CHAPTER 5

SPECIFIC ISSUES IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY

Lesson 1: The Information Age

At the end of this chapter, the student will be able to:

1. Link the concepts in the development of information age.

2. Identify the historical antecedents that lead to the discovery for new
technology.
3. Illustrate how social media affects their lives.

“Before the arrival of printing, all documents and books were manuscripts.”

A manuscript was, traditionally, any document written by hand -- or, once practical
typewriters became available, typewritten -- as opposed to being mechanically printed
or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. With the invention of the printing
press, the most immediate effect was the output of a greater number of books at a more
economical cost to the general public. Over the longer term however, books would not
only increase literacy rates due to the increased availability and access but also would
help begin the spread of political and religious movements within Europe. It is without a
doubt the printing press has had an impact on societal literacy rates but to what extent
is still debated. Currently we are experiencing a similar monumental shift in education
in a new form of technology with the Internet. Hopefully we can learn from the
implementation of the printing press and in conjunction with the Internet beneficially
understand the growth, development and impact on literacy.

The Information Age (also known as the Computer Age, Digital Age, or

New Media Age) is a 21st century period in human history characterized by the rapid
shift from traditional industry that the Industrial Revolution brought through
industrialization, to an economy based on information technology. Digital Revolution
is the shift from mechanical and analogue electronic technology to digital electronics
which began anywhere from the late 1950s to the late 1970s with the adoption and
proliferation of digital computers and digital record keeping that continues to the
present day. With the introduction of the personal computer and internet that provide
the ability to transfer information freely and quickly.
Wireless telegraphy is the transmission of telegraphy signals from one point to
another by means of an electromagnetic, electrostatic or magnetic field, or by electrical
current through the earth or water. The term is used synonymously for radio
communication systems, also called radiotelegraphy, which transmit telegraph
signals by radio waves. When the term originated in the late 19th century it also applied
to other types of experimental wireless telegraph communication technologies, such as
conduction and induction telegraphy. Radio telegraphy often used manually-sent Morse
code; radioteletype (RTTY) always uses mechanically generated and recorded
characters.

Italian inventor and engineer Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) developed,

demonstrated and marketed the first successful long-distance wireless telegraph and in
1901 broadcast the first transatlantic radio signal. His company’s Marconi radios ended
the isolation of ocean travel and saved hundreds of lives, including all of the surviving
passengers from the sinking Titanic. In 1909 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for
his radio work. He was born in 1874 in Bologna, Italy. His father was a wealthy
landowner and his mother was a member of Ireland’s Jameson family of distillers.
Marconi was educated by tutors and at the Livorno Technical Institute and the
University of Bologna.

In 1894 Marconi became fascinated with the discovery by German physicist

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz of “invisible waves” generated by electromagnetic interactions.
Marconi built his own wave-generating equipment at his family’s estate and was soon
sending signals to locations a mile away. After failing to interest the Italian government
in his work, Marconi decided to try his luck in London. The 22-year-old Marconi and
his mother arrived in England in 1896 and quickly found interested backers, including
the British Post Office. Within a year Marconi was broadcasting up to 12 miles and had
applied for his first patents. A year later, he set up a wireless station on the Isle of
Wight that allowed Queen Victoria to send messages to her son Prince Edward aboard
the royal yacht. By 1899 Marconi’s signals had crossed the English Channel. The same
year, Marconi traveled to the United States, where he gained publicity offering wireless
coverage of the America’s Cup yacht race from off the coast of New Jersey.

Radio owes its development to two other inventions: the telegraph and

the telephone. All three technologies are closely related. Radio technology actually
began as "wireless telegraphy." The term "radio" can refer to either the electronic
appliance that we listen with or the content playing from it. In any case, it all started
with the discovery of "radio waves" or electromagnetic waves that have the capacity to
transmit music, speech, pictures and other data invisibly through the air. Many devices
work by using electromagnetic waves including radio, microwaves, cordless phones,
remote controlled toys, television broadcasts and more.

During the 1860s: Scottish physicist, James Clerk Maxwell predicted the existence of
radio waves; and in 1886, German physicist, Heinrich Rudholph Hertz demonstrated
that rapid variations of electric current could be projected into space in the form of radio
waves similar to those of light and heat.

In 1866: Mahlon Loomis, an American dentist, successfully demonstrated "wireless

telegraphy." Loomis was able to make a meter connected to one kite cause another one
to move, marking the first known instance of wireless aerial communication.

Guglielmo Marconi: an Italian inventor, proved the feasibility of radio

communication. He sent and received his first radio signal in Italy in 1895. By 1899 he
flashed the first wireless signal across the English Channel and two years later received
the letter "S", telegraphed from England to Newfoundland. This was the first successful
transatlantic radiotelegraph message in 1902.
James Clerk Maxwell Mahlon Loomis Guglielmo Marconi

The internet is changing the definition of television

The television business has changed from provider-driven to consumer-driven.

For broadcasters and operators – who used to decide whether content lived or died —
the internet has proven to be a most disruptive development, looming menacingly over
their profit stream. The internet is changing the TV business forever. These changes
affect the definition of TV itself; what do we really mean by television? It used to refer to
a cabinet-like device, with scheduled programming on a small number of broadcast
channels. It became cable, satellite and internet television (IPTV) with hundreds of
channels. Today, viewers can watch football, drama, news and the latest cat video at will,
sometimes simultaneously with their tablet or smartphones. Viewers are in control,
creating personal playlists while digital recorders, applications and TV web sites
accommodate binge-watching.

References/Websites

Bolter, J.D. (2001). Writing Space: Computers, hypertext, and the Remediation of Print.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence, Erlbaum Associates Inc.

Eisenstein, E. L. (1997). The Printing Press as an Agent of Change. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press. [first published 1979.]

Eisenstein, E.L. (1993). The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. [first published 1983.]
Febvre, L & Martin, H. (1997). The Coming of the Book. London: Verso. [first published
1976]

Havelock, E. A. (1963). Preface to Plato. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Jones, B. (2007). Manuscripts, Books, and Maps: The Printing Press and a Changing
World. Retrieved from http://communication.ucsd.edu/bjones/Books/printech.html

McLuhan, M. (1962). The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press.