF
TRADITIONAL TO
NEW MEDIA
EVOLUTION OF MEDIA
PRE- INDUSTRIAL AGE
INDUSTRIAL AGE
ELECTRONIC AGE
NEW/INFORMATION AGE
PRE-INDUSTRIAL AGE (BEFORE 1700)
People discovered fire, developed
paper from plants, and forged
weapons and tools with stone, bronze,
copper and iron
PRE-INDUSTRIAL AGE (BEFORE 1700)
Example Forms of Media:
oPapyrus in Egypt (2500 BC)
oCave paintings (35,000 BC)
oClay tablets in Mesopotamia (2400 BC)
oActa Diurna in Rome (130 BC)
o Dibao in China (2nd Century)
oCodex in Mayan region (5th Century)
oPrinting press using wood blocks (220 AD)
First papyrus was only
used in Egypt, but by about
1000 BC people all over
West Asia began buying
papyrus from Egypt and
using it, since it was much
more convenient than clay
tablets(less breakable, and
not as heavy!). People
made papyrus in small
sheets and then glued the
sheets together to make big
pieces.
PAPYRUS PLANT
In prehistoric art, the term “cave paintings” encompasses any parietal art which involves the
application of colour pigments on the walls, floors or ceilings of ancient rock shelters. A monochrome
cave paintings is a picture made with only one colour (usually black)-see, for instance, the
monochrome images at Chauvet
In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian ṭuppu) were used as a writing medium,
especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age.
Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay tablet with a stylus often made of reed
(reed pen).
Acta Diurna (Latin: Daily Acts sometimes translated as Daily Public Records) were daily Roman
official notices, a sort of daily gazette. They were carved on stone or metal and presented in message
boards in public places like the Forum of Rome. They were also called simply Acta History. The first
form of Acta appeared around 131 BC during the Roman Republic.
The Chinese “Dibao” is the earliest and oldest newspaper in the
world.
Maya codices (singular codex) are folding books written by the pre-Columbian Maya
civilization in Maya hieroglyphic script on Mesoamerican bark cloth. The Maya developed
their huun-paper around the 5th century, which is roughly the same time that the codex
became predominant over the scroll in the Roman world
INDUSTRIAL AGE (1700S1930S)
People used the power of steam,
developed machine tools, established iron
production, and the manufacturing of
various products (including books through
the printing press).
INDUSTRIAL AGE (1700S1930S)
Example Forms of Media:
o Printing press for mass production (1900)
o Newspaper- The London Gazette (1740)
o Typewriter (1800)
o Telephone (1876)
o Motion picture photography/projection (1890)
o Commercial motion pictures (1913)
o Motion picture with sound (1926)
o Telegraph
o Punch cards
The first typewriter to be
commercially successful was
invented in 1868 by Americans
Christopher Latham Sholes, Frank
Haven Hall, Carlos Glidden and
Samuel W. Soule in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, although Sholes soon
disowned the machine and refused
to use, or even to recommend it.
Alexander Graham Bell’s Large Box Telephone, 1876. On March 7, 1876, Alexander
Graham Bell, scientist, inventor and innovator, received the first patent for an “apparatus for
transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically,” a device he called the telephone.
The history of film technology traces the development of film technology from the initial development of "moving pictures" at
the end of 19th century to the present time. Motion pictures were initially exhibited as a fairground novelty and developed into
one of the most important tools of communication and entertainment in the 20th century. Major developments in motion
picture technology have included the adoption of synchronized motion picture sound, color motion picture film, and the
adoption of digital film technologies to replace physical film stock at both ends of the production chain by digital image
sensors and projectors.
MOTION PICTURE WITH SOUND (1926)
A sound film is
a motion picture with
synchronized sound,
or sound technologically
coupled to image, as
opposed to a silent film.
ELECTRONIC AGE (1930S TO
1980S)
• The invention of the transistor ushered in the electronic
age. People harnessed the power of transistors that led to
the transistor radio, electronic circuits, and the early
computers. In this age, long distance communication
became more efficient.
ELECTRONIC AGE (1930S TO 1980S)
Example Forms of Media:
o Transistor Radio
o Television (1941)
oLarge electronic computers
oMainframe computers - i.e. IBM 704 (1960)
oOHP, LCD projectors
