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Part I. Interdisciplinary Approach to Storytelling ] 31 medium (cinema, television, or computer) can change the characteristics of the narration (Kovács, 2002). CHAPTER 3. COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA THEORY The number of media for storytelling is constantly expanding, and Donalds theory of cultural evolution suggests that they are in complementary relationship with each other. From a historical perspective, three periods can be distinguished in terms of the use and social impact of media. ‘The typical institutions of the age of spoken language and manuscript writing (the logosphere) are the kingdom, the church, the faith, and oral preaching; the media of print (the graphosphere) are the republic of citizens, the secular state, philosophy, and elected leaders; [...] and the audiovisual media sphere (the video sphere) is characterized by ,cathodic’ democracy, the seduction of the event, the triumph of political emotion over political reason. (Barbier & Berjho Lavenir, 1996 - translated by the author of this book) Narrative activities are realized in social relations, and the conventions of story creation, communication, and transmission are determined by the social context. Access to information through technical media is not a given for all ages and for all social classes. Access to media is strongly dependent on the socio-cultural status of individuals and the availability of the medium. Until the spread of technical reproduction, the small number of handwritten texts was only accessible to privileged groups in society (e.g. scribes or clergymen); even if the illiterate masses had access to these texts, they would not have been able to decode the characters. The need to eradicate illiteracy on an ever wider scale began at the time of the Reformation and was fulfilled by the Enlightenment, the spread of scientific and systematic thinking, and the industrial revolution. From the 18 century onwards, with the institutionalization of popular education, reading and writing became available to a wider range of people. At this time, high and mass culture became separated (the most striking example being the dichotomy between high and popular literature). These developments made it necessary to regulate the publication of printed texts, and new segments emerged such as the book industry and the press, including publishing houses, which not only produced and distributed books, but also carried out a kind of professional pre-screening. The 19" century was also the beginning of the networking of technical media-based information transmission. The mass distribution of books and periodicals was facilitated by the postal service, bookshops and news agents. The globalization of information took place between 1850 and 1950 with the entry of new media from the early 20" century. In addition to
