Media and Information Literacy

Media and Information are two of the most important things that we always use or
encounter in our daily lives. There is no denying how media and information have improved or
evolved throughout the years. It has been proven effective in the field of marketing or
businesses as a whole. Communication had been made easier. Information is readily made
accessible to everyone. Conducting interviews or research is just one click away by simply using
different online applications that may be already familiar to you such as Skype, Zoom, Facebook
messenger, or even Google meet. All these are made possible because of the improvement in
the field of media and information. But most importantly, media and information play a big role in
the improvement of learning. As an individual, you most probably have been watching youtube
or even television programs such as National Geographic and the likes. It is one of the fastest
ways to learn. You get to be updated on the latest issues or trends that are happening all around
the world.

Evolution of Media and Information

● Pre-Industrial Age (Before 1700s)

Pre-industrial society refers to social attributes and forms of both political and cultural groups or
organizations that were extensive before the advent of the Industrial Revolution. The industrial
revolution occurred from 1750 to 1850. In the Pre-industrial age, people discovered fire,
developed paper from plants, forged weapons, and tools through the use of stone, copper, iron,
and bronze.

● Industrial Age (1700s to 1930s)

This is the period where people developed tools, discovered the use of steam, developed
machines, iron production, and manufacturing of a certain number of products such as books
through the printing press. It was easier for people to print documents and these documents
were made available to people especially when it regards to political, economic and societal
issues.

● Electronic Age (1930s-1980s)

The transistor was invented during this time and this revolutionized the electronic age. It began
in 1939. Russell Ohl was studying crystals at Bell Labs in the United States and discovered the
PN junction. Walter Brattain, a research physicist at Bell Labs, saw Ohl’s work and realized that
it could go towards a solid state alternative to the thermionic valve. In December of 1947, he
produced the first working point contact transistor with John Bardeen. In the early part of 1948,
William Shockley began work on a different concept that led to the development of the junction
transistor. In July of 1951, the world’s first junction transistor was introduced through a press
conference. In 1956, Walter Brattain, John Bardeen and William Shockley shared the Nobel
prize for physics for their invention of the transistor. People made use of the maximum potential
of the transistors which led to invention of the transistor radio and electronic circuits as well as
the early computers.
 ● New Information Age (1900s-2000s)
The most important milestone during this period is the development of the internet. It gave way
for faster and easy communication as well as the creation of social networks. Microelectronics
were used to its fullest potential with the creation of personal computers, mobile technologies
such as pocketbells and phones, and wearable technology like watches, wireless headsets and
microphones. Voice, image, data and sound were converted into digital form. It can simply be
said that we are now living in a digitalized world, the information age.