Innovations in the Society - the Printing Press - Literature review Example

Innovations in the Society – The Printing Press He who first shortened the labor of copyists by device of movable types was disbanding hired armies, and cashiering most kings and senates, and creating a whole new democratic world: he had invented the art of printing. (Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus, 1833 cited in Kries 2004:1) Introduction Many people consider the invention of the printing machine as one of the forerunners to the industrial revolution. It has indeed transformed the world in many ways and helped the spread knowledge. Although other inventions like the computer systems and the internet have overshadowed its importance, the printing press has played an invaluable role in the transformation of the society. This essay shall give a brief account of the history of printing technology and then discuss the influence it has had on various sociological aspects such as, philosophical and religious thoughts, education, politics, and in the formation of the nation-states. The essay conclude with its observations on the competition that the printing industry in general has been facing from other forms of media such as the television, computer systems, internet, and mobile phones, despite its knowledge contribution value. Significance of the Invention of Printing According to Leis Jr (2009) the paper media in its current stage was not the direct result of the printing press invention; rather, the printing press has evolved and joined with various other innovations, and that has eventually contributed to the technological platform that now “supports the design, production and distribution of printed content” (p. 1). In order to appreciate the importance of this innovation, one has to get a glimpse of how it was prior to it. In the early ages of civilization, writing was restricted to stones and clay tablets in hieroglyphic or pictographic or cuniform scripts which conveyed the meaning through the depiction of sketch like characters. Later, with the evolution of languages, sheep-skin or vellum was used to record spoken words, but more to address short messages or rules and orders. However, the making of paper was already well-known in China, and by the 12 century block printing came to be known in Italy through Marco Polo (Jones 1997). Until then, in the west, the spoken word had to be hand-written, and this limited the numbers of books in circulation. Consequently many people did not know how to write or read, and illiteracy was wide spread. Thus, only important documents or the rules of the governmental authorities were alone written and read out at congregations and meetings. Books were a part of monasteries and seldom available for individuals as possessions. Libraries and universities were few in number in the western world, and information was mainly through word of mouth. One vital difference between the pre-print era and the post-print era has been pointed out by McLuhan (1995:23); he has stated that pre-print culture or the medieval manuscript culture, focused on the ear and listening was the key to understanding; punctuations were seldom used, since the hand-written documents were intended to be read out loud to groups of people. Thus, this oral transfer of information culture facilitated the simultaneous functioning of all sensory abilities, which was lacking in the print culture since it differentiated writing from speech and the focus being more on the visual skills rather than listening abilities (cited in Evans 1998). Advent of Printing Technology In 1452 Johann Gutenberg made use of a number of already existing techniques to device a movable type set for printing with ink and olive oil. He demonstrated how with the simultaneous use of paper, oil-based ink and the wine-press, printing could be made much easier and less laborious. Making use of a ‘punch and mold system’ he showed how texts could be mass produced and the same type could be reused to produce another page, another book and so on until the type broke. Even though Gutenberg’s device or printing press cannot be called as his sole invention, he is given the credit for bringing it into vogue; his main contribution of the reusable type, however was significant. Thus, the printing press which is an “aggregation in one place, of technologies known for centuries before Gutenberg” (Jones 1997: 1) came into being, and soon spread to the whole of Europe and eventually transformed the world. Impact on Religious Thought Strange as it may seem, the great invention did not have much impact on the social structure of learning within Europe. The Bible was the first book to be printed. Gutenberg printed nearly two hundred copies of a two-volume Gutenberg Bible, some of which he printed in on vellum and sold them in 1455 in the Frankfurt Book Fair (Kries 2004:1). The other books that followed too were mostly religious in nature. This was followed by texts that were not exactly religious in nature, but still, related to humanistic texts that were humanistic in nature and consisted of Greek and roman classics brought in from Byzantium by the Crusades. Until the twelfth century, the Church and religious texts were the dominant instruments for the spread of books. In the 12th century, however, Italy saw the formation of the first European university, and by the end of the 13th century there were many universities scattered all over Europe, including Paris, Padua, Oxford, and Cambridge. These centers became important organs that coordinated a new bond between books, learning, and to the Gospel. Influence of Printing on Renaissance Elizabeth Eisenstein (1979) an important commentator on the development of the printing technology and its impact on the society, has observed that printing had significant causative consequences on three major movements, the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation Movement, and the Scientific Revolution. Three factors contributed to the growth of the printing industry initially. As seen above, the rise of universities created a demand for printed books. The universities which were initially attended by clergies and aristocrats later became forts of intellectual quests and this created a demand for books. Secondly, much of Europe was still illiterate and with the advent of printing, and when mass printing made books more affordable to non-affluent, lay people it created a new demand for books. Libraries grew and housed many books like the almanac, books on astronomy, health and body, business and trade and travelogues. With the advent of printing press, the interest in the humanistic aspects of the world and facts as one sees in the world started catching the interest of people and publishers were more taken to producing such works which was the first tilt away from religion. Leading a new era called the Renaissance era. Printed books aided the spread of awareness of the renaissance philosophy that came into being when Renaissance scholars or humanists spurned the thought that only Greek and Latin classics were worthy of study and went back to the works of ancient writers (www.learner.org). These scholars developed a focused interest on writing on matters of sciences, government affairs, philosophy, and the arts. They drew their inspirations from the knowledge of the ancient civilizations; however the subject was human life, intellect, and human travails on Earth. The ordinary things of life too were worthy of celebration according to this school of thought. The Reformation Movement Probably the best example of the influence of the printing press as an invention can be seen in the spread of the Protestant Reformation Movement of the sixteenth century. The Reformation movement, rose with Martin Luther in 1517, and was the principally a movement to protest against the atrocities of the Roman Catholic Church at that time. The Protestant Reformation movement thereby, started the Protestant churches and hoped to bring about reformation in Christianity by seeking answers directly from the Bible, and removing the later additions traditionally found in the Catholic Church practices. The printing press became the main tool of Martin Luther to spread his Bible in German and soon spread in English too. Unlike his predecessors Wycliffe and Huss, Luther had the advantage of being in an era which had already seen the impact of the printing press. He recognized the potential of the printing press as a tool to spread the awareness for the Reformation Movement, and maximized on the tool. Thus, his works – consisting of about 400 titles that had among them that included commentaries, sermons and pamphlets, mainly criticizing the superstitious beliefs and abuses in the Catholic Church, were published with the aid of the printing press. Luther attracted and drew large masses of people within a relatively short period of three years from 1517 to 1520, with about 30 pamphlets that came as a deluge on Germany with four hundred thousand copies (Hammond undated:1), and printed the history of Protestant Reformation Movement in Europe with indelible ink. Protestant thought is a separate and independent division of Christianity even in current times and this could have hardly happened without the aid of the printing press. Printing Press and Education Education is one of the fields that has been most transformed by the advent of the printing press. Eisenstein has commented in her book that “As a consumer of printed materials geared to a sequence of learning stages, the growing child was subjected to a different developmental process than was the medieval apprentice, ploughboy, novice or page”(1979: 432). As stated above, what was once the preserve of only the elite of the society, became accessible and affordable to all who sought it, only because of the printing press innovation. The printing press has induced learning and stimulated thirst for knowledge in ordinary people. However, the influence of the book does not stop there; in many cases the information/knowledge gained from the printed text has influenced many changes in many people’s lives transforming their private and public lives. Mahatma Gandhi, the father of India, has frequently claimed that his constant reading of the Bhagavad Gita (Kamat 2004:1) inspired him to carry on with his life without being defeated by its problems and indirectly also his non-cooperation movement. On a less grand but equally important scale, but for the invention of the printing press it would not be possible to educate so many students across the large continent of Australia. The spread of education, universities have been supported and sustained by the printing and publishing of suitable books for students. “Printing” has provided, according to Kreis (2004) “a superior basis for scholarship and prevented the further corruption of texts through hand copying” and has “made progress in critical scholarship and science faster and more reliable” (p.1). Power of Press in Politics Politics is probably the other field that is most profoundly impacted by the invention of the printing press. Marshall McLuhan (1969) in an interview given to the Playboy Magazine has pointed directly to the power of press in politics; he states that the concept of nationalism was not there in Europe till era of the Renaissance the demand for vernacular typography enabled and promoted literacy in mother-tongue with uniform texts. “The printing press, by spreading mass-produced books and printed matter across Europe, turned the vernacular regional languages of the day into uniform closed systems of national languages -- just another variant of what we call mass media -- and gave birth to the entire concept of nationalism” (McLuhan 1969 cited in dagmaraka 2005: 1). In current times too, the power of the press to make popular the principles of a government or do the contrary, cannot be underestimated. Take for example the ‘Watergate scandal’ and the subsequent fall of Nixon, or in the Australian context the fall of the Howard government (http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-Archive/Article/20080641294164) the role of the press has been significant. More recently, when some foreign students were robbed (http://www.theherald.com.au/news/local/news/general/korean-university-student-robbed-at-knifepoint/1514023.aspx) and others subjected to racial discrimination in Australia, the world media attention was focused on Australia, forcing it to defend its position and take positive measures to protect the foreign students in its soil. These incidents explicate the power of press in politics even today. Conclusion Ever since Gutenberg put together the device of the movable type printing press, the world has been transformed gradually. Some of the principle changes have been in the fields of philosophical thoughts, religion, politics, and in general, the western culture itself. Even though in recent times the press industry has been facing intense competition from the internet and television media, the invention of printing has still not lost its value. The biggest advantage of the print media is that it is “not annoying” and that it allows reading and pondering over at leisure, and “it is a contact medium that is consciously allowed” (Heidelberger 2008:17). Hence, the impact of the printing press shall continue and its influence and power on the minds of people shall continue to hold sway in the times to come too. Reference: dagmaraka (2005) “Impact of media on society: retribalization of modern world?” Online article, retrieved on September 18, 2009. http://able2know.org/topic/62289-1 Eisenstein, L. Elizabeth (1979) The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, Cambridge University Press, New York, (1979). Evans, Lesley Daniela (1998) A Critical Examination of Claims Concerning The ‘Impact’ of Print Online article, retrieved on September 18, 2009. http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/dle9701.html#Top Hammond, Peter (undated) “The Reformation” In Frontline Fellowship website Online article, retrieved on September 18, 2009. http://www.frontline.org.za/articles/thereformation_lectures.htm Heidelberger, Druckmaschinen (2008) “Strengths of Print for Brands and for Corporate Communication” Online article retrieved on September 18, 2009. http://www.slideshare.net/PrintPower/study-strengths-of-print?type=document p. 17. Jones, Bruce (1997). Manuscripts, Books, and Maps: The Printing Press and a Changing World Online article, retrieved on September 18, 2009. http://communication.ucsd.edu/bjones/Books/printech.html Kamat, Jyotsna (2004) “Gandhi on Bhagavadgita” Online article, last updated on September 07, 2009 retrieved on September 18, 2009. http://www.kamat.com/mmgandhi/mkggita.htm Kries, Steven (2004). “Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History - The Printing Press” in the History Guide website last revised on November 05, 2005. Webpage retrieved on September 18, 2009. http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/press.html Leis, Jr., Richard James (2009) “Eventual Impact: The Impact of Mass Media on Education” dated April 30th, 2009. Online article, retrieved on September 18, 2009. http://richardleis.com/2009/04/30/eventual-impact-the-impact-of-mass-media-on- education/ McLuhan, Marshall (1995) Understanding Media, Routledge. P. 23. www.learner.org “Renaissance – Printing and Thinking” Online article, retrieved on September 18, 2009. http://www.learner.org/interactives/renaissance/printing.html Read More