Communication & Technology January 12, 2016 Dr. Nick Taylor & Eddie Lohmeyer

Questions about syllabus Upcoming deadlines Communication? Technology? Plan for today: Questions about syllabus Upcoming deadlines Communication? Technology? McLuhan re-iterate that this is the first of several classes where the readings will be TOUGH. Part of the today’s plan will be to sit down with the reading and really work our way through it.

Upcoming deadlines Posting work to Medium.com (10%). Make a Medium.com site and email to me by January 19th This is where you’ll post all your assignments “Share” if you don’t want your content to be public; “publish” if you do. You are responsible for posting TWO reflections on weekly readings, 250 words in length. Look for “COM 250: Reading reflections” Google spreadsheet to indicate which weeks’ readings you will respond to. Weekly quizzes! (towards 15% participation grade). Do the readings & show up!

What is communication?

Mathematical Theory of Communication (Shannon and Weaver, 1948)

James W. Carey ‘Ritual’ vs ‘Transmission’ views of communication: Communication as transmission: “a process whereby messages are transmitted and distributed in space for the control of distance and people” (p. 15) Communication as ritual: “directed not toward the extension of messages in space but toward the maintenance of society in time; not the act of imparting information but the representation of shared beliefs” (p. 19)

“communication as ritual” Calling a friend Watching (or reading) the news Playing your favorite video game Updating your Facebook status ? Not to say that communication is NOT the “sending and receiving of messages” What do all these examples have in common? (all involve some kind of technology) Communication is the act of constructing and maintaining our social world.

What is technology? things? digital things? machines? ‘new’?

‘an artificial means’?

What is communication technology? Artificial means for participating in and reproducing our social world “mediates” our experience of the world. Takes in stimuli, and either stores and/or transforms that stimuli. “my definition of media is broad; it includes any technology whatever that creates extensions of the human body and senses, from clothing to the computer.”

Key concepts from McLuhan Importance of historical & cultural contexts “effective study of the media deals not only with the content of the media but with the media themselves and the total cultural environment within which the media function.”

James Carey’s “The Case of the Telegraph” This is a point that gets lost on us, since our world is so “THICK” with media that it’s often very difficult to simply understand how they operate, much less what their historical precursors & effects on our world are. This is why we NEED case studies of historical technologies – both as a way to show us how we got here, but also to develop techniques and models of investigation for understanding our contemporary media landscape “effective study of the media deals not only with the content of the media but with the media themselves and the total cultural environment within which the media function.”

Key concepts from McLuhan media us  “narcissus narcosis”

Key concepts from McLuhan As we use media, it shapes us – our consciousness and society Martin Heidegger (German philosopher) The more you hold a hammer, the more you see the world in terms of ‘things that can or can’t be hammered’

Key concerns in the Playboy interview The shift from ‘oral’ to ‘print’ culture -> separation of knowledge from the body Knowledge became exterior to the self Led to the codifying & storage of knowledge and the transmission of knowledge over time This shift created “individualization” and “specialization” in humankind – printed text as a tool for social order & political control We are in the midst of a massive shift from print to electronic media. Printed text is becoming irrelevant (videogames, emoting, movies)

What’s next Next week: early & modern symbol systems Next HOUR: Introduction to the final project!!! Things to think about: what were the social, economic, political and educational repurcussions of i) moving from a completely oral culture – in which there’s no stable, formalized means of recording thought or communication, andtherefore no means of communicating across time or space independent of PEOPLE TALKING – to a culture that records things in an external medium? What were the social, economic, political & educational repurcussions of ii) moving from a system of symbols with a direct correspondence to the world – ‘pictographic’ or “ideogrammatic” – to a system of symbols that have no intrinsic relationship to things ‘in the world’, but instead represent units of sound? What does it mean for our society that we are returning to “ideogrammatic” and “pictographic” symbol systems? In McLuhan’s words, does this mean the beginning of the end for “literate culture” and all the things that are associated with it – nationalism, public schooling, a separation between work and play