First communications assignment
I chose to take the intro to communications course for a number of reasons. I hope to one day be a freelance journalist and I feel that studying communication theory will help me in attaining that goal. Also, in our modern society we are constantly bombarded with various forms of communication, from television, print and radio to telephones, cars and the internet. I hope to use this course to better understand how these forces affect both myself and society. Finally, I think that I will eventually go into politics, and, if I am to do that, I must improve my communication skills, which this class should help me do.
I thought that McLuhan's ideas of hot and cool media were very interesting. An excellent example of a modern mix of these two forms is MSN. While in many ways a hot media, because the sender can write down precisely what they want to say, it is also a cool media, because of the use of graphics to display a concept or an idea. When I write to a friend and add in a picture of Napoleon Dynamite dancing they know that i am happy, while if I were to send a picture of someone vomitting, they they would know that I am unhappy. This makes for a mix of ancient hieroglyphics with more modern linear alphabets, to form what is today cutting-edge communication.
I do, however, have an issue with some of Harold Innis's ideas of communication determinism. Although I am in many ways a Marxist, another determinist school, I have issues with any theory that offers up one simple cause for major historical change. This is a problem that I run into often, as various social scientists attempt to apply history to their theories. As a history student, I can't help but feel these simplistic analyses of historical change are lacking in depth. To say that the French Revolution was caused by the printing press is one such over-simplification. For sure the printing press helped in the development of nationalism and its use of mechanization was important in the development of an industrial bourgeoisie, but it was not the only factor. The printing was created more than 200 hundred years before the French Revolution, and it was used to write pamphlets for many other purposes than revolutionary propaganda. Remember, the first document off the presses was the Guttenburg Bible. While I think that the idea that developments in communication affect society and can even be a major factor in causing change, they are certainly not the only factor.
McLuhan, Marshall. "Playboy Interview." By Eric McLuhan and Frank Zingrone. Playboy 1995. 17-40.
Innis, Harold. "Minerva's Owl." Presidential Address to the Royal Society of Canada, 1947. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991. 1-15.
I chose to take the intro to communications course for a number of reasons. I hope to one day be a freelance journalist and I feel that studying communication theory will help me in attaining that goal. Also, in our modern society we are constantly bombarded with various forms of communication, from television, print and radio to telephones, cars and the internet. I hope to use this course to better understand how these forces affect both myself and society. Finally, I think that I will eventually go into politics, and, if I am to do that, I must improve my communication skills, which this class should help me do.
I thought that McLuhan's ideas of hot and cool media were very interesting. An excellent example of a modern mix of these two forms is MSN. While in many ways a hot media, because the sender can write down precisely what they want to say, it is also a cool media, because of the use of graphics to display a concept or an idea. When I write to a friend and add in a picture of Napoleon Dynamite dancing they know that i am happy, while if I were to send a picture of someone vomitting, they they would know that I am unhappy. This makes for a mix of ancient hieroglyphics with more modern linear alphabets, to form what is today cutting-edge communication.
I do, however, have an issue with some of Harold Innis's ideas of communication determinism. Although I am in many ways a Marxist, another determinist school, I have issues with any theory that offers up one simple cause for major historical change. This is a problem that I run into often, as various social scientists attempt to apply history to their theories. As a history student, I can't help but feel these simplistic analyses of historical change are lacking in depth. To say that the French Revolution was caused by the printing press is one such over-simplification. For sure the printing press helped in the development of nationalism and its use of mechanization was important in the development of an industrial bourgeoisie, but it was not the only factor. The printing was created more than 200 hundred years before the French Revolution, and it was used to write pamphlets for many other purposes than revolutionary propaganda. Remember, the first document off the presses was the Guttenburg Bible. While I think that the idea that developments in communication affect society and can even be a major factor in causing change, they are certainly not the only factor.
McLuhan, Marshall. "Playboy Interview." By Eric McLuhan and Frank Zingrone. Playboy 1995. 17-40.
Innis, Harold. "Minerva's Owl." Presidential Address to the Royal Society of Canada, 1947. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991. 1-15.
posted by Graeme at 7:13 p.m.
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