Page 138 - Cultural Studies A Practical Introduction

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Media Studies

Communication is essential to human life, and what we call media are

essential to communication. The tongue was the first medium of commu-
nication, along with hands for making gestures. The first great communica-

tors, who also happened to be the fi rst great political and cultural leaders,
were orators, and one of them, Cicero, a Roman legislator and lawyer, was
so good at the use of his hands in oratory that when he was murdered by
his enemies, they severed his hands and nailed them – along with his
tongue – to the door of the Roman Senate. That horrible detail from history
suggests emphatically how influential the media can be. The Romans so

feared the media used by orators to sway the masses that they killed those
who used them too well. The Roman Empire would not have worked
without effective means of communication – papyrus and wax plates for
writing, as well as a well - developed language to facilitate the communica-
tion of ideas and information and to assist the attainment of ends by

influencing others to think and act in certain ways. Cicero ’ s death was initi-
ated using a simple medium – a posted list of Roman citizens who had
been proscribed – literally, “ written off. ” A proscribed citizen had ceased to
have the protection of the law. He could be murdered by anyone, and his
property seized by the murderer. The posted proscription list was a simple
communicative medium with fatal implications. It meant life or death, and
it did so by placing words in people ’ s minds that carried ideas that initiated
actions. Words work, and sometimes they work by changing the world.
With Cicero ’ s death, the era of the Roman Republic ended, and from that
point forward, Rome would be ruled by emperors.
Wall posters continued to be used down through the centuries to
influence public thought and behavior. In China, when it was ruled by Mao

Tse - Tung ’ s Communist Party, posters began to appear in 1963 all over
Beijing. Ostensibly, posted by ordinary people, their appearance in fact