June 8th, 2010
McLuhan, M. (1997). Media research: technology, art, communication: Routledge.
In many preliterate cultures the binding power of oral tradition is so strong that the eye is subservient to the ear. … In our society, however, to be real, a thing must be visible, and preferably constant” (39).
I largely concur with this direction of thought. In the era of primary orality, the spoken word was the main means of communication. However, I’d argue that that was experienced in combination with and simultaneous to the visual, the ability to see the speaker’s appearance and all of his or her non-verbal cues. But, today, we are certainly a visual species; we trust the eye, finding more faith and understanding when we see it in addition to experiencing it with other senses. In some ways, this view is also relevant to social presence theory and the media theories (richness, synchronicity, naturalness) that rate communication methods on hierarchical levels, each placing FtF communication as the highest and most rich, synchronous, natural, etc. method, since FtF includes visual, aural, and immediacy. Read the rest of this entry »
June 5th, 2010
McLuhan, M. (1997). Media research: technology, art, communication: Routledge.
In The Electronic Age – The Age of Implosion, McLuhan discusses the idea that the explosion of the electronic age has actually created an implosion of our models of perception. This is to say that we are now ever-more aware of individuals at much greater distances than we once were. “All men are now involved in one another physically and psychically as happens when they occupy a very small village. And as global villagers, all men must now accommodate their judgments to the complex interdependence understood and manipulated by villagers” (16).
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May 28th, 2010
McLuhan, M. (1997). Media research: technology, art, communication: Routledge.
“The effect of media, like their “message,” is really in their form and not in their content” (10).
“The spectator or reader must now be co-creator” (12).
In Myth and Mass Media, McLuhan discusses language and mass media in regard to the making of myth. While this particular essay’s topic does not directly relate to my research, McLuhan discusses some concepts foundational to his later essays, and by extension my study.
“If a language contrived and used by many people is a mass medium, any one of our new media is in a sense a new language, a new codification of experience collectively achieved by new work habits and inclusive collective awareness” (6).
The Online Video Conversation (OVC), in this sense can be seen as a new language, a new codification of experience. Additionally, those that use the OVC are creating new work habits, by their very use of the tool. Read the rest of this entry »
March 6th, 2008
McLuhan, Marshall. 2003 (orig. 1962 & 1964). “Two Selections by Marshall McLuhan.” In The New Media Reader.
Cambridge: MIT Press.
Postman, Neil. 1992. “Invisible Technologies.” Technopoly. New York: Vintage Books.
After reading these noted articles, I had the following two questions posed: Read the rest of this entry »