ETEC540: Text Techologies

Introduction

Throughout history, many civilizations have posted public edicts in the form of inscriptions on stone columns and buildings. The ancient Greeks used wooden panels to mount official announcements, while the Romans employed a system of outdoor publicity in the form of whitewashed walls, called albums, painted with official messages using red or black paint (Weill, 1985). Any tampering of these announcements was often met with corporal punishment.

With the fall of the Roman Empire and Europe’s descent into illiteracy, official proclamations became the purview of the town crier (Weill, 1985). Medieval villages were filled with the cries of merchants and criers all vying for the attention of the town folk. It was not until the invention of the printing press around 1450 that we begin to see handbills and placards advertising the wares of publishers. These early posters were largely text-based proclamations that sometimes included images created through intaglio or woodcut printing. Since engraving was an expensive process, printers often printed posters with stock images that they could then fit the text into (Weill, 1985). Many were used to attract the religious faithful or recruit soldiers (Weill, 1985). Again, limits are placed on who can post or tamper with these public announcements.

By the 18th century, placards are numerous and, in Paris, plastering posters on every available wall eventually led to their strict regulation. Forty official bill posters were appointed to ensure that all posters bore the mark of approval from the chief of police before they could be posted (Weill, 1985). Armed with an official badge, a ladder, an apron, a glue-pot and a brush, the bill posters rarely read what they posted. And yet, despite this regulation, posting still thrived throughout Paris. It is at this point with the invention of lithography that the modern poster is born.

The Process of Lithography

The process of lithography was invented in 1796 by Alois Senefelder, a German playwright, who was looking for an inexpensive way to publish his works (Weill, 1985). Through discovery and experimentation, Senefelder learned that he could etch an image into a limestone tablet for printing without the need for carving. While the process of lithography involves many steps (as can be seen in the video below), it is in principle, quite simple. At its heart, lithography is based upon the principle that water and grease repel each other.

To begin, the artist takes a smooth limestone tablet and, using an acid-resistant greasy ink, draws an image upon the limestone. The stone is then washed with a mild acid that will etch the parts of the stone not covered by grease thus fixing the image into the stone. Next, the stone is made damp and ink applied. As the etched part of the stone retains water, this repels the ink, leaving only the greased parts (the image to be printed) covered with ink. The image is then printed when paper is pressed onto the inked stone (Weill, 1985).

This process greatly increased the speed and reduced the cost of the printing process for images since the artist no longer needed to carve the image as with intaglio woodcuts. Instead, the artist was able to work with pencils and brushes, a medium that allows for finer dexterity and control over the intricacy of the image.

Further developments by Godefroy Engelmann led to the patenting of the process of chromolithography in 1837 (Weill, 1985). In chromolithography, multiple stones were used to apply colours to the printed image. Since a separate stone was used for each colour, this meant that each stone had to be etched with the part of the image that was intended to hold a particular colour. To complete a single image, each stone (and colour) had to be printed onto a single sheet of paper with the paper being allowed to dry between printings. It was important in this process that the image on the stone and the paper were lined up exactly to ensure a precise print.

The Modern Poster is Born

A poster by Jules Cherét.

Although first introduced in 1869 by Jules Chéret, it would take another decade before the modern colour poster became widespread (Gliem, 2008). Chéret’s posters, with their use of pastel colours, light and airy compositions, and often featuring a coquettish girl in an attempt to capture an air of fun and frivolity (Gliem, 2008), captured the attention of the public and other artists alike and inspired many disciples (Weill, 1985).

France-Champagne by Pierre Bonnard (1891).

By the mid-1880’s, with the repeal of French laws that prevented posting in public spaces, posting became big business in Paris and many walls commanded a hefty annual rental fee (Weill, 1985). Chéret’s style, inspired by 18th century Rococo, would eventually give way to the bold and original designs first inspired by Pierre Bonnard’s poster for France-Champagne with its use of flat shapes and hand lettering that was integrated into the overall design (Gliem, 2008). Prior to Bonnard’s poster, lettering was often considered to be extraneous to the poster’s design and many artists, including Chéret, employed a specialist to do the lettering (Gliem, 2008). The last part of the 19th century is often referred to as the golden age of posters in france and it is hard not to see why with prolific and accomplished artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Alphonse Mucha leading the way.

Alfred Leete’s “Your Country Needs You” poster.

The poster was to reach its heyday during the First World War as a propaganda tool to build support for the war effort. Artists used vivid imagery filled with patriotic symbols designed to provoke a personal and emotional response. Posters filled with images of Uncle Sam, Lady Liberty, Britannia, flying flags, crosses, bibles, and the evil Hun were used to raise a call to action and to sell war bonds. The most famous poster of this era was James Montgomery Flagg’s Uncle Sam poster. Based on Alfred Leete’s “Your Country Needs You” poster featuring Lord Kitchener (a successful recruitment poster in its own right), Flagg’s creation exceeded 5 million copies in print (Allen, 1994).

The Impact Upon Literacy

Prior to the invention of lithography and the modern poster, the illiterate were virtually shut out from understanding the largely text-based placards. It is small wonder that the town-criers of the Middle Ages were so successful. When an individual cannot read the latest pronouncement from the King, they must rely on word of mouth to understand the message. With lithographic printing and image-based posters, it was suddenly possible for the illiterate to gain entry to the world of posters. The images conveyed meaning far faster than text and captured the viewer’s attention, be they literate or not. Posters rich with imagery and symbolism carry meaning and feeling and can connect with us on an individual or group level. Symbols are the concrete embodiment of the ideas, feelings, values, and beliefs of a society at that time and the successful poster maker is able to exploit the imagery to motivate his spectator to take a particular action or hold a certain belief (Allen, 1994). Whether it was used to sell soap flakes or urge men to enlist in the war, the poster, replete with imagery and symbolism, became a powerful tool for mass communication and propaganda.

The impact of the poster on literacy can be seen in its simple ability to combine text and imagery into a cohesive whole with the goal to communicate a particular message. Posters were designed for public display, to attract attention, and to communicate a thought or idea. The strength of a poster is measured in terms of its effectiveness at capturing the public’s attention and spreading its message. That message should not be a mystery, but should instead convey its meaning “swiftly and convincingly” (Allen, 1994, para. 4). Successful posters use the symbols and idioms of the day to resonate with the public and leave them in a favourable frame of mind. The poster must attract curiosity, capture the imagination, and embolden its audience to act (Allen, 1994). It is more than just an art gallery in the street.

Posters in Education

The poster has found its home in the classroom. Its blend of short, memorable phrases and rich imagery are the perfect vehicle to capture the attention of the newly-literate student. Posters in the classroom are often used to teach new concepts, reinforce basic facts, highlight the important, enforce the rules, and direct students to the bathroom in the nick of time. A classroom, and therefore its teacher, is often judged by the quality of posters on the wall or lack of thereof. While the fire marshal may admonish the prolific use of flammable paper posters on classroom walls, students and parents come to expect their presence. Posters help to create a warm and inviting classroom, whereas a classroom devoid of posters is seen as cold and boring.

The power of the educational poster lies in its ability to combine imagery and text so as to make the material to be learned easier to retain and recall (Wharrad, Allcock, & Meal, 1995). However, posters are not just tools for teaching. They are also used to capture learning and for assessment. A long time favourite activity of students, the poster is often made an assignment in itself. Whether it is used as part of a novel study or a science fair, students love the opportunity for creativity and self-expression in their design of a poster representing what they have learned. Such a personalized assessment is far less stressful for students (Wharrad, Allcock, & Meal, 1995).

As early propagandists discovered, the layout and structure of a poster can have a profound impact upon successfully communicating its message. In the classroom with young learners, this is of critical importance. The size and style of the typography, the use of colour and white space to balance elements, and the choice of imagery all play a role in whether young students will find the poster memorable and useful or just plain confusing (Christenbery & Latham, 2012).

However, the overuse of posters can be a detriment to the young learner. With most free wall space covered in posters and artwork, the student can easily become saturated with information and unable to find and focus on a particular poster when most needed. Judicious use of space and frequent poster rotation are two tactics often used by teachers to keep things fresh in the classroom. Since the poster is a relatively easy and inexpensive tool for teaching, it is not likely to disappear from the classroom any time soon.

References

Allen, R. F. (1994). Posters as historical documents. Social Studies, 85(2), 52.

Artsmia. (2008, June 24). Printmaking processes: Lithography. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHw5_1Hopsc

Bonnard, P. (1891). France-champagne. [Poster]. Retrieved from http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/pierre-bonnard/poster-advertising-france-champagne-1891

Cherét, J. (n.d.). Jardin de paris. [Poster]. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cheret,_Jules_-_Jardin_de_Paric_%28pl_65%29.jpg

Christenbery, T. L. & Latham, T. G. (2012). Creating effective scholarly posters: A guide for DNP students. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practioners, 25, 16-23. Doi: 10.1111/j.1745-7599.2012.00790.x

Gliem, D. E. (2008). Japonisme and bonnard’s invention of the modern poster. Japan Studies Association Journal, 6, 17-38. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/2070503/Japonisme_and_Bonnards_Invention_of_the_Modern_Poster

Leete, A. (1914). Kitchener world war I recruitment poster. [Poster]. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kitchener-Britons.jpg

Nnmiles1. (2013, June 21). Classroom posters! [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a-eO3qdBIc

Weill, (1985). The poster: A worldwide survey and history. Boston, MA: G. K. Hall & Co.

Wharrad, H. J., Allcock, N. & Meal, A. G. (1995). The use of posters in the teaching of biological sciences on an undergraduate nursing course. Nurse Education Today, 15(5), 370-374.

History

When radio was invented, its primary use was for communication between people that were usually great distances apart.  Early uses for radio were limited to military and marine communication in the early 1900’s.    The actual inventor of the radio is up for debate, names like Hertz, Marconi, Tesla, and Maxwell all contributed aspects to what we now know as the radio.  Widespread use of the radio didn’t really happen until the 1920’s.  Before this, individuals across the world began to transmit and receive radio signals on a smaller scale.  These early adopters were the first to realize the potential of radio and were able to use it without restriction.  As this new media’s popularity began to spread, large corporations began to realize its money making potential.  As Postman (1992) states,  “it is not always clear, at least in the early stages of a technology’s intrusion into a culture, who will gain most by it, and who will lose most.” (p.12)

Who was to gain by this new form of media? Before analyzing this question it is important to look at some of the benefits of radio as a medium.  Radio had the ability to reach a massive audience.  You did not have to be able to read.  You did not have to sit in front of the radio and watch it. All you had to do was listen.  By listening you could hear the latest weather report, a breaking news story or your favorite song.  Radio had the ability to capture people’s attention, inform and connect people like no other form of media before it.  “We might call each shift a “remediation” in the sense that a newer medium takes the place of an older one borrowing and reorganizing the characteristics of writing in the older medium and reforming its cultural space.” (Bolter 2001, p.23) Radio was reorganizing and changing the way people sent and received information. Prior to radio, information was primarily transferred to large groups of people through text.  Radio had changed that, and now was challenging newspapers as a way to get up to date news.  Radio gave listeners information in real time.  This meant that they could get the news they desired as it happened, and were able to experience it live.  This is where large companies began to see radio’s potential.

The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was owned by a conglomeration of large companies including General Electric, Westinghouse and AT&T to name a few. (Crawford-Franklin 2012)  The first commercial broadcast took place in 1912. Westinghouse began broadcasting from station KDKA in Pittsburgh.  These regular broadcasts served as a means to advertise their products, namely radio transmitters and receivers.  Soon after this first broadcast, the popularity of radio exploded across the nation.  The number of stations expanded exponentially as people realized the potential impact of this new form of media.  The programming on radio began to become more diverse as well.  Along with this sudden expansion came government regulation.  Along with the Radio Act of 1927, the Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was appointed to oversee the issuing of licenses, assignments of frequencies, and control of broadcasts.   The purpose of the radio act was to ensure that broadcasting remained a public domain and was not monopolized.  Although these were noble intentions, many of the large companies still had a major influence within the commission.

A resurgence of oral communication

Before text, oral communication was the dominant medium for the transfer of information.  With the advent of radio, oral communication again became important.  Learning through listening became popular again. When reading text, it was difficult to interpret the tone of what was being communicated.  When you listened to someone speak over the radio, tone was quite evident.  “A key concept here, which applies in both oral history and listening-to-radio settings, is that one person exudes affect and another person picks it up.” (McHugh 2012, p.192) Emotions could be heard over the radio, which added a dimension that text did not always make clear.  The tone of voice, intonation, accent and other speech patterns, could make a difference on how information was communicated and interpreted.  Listening to dialogue over the radio made it come to life.  The listener could form a more complete picture of the situation then what text alone could provide.  The idea of affect theory can have an impact on the learning process.  “Put simply, the affective power of sound and voice, combined with the intimacy of the listening process, means we can be moved by listening to oral history; this in turn, affects how we absorb and retain its content, as well as how we judge that content.” (McHugh 2012, p.195) When a listener heard something that made them feel an emotion, it was better retained.

Radio in Education

This is just one of the many reasons why radio technology was looked at as an essential educational tool.  Radio was used in education in essentially two different formats or “Schools of Air”.  One format involved large commercial networks in the U.S. like NBC and CBS, which reached listeners on a national scale and the other format involved state run programs.    One of the most popular educational programs on NBC was launched in 1928 called the Music Appreciation Hour (MAH).  Walter Damrosch, former conductor of the New York Symphony Orchestra created a program for students from grades 4-12.  NBC saw providing educational content as beneficial because it gave the appearance that the company did something to benefit the general public and also helped fill up programming slots during the day.  (Bianchi 2008)

Damrosch broke up his program into four sections, each section had a recommended grade and instructional focus.  Teachers could choose the section that they would like to listen to, or listen to the entire program with their class.  Teacher’s guides and student workbooks were also available to supplement the program.  The program soon became popular across the country.  Damrosch’s intention was not to replace current music programs but to supplement what was already in place.  One of the benefits of his program was the ability to provide small, low income schools the chance of having a high level music program. (Bianchi 2008) The success of the program helped NBC gain the public’s trust as a network that wasn’t just out to make profit.  The reality was, the more popular the program became, the more receivers sold across the country.

The state run “Schools of Air” had a longer impact mainly because they were more localized, catered to state curriculum and were helped run in part by state universities. One successful school was the Wisconsin School of Air (WSA) which broadcast for almost half a century.  Besides having a huge following, its appeal was that it was innovative, it supported classroom teachers and it built a community of learners.  The programming served students from K-8 and covered a wide variety of subject areas.  “Let’s draw”, was an art program in which the instructor believed that “radio allowed children to exercise their creative imagination more than did TV.” (Bianchi 2008, p.40)  This shows that some of these programs were so successful that even after TV was invented, these state run radio programs still had a loyal following.  These programs also helped rural students become exposed to similar quality educational experiences as those in bigger cities.  In fact, there were stories of students in poor communities gathering around a teacher’s car to hear one of the programs because the school could not afford a radio of their own. These “schools of air” ran in several parts of the country including Portland, Cleveland, Chicago, New York and Ohio.

Radio helped spread knowledge across a vast expanse of people across different areas of the country and around the world.  Used in the classroom, it acted as a supplement to what teachers were already teaching.  For some students in rural areas, it gave them access to information that they wouldn’t normally receive.  Music instruction from a conductor from a major city, or Art instruction from a famous artist who in many cases would never physically travel to these remote areas to provide direct instruction.  These educational programs also gained popularity with a listening public who wasn’t in school.  There was a large part of the listening public who was comprised of seniors or adults who were just eager to learn.  The great thing about radio is that these listeners were able to multi-task.  They could run daily errands, clean the house, go to the store but were still able to listen and learn from the radio.  Another part of the public who wasn’t in school but relied on radio for information was farmers.  “Until the advent of broadcast radio, farmers were forced to use unreliable or out dated information, particularly in relation to the current market value of their goods.”(Crawford-Franklin 2013, p.429)  Weather reports, and other such information also helped farmers and the agricultural industry in general stay informed.  Radio also helped various genres of music become popular, as radio was seen as instrumental in the 1920’s to help spread the popularity of Jazz music.  Radio truly was one of the first forms of mass media.  It had a hand at influencing such a vast expanse of popular culture and affected many facets of our life.

One of the true tests of any form of media is if it can survive the test of time.  Is the radio still relevant today?  Obviously, many people around the world still listen to the radio on a daily basis for news, traffic reports and music.  Clearly it is not as impactful as it was when it was first introduced because of further “remediation” and competition from smart phones, digital radio and the internet.  Educational use of the radio is still happening today in areas of the world where these other technological innovations are not readily available.  In Nigeria, radio is used to educate nomadic populations estimated up to 10 million people.  (Perkins 2011) These people like many others in remote areas will never see the inside of a classroom and without radio would have no means of an education.  Another aspect of radio that has been developed and is continuing, is the value in student broadcasts.  One major innovation in this area is the popularity of podcasts.  Students and teachers are using open source software to broadcast and receive thoughts and opinions from across the world, truly helping to create a global village. “A new technology does not add or subtract something. It changes everything.” (Postman 1992 p.18)  The advent of the radio was a major step in communication as it provided a means for information to reach great distances.  It has had affects in all areas of our culture, from education to entertainment and still continues to influence our culture today.

References

Allen, D. W. (2003). The effects of technology on educational theory and practice: A 20-year perspective. Computers in the Schools, 20(1), 49.

Bagley, W. C. (1930). Radio in the schools. The Elementary School Journal, 31(4), 256-258.

Bianchi, W. (2008). Education by radio: America’s schools of the air. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 52(2), 36-44.

Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space – computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print (2nd ed.). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Crawford-Franklin, C., & Robinson, L. (2013). Even in an age of wonders: Radio as an information resource in 1920s America. Journal of Documentation, 69(3), 417 – 434.

Harbord, J. G. (1936). Radio in education. Vital Speeches of the Day, 2(17), 522.

McHugh, S. (2012). The affective power of sound: Oral history on radio. Oral History Review, 39(2), 187-206.

Ong, W. J. (Ed.). (1982). Orality and literacy – the technologizing of the word. New York: Routledge.

Orfanella, L. (1998). Radio: The intimate medium

Perkins, R. (2011). The persistence and evolution of educational radio. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 55(3), 12-13.

Postman, N. (1992). Technopoly: The surrender of culture to technology. New York: Vintage books.

Radio in education.(1938). Vital Speeches of the Day, 4(21), 671.