2 Medium Theory 5q334b

MEDIUM THEORY … the mere existence of certain kinds of media affects how we think about and respond to the world … it’s about on how, not on what we experience the world …

Classical Medium Theory 

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Marshall McLuhan: media, apart from whatever content is transmitted, impact individuals and society McLuhan & Harold Adam Inis: communication media are the essence of civilization & that history is directed by the predominant media of each age Media are extensions of the human mind, so the predominant media in use biases any historical period

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Time binding and space binding of media: bias toward tradition, and fostering change Speech as a medium encourages people to organize their experience chronologically. It requires knowledge & tradition, and therefore community & relationship Written media, which are spatially arranged, produce different kind of culture.

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McLuhan’s thesis is that people adapt to their environment through a certain balance ratio of the senses, and the primary medium of the age brings out a particular sense ratio, thereby affecting perception. Cool media: when more of our senses are engaged in the process of taking meaning, more involving & participatory the experience is (TV) Hot media: single sense, isolating (reading text) & non-involving (encouraging the rational, individual attitude)

Building on McLuhan 

5 types of media bias (McQuail): • Sense experience: more or less visual •

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imagery, or an involving & participant way Form & representation: strongly coded (as in print) or essentially uncoded (as in photographs) message. Message content: more or less realism or polysemy, more open or closed formats Context of use: more private & individualized reception, or more collective & shared Relationship: one-way or interactive media

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Bias contains a tendency towards certain kinds of experience & ways of mediation The (unintended) bias of a medium can work in subtle but systematic & multiple ways, affecting content & probable ways of perception & reception (see Ellis’s example) Biases are not only or even primarily due to technology, but to many other factors

Example of media bias (Ellis, 1982) BROADCAST TV

CINEMA FILM

Content & form Identities narrator No narrator Distinguishes fact from fiction Only fiction or blurred Realistic Dreamlike Domestic, familiar Exotic Open ended Logical, sequential Impression of being live Not live, historic present Neutral attitude Takes side Tone of normality & safety Tension & anxiety Audience aspects Permanent audience Occasional one-off audience Low engagement Rapt attention, self-loss Intimacy Detachment, voyeurism

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Donald Ellis: the predominant media at any given time will shape behavior and thought There are sharp differences among oral, written, & electronic media, each with different effects in term of how we interact with each medium

Oral Communication     

Highly malleable & organic Messages are immediate & ephemeral Life & knowledge can not be separated Group identification & cohesiveness are high Create culture of community

Written Communication       

Separate the messages from the moment People can “act on” information & knowledge, that is not possible in oral. This lead to a separation of knowledge (what is known) from knower (who knows it) Those who can read & write have special status (formal education is important) Knowledge is objectified & can assume the status of truth Storing & saving information make literacy a tool of conservation Create culture of class

Electronic Media 

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Immediate & ephemeral, but are not tied to particular place, because they can be broadcast Extend our perception beyond where we are at any given moment Allow information to be stored Knowledge in the electronic age changes rapidly, and we become aware of different versions of truth Create culture of cells (interest groups)

New Media Theory  

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The rise of internet & CMC Mark Poster’s the Second Media Age: interactive technologies & network communications would transforms society The idea of the second media age: • Loosened the concept of “mass” • New forms of media use (individualized

information, knowledge acquisition, to interaction) • Bring back the power of media into focus

The First Media    

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Centralized production One-way communication State control, for the most part The reproduction of social stratification & inequality through the media Fragmented mass audiences The shaping of social consciousness

The Second Media      

Decentralized Two-way Beyond state control Democratizing Promoting individual consciousness Individually oriented

2 Dominant Views of the differences between the 1st (broadcast) & the 2nd media age (networks) 

The Social Interaction Approach • Close to the model of face-to-face interaction • Interactive & create new sense of personalized

communication • Provides virtual meeting places that expand social worlds 

The Social Integration Approach • A ritual of how people use media as a way of creating

community & sense of belonging • Interaction with other people is not a necessary component of social integration • Using media is a meaningful self-contained ritual • ed by media equation theory (we treat media like people, & interact with them as if they were persons)