THE IMPACT OF MEDIA ON CULTURE (original) (raw)
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The premises with which we begin are not arbitrary ones, not dogmas, but real premises from which abstraction can only be made in the imagination. They are the real individuals, their activity and the material circumstances in which they live, both those which they find and those produced by their activity. These premises can thus be verified in a purely empirical way.-Karl Marx, The German Ideology, 18451 > Page 2 Internet has changed the way we work, what we consume, how we play, whom we interact with, how we find things out, and myriad other details about the way we live. > Page 2 Any discussion of media theory must begin with Marshall McLuhan, if only because he coined its most famous expression-"the medium is the message." Everyone knows this cliche, everyone repeats it, but, ´ alas, few agree on what it means or whether it's true. > Page 2 the central hypothesis of all media studies-that media do something to us. THE MENTALISTS, THE MARXISTS, AND THE MATRIXISTS > Page 3 he focused scholarly attention on the media themselves-talking, writing, printing, electronic signals-as opposed to the information the media convey. He separated the medium from the message and, in so doing, founded the central program of modern media studies, that which attempts to describe and explain the effects of media on the human mind and human groups. THE MENTALISTS, THE MARXISTS, AND THE MATRIXISTS > Page 3 the mentalists, the marxists, and the matrixists The Mentalists-Walter Ong, Eric Havelock, and Jack Goody being the best-known among them-are united in the conviction that media in general and literacy in particular make people think differently.4 Learning to read and write, they propose, rewires the brain and enables new cognitive abilities. THE MENTALISTS, THE MARXISTS, AND THE MATRIXISTS > Page 4 learning to use any other medium-must do something to our minds. It's true, it must. The difficulty is discovering just what that may be. THE MENTALISTS, THE MARXISTS, AND THE MATRIXISTS > Page 4 learning to read and write and the cognitive capacity to think logically.5 Teaching people to read and write has a significant impact on their ability to read and write, but not necessarily on their ability to reason.
In this chapter, mass communication is defined as the process of creating shared meaning among two or more people.it criticizes the one way model of communication as it does not wholly reflect the communication process, rather it agrees with the theories of Osgood and Shramm which states that there are no permanent receiver or sender, rather an interchanging of roles exits. It defines culture a learned behavior of members of a given social group. He suggests that culture helps us categorize and classify our experiences and also helps define us, our world and the people in it. According to him culture cannot survive without communication, as communication is the only means that it can be transferred. Therefore the media plays a very special role in the culture of the people. Furthermore he defined media literacy as the ability effectively and efficiently comprehends and use any form of mediated-communication. In a bid to explain media literacy further he traced the history of writing starting from the oral period when the meaning of language is specific and local. As a result communities were closely knit and their members were highly dependent on each other for all aspects of life knowledge was passed orally and people were shown and told how to do things. Having a good memory was also crucial as myths and history were intertwined. He writes that more than 5000 thousand years ago, alphabets were developed independently in several places around the world. Picture based appeared in Egypt, Sumer, and urban China etc. he noted that the syllable alphabet as we know it today developed slowly and was aided by greatly by ancient semantic cultures and eventually flowered in Greece around 800 B.C. like the Sumerians the Greek perfected the easy alphabet of necessity. As modern writing developed, meaning and language became more uniform, communication could occur over a long distance and long periods of time with knowledge being transmitted in writing, power shifted from those who could show others their special talent to those who could write and read them.
Media in History: An Introduction to the Meanings and Transformations of Communication over Time
2019
Media in History: An Introduction to the Meanings and Transformations of Communication over Time by Jukka Kortti is not just another attempt to be a 'history of media' volume. The author takes a fresh approach and places media into the perspective of human history, instead of vice versa. The prime goal of this method is to provide a counter argument to the 'revolution talk' concerning contemporary media studies. There is an argument that it is a necessity to understand the changes happening nowadays in the fields of media, such as the internet and social media, and in order to do that we should examine their evolution. This perspective may enable us to realize that although the antecedents of the phenomena were claimed to be innovative and novel, they have all existed earlier in the history of mankind. Jukka Kortti is Adjunct Professor at the University of Helsinki and Aalto University, so an educative spirit is noticeable through the whole text. As mentioned in the Acknowledgments part of the book, the original Finnish version was inspired by the author's own course in media history. The book could be an excellent source for students of various social science fields to understand the basics of media history. Nonetheless, it has more than enough content for seasoned scholars of communication studies, political scientists, historians and researchers of other segments of social sciences. It is also refreshing in regard to its scope. It not only focuses on the USA and western Europe, but also brings examples from other parts of Europe, mainly from Finland. The book besides the Acknowledgments, Introduction and Conclusion is divided into two main parts with each part being segmented into nine chapters, which are divided further into brief subchapters. At the end of some chapters, there are questions and thoughts for further discussions. The first part of four chapters is titled The Development of Media and provides a chronological historical background for the understanding of the importance of media in history. The first chapter begins with the invention of the alphabet 5000 years ago. The book guides us through the early transformation of oral communication into textual. The author underlines that large-scale written culture could only develop after Gutenberg invented the printing press in the fifteenth
How the origin and evolution of Mass Media influenced the progress of mankind
How the Origin and evolution of Mass Media influenced the progress of mankind, 2020
During the long process of evolution, human has discovered so many sub equipment to improve their level of living. Language is such a thing that which helped human to improve their level of living throughout the process of evolution. Homo Habilis is considered as the first-ever humankind that developed a language (signs and signals) to communicate with their species (Ranjan, D., S. (2012). The study of prehistoric languages leads to the study of prehistoric communication. Because communication is always based on the language. As the signs and symbols used during the prehistoric ages were numerically less and countable it can conclude that their communication patterns were not very complex. There are no enough pieces of evidence to prove when and where did the communication begun to proceed verbally. But shreds of evidence prove that non-verbal communication has begun before the verbal communication. A developed language is a well-organized set of symbols (Dissanayake, W., 2012, P.03). Therefore the development of the secondary set of symbols of humans is identified as the beginning of human communication. This secondary set of symbols "Dominant languages and dialects spread widely, and lead to the gradual extinction of other tongues… a struggle for life is constantly going on among the words and grammatical forms in each language. The better, the shorter, the easier forms are constantly gaining the upper hand… the survival and preservation of certain favored words in the struggle for existence is natural selection" (Darwin, C.,1874,p.106).
The Importance of Media: A Historical Analysis
2014
The basic functions of mass media are to provide information, education or instruction and entertainment for the people. Mass media motivate people directly or indirectly. The media are the tools of communication. It is the key element to make information come alive and function to fulfill the needs of the people and nations. The enormous global problems caused by growth in human race and uneven distribution of energy, food, weapons and the resources are liable to be resolved to some extent, through media interaction. To accomplish these functions in any country or community, the mass media institution should be clear about their communication objectives, which provide guidance for their day to day work. Media contribute effectively in promoting awareness about human rights and educate people to matters of peace, justice and freedom. This article highlights the role of mass media in the development as well as bringing changes / modifications in cultures and their effects on individu...
2021
Media in History: An Introduction to the Meanings and Transformations of Communication over Time by Jukka Kortti is not just another attempt to be a 'history of media' volume. The author takes a fresh approach and places media into the perspective of human history, instead of vice versa. The prime goal of this method is to provide a counter argument to the 'revolution talk' concerning contemporary media studies. There is an argument that it is a necessity to understand the changes happening nowadays in the fields of media, such as the internet and social media, and in order to do that we should examine their evolution. This perspective may enable us to realize that although the antecedents of the phenomena were claimed to be innovative and novel, they have all existed earlier in the history of mankind. Jukka Kortti is Adjunct Professor at the University of Helsinki and Aalto University, so an educative spirit is noticeable through the whole text. As mentioned in the Acknowledgments part of the book, the original Finnish version was inspired by the author's own course in media history. The book could be an excellent source for students of various social science fields to understand the basics of media history. Nonetheless, it has more than enough content for seasoned scholars of communication studies, political scientists, historians and researchers of other segments of social sciences. It is also refreshing in regard to its scope. It not only focuses on the USA and western Europe, but also brings examples from other parts of Europe, mainly from Finland. The book besides the Acknowledgments, Introduction and Conclusion is divided into two main parts with each part being segmented into nine chapters, which are divided further into brief subchapters. At the end of some chapters, there are questions and thoughts for further discussions. The first part of four chapters is titled The Development of Media and provides a chronological historical background for the understanding of the importance of media in history. The first chapter begins with the invention of the alphabet 5000 years ago. The book guides us through the early transformation of oral communication into textual. The author underlines that large-scale written culture could only develop after Gutenberg invented the printing press in the fifteenth