Chapter 1 Questions

·         What are the key technological breakthroughs that accompanied the transition to the print and electronic eras? Why were these changes significant?

The print revolution came to be in the mid fifteenth century by a man called Johannes Glutenburg. He was the man who invented the printing press. This allowed the cost and size of books to reduce so that it would be more affordable to people. The printing press had great impact for a number of reasons. It allowed to get rid of the process of writing books by hand and it produced more books in a short amount of time, which allowed books to become more affordable. Due to the large quantities of books created cheap and fast, it led to the Industrial Revolution, modern capitalism, and consumer culture. The print era gave political and commercial leaders the idea of taking charge of the print media to continue to have social order. This then created individualism and people didn’t rely as much on their leaders anymore.

After the printing era, a new invention was created, the development of the telegraph. As well as the printing press, telegraphing has also made a great impact on improving communication. It created instant media messaging and turned information into merchandise. In addition to creating information into merchandise, it made it easier for leaders to coordinate commercial and military activity.  Lastly, it helped lead to better technology like what we have today.

 

 

·         In looking at the history of pop culture, explain why newer and emerging forms of media seem to threaten status quo values.

 

Newer forms of media seem to be threatening our current values in life for a variety of reasons. The media has “stunted” our imagination to see the great works that have been created in the past. This is because culture today is made for profit. Today what has been happening is people would create new works of literature and art. For example, the book Frankenstein was created into a movie. Pop culture today is always upgrading and is always creating new things so people won’t get bored. For example, Twitter and Facebook have changed our lives by allowing us to interact with one another online. The problem with this is it can have an effect on our interpersonal skills because if we become so addicted to talking online we will begin to lose the value of spending time with people in person.   

  

·         What are the five steps in critical process? Which of these is most difficult and why?

 

The five steps in critical process are description, analysis, interpretation, evaluation, and engagement. Description is when we examine, really concentrate, and take notes on what subject we are looking at. Analysis lets us take a closer look at parts we think need improvement in the description stage and find patterns that arise from it. The interpretation stage is the most difficult because we have to ask the questions “what does that mean?” and “so what?” about what we have found. Evaluation helps us tell if the subject is good, bad, or average. The last step in the critical process is engagement. This last step is when we take action by questioning the media and add our own thoughts.  

 

 

·         Why is the critical process important?

Critical process is important because people should be able to voice their opinion on a subject. It also allows people to give others advice on their subject to make it better because sometimes it might not have enough information or too much information. Lastly, it allows us to develop more knowledge on the subject and let others know what information is true and false.