Week 1
Text 1: Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man - Marshall McLuhan
McLuhan writes about new technologies and their influence on society and humankind. He
makes a difference between mechanical (like glasses, cars and houses) and electrical
inventions (such as a live TV or smartphone)
With mechanical inventions, there is time to move to another space. With electronic
inventions that time and distance disappear, you are in direct contact with any place on
earth. This makes it more intense. The whole world is in our grasp and connected to our
nervous system. It is instantaneous, we can be anywhere in a moment. Mechanical
inventions are fragmentary, it takes time to be where you want to be. So, you need certain
steps to get there.
Because people get to deal with new inventions (he calls it ‘extensions’), there needs to be
found a new equilibrium. If you do more of activity A you have to reduce activity B to
maintain equilibrium. For example, the more often you take the car, the less your condition
will be while biking. Your bike condition ‘dies’ because of your increased car driving.
McLuhan calls this ‘auto-amputation’. (also from speech to computer).
It is the same if we talk about energy. If you listen to hard music, you will feel less
pain (while being at the dentist, for instance). All your energy will go to listening and less to
feeling. People that are blind do not need any energy for looking, that’s the reason they are
better at listening and smelling. McLuhan calls this numbness of the technology; something
asks for so much energy that you get insensitive for something else. In the example about
music and pain, you get numbness to pain because the music calls all your attention.
As a result, every new invention places us in the world in a new way, it changes us. ‘Media,
by altering the environment, evoke in us unique ratios of sense perceptions. The extension
of any one sense alters the way we think and act- the way we perceive the world. When
these ratios change, men change’. Our inventions change ourselves.
In the end, it’s about equilibrium in our bodies that constantly has to be
calculated again. We can get numb to certain things because other factors ask
for a lot of input. Numbness and self-amputation are the result of a huge input of
pressure on our nervous system. You can see this by old fashioned dentist tricks
with loud music (so you do not feel the pain) = called audiac. Also, your body
turns off at an unexpected shock or fall because the impact of the unexpected
has such a great impact on your nervous system that it turns off the rest of your
body. The greek myth of Narcissus (=human experience) This is also the reason
that Narcissus fell in love with himself, the shock of the man he saw turned him
off and made him fell in love with himself. The point of the myth is that people
become fascinated by any extension of themselves → you fall in love with other
people who give back your own image. but Narcissus did not know this reflection
was him, and if he did know he would have different thoughts about the image.
Psalm story: technologies are self-amputations of our own organs. The writer, Blake sees
man as fragmented by his technologies. By embracing technologies we relate ourselves to
servo machines.
Text 2: Reading Media Theory - Mills & Barlow
,Chapter 2: What is theory? (= a process)
This text is about the way of learning at university. It is not about copying the knowledge into
your head, but about the ability to make arguments about the subject matter. Often, you
have to substantiate or refute theories from scholars. Almost everything is a theory, and you
can debate/discuss almost everything. A theory does not appear out of nowhere, there is
always a process and a purpose. There are three kinds of theories according to Williams:
1.Academic (=Theses that research and improve the world)
2.Practitioner (=Discussions about something practical, like musicians or filmmakers, etc.)
3.Common sense (=everyday discussions about, for instance, which clothes you are going
to wear.)
Theories have to goals/aims:
1.Normative (=explaining the world and serving people another perspective)
2.Critical (=Showing problems/unfairness in the world and serving solutions)
Theories are ongoing, discussions will never stop. There are always improvements and
that’s why we have to stay critical and do not take anything for granted.
To get attention for your theories you have to publish it, that’s when people can read it. You
have to make clear your personal background (where you live, etc.) because theories are
always influenced by your surroundings. As a reader, you have to look at the context the
theory is coming from.
To see which area a theory is about, you have to look at:
1.Object of study
2.Method of analysis
3.History of the field
Like this, you can categorize a theory and place it into context.
Theories can be really difficult, because:
- It takes everything in consideration (you have to think critical)
- Media combines with social-political ideas (often there is critique on the social-
political situation and how media can improve that = complicated)
- It refers to other theories (those, you also have to know and understand)
- It requires assumptions (you want to scratch a better world, thus you have to assume
how things probably are going to work out)
- It does not always work or it is not always correct (it can be wrong assumptions)
- Difficult language (theories are oftentimes written difficult)
We learn about theories because they are the core of media studies, we cannot ignore them.
They deliver useful skills for critical thinking and your viewpoint of the world. The theories
can make you more creative and give you a nuanced view of the world. These skills are
useful in the media world, thus the theories are useful for in the future. They help you
develop as a student in your social life. (like the texts says; you become more thoughtful and
engaged).
Chapter 3: What is reading?
Chapter 3 is about reading and that reading is something you have to do a lot at university.
It is about:
- Engaging (get involved in a topic)
- Discussing (see different sides of the subject matter)
- Debating (Talk about it with others, in or out of the classroom)
- Thinking (make you think)
Just like thinking, you have to read critical and constantly ask yourself if what you read is
correct. You have to think about your difficulties and the ways that work best for you.
Everyone is different.
, Week 2
Text 1: Television: Technology and Cultural Form - Raymond Williams
Chapter 1: The technology and society
Williams looks at the influences of the television on society from a distance. He gives 2 ways
to propose how television could be invented:
1. Technological determinism: the invention came into existence without any
influence from society. Next, the invention got a one-way influence on society (It is
almost never like this, the invention has an influence earlier or there is already some
kind of development ongoing. The invention on its own never causes a big change).
2. Symptomatic technology: Regarding Tv, it is not completely thought out in
beforehand how it could cause changes but the invention does come from inside the
society. It is a product under influence, example or symptom of a much deeper cause
or desire to an invention. Which influence an invention has depends on the society.
Inventions are invented from social developments. Inventions and developments are
connected, inventions are invented from needs that will accomplish those needs.
Inventions form according to the wishes of society.
Example: Which inventions receive lots of money and investments? That shows that
society is connected with the inventions from the first moment. Williams argues for
this as a part of culture materialism (= culture molds itself into inventions, because
some go further than others).
You have to look at Tv in the context of other inventions as radio, telegraphy and
photography (operative function). Images could be made and messages could be
spread. Also, you have to look at the society, the needs and materialism in society
(examples: verlangen naar expansie door trein of communicatieve noden).
The second wave of inventions are applications of the first wave, an answer on the
new needs in capitalism; mobile privatization. The resources and possibilities were
there. The second wave are new applications and new inventions based on the same
principle. Thus, inventions are not unrelated to needs and events in a society (this
knocks out technological determinism). Inventions are social, has an influence and is
influenced from the very first moment. It is always connected with social
developments.
The agrarian society switched to industrial society, which led to a departure from a
community of 300 people where you knew everyone to a city with many more people
you do not know. Thus, they had big changes in their living environment. From here,
photographs got important to maintain social relationships. A changing society led to
new wishes and needs in technology. Because the world became bigger, the urge for
expansion of communication also grew. But inventions form regarding the wishes of
society (cultural materialism). Inventors were busy with communication from A to B.
Radio was therefore a possibility, through the air. That it would be used for mass-
receivers was not foreseen.
There was a desire from the army to not have a centralized broadcast, like the radio
(stel je voor een bom op de zender en je hebt geen communicatie meer). That’s why
there are inventions now like the internet, where everyone is connected with each
other. There still will be communication if one person falls away.
