Comparing Innis and McLuhan’s Approaches to Medium Theory
Introduction
Some time ago the fields of communications and the matter of mass media as a field of study were largely confined to the schools of journalism. But now the rise in interest to study this from outside that area stems mostly from the advances in technology, where the changes of modern living has solidified the image of our world as one big global community, where virtually everyone can easily and quickly reached. There is no doubt in this day and age that we are greatly influenced by the media. This is why most researchers have taken up the mettle in understanding its functions, and impact it makes in changing the matters pertaining to society, the least of which is that of public opinion.
The technological advancements that the modern society is characterized at present makes the people living today to experience and two things in the most efficient and effective way. The world has changed since the introduction of the computer technology and other communication innovations that time and space barriers have long been overcome in the need for individuals to get connected. Media in all its forms serves as the ultimate information bank where the people around the world derive knowledge and facts, learn and enhance imagination, broaden reasoning, and finally, aid their decision-making.
At present, the modern media “produce and circulate meaning in the society” ( 2002) within the context of nationality and cultural heritage, religion, regional identities, societal classes, ethnic and minority rituals, family values and self-actualization. Such reality brings about endless debate of what is right or wrong, just or unfair, even real or unreal. Having wide variety of meanings in the society is a fact that maintains these debates, but to include the modernization of media simply aggravates the inherent confusion.
(1995) notes that the audience seeks the media either for surveillance (to find out what’s going on around us), personal identity (reaffirming who we are and how we appear to others), personal relationships (judging ourselves by the way others live), or diversion (generally what we term as entertainment). We can think of it as the media being a buffet table that offers different interests, and the audience goes around picking the ones they want. In which case it is up to the media to have available the things which its audience might need, lest the audience walks away unfulfilled. Take for example instrumental and ritualistic TV watching; the former is when the audience uses the TV purposely to look for something they need, and the latter is when they seek to be fulfilled either by being humored or roused to some other such emotion.
Studies have shown that the introduction of the Internet in the field of mass media has resulted to popular academic researches on its effects on the message consumption using the traditional modes of mass communication (2000). The study combusted by and (2000) recorded that the increase in the message consumption through the Internet has greatly influenced the decline in the use of traditional mass communication media such as the print, radio and television. The monthly telephone surveys in 1998 by and (2000) supported the mentioned findings as online news users increased in number which likewise resulted to the decreasing use of TV, newspaper and magazines as sources of news updates and current events. The relationship of the inception of online communication led to the bulk of academic endeavors pursuing the studies on the current condition of the traditional forms of public communication ( 1999).
The Communication Process
According to (1999), “language is a unified system of symbols that permits a sharing of meaning”. It is the most essential form of communication. Without language civilization would not have been possible. Today, language and communication is more important than ever as the world functions through different form of transactions. It is important to every type of people.
Communication process occur everyday at every given point in time. From our homes up to our workplaces, people engaged with this inescapable process. Effective communication is a necessity in the workplace. Researchers and practitioners have long recognized communication skills are serious to job performance, career advancement, and organizational success (1989;1986; 1987). People speak through face-to-face conversations, telephone, mail, and other vehicles of communication. Though, communication is not always verbally done. Communication is also present through signs, gestures, body movements, facial expressions, and codes (e.g. the Morse code or the sign language).
Communication may be defined as the transmission of meaning and information from one person to another (1998). While the transmission itself may appear to be a simple task, the interpretation of the message being relayed through communication poses a challenge, particularly on the establishment of human relations. In general, communication becomes effective when both parties involved are honest and open to share information and have the ability to decipher the meaning of their messages. Effective communication must always be practiced as it is significant to individual health as well as for the creation of positive relationships. Specifically, the ability to communicate directly affects an individual’s stress levels, self-esteem and relationship quality (1998; 1992).
The process of communication can be done through a number of styles. However, regardless on whether the style applied is verbal or nonverbal, the communication process always involves a sender and a receiver. This process involves five steps: idea struck the sender, the sender then encodes the message, the message is carried through a channel, the receiver will have the message decoded, and a feedback will be given by the receiver (1998). As people exchange ideas, a lot of barriers may affect their communication process such as ineffective listening skills, inconsistent verbal or nonverbal messages, and resistance to change, individual bias, time limitations, distractions, personal assumptions as well as differences in race, culture, age, and religion. Aside from these, gender differences in communication styles appear to be one of the most common communication barriers (1992).
While differences in communication styles commonly exist, these should not affect the process of effective communication. Every individual should then learn that misunderstandings can lead to ineffective communication between parties expressing their ideas and feelings in a relationship. It is then important to explore and distinguish various communication styles so as to lessen communication gap ( 1995). The barriers for communication are hindrances for relationships to build, even if only one of the doer exhibits signs of having these barriers. Because of this, misunderstandings may occur that can range from amusing to full-scale problems. Thus, these barriers must be anticipated and recognized, as well as should be removed in order to have a comprehensive communication between the people in order to have better relationships.
In this light, it is not only important to know the ways and characteristics of effective communication, it is also relevant to understand and to gain knowledge regarding a number of communication barriers that make it possible to hinder effective communication styles and processes.
Medium Theory
“Mass media" is a deceptively simple term encompassing a countless array of institutions and individuals who differ in purpose, scope, method, and cultural context. Mass media include all forms of information communicated to large groups of people, from a handmade sign to an international news network. There is no standard for how large the audience needs to be before communication becomes "mass" communication. There are also no constraints on the type of information being presented. Accurate media representation of world issues is crucial. Whenever media reports are censored or biased, the people's basic rights are systematically undermined. In these situations, violations and unaccountability often go unnoticed and suppressed viewpoints become commonplace. Most people get their view of the world from the media.
Representation refers to the construction in any medium (especially the mass media) of aspects of ‘reality’ such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. Such representations may be in speech or writing as well as still or moving pictures (). Media representation is an active, creative process through which images signify different meanings rather than merely presenting themselves as objective reflections of reality. The term refers to the processes involved as well as to its products. For instance, in relation to the key markers of identity representation involves not only how identities are represented (or rather constructed) within the text but also how they are constructed in the processes of production and reception by people whose identities are also differentially marked in relation to demographic factors (1999).
These things has greatly affected how cultures now were shaped, and especially how nations and different people with different backgrounds are able to associate with each other because of the perceived information that they received from these devices used for communication. The environment in which we as interactive beings move together in order to create a semblance of order in our minds. The Medium Theory has been one of the most popular discussions in the academic arena particularly in the discipline of communications as induced by the ever-emerging communication gadgets and technologies. The Medium Theory encompasses explanations, assumptions and claims regarding the interaction of the communication media and the audience utilizing such technology on how information and messages are given meaning and interpretation.
The discussions that follow present the comparisons and differences of Innis and McLuhan’s approaches in explaining the Medium Theory with the aim to illustrate learning and understanding on the topic at hand.
McLuhan’s Approach
According to (1994) and (1991), McLuhan has been the most popular and influential when it comes to the independent influence of the media. He developed his theories on the interplay of the audience and the media in 1964 having published his book entitled Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. The popularity of his work resulted to enormous academic interest in the social sciences as well as in the field of psychology tackling the impact of technological change to people and society. His ideas anointed him as the “oracle” of the new television age as academic works and studies followed his initiatives which focused on testing the validity of his claims regarding the media impact and effects. Other researchers and academic authors elaborated his contributions to the discipline of communications.
(1998) provided explanation on how McLuhan presented his version of the Medium Theory. Accordingly, McLuhan emphasized the function of mass communication channels particularly the television in promoting collective ideologies across cultural setting and orientation thereby supporting the notion of the concept of global village. As such, people utilizing the same medium and processing the same content, message, and information mediated by mass communication technologies share the same meaning and interpretation through the same awareness of collective responsibility.
McLuhan further claimed that the advances in technology led to series of communication revolution which result to the societies’ tendency to return to tribal social relations due to ever-increasing complex features of the mass media technologies to adhere to the convenient specifications of the audience. He identified the emergence of writing skills and printing equipment, the radio and television as audio and visual aids as well as the present day real-time electronic communication as communication revolutions associated to the advancing mass media technologies ( 1998). Furthermore, (1994) highlighted McLuhan’s emphasis on the individual’s direct experience to the as reflected in the person’s communication experience as well as the communication theorist’s extension of the Medium Theory to the electronic medium.
McLuhan specifically argued and focused his Medium Theory to the relationship between the sensory organization of the person and the audience’s nature of thought which shapes the individual’s direct experience with the medium. He claimed that mass media which demand high involvement of the audience in terms of audio and visual attention leads to the person’s inclination to other media channels that similarly asserts the individual’s awareness and interest (1994). According to Levinson (1990) the most central contribution of McLuhan is his analysis of the relationship of human space and thought construction. It is remarkable, however, that the beliefs of McLuhan regarding the impact of media channels, television in particular, oppose the passive role of media technologies that modern psychology theories claim at present ( 1994).
Innis’ Approach
It was Innis (1951, 1952) who pioneered the very first ideals of the Medium Theory which his student, McLuhan, extended ( 1998). It was Innis who first argued the relation and effects of the medium to its users in his claims that mass media communication presents organizational and perceptual social biases (1983). The books authored by Innis in the early 1950s entitled Empire and Communications (1950) and The Bias of Communication (1951) presented fully and illustrated the roots of his theoretical structure and central concept of the Medium Theory ( 2004).
According to (1989) the historical arguments of Innis included and highlighted the shift in cultural perception as a result of technological improvement and development in mass communication. The inception of the print medium changed the culture from time-binding to space-binding orientation in which printed materials distributed publicly result to single or almost similar space-specific identity of the readers who came in contact with the same medium thereby absorbing the same information and message content. This is very different from the times when oral communications produce collective thought processes among in-group communities who receive the same information in a time-specific orientation (1989).
More clearly, the time-binding effect of oral communications is due to the time-specific presence of the individuals who absorb the same information at the same time. On the other hand, the space-binding cultural shift in the advent of print technologies defies time and results collective interpretation of the same information among dispersed individuals in which the print materials’ content serve as the binding culture (1991). In particular, Innis concerned himself with the effect of writing and printing technologies to monopolize the content of information distributed to the society thereby supporting and acting as means of the imperial power relations and status of those who control the message content in a seemingly propagandistic manner. Furthermore, Innis argued that the capability of printed materials to cross economic characteristics of diverse readers and the encouraged privacy of the act of reading add to the modern, individualist and democratic cultural formation (1993).
Generally, Innis’ hypothesis addresses the direct influence of media and their more immediate effect in extending communication faster and more efficiently across space. For Innis (1954), the access or availability of mass communication channels can transform the present-time social interactions and relations of people thereby transforming culture in the process. Put simply, he argued that access and availability to communication technologies is sufficient to result to social and cultural changes (1998).
General Comparisons
When the complexity of the nature, source and limit of a particular knowledge is exposed in terms of the perspective used by a person, conflict on what point of view to follow along with the beliefs and values a person holds, most often than not determines the behavior, given that the person is a ware of the possible principles and truths he or she could consider. But the academic contributions of both McLuhan and Innis are highly appreciated in the discipline of communications as pioneers in recognizing the impact of mass communication technologies to the ever-transforming culture and social changes due to modernization.
According to (1998) the most significant distinction between McLuhan and Innis approaches to Medium Theory is evident in the role of sensory experience of the media and television in particular as detailed by McLuhan. McLuhan has been very specific in relating the effects of media to the person’s individual experience and his or her extent of usage. Meanwhile, Innis highlighted the extent of cultural transformation as a function of accessibility and availability of media technologies resulting to the collective absorption of messages and unified thinking.
(1993), on the other hand, emphasized the major similarities regarding McLuhan and Innis versions of Medium Theory. Accordingly, both of them associate the function of mass communication technologies as extended realities utilized by the public. Moreover, both theorists acknowledge the capacity of mass media technologies to serve as a unifying force to people who use it. This is as a result of the collective thought processes and ideologies resulting to highly similar message content of the received information.
Conclusions
Chaotic amount of available facts that explains a phenomenon are made clear through detailed analyses and interpretations guided through the use of rational explanations. It is a common belief that acquiring knowledge can empower an individual for the notion of facts and truths guides a person on how to proceed on things that must be attended to. In every decision an individual makes, comprehension and weighing of information play a vital role on what and how certain actions and attitudes will be conceptualized and performed. Notably, the role of communication in making learning possible has long been acclaimed as the most efficient way of sharing and acquiring facts and information.
With these in mind, both McLuhan and Innis have been conscious of the importance of understanding the interplay and relationship of media channels and the individual using it. This led to their revolutionary contributions in the field of communications in which up to this day assist the academe in imparting knowledge. The popularity of their works have led to enormous researches and studied exploring and experimenting the validity and reliability of their theories in the hope of strengthening their claims as well as in modifying their ideals to be most suitable to real communication processes. Academic endeavors up to this day continue to utilize the theoretical and conceptual frameworks of both McLuhan and Innis Medium Theory to bring accurate understanding of the communication processes and their impact to the present day social and cultural changes.
0 comments:
Post a Comment