Page 76 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report

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read if we are familiar with the code of the writ- ing, and this required formal learning which was not yet widespread. We know that in the Middle Ages it was a skill limited to members of the clergy and the upper classes. The main means of transmission continued to be oral, and it would be some years before written culture reached large swathes of the population. Graham (1993) states that reading as we know it today, as a silent and private act, became widespread in the second half of the nineteenth century. There- fore, written language has not been around for long and that is why Professor Sauerberg of the University of Denmark and other authors (Pet- titt, 20102) call this stage “the Gutenberg paren- thesis.”3 During this period writing prevailed. But a few years later another manner of recording oral language was discovered and its importance was restored.
The phonograph, invented by Edison, Johnson and Berliner and patented in 1878, was the first device that allowed sounds to be reproduced. Berliner’s gramophone was subsequently used for cinema sound.
This meant that for the first time in history sound could be recorded and reproduced. The introduction of technology therefore ushered in a new stage that Ong and Hartley (2016) call sec- ond orality. The phonograph and gramophone were followed by other systems for storing in- formation. The cassette, developed in 1970, gave huge impetus to orality because sound forms,
as well as being recordable, were now portable. Later on, in the eighties, came compact discs, videotapes and, from 2002, streaming and the Internet, bringing the possibility of downloading sound content in MP3 format (Rubery, 2011).
The transmission of sound over distances – spe- cifically the spoken word – was also developing through the telephone, which was patented by Bell in 1876 though it was invented by Meucci. All these means of communication and sound storage have contributed to restoring orality to its importance.
The definitive impetus, however, the return to orality, came from the appearance of the radio. This is something that Silvia did understand, because she liked listening to the radio during her night shifts at the hospital.
Phonograph, gramophone
THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF THE VOICE AND SOUND IN COMMUNICATION IN THE DIGITAL AGE · EMMA RODERO
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