Medium theory

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Medium theory is a mode of analysis that examines the ways in which particular communication media and modalities impact the specific content (messages) they are meant to convey. Medium theorists argue that media are not simply channels for transmitting information between environments, but are themselves distinct social-psychological settings or environments that encourage certain types of interaction and discourage others.^[1][2]

Moreover, this set of approaches focuses on the distinct affordances that a given medium may possess that affects the messages that are being conveyed through it.^[2] The key assumption is that, rather than just being the means by which the communication takes place, media is a diverse set of environments that enable the communication to happen; as such, it may alter the meaning and sense of the information that is transferred through it. Accordingly, medium theory is distinct from the more generic 'media theory', the majority of which place its emphasis on the content of communication (e.g., sex and violence) rather than the medium.^[3]: 305

Joshua Meyrowitz originated the term in his 1985 book, No Sense of Place. Meyrowitz used the term to refer to the body of literature that focuses on the technological aspects of media beyond their content. It aims to look beyond the content to the medium which reveals the key to its social impact.^{[2][3]: 305} Such works includes to those of Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, Walter Ong, Jack Goody, and Neil Postman, among others.

Currently, medium theory occupies a marginal position within American communication and media studies.^[3]: 305 In Canada and elsewhere, the theory continues to inform studies that assess large-scale social changes that follow the adoption of a new medium.

History[]

Joshua Meyrowitz originated the term medium theory in his 1985 book, No Sense of Place, as a unifying label for the body of work from various mid-20th-century scholars who explored how the different characteristics of different media motivate unique forms of interaction. (These works came from a variety of fields, including history, anthropology, political economy, philosophy, religion, classics, and communication.) This label described works that focused on the technological aspects of media beyond their content.^{[1][2][3]: 305} To Meyrowitz, "the term media of communication refers to all channels and means through which information is transmitted among people except direct, face-to-face modes of communication."^[4]: 331 In a later work, Meyrowitz asks: "What are the characteristics of each medium…that make it physically, psychologically, and socially different from other media and from live interaction, regardless of content and grammar choices."^[5]: 61

Though the term medium theory itself was coined in the 1980s, the roots of this mode of analysis can be found in each major development of a new medium throughout history.^[1]

In ancient Greece, Socrates observed that writing differed from oral dialogue in several key ways: written texts were incapable of answering questions put to them, reached audiences for which they were not intended, and weakened the memories of those who relied on them. His student Plato continued the tradition, but with a reversal of value judgments about at least some modes of orality versus text: Plato was enthusiastic about writing but wanted to banish the oral poets from his Republic. In the 15th century, Johannes Gutenberg touted the ways in which his own invention of movable type differed in method and potential effects from the work of the scribes. In the 16th century, Martin Luther and his followers consciously exploited the revolutionary potential of print via the first mass-mediated publicity campaign. With the advent of film in the early 20th century, film theorist Rudolf Arnheim defended film as being a potential art form as opposed to a simple mechanical reproduction of reality. He proposed a form of medium theory that suggested that artistic and scientific descriptions of reality were shaped as much by the peculiarities of the chosen medium of representation as by the reality being portrayed.^[1]

With the growing influence of electronic media in the 1940s and 1950s, political economist Harold Innis offered significant advancements to the development of medium theory with his Empire and Communications (1950) and The Bias of Communication (1951), two books that extend the principles of economic monopolies to the study of information monopolies. Innis rewrote the history of civilization, from early Mesopotamia and Egypt to the British Empire and the Nazis, as the history of communication media and their influences.^[1]

Perhaps the most notable medium theorist is Marshall McLuhan, who came into the public eye in the 1960s, during the increasing dominance of television, especially with his second medium theory book, Understanding Media (1964). McLuhan suggested that television and other electronic media were having a significant impact on the culture as they diminished the social significance of literacy.^[1]

Micro and macro medium theory[]

Medium theory operates on at least two levels: the micro (individual situation) and the macro (cultural).^[1]

On the micro level, the core issue is the ways in which the medium that is selected a specific purpose influences a particular situation or interaction. Evidence of micro medium theory can be seen in the development of wearable fitness technology with the specific purpose aimed at increasing physical activity in the user.^[6]

In contrast, on the macro level, the primary focus is on how the addition of a new medium to a society's existing grid of media may alter social interactions, patterns of thinking, social roles, social institutions, and social structure in general.^[1] The invention of social media has sparked a worldwide revolution on people's interactions, status, and way of life. The social media algorithm, developed to maintain the user's attention, has influenced an increased polarization of stances on political and social issues in the United States.^[7]

McLuhan's message[]

Marshall McLuhan is best known for his phrase "the medium is the message," by which he meant that each medium is a unique type of environment whose widespread use reshapes people and culture.^[8]

McLuhan believed that people should observe not only the media itself but "the ways in which each new medium disrupts tradition and reshapes social life."^[3]: 307 He believed that the social impact of the media was that they became an extension of the human senses, and alter the social world.^[3]: 307

In his 1962 book The Gutenberg Galaxy, McLuhan argued that when new media technologies were introduced into society, the balance of human senses were reworked, highlighting some at the expense of others. For example, print media intensified the visual and separated it from other senses; in a particular sound. He even argued that print media helped create a sensory environment that produced Western capitalist societies—an environment that was bureaucratic and organized around mass production, an ideology of individualism, and a commitment to the nation-state as the fundamental social unit.^[9]

Technological determinism[]

Medium theory has always been criticized for its technological determinism. Raymond Williams, one of the most ardent critics of this concept, believed that technological determinism 'emerges' from technical study and experiments, and then changes the sector or society in which it emerged from. This means that people adapt towards the new technologies that arise because it is the new modern way of doing it. The deterministic approach says that technology in itself has the power to change societies and the power to condition humans even though humans are the ones that are using said technology. Although Marshall McLuhan strongly believes that the introduction to any new media will change the way humankind lives, Williams argues that the new technology in itself has no real significance to social value unless it has been adapted to existing social and economic conditions.^[10]

See also[]

• Media studies

References[]

Further reading[]

• Croteau, D., and W. Hoynes. 2003. Media Society: Industries, Images and Audiences (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press.
• Laughey, Dan. 2007. Key Themes in Media Theory. New York: Open University Press.

External links[]

• Towards an Ecology of Understanding: Semiotics, Medium Theory, and the Uses of Meaning