Revolutions in Communications
This week you're reading about many important milestones in the history of technology. As you did last week, choose an invention or new development from the sections on visual and electronic revolutions. This time I'd like you to analyze it using a series of questions posed by Jacques Ellul, a legendary mid-20th century social theorist who studied mass communication. He was active in the French resistance during World War II, and he was horrified by the spell that Hitler had cast over the minds of so many people with such terrible effects. He wrote a classic book, Propaganda, which was one of the first attempts to analyze the influence of mass media on human behavior.
So please look at his "76 reasonable questions to ask about any technology" (attached here, and included under Handouts) and choose at least one question from each category (e.g., ecological, social, practical) and apply it to the invention you've selected.