Nipper was a terrier from Bristol, UK in the late 19th Century. Nipper’s image tilting his head to the (presumably curious) sound of a phonograph achieved lasting fame when Francis Barraud’s painting became the logo of the gramophone company now known as RCA Victor. The invention of the gramophone in 1877 made possible the first-ever mass distribution of sound recordings, and changed the way we consume media—sound, previously experienced in a specific time and place, henceforth became semi-permanent and reproducible. 

It is not simply Nipper’s unwavering attention to His Master’s Voice (the title of Barraud’s painting) that makes this image symbolic of our habits of attention in the age of mass media. The endearing quality of this image arises from our assumption that Nipper is unaware that the phonograph is “merely” a replication of his master’s voice, not his “real” master. But is this painting not in itself also a replication? It's also a completely fictional one, since it was painted years after he passed away. Perhaps it is not the image itself that sustains our attention, but our personal and irreplaceable relationship that the image represents — Nipper gravitates to his master's voice whether the human is physically present or not, just as his human memorializes Nipper through this painting.

Read more about this here and here.