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Questions of media literacy – what it means,
who should have it, and how they should get it –
are as old as media itself.
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Technologies like smartphones and the internet
have made media literacy more important than ever.
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But concerns about media and their effects
have been around a long, long time.
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Many of the arguments for and against media
have shaped how new technologies, industries, and
cultures have developed throughout history.
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Media literacy as a term or a field didn’t
become “a thing” until around the 1960’s.
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Before it became the work of communications
scholars and media professionals, thinking about
communication was (and often still is) led by
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philosophers, psychologists, sociologists,
linguists, and critical theorists.
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It’s an ancient problem that even Plato,
the classical Greek philosopher, thought a
lot about.
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[Theme Music]
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In the Phaedrus, a dialogue he wrote around 370
BCE, Plato imagines a conversation between his teacher,
Socrates, and one of their friends, Phaedrus.
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Socrates and Phaedrus start off talking about love
and end up debating the best way to give a speech.
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But you know what was really bugging Socrates, what
he thought was the biggest problem in Greek society?
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Writing things down.
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He writes, “If men learn this,
it will implant forgetfulness in their souls;
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they will cease to exercise memory
because they rely on that which is written,
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calling things to remembrance no longer from
within themselves, but by means of external marks.
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What you have discovered is a recipe not for
memory, but for reminder.
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That’s right.
Plato was dark.
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He thought leaving your words on paper, just
lying around, would encourage others to use
them out of context.
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If you were there in person, though, you
could defend your thoughts and talk them out
with the listener.
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And if you’ve ever said something dumb on
the internet, you know the man’s got a point.
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So the root of media literacy concerns is really
just straight up literacy, learning to read and write.
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In Plato’s day, and for centuries after, information
was often shared by word of mouth and, for most
people, education was informal.
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If you were lucky and rich, you might’ve
shared info through hand-written media like letters
and codices (a type of pre-book book).
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Or you might’ve studied alongside a master or
scholar and learned from handmade manuscripts.
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These were very expensive and time
consuming to make, so very few people had the
means to become educated and literate.
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But all that changed when Johannes Gutenberg
invented the movable type printing press in 1452.
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Suddenly, print media was easier to produce, and
books and pamphlets could be shared crazy fast –
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well, as fast as your fastest horse could go,
this was the 15th century.
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As media became cheaper, more people had the
means to become literate.
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For people in power, this was a huge problem.
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It’s much easier for a government to control
or persuade their subjects with the word of
law when most of them can’t read.
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Organized religion had a similar problem.
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Before the printing press was invented, most of
the church-going public couldn’t even read the Bible;
they relied on the clergy to interpret it.
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In 1517, German theologian Martin Luther started
pushing the buttons of the Roman Catholic Church
by publishing his 95 Theses.
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He claimed the church didn’t and shouldn’t
have the only power to interpret scripture.
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He even translated the Bible from Latin to
German to grant access to everyday people.
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The idea that suddenly parishioners could interpret
the Bible for themselves was a major shake-up.
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His revelations eventually led to the Protestant
Reformation and a democratization of religion
in the West.
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(Though, Luther’s impact wasn’t all roses
– today his more antisemitic views are pretty
hard to stomach.)
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The history of media literacy closely follows
the history of media technology – with each
new invention, discussions and fears follow.
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Just as Plato was wary of the written word,
government and religious leaders were very
wary of the printed word.
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Those in power wanted to be gatekeepers for
information – and prohibiting access to media,
of course, makes media literacy impossible.
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Media literacy really becomes important three
centuries later, with a new medium – the world’s
first MASS media: the newspaper.
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Publications of local news date back to Plato’s
era.
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But the type we think of today – a regularly published
document quickly and cheaply covering major events for
the masses – didn’t really form until the 17th century.
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And at first, no surprise, most of them were
government-controlled.
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But as the print media industry began to take
shape, people fought for a free press.
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This was especially true in the American colonies,
where the struggle for an independent press was tied
up with their struggle for freedom from British control.
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By the early 1800’s the newspaper begins
to become a democratizing force.
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This is the era of the Penny Press.
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Called the Penny Press because they cost
– you guessed it – a penny, these papers were
incredibly popular.
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They spread like wildfire, especially among
the middle and lower classes.
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Suddenly, anyone, even an unlikely street kid
without two pennies to rub together could be in the
know and feel like they were King of the World!
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Newspapers weren’t just about educating
the masses.
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They were also about making lots of money.
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Penny paper owner Benjamin H. Day, printed
this motto atop every issue of The New York Sun:
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"The object of this paper is to lay before the public,
at a price within the means of every one,
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all the news of the day, and at the same time
offer an advantageous medium for advertisements."
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By the mid 1800’s, the penny presses were making
so much money from ads that people worried about
publishers choosing profit over truth.
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The more publishers relied on advertising revenue
to pay the bills, the more sensational papers became.
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This trend came to a head around the turn
of the 20th century.
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In the late 1890’s, Joseph Pulitzer (Pulitzer
like the Prize), a self-made, traditional newspaper
man who owned the New York World,
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and William Randolph Hearst, a young mining
heir who wanted to emulate Pulitzer and owned
the New York Journal, went head to head.
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They both wanted their papers in as many
hands as humanly possible to attract bigger
and better advertisers.
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The two papers began ramping up their stories,
focusing less on getting the facts straight and more
on getting more readers and more cash.
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This became known as Yellow Journalism.
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Yellow journalists used bold, scary or misleading
headlines; faked interviews and exaggerated stories;
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and used lots of splashy pictures and
illustrations, and did anything else they
could do to sell a paper.
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They prioritized sensationalism over professionalism
and journalistic ethics.
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They thrived on scandals, sports, crime, and
self-promotion.
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Good thing we don’t have to worry about
that kind of thing today.
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Let’s head into the Thought Bubble for a
closer look.
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Here we have a classic example from the peak
of yellow journalism.
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This article is from Pulitzer’s The New
York World, published in February 1898.
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The main front page story is about the sinking
of a U.S. battleship, the Maine, in Havana Harbor
a few days earlier.
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Cuba, which was colonised by Spain, was in
the middle of a revolution.
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The U.S.S. Maine was there as a show of power to
protect U.S. interests in Cuban independence.
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But it was also a gesture to ease tensions
that were growing between the U.S. and Spain.
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Then suddenly, in the middle of the night
February 15, an explosion tore apart the Maine.
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It sunk, killing 260 men.
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Let’s take a look at this headline about
the sinking.
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“Maine Explosion Caused By Bomb or Torpedo?”
question mark
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Well that’s not a suspicious use of punctuation
or anything.
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Even today, the cause of the Maine’s sinking
is unclear.
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A naval inquiry held in 1898 concluded a mine
laid in the harbor had exploded.
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But today, some experts believe the explosion
was internal, caused by a coal bunker fire.
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EIther way, two days later in 1898, no one
knew what happened.
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But Pulitzer’s paper didn’t hesitate before
taking a guess.
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During their stand-off, both Pulitzer and
Hearst stoked tensions between the U.S. and
Spain to sell papers.
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With this headline the New York World
helped to spread rumors about enemy
involvement in the sinking.
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Notice the huge, ginormous illustration.
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It takes up nearly the whole page!
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This visual re-telling of the explosion – complete
with bodies strewn around and flames shooting
into the air – is so dramatic.
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Since the paper didn’t have a photograph
of the event, they dramatized it with a gory
graphic to grab your attention.
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Finally, take a look at the subheadlines (often
called the “deck” of a story).
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They’re full of equally dramatic tales from
the scene of the supposed crime.
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But if you look closely, the writing signals
they’re just feeding the rumor mill.
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The “facts” the article claims are really
just suggestions and overheard talk, with
no solid confirmed information.
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Thanks Thought Bubble.
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You can see from this example that yellow
journalism isn’t trying to sell truth and facts.
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It sells a story.
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By taking a closer look, we discover strategies
publishers use to entertain or distract us – like staying
away from the facts and leaning into drama.
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The race to sell as many papers as possible
was – and still is – a race to the bottom.
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And publishers know all too well how to make
a buck from a good story.
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(And in case you’re wondering:
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They called it Yellow Journalism because Pulitzer
and Hearst’s papers fought over which one would print
a popular comic called The Yellow Kid.
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It was a strange time.)
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Yellow Journalism, then and now, helps remind
us of those ancient questions – what happens
when we rely on media?
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Should everyone have access to it?
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What happens if that access is exploited?
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Media literacy is nothing new, but it’s
adapting and changing all the time.
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Where media literacy once required a
mastery of language and a quill,
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the age of the penny press required the
ability to analyze headlines at a glance and
tell truth from sensationalism.
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With every new medium, a new set of skills
is needed to navigate it all – and we haven’t
even gotten to TV.
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That’s for next time, during The History
of Media Literacy Part II.
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For now, I’m Jay Smooth.
We’ll see you next week.
00:09:19
Crash Course Media Literacy is filmed in the
Dr. Cheryl C. Kinney Studio in Missoula, MT.
00:09:23
It’s made with the help of all of these nice
people, and our animation team is Thought Cafe.
00:09:27
Crash Course is a Complexly production.
00:09:29
If you want to imagining the world complexly
with us, check out some of our other channels
like Eons, Animal Wonders, and SciShow Psych.
00:09:35
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00:09:43
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