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Media Culture and Society Lecture Notes
Lecture notes of 36 pages for the course Media Culture and Society at RuG (-)
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Media, Culture and SocietyBy Sandra Banjac, Barath Ganesh, Sabrina Sauer and Rosa Dijkstra
By Sabrina Sauer
Hoorcollege 1
From micro to macro: individual media use platforms and industries culture and
society
Everybody has some definition of media, culture and society. The fact that they are difficult
to define shows that it is even more difficult to see how they work together and relate.
Media: A medium might be seen as a tool which helps us create our understanding of the
world around us, as an in between. In 1948 Weaver defined a medium as the means through
which content is communicated from A to B.
Culture: we can think of culture in so many ways. It might be a creative expression like art, it
might be a way of life.
Society: is the body of institutions and relationships within which a relatively large group of
people live (Williams). The structures through which social relations are lived out.
It is very difficult to ask questions about only one element, so for instance media, without
looking at the other elements like culture and society.
Shaping Model: An example Impact is the feeding TV; the impact is coming from
outside and we accept it. The media shapes how society thinks about particular
things
Media as mirror the media reflects what is already happening in daily life. It
simply mirrors society. Media reflects back to our events, behaviors, identities, social
relations or values that are important.
Circular model of representation and influence an ongoing process whereby
selective media representation constantly feed into and are themselves fed by the
makeup character of society
When we talk about media impact and media influence, we can’t say that there is always a
shaping model or that there is always a mirror model. You need to look at every case
individually.
Hoorcollege 2: Media Technologies and memories
By Sabrina Sauer
How does understanding media as technology help us interrogate the relationship between
media, culture and society?
The smartphone as an example: we can think about smart technologies as ‘new in society’,
which then also may change the way we relate and communicate. These have an influence
,on how we relate or engage with one another. However, this can also lead to issues for
instance about privacy of how much data is collected. It also changes how we consume
content (you go from reading a newspaper to reading it on your phone, does this change the
consumption?). People also talk about overuse and addiction.
When we talk about media as technology we are talking about internet, television, radio,
newspapers, magazines.
Memory
Plato (350 b.c.) says about thinking about memory discusses the function of for instance the
written word. Plato said that that writing something down is the corruption of your memory.
Any time you write something down, you are corrupting your memory.
A history professor at the University of Groningen also argues that every time a new form of
media comes along, it is seen as a corruption of the memory that we had using the media
before.
In ancient time memory was seen as an inscription and paper, ‘it is written in stone’. In the
middle age memory was seen as a book, ‘another chapter in my life’. In the 19 th century the
memory was seen as photography, ‘it happened in a flash’, ‘photographic memory’. At the
end of the 19th century memory was seen as a film, ‘life passes like a film’. In the 20 th century
memory was seen as television or a video, ‘replay events in your head’. And in the 21 st
century memory is seen as computers and neutral networks, ‘it is my external memory’.
Research shows that around 4 or 5 you can start remembering. But, many people often say
that they have a memory form when they were 6 months old, but the problem is that these
might be them remembering by a picture that was taken. They also call this mediated
memory photographs (objects). Objects can trigger a memory, so can a photograph.
How different theorist have conceptualized this relationship of media an technologies
through the landscape of memory
We are going to look at 5 different approaches to technology:
1. Technological determinism (McLuhan, 1911-1980)
2. Cultural materialism (Raymond Williams, 1970-1990)
3. Social construction of technology (Wiebe Bijker)
4. Actor network theory (Bruno Latour 1990)
5. Mediation Theory (mix of technology and ethics) (Peter-Paul Verbeek)
1. Technological determinism: reductionist theory that presupposes that technology
steers society, both in terms of the development of the social structures as moral and
cultural values. There are ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ determinist visions within this stream
Marshall McLuhan: ‘Medium is the Message’ the medium dictates how we interact in
society. The content that you’re watching does not matter, according to McLuhan it is the
,fact that TV, for instance, exists shifts how the society functions. It is the fact that we can
broadcast changes how we relate to each other. We live now in the electric age, when our
central nervous system is technologically extended to involve us in the world of mankind and
to incorporate the whole of mankind in us, we necessarily participate in depth, in the
consequences of our every action. This is merely to say that the personal and social
consequences of any medium, that is, of any extensions of ourselves, result from the new
scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves or by any new
technology. We all become connected in a global village. The fact that we have this
technology fundamentally changes our behavior in society.
Postman (1931-2003): says that print media offers rational and serious engagement with
local issues. This rationality is undermined by the telegraph and television. There are
different functions of different media that determine how people think and behave. The
telegraph, telephones and television undermine our rationality, because there is flashing
lights, there are many colors, it is all very loud, and it is distracting us from any rational
thoughts. We are ‘amusing ourselves to death’
Postman and McLuhan had very different views at television. Postman says television is
superficial and an empty spectacle. While McLuhan says that tv will challenge the dominance
of print media, because it allows people to think more critically about the world around
them. Postman would say: ‘not at all, because the flashing lights and the loudness of
television just distracts us from our rational thought’.
When we relate this idea of technological determinism to memory, and we can ask the
question: ‘does the way in which we collect memories shape how we remember?’
2. Cultural materialism: is focused on content and form. So, for example the content of
television programs to stick with the TV example, that really tells us something about
how our society is structured and how it functions. The content really tells us
something about how society is structured and functions. Cultural materialism is a
line of media studies that starts with the premise of immaterial content (text, image)
and material context (technology, media forms, the television set for instance) to
give meaning to society and the way in which society is organized.
Raymond Williams (1921-1988) says that the way the television content for instance is
organized, says something about the way society is organized. Some programs are only
broadcasted after 20.00 for instance. He says no it is not the technology, it is the content
that says something about our culture. Williams countered the determinist and essentialist
ideas of McLuhan. William placed the central emphasis on material culture: the TV
apparatus (so the television set and how we actually place it in our living room) reflects the
organization of society. The content that television producers show really affects what
content producers think people should be watching or what they might be really interested
in. The multimedia flow (for instance the way Netflix looks when you open it) of today tells
us something about how we reflect on media and how we consume.
, When you relate that back to memory so producing memories and memory objects
together, it is the television set and the content of the television set that produces meaning
according to Williams. It reflects a particular dominant ideology in our society. Do the
‘memories’ created by taking pictures with an iPad or smart phone change how we think
about memories? Does the memory become more of a stream of photographs?
3. Science, technology and Society, social constructivism (STS) / Social constructivism:
this suggests it is not the technology or the content that dominate meaning but the
way that people use technologies. Here, the emphasis goes to the users. So, to us the
way that we use our technologies. It is an approach that starts from the premise that
technology does not shape human action, but that human (inter)action shapes
technology. Technology use cannot however be understood without including social
context to attribute meaning (mutual shaping of technology and society). He
compared the ‘form and content’ of American TV with that of British broadcasting
and analyzed the differences in ‘flow’.
To give you an example: Bijker wrote a whole book on the origin of bicycles. He says that
when bicycles were invented, they were devices with one very large wheel and one smaller
one, but for some reason the shape of the bike changed over time. In his analysis he looks at
social groups and social forcing. Social groups started using this bicycle and thereby changed
the way in which designers of the bike designed the bicycle. So for example races with bikes
became more popular and the inventors found out that the bike would be much faster when
the wheels are the same size. In parallel to that, more women started biking and at the time
women were wearing mostly skirts, so they had to adjust it. you can in this way see how
social forces shaped the technology and that is through the use that the technology is
reshaped. This is a direct opposition to the idea of technological determinism, the emphasis
here is on the social shaping of technologies.
Another example is the invention of the remote control. This was also dictated by people
who used the TV and did not want to get up from the couch. How can we make it more
comfortable for people to watch TV? Make a remote! The force of the society and the use of
a technology dictates new inventions and design optimizations of particular technologies.
When you relate this back to memory perhaps how we interact with devices to record
moments changes how we think about those moments. In the past you would say: ‘this is
really a Kodak moment (a moment you take a picture of), but now a days you might post a
picture or something online. Produce memories and memory object together (so, the
television set and the content of the television set) produces meaning. Do the memories
created by taking pictures with an Ipas of a smart phone change how we think about
memories?
Bijker says that social forces shape the technology. It is actually through use that
technologies are shaped. Think about a remote control or the way a bike is designed.
In the case of memories or the recording of memories, perhaps how we interact with
devices to record moment changes how we think about these moments.
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