Response Lum's Media Ecology

Reading Response Lum's Overview of Media Ecology

Niel Postman (1970) outlined the fields view of media as a complex environment. Media ecology is then the study of how new mediums of communication affect, human perception, understanding, feeling, and value. As an ecological study the researcher will look to the medias environmental structures, content, and impact on people.

Media @ Sensorial Environment

"The medium is the message"
-Marshall McLuhan

Vision is determined by the eyes and glasses of the beholder. When someone attempts to make sense of their surroundings the sensory tools they possess determine their understanding of that environment. For example, my dad has started to lose his hearing, but he has the dog of a blood hound now. Reality is one vision constructed through the glasses (media) one is using to filter the outside world - the barrier between me and out there. Depending on what metaphorical glasses one is using (TV,print,Internet,Song, Interpretive Dance, Large Sunglasses, Hearing Aid, Computer Screen) the surroundings will be filtered by the sensory characteristics of those glasses.

Media @ Symbolic Environment

Every media, as every language, comes with its own rules & syntax. Film, TV, Second Life, for example all have their vocabulary and grammar. This holds true in cultural contexts as well - the debate community for example has its own unique language - certain words hold specific values that differ from a conversation with non debaters. In debate vocabulary 'cards' (sections of scholarly articles) hold a specific symbolic value which is understood through specific syntactical rules (tags & citations) that determine the cards meaning. The card is the symbol for research and knowledge, the syntax that governs its meaning is its tag. The tag of a card is brief usually one sentence summary of the card that the judge will write down along with the author and date.

Sense + Symbol = World As We Come To Understand It

People do not in reality separate the sensory from the symbolic according to Lum. Media is an interaction of the sensory and the symbolic in peoples constructing of their surrounding
Media ecology has a tough job at hand:

"the task is to examine the dynamics among the co-existing media & how their interactions may result in or continue to a sensory - symbolic environment whose whole is qualitatively different from the sum of its (multimedia) sensorial-symbolic parts" (Lum p. 31)

To engage this task the media ecologist draws from three theoretical propositions: first communication media is not neutral, secondly each medium holds it own biases, thirdly that culture is formed by the biases of the medium.

Theory # 1-media is not neutral-1 # Theory

*The structure of the medium defines the nature of the information* Content is not devoid the structure in which it is told. Lum uses the example of being angry at a movie translating your favorite novel. Media ecologists hold that that the content of information is changed when its form is translated.

Theory #2-mediums are biased

"There are some human reasons or intentions behind the conception and development of any communication technology" (Lum p. 33). The human behind the curtain (their intentions or biases) influences the shape and physical form of communication technology.

3-Culture is formed by biases of medium-3

Lum suggests that one view the cultural implications of a mediums bias on a continuum (Lum p.34)

Soft Determinism Culture/Tech Symbiosis Hard Derminism
(Levinson 1997) (Lum 1996) (M Smith 1994)
human agency culture and humans interdependent technology is the
determines the neither human agency/culture unavoidable force of change
consequences of is priviliged in social change & history
media's development
and use

$#*&@!An Epochal Approach To History*&*(^*()_
Measuring The Media Of Humanity

Orality -

In oral cultures there is no formalized symbolic means of communication - aka language. Lum writes that the oral individual would speak and not imagine a word - speech as pure sound.

Literacy -

When a culture is introduced to literacy psychodynamic (Ong) changes occur within the society. Lum uses the example of elders roles in oral societies. As the key holders of cultural memory and skills they are highly valued, but in a literate society they lose their place. Young people pick up the skills of reading and writing quickly and can surpass their elders 'skills' quickly. Their memory can be transfered to books -

Typographic

Elizabeth Einstein wrote about the key shifts with the invention of the printing press

1-the input and output of information increased drastically
2-dictionaries, calendars, maps, etc. became standardized leading to modernization and rationaliziation
3- competition led printers to making editorial breaks - tables of contents, indexes to order data. This valuing of order effected the writer and the reader
4-Text becomes permanent and easily duplicated, this led to the rise of scientific knowledge centers. Through standardizing local linguistic differences print increased nationalism. Authors seeked fame - individualism, beauty and progress - changing education and rhetoric.
5-The orderly logic of print increased rigid stereotypes

With these 5 factors combined, Einstein writes, ""the appearance of a Protestant ethic, a
spirit of capitalism, a middle-class ethos, new concepts of the family
and the child, educational reforms, and a bureaucratic officialdom all
owed much to multiple, complex interactions introduced by typography "(1968:45).

Electronic Media

Beginning with the telegraph in the 19th century the rate and nature of media's evolution has rapidly changed. Telegraph - Telephone- Radio - TV- Internet - Faster, Faster, Faster -

What happens Now?
Linear thought, rationality, static history are all being challenged by the increasing rate of media change and the multimedia connectivity of the electrate age. What happens now? That is up for debate. As the printing press created a value for order and rationality in accordance with editorial guidelines for authors - the new space is defined by the spirit of the rebel. The unpermance and ability to quickly copy, paste, link, click, information in real time - creativity is needed. No longer is there the need to strive for conformity to those who hold the powers of the press. We are the press. Pressing ourselves into the mess of hyperspace is embracing a culture a new pair of shades....if anon was a woman, and if she was a graffitti artists she might want some tips from Lady Pink....