Ashley Zizich

Senior Seminar

Response 3

September 6, 2017

            “It is in written words that this people, from the very beginning, have made the most confidential and explicit record of their minds.” Moses Coit Tyler said this about the history of American literature. This quote resonated with me because with new emergences in media I think it is easy to forget where it all came from. In Gitelman’s book she starts chapter one with the invention of the first phonograph as a way of a new medium. Honestly, I had never thought of something as a phonograph as a means of medium. When I think of medium, I think of news, radio, internet, social media outlets, phone and television. It is not often thought of as early inventions as a medium. Early in chapter 1 of Gitelman’s book she talks about how society was used to the media as print. When the phonograph was introduced it seemed society was not ready to accept the different emerging modes of media. I think it is true of today that we often see different modes of media and mediums and take them for granted.  Most people do not even remember a society without Facebook, or text messaging. If people don’t even remember a time before these means of media, then how will they appreciate the importance of the history of media, and what helped those media outlets become what they are today.

            Honestly, the story of Edison’s phonograph and all that was involved with bringing it to exhibits and the different prototypes behind it I found rather dry and possibly a little too informative. I understand that Gitelman was trying to allow the reader to see the entire picture that there was more involved other than Edison inventing something and showing it off. Other inventors starting making their prototypes, and Edison continued to improve upon his phonograph, all the while giving society something to not only talk about, but something to experience as well. Many people who saw the phonograph at exhibits talk about how they kept the foil paper that the phonograph printed on afterward.  I don’t believe many people saw the implications of just how big this invention was while I think they enjoyed being a part of something new and exciting. The phonograph had its positive responses but also had negative ones as well. I think this still rings true today because when some sort of technology comes into play that is new, while it is exciting, there always be the need and want for more. With the phonograph as Gitleman says, being the “butt of jokes”, it seemed as if the people just wanted more. While people joked about the “smellograph” or the “nip-ograph”, I think the underlying issue was that there is always the want for more advancement, which is true today as well.

            While reading, The Medium is the Massage, I kept having to remind myself that it was written in 1967. The book itself was experimental with the text and the photos. I hate to admit, but it took me a few reads to get the point of what McLuhan was trying for. His message or “massage” was getting at the point of technology and media being an extension of our senses. “The wheel is the extension of the foot, the book is the extension of the eye” brings in the point in which McLuhan was trying to convey, in an experimental way. At the time, he was aware that society and media were changing and ever evolving and once I read the book again, I thought it was progressive of him to notice these things in the 60s. He knew everything is in a constant change, and this is still true I believe in our society today.