Two Important POINTS from the Readings
This point shows that people are able to see the perspective of global pedestrians in part whereas new communication technologies have given people access to the networks and relate to others, in an easier way. There is a dialectical interaction between technology and society: it embodies it. But, nor does the technology determine technological innovation: it uses it’, which suggests technology and society are mutually constitutive, rather than one being driven by the other sector. (Castells’,2021)
New technological innovations may change social behaviour. Technology develops whole sets of valuable skills that enable young generations to gain reaction responses and have abilities to multitask, which makes them to receive and act on many different information sources at the same time. For example, technology has made the possibility of online shopping a positive improvement in the business trading world and helps people to find jobs and entertainment in their own private space. However, technology may bring negative impacts which discourage children from doing physical activities and socialising with others. The media can be misused to bully other people, also this invites the virtual predators in stalking or luring people into sexual situations which, may cause serious problem to peoples’ life (e.g children or teenagers can commit suicide for being the victim).
Hot n Cool Media
Hot media is an application of media which people rarely use nowadays. Low users.Media that has a very big influence on humans through their sensory perception. Even using only one sensory or a single sensory, such as through the eyes (light) and ears (sound). This type of media always contains a very detailed amount of information so that the audience must increase their concentration to access the message for their needs.
E.g Facebook and Twitter.
Cool media is a media that people use quite often in their lives. High users. Media that always involves less stimulus. When the audience accesses the media, they must be more active to participate only by utilising all the sensory information together. Audiences can understand all the information they receive. In other words, the media requires the audience to imagine and think more in order to receive the meaning of the message conveyed. Cool media has become a medium with less information and requires the audience to actively fill in the lack of information.
E.g Instagram, Snapchat, and Whatsapp.
Technological Determinism
is the knowledge of technology advancements that have an impact on social interactions between people and regulate societal changes. The message, which is referred to as a technical determinist, is the "medium." In other words, the technology itself is of outstanding importance because it is used to convey a message that has social logics that influence how people think, represent themselves, perceive the outside world, and extend ourselves into it. This implies that as technology changes, new types of cultural interaction emerge.
Marshall McLuhan and Raymond Williams famously disagreed about the power of media technology to shape society.
Raymond Williams
A focus on tech erases social conditions and institutions: “If the effect of the medium is the same, whoever controls or uses it, then we can forget ordinary political and cultural arguments and let the technology run itself.”
Accused McLuhan of being tech determinist
(i.e McLuhan disregards other elements that may determine our lives and society
(free will: political and financial structures; history and socio-economic factors))
Marshall McLuhan
‘Understanding Media: The Extension of (hu)man(s)’
Media can thus be understood as a kind of tool or tech - media as ‘something in between’ allowing our ideas to have further reach.
This is a simplistic model and it can be critiqued but it is also foundational in Media Studies as it helps us consider the impact of the medium.
“Rapidly, we approach the final phase of the extensions of (hu)man(s)---the tech simulation of consciousness, when the creative process of knowing will be collectively and corporately extended to the whole of human society, much as we have already extended our senses and our nerves by the various media.”
Electric light theory.
TEAM? DRUMMROLLL PLEASEE.............. (who do I agree more?)
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!McLuhan!
McLuhan, because the explanation is simpler and easier to understand. In the work "Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man" in 1964. The most important concept of the work is Medium is the Message, which explains that the medium of the message (communication) is more important than the message itself. The evolution of the medium also has an impact on changes in behaviour and communication. The concept of "medium is the message" is talking about how all innovations that are an extension of the human hand (medium) affect or have an effect on society, even those that are not realised (message). From McLuhan's point of view of human histories, each era has its own culture, behaviour, mindset, and communication. All these elements also affect the development of civilisation. McLuhan's theory is often referred to as 'Technological Determination': all kinds of inventions and developments in communication technology that actually change the development of human culture and civilisation. Agree with McLuhan's opinion because what is stated in his theory of technological determination is that the increasingly rapid communication technology certainly changes human civilisation as is happening at this time.
Marshall McLuhan 's Position
Media Theorist in 1950’s
The positioning of McLuhan's theory in the 1950s which explains the mass media is an extension of the human senses. With the mass media, humans obtain information about objects, people, or places that are not experienced directly. The mass media come to convey information about the political environment. The reality conveyed by the media is the reality that has been selected or called the second reality. McLuhan's theory relies on understanding the history of the media itself. McLuhan emphasised that at one time the media became a tool to shape society. Where McLuhan's theory discusses the media so that it becomes a position for this theory which explains in detail the history of media development in the theory and identifies four different time periods or periods in the history of media development.
Raymond William's Position
Welsh Cultural Theorist.
The positioning of this theory is to discuss culture where the theory strengthens the concept of cultural studies viewing culture as text. This view is strengthened by Raymond Williams who defines culture as life experiences, texts, practices, meanings that are owned by and have become the rules of the game in society. Furthermore, Raymond Williams, as quoted by Chris Barker and Dariusz Galasinski, defines culture as "a whole way of life", covering all forms of signification in the meanings and conditions it produces. In this theory, Williams defines the concept of culture using a universal approach, namely the concept of culture refers to shared meanings. This meaning is centred on everyday meanings: values, material/symbolic objects, norms. In addition, he also criticised other cultures which according to him are not in accordance with his views, this is the positioning of this theory.
