UNDERSTANDING MEDIA THEORYPRESENTED BY: NAYNA BARU (4282126)

THE ‘TORONTO SCHOOL’

1940s: Harold Adams Innis, an economic historian got engaged with the ‘question concerning technology’ and developed his theories regarding the communication technologies.

1960s: Marshall Mcluhan, a younger colleague, inspired by Innis, transformed his ideas and developed his own very popular theories on the media of communication.

They both viewed media not only as technology but as basis of social cultures and presented theories which anchor social

change with the transformations of media of communication in the society.

THE BIAS OF COMMUNICATION – HAROLD INNIS

Communication technology being central to all other technologies - the age of Mechanics was ushered in by the

printing press, the age of electronics by telegraph.

Any given medium of communication is biased in terms of its control of time or space:

Time Biased Space Biased

Tradition, religion, institutionalization.

Political authority, technical, Future-oriented.

THE BIAS OF COMMUNICATION – HAROLD INNIS

“The media thus influences the kinds of human associations that can develop in any period.” Therefore, control of

communication implies control of both consciousness & social organisation.

“New media are designed to undercut existing centres of power to facilitate the creation of new patterns of association

and the articulation of new forms of knowledge.”

James W. Carey argues that however the time-space bias has inverted in the current time as in primitive societies time was

continuous and space was discontinuous but the modern times witness a continuous space and a discontinuous time.

THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE - MARSHALL MCLUHAN

“the things on which words were written down count more than the words themselves.”

http://marshallmcluhanspeaks.com/sayings/1974-the-medium-is-the-message.php

Any media interacts and affects one or more sensory faculties and changes our perceptions. therefore, how we use a media

translates into the media’s grammar/language.

Examples?

As one media engages one sensory faculty, it results in over-reliance on one and dis-use of others senses and therefore

affects our awareness, perceptions and experiences.

HOT AND COOL MEDIUM - MARSHALL MCLUHAN

Hot Medium Cool Medium

Abundant information Low in information

Involves no filling in of information and relies on only one or two sensory faculties.

Requires audience to add information to complete the message.

Passive Active and participatory

MORE PROBES - MARSHALL MCLUHAN

• Media as ‘the extensions of man’

• The depiction of modern times as ‘The Global Village’

“In the electric age, when our whole nervous system is technologically extended to involve us in the whole of mankind and to incorporate the

whole of mankind in us, we necessarily participate, in depth, in the consequences of our every action.”

• The future:

http://marshallmcluhanspeaks.com/prophecies/1966-communication-via-the-internet.php

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive//4.01/saint.marshal.html?topic=&topic_set=

CRITIQUES BY CAREY

“Mc luhan’s whole argument rests on the grounds of psychology of perception” which is a weak foundation for

such heavy probes

The whole assumption that the pattern of sensory closure is dictated by the structure of the media is an oversimplification

Does not take into account the artists struggle to overcome the limitations of any media through invention of new

symbolic representation and considers the audiences as an empty box that is filled in by the media

REFERENCESCarey, J.W. 1967, "Harold Adams Innis and Marshall McLuhan", The Antioch Review, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 5-39.

Marshall McLuhan Speaks. 2013. Marshall McLuhan Speaks — The medium is the message. [online] Available at: http://marshallmcluhanspeaks.com/sayings/1974-the-medium-is-the-message.php [Accessed: 14 Aug 2013].

McLuhan, Marshall. ‘The Medium is the Message’ pp. 1-8

Scannell, P. & Ebooks Corporation Limited 2007, Media and communication, SAGE Publications, Los Angeles, CA

Wired.com. 1996. Wired 4.01: The Wisdom of Saint Marshall, the Holy Fool. [online] Available at: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive//4.01/saint.marshal.html?topic=&topic_set= [Accessed: 16 Aug 2013].

* All quotes are from the references above.

THANKS