THE PRESS: NEGLECTED FACTOR IN THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY . HAROLD INNIS, 1949

“CIVILISATION HAS BEEN DOMINATED AT DIFFERENT STAGES BY

VARIOUS MEDIA OF COMMUNICATION SUCH AS CLAY, PAPYRUS,

PARCHMENT, AND PAPER PRODUCED FIRST FROM RAGS AND THEN

FROM WOOD. EACH MEDIUM HAS ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR THE TYPE

OF MONOPOLY OF KNOWLEDGE WHICH WILL BE BUILT AND WHICH

WILL DESTROY THE CONDITIONS SUITED TO CREATIVE THOUGHT AND

BE DISPLACED BY A NEW MEDIUM WITH ITS PECULIAR TYPE OF

MONOPOLY OF KNOWLEDGE.”Innis, Harold, The Press: A neglected factor in the economic history of the twentieth century. London: Oxford University Press, 1949, p.5

Like the threads of a spiders web, beginning at the core and

extending outwards the means of publishing have over time

developed from the original founding communicative

creations of language, writing, art and music. but, instead of

being destroyed over time to be replaced by different

mediums, they have permeated every facet of human

history. Through human necessity to develop and create

these founding creations have grown within a contemporary

context to communicate more information to a wider

audience. These core creations are the keystone to all other

communicative medium that have come after.

Like the threads of a spiders web, beginning at the core and extending outwards the means of publishing have over time developed from the original founding communicative creations of language, writing, art and music. But, instead of being destroyed over time to be replaced by different mediums, they have permeated every facet of human history. Through human necessity to develop and create, these founding creations have grown within a contemporary context to communicate more information to a wider audience. These core creations are the keystone to all other communicative medium that have followed.

The voice of the masses has lead to the development and communication of self expression, concepts and ideas, that have laid the foundations for contemporary modes of publishing. Miklόs Kontra, Professor of English and Linguistics at the Hungarian Academy of Science sates that “Language cannot be frozen. It naturally evolves, borrowsand develops. Language is naturally permeable and permeated.”

Innis argues that

“the type of

monopoly of

knowledge which

will be built and

which will destroy

the conditions

suited to creative

though”, but

without language

and the ability to

express yourself,

easily and

effectively

creativity and

change cannot

flourish nor be

communicated to

the masses.

‘The possibilities born of linguistic diversity including notably the variety of concepts and forms found among different languages’. (Kontra,1999) Like Kontra, Derrida states that ‘Language is thus considered to be a representation of a more original thought. 'The message itself is not, but only represents, the absolutely creative moment'. (Dissemination, p.88).

Indeed, it is well known that the total of human knowledge

has

greatly benefitted from borrowing and learning between

and among

languages. Position this within a contemporary context and

the current digital age and the possibilities for

communication are endless.

Art, it can be said is the original form of

publishing, from the cave paintings of France to

the rock painting of Australia’s Indigenous

people. A most simplistic mode of publishing

that has continued and developed to become

prolific in its nature and in it effects on society.

Art has existed as means of communicating

concepts on a different level and unlike writing,

has not been dictated by a male class system but

is a means of expression for all. Such is the

availability of artistic expression that it has been

utilized and expanded upon right up until a

modern times.

Like the

development of

creativity within the

artistic medium of

Abstract

Expressionism.

Which is noted as

having developed

from surrealism and

cubism. It is clear

the progressive

step like nature of

art feeds from what

has been, to create

what is to come. A

tangible example

that no medium is

destroy, but

altered.

Like that of Pop

Art. A visual art

movement that

emerged in the

1950s in Britain

and the United

States. That was

the progressive

movement from

Abstract

Expression of

post World War

Two America to

the social

context of the

1950’s.

Indicating the

constant changes

within the art

medium.

Dr Dominique Collon states that early writing was

developed from using pictures to using the wedge-shaped

characters known as 'cuneiform'. Thus from art to writing

communication developed into written form But like most

significant change there are those that object. Like that of

the great thinker Plato.

“[Writing] will introduce forgetfulness into the soul of those who learn it: they will not practice using their memory because they will put their trust in writing, which is external and depends on signs that belong to others, instead of trying to remember from the inside, completely on their own”. (Phaedrus 275a-b)

With writing has come the need to hold ideas within a

tangible medium to allow a wide spread means of

publishing information, it is creativity and necessity

that have driven the creation of writing into books for

the intellectual advancement of human kind.

Again it seems that

when Innis states,

“[Media] be displaced

by a new medium

with its peculiar type

of monopoly of

knowledge’. ( Innis,

1949) He is incorrect,

one of the greatest

inventions to affect

society has been the

printing press, driven

solely by the written

word and the

creativity of human

invention.

There is little to rival the shear affect that books

have had on all societies. Publishing has led to the

democratisation of knowledge. Writing in all

languages has spread ideas and concepts around

the world to every facet of civilisation.

Thus within the contemporary media context writing has

developed from paper to books to be again subjected to

the creativity of man. Taking the digital medium and

applying it to the ancient art of writing has lead to the

Kindle Ereader, a perfect amalgamation of communication

mediums and a testament to publishing creativity.

Music as a form of

publishing has

been in existence

since the

beginning of

civilization, for the

purposes of

entertainment or

communicating

information, like a

prayer. Not only

this basic music

techniques and

elements have

been utilized

repeatedly over

human

development.

As Mary

Wennerstrom

states in ‘Form in

Twentieth-Century

Music’, Aspects of

Twentieth-Century

Music. Music

development

revolves around

the transformation

and restatement of

initial materials.

Take the lute a

predecessor to the

modern Guitar and

a cousin to the

Sitar.

Music and its

instruments have

over time been

progressively

altered and

developed in

order to create a

new

interpretation of

an old sound or

musical idea.

Like that or the

Sitar within the

music of the

Beatles as

typically rock

orientated

performers.

Music like the

other founding

communication

mediums has

been transferred

to a digital

medium, creating

the means for

further creativity,

while maintaining

the original

characteristics of

the instrument or

music. Just like

the electric guitar

as a major

feature of popular

modern music.

Like Plato and his fear of the written word, similar problems exist

now. “The internet is at it again. We are told it is changing our brains,

our thinking, our learning. The techno-utopians are being utopian,

and it's making the men of letters anxious”. Thus is the developing

nature of media

Kontra, M (1999). Some Reflections on the Nature of Language and its Regulation. International Journal on Minority and Group Rights; Vol. 6 Issue 3, p281-288, 8pMoffat C. (2007) Art based on Popular Culture. http://www.charlesmoffat.com/ Accessed 01/02/2010 Norton, Q (2009). Is the Internet Making Us Stupid? Or is it giving us greater access to knowledge than ever before? http://www.mpiweb.org/Archive/218/60.aspx Access 01/06/2010

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