The printing press existed some 800 years in China prior to it’s European debut in the 1400’s but it did not have the same effect on people of the east and west. The Chinese language is written in pictographs and not in the same linear fashion as in the west. For example the single character to the left represents “woman”. Western writing on the other hand is made up of individual letters that are formed into words. With just 26 letters in the alphabet it’s possible arrange them in many combinations in order to create any word. In Chinese, one word or thought must be represented by a single character and this results in a huge number of characters.
Johannes Gutenberg invented the western printing press by creating a new use for a wine press. Prior to the press and the printed word, history was passed on in the form of stories verbally or written down with pen. Printing made writing repeatable and uniform. The printed word affected learning for the entire western world. The printing press was the first assembly line and also made possible the industrial revolution. The invention of the printing press led to a restructure of our imaginations – our very way of thinking and even our beliefs. It formed conditions that led to how linear thinking is entrenched in western thought.
Linear reasoning and belief through reason and fact – was a result of the printing press. Printing makes us prefer cognitive processing of ideas in a linear fashion while at the same time diminishes imagination, intuition and emotion. It can even make us suspicious or fearful of feelings if they run contrary to “logical” reasoning found in the printed word.
ON May 24, 1844 the first electric communication was sent between Baltimore and Washington DC by Samuel Morse – the famous message was “What hath God wrought?” and the telegraph was born. Prior to the telegraph, most information was shared in books but with the telegraph information was a commodity whose price was determined by how big the message was and how far it traveled. This led to shorter pieces of information or the modern news story. We marvel at the internet and TV but these are simply an extension of the telegraph. Today’s news stories are seemingly random non-associated pieces of information resulting in a mosaic of facts thrown at us at the speed of light.
This post was inspired from the book “ Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith” by Shane Hipps
… to be continued
###
Media shapes your belief ~ part 5 (the power of a story)
Published July 7, 2009 Marketing , Media , Radio , TV Commercial , TV production , audio production , commentary , communication , faith , video production , web Leave a CommentTags: faith, Marketing, Media, message, technology, TV
Some researchers believe that too much TV can make your brain lazy. Does TV make you hyper? dumb? lazy? distracted? What was the question? We love images, especially moving images, kind of like we love sugar. Sugar is enticing, tasty and eating it is a great sensual experience. But too much sugar is bad for your body, just like too many images without other input can remap and restructure your brain to think differently. There is a difference in the manner that electronic media saturated generations perceive the world compared to generations or people groups not exposed to to it. We must reach our image saturated culture with stories to satisfy the right brain preference people have today. Stories are well received by readers and non-readers.
Like it or not we are affected by the forces of our digital age. Stories echo with greater intensity than ever before. A friend of mine recently went to Africa to bring clean water to areas in Sudan. Most of the people he visited did not read or have TV but communicated with stories. They even had the ability to repeat a detailed story after heating it one time. Perhaps more messages can be communicated in story-form to bridge generational gaps and people groups. Stories could be an effective method of teaching. It’s really a blast from the past because pre-medieval people taught their history through stories. Several savvy marketing companies have already realized the power of stores and I predict we will see more messages communicated in this manner in the future.
This post was inspired from the book “ Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith” by Shane Hipps
###