Media ecology theory is the study of media, technology, and communication and how they affect human environments. The theoretical concepts were proposed by Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
Herbert Marshall McLuhan CC was a Canadian philosopher. His work is one of the cornerstones of the study of media theory. Born in Edmonton, Alberta, McLuhan studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridge. He began his teaching career as a professor of Engli…
Neil Postman
Neil Postman was an American author, educator, media theorist and cultural critic, who is best known for his twenty books, including Amusing Ourselves to Death, Conscientious Objections, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, The Disappearance of Childhood an…
What is media ecology?
It is the study of media environments, the idea that technology and techniques, modes of information and codes of communication play a leading role in human affairs. Media ecology is the Toronto School, and the New York School.
What is the relationship between media and environment?
An environment is, after all, a complex message system which imposes on human beings certain ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving." Media ecology argues that media act as extensions of the human senses in each era, and communication technology is the primary cause of social change.
What is the media economy theory?
Aside from McLuhan, today, the media economy theory recognizes various influences, which are rooted in sociology, history, education, and economy of the 20th century. Over the years, many theorists have offered their definitions and views of media ecology.
What is media ecology by John Fekete?
He instead investigates the effects of all media mediums between the human body and its physical environment, including language. The North American variant of media ecology is viewed by numerous theorists such as John Fekete and Neil Compton as meaningless or "McLuhanacy".
What is media ecology theory in communication?
Media ecology looks into the matter of how media of communication affect human perception, understanding, feeling, and value; and how our interaction with media facilitates or impedes our chances of survival. The word ecology implies the study of environments: their structure, content, and impact on people.
What type of theory is media ecology?
Media ecology theory is the study of media, technology, and communication and how they affect human environments. The theoretical concepts were proposed by Marshall McLuhan in 1964, while the term media ecology was first formally introduced by Neil Postman in 1968.
What is media ecology theory by Marshall McLuhan?
Media ecology theory was propounded by Marshall McLuhan in 1960 but prominently published in 1962. The theory believes that all media and message communicated are regardless except a compelling force is introduce that influences the activities of man and the society.
Who created media ecology theory?
Neil PostmanAnd that was what Media Ecology was interested in, too. Neil Postman, who wisely created Media Ecology in so much of McLuhan's image, was the one most responsible for our focus on media, technology, process, and structure, rather than content.
What is the purpose of media ecology?
Media ecology focuses on media as environments, and environments as media, with an explicit concern for their evolution, effects, and forms. It comprises a theory about the complex interplay between humans, technology, media, and the environment, with the aim of increasing awareness of mutual effects.
Why is the study of media ecology so difficult?
-Evaluating the ecology of media is difficult because all environments are inherently intangible and interrelated. a society's technology determines its cultural values, social structure, or history.
What is an example of media ecology?
For example, to understand the media content of a particular culture, you have to be acquainted with a variety of factors, such as language, traditions, political climate, etc. You should also have access to the internet as it is the primary form of communication technology today.
What is social media ecology?
Media ecology looks into the matter of how media of communication affect human perception, understanding, feeling, and value; and how our interaction with media facilitates or impedes our chances of survival. The word ecology implies the study of environments: their structure, content, and impact on people.
What is media ecology quizlet?
media ecology. the study of how media and communication processes affect human perception, feeling, emotion, and value.
What is media ecosystem?
Media ecosystems are complex combinations of print, broadcast, digital, and social media that work together to create a self-referential information environment.
What is ecology of media and information literacy?
Information ecology examines the position of human beings in information places and spaces. These complex relationships are manifested by sense-making in the information environment. Information literacy can be considered as part of these relationships at two levels.
Which research traditions are most frequently associated with media ecology?
Perhaps the most notable tradition in this respect is the mediatization approach, which studies the consequences of mediated social relations, especially on politics.
What is media ecology quizlet?
media ecology. the study of how media and communication processes affect human perception, feeling, emotion, and value.
What is social media ecology?
Media ecology looks into the matter of how media of communication affect human perception, understanding, feeling, and value; and how our interaction with media facilitates or impedes our chances of survival. The word ecology implies the study of environments: their structure, content, and impact on people.
Who put forward the transformation theory of media?
Marshall McLuhan's Influence on Media Studies His bold statements about media gained McLuhan a great deal of attention as both his supporters and critics responded to his utopian views about the ways media could transform 20th-century life.
What is ecology of media and information literacy?
Information ecology examines the position of human beings in information places and spaces. These complex relationships are manifested by sense-making in the information environment. Information literacy can be considered as part of these relationships at two levels.
What is Media Ecology?
Media ecology aims to describe ways in which diverse media environments shape today's society and our everyday lives. And the central premise of the theory is that the communication content doesn't exert nearly as much influence as the medium of communication itself does.
Why is media ecology theory becoming more and more relevant?
Moreover, media ecology theory is becoming more and more relevant because it deals with the present-day technological environment. But what does this exactly mean, and what is the focus of media ecology?
How does media ecology work?
Thus, media ecology studies the reciprocal relationship between media as an environment, and language, technology, and culture of society.
Why is media ecology important?
The reason why media ecology is so relevant today is that it's impossible to understand cultural and social change without analyzing the mechanisms of media as environments we live in. In other words, this means that we experience and perceive everyday life through the lens of various media, such as film, internet, digital media, and television.
What is media context?
They suggest that media, or rather, a medium is a technological context; that is, the environment that consists of communication systems within which we live, and which shape our culture. As such, that environment inevitably affects our perceptions, feelings, values, and beliefs. Logan expanded upon the definition by suggesting ...
What is media economy theory?
Aside from McLuhan, today, the media economy theory recognizes various influences, which are rooted in sociology, history, education, and economy of the 20th century. Over the years, many theorists have offered their definitions and views of media ecology.
Who coined the term "media ecology"?
The phrase media ecology was officially introduced and coined in 1968 by the media theorist Neil postman. However, what initially inspired the phrase was Marshall McLuhan's theory proposed in his 1964 book, Understanding Media.
What is media ecology?
Media ecology is a contested term within media studies for it has different meanings in European and North American contexts. The North American definition refers to an interdisciplinary field of media theory and media design involving the study of media environments. The European version of media ecology is a materialist investigation of media systems as complex dynamic systems. In Russia, a similar theory was independently developed by Yuri Rozhdestvensky. In more than five monographs, Rozhdestvensky outlined the systematic changes which take place in society each time new communication media are introduced, and connected these changes to the challenges in politics, philosophy and education. He is a founder of the vibrant school of ecology of culture.
Who introduced media ecology?
The theoretical concepts were proposed by Marshall McLuhan in 1964, while the term media ecology was first formally introduced by Neil Postman in 1968. Ecology in this context refers to the environment in which the medium is used – what they are and how they affect society. Neil Postman states, "if in biology a 'medium' is something in which ...
How to study media effectively?
McLuhan states that, in order to study media effectively, one must study not only content but also the whole cultural environment in which media thrives. He argues that using a detached view allows the individual to observe the phenomenon of the whole as it operates within the environment. The effects of media - speech, writing, printing, photograph, radio or television – should be studied within the social and cultural spheres impacted by this technology. McLuhan argues that all media, regardless of content, acts on the senses and reshapes sensory balance, further reshaping the society that created it. This differs from the viewpoints of scholars such as Neil Postman, who argue that society should take a moral view of new media whether good or bad. McLuhan further notes that media introduced in the past brought gradual changes, which allowed people and society some time to adjust.
What is Postman's focus on media?
Postman focused on media technology, process, and structure rather than content and considered making moral judgments the primary task of media ecology.
How media ecology can address diverse student needs?
The purpose of this study was to use Media Ecology in order to determine which media is perceived as the most useful as an instructional tool in post-secondary education. This study specifically analyzed and tested "new media" such as podcasts, blogs, websites, and discussion forums with other media, such as traditional text books, lectures, and handouts. Ultimately comparing "hot" and "cold" media at today's standard of the terms. The result of the study, which included student surveys, indicated that a mixture of media was the most "valued" method of instruction, however more interactive media enhanced student learning.
How does technology affect the world?
Socially, economically, politically, culturally, what happens in one part of the world has a ripple effect into other countries.
What is Ong's contribution to media ecology?
Ong's studies have greatly contributed to developing the concept of media ecology. Ong has written over 450 publications , many of which focused on the relation between conscious behavior and the evolution of the media , and he received the Media Ecology Association's Walter Benjamin Award for Outstanding Article for his paper, "Digitization Ancient and Modern: Beginnings of Writing and Today's Computers".
What is media ecology?
Media ecology is an expansive, inclusive, and therefore multidisciplinary field, borrowing from a range of academic disciplines, including technology and information studies, linguistics and semiotics, and cultural studies. “Media” refers to communication technologies as well as other communicative forms, such as the brain and body, ...
What is the metaphor for media ecology?
Neil Postman famously used a biological metaphor to explain “media ecology,” a term he borrowed from McLuhan to spearhead an intellectual tradition. In biology, a medium is defined as a substance within which a culture grows; in media ecology, a medium is a technology within which human culture grows, giving form to its politics, ideologies, ...
What is the purpose of the sixth edition of Crowley and Heyer?
Using a media ecology framework, Crowley and Heyer rely on a generous selection of key texts to demonstrate the relationship between the coevolving histories of humanity and technology and the role of media in maintaining and challenging social order.
What did Nystrom's thesis say about media ecology?
His student’s doctoral thesis, Nystrom 1973 observed that media ecology did not have a coherent theoretical framework under which to organize its research questions and directions, a deficiency the author tried to correct in her pioneering work.
Who edited the reformed English curriculum?
Postman, Neil. 1970. The reformed English curriculum. In High school 1980: The shape of the future in American secondary education. Edited by Alvin C. Eurich, 160–168. New York: Pitman.
How many essays are in the seminal anthology?
Seminal anthology featuring 24 short essays first published in the authors’ journal, Explorations. There are offerings from founding father McLuhan, his Toronto School compatriot Carpenter, and other original media ecologists. Offers insight into the nascent discipline of media ecology, particularly the idea that the containers of human ideas (media) influence human relations, mores, and sensibilities.
An Overview of Media Ecology (Lance Strate)
It is the study of media environments, the idea that technology and techniques, modes of information and codes of communication play a leading role in human affairs. Media ecology is the Toronto School, and the New York School. It is technological determinism, hard and soft, and technological evolution. It is media logic, medium theory, mediology.
What is Media Ecology? (Christine Nystrom)
It is, by now, almost a commonplace to remark that the 20th century is an era of change, of change unprecedented in its scope, its pace, and its potential for violent effects on the fabric of civilization.
What is Media Ecology? (Neil Postman)
Media ecology looks into the matter of how media of communication affect human perception, understanding, feeling, and value; and how our interaction with media facilitates or impedes our chances of survival.
Why are we not supporting legalizing medicinal marijuana?
We may be unwilling to support laws legalizing medicinal marijuana, regardless of their merits, because we are concerned about possible increases in drug activity (we have watched it happen in TV)
Why was mass mind created?
In numbers a mass mind was constructed by the elites in society to establish a "profile of the crowd"
How does technology affect society?
Technology has the power to shape society. People use media to gain political and economic power and therefore, change the social order of a society.
Is the content of a medium contradictory?
The contents of a medium vary and may even be contradictory but the medium's effects remain the same, no matter what the content is.
Is media powerful?
Media is quite powerful in our views of the world.
Can we escape media?
We cannot escape media in our lives.
Is television a medium?
We often unconsciously embrace television as a medium while receiving a message broadcast around the world.
What Is Media Ecology?
Origins of The Theory
- The phrase media ecology was officially introduced and coined in 1968 by the media theorist Neil postman. However, what initially inspired the phrase was Marshall McLuhan's theory proposed in his 1964 book, Understanding Media. McLuhan was the first to suggest that the focus of the study should be media and not the content it communicates. Aside from McLuhan, today, the media e…
Media as Environments
- Postman, Nystrom, and Strate have defined media ecology in quite similar ways. They suggest that media, or rather, a medium is a technological context; that is, the environment that consists of communication systems within which we live, and which shape our culture. As such, that environment inevitably affects our perceptions, feelings, values, and beliefs. Logan expanded up…
Influence of Media Environments
- The reason why media ecology is so relevant today is that it's impossible to understand cultural and social change without analyzing the mechanisms of media as environments we live in. In other words, this means that we experience and perceive everyday life through the lens of various media, such as film, internet, digital media, and television. These mediums give us information a…
Digital Media
- Our present-day environment, as it is suggested, is the digital media environment. What this means is that communications media are no longer controlled by journalists, production, television, and advertising companies. Quite the opposite, in the digital media environment of today, the internet has enabled everyone to create and access all kinds of content, and consequ…
Overview
Media ecology theory is the study of media, technology, and communication and how they affect human environments. The theoretical concepts were proposed by Marshall McLuhan in 1964, while the term media ecology was first formally introduced by Neil Postman in 1968.
Ecology in this context refers to the environment in which the medium is used – what they are and how they affect society. Neil Postman states, "if in biology a 'medium' is something in which a ba…
Background
In 1934, Marshall McLuhan enrolled as a student at Cambridge University, a school which pioneered modern literary criticism. During his studies at Cambridge, he became acquainted with one of his professors, I.A. Richards, a distinguished English professor, who would inspire McLuhan's later scholarly works. McLuhan admired Richards' approach to the critical view that English s…
Core concepts
• Media are infused in every act and action in society.
• Media fix our perceptions and organize our experiences.
• Media tie the world together.
These three assumptions can be understood as: media are everywhere all the …
Criticism
A significant criticism of this theory is a result of its deterministic approach. Determinism insists that all of society is a result of or effected by one central condition. In some cases the condition can be language (linguistic determinism), religion (theological determinism), financial (economic determinism). In the case of McLuhan, Postman and Media Ecology, technology is the sole determinant for society and by breaking up time in measures of man's technological achieveme…
Research
Many ecologists are using media ecology as an analytical framework, to explore whether the current new media has a "new" stranglehold on culture or are they simply extensions of what we have already experienced. The new media is characterised by the idea of web 2.0. It was coined in 2003 and popularized by a media consultant, Tim O'Reilly. He argues that a particular assemblage of software, hardware and sociality have brought about 'the widespread sense that there's some…
Application and case studies
There is significant research being done on the rise of social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and their influence on communication in society. Some of that research is being done through a media ecology perspective. Below are some examples:
While many people utilize social media platforms to stay in contact with friends and family, socialize, or even shop, these platforms have also been pivotal for social activism. Social media …
See also
• Digital ecosystem
• Information ecology
• Medium theory
• "Hot" and "cool" media
• Tetrad of media effects
External links
• Media Ecology Association
• Media Ecology reading list on the MEA website
• A First Look at Communication Theory, see McLuhan Chapter = Media Ecology of Marshall McLuhan/ by Em Griffin and E. J. Park