1. Understanding Media, Culture and Technology Part 1: Harold Innis
Lecture II
Understanding Media, Culture and Technology Part 1: Harold Innis
Johan Lindell, Ph. D Student
Media and Communication Studies
Karlstad University

2. Q&A

3. Lecture Outline Lecture 1, the main points
Harold Innis: Biography and main line of thoughts
How is Innis relevant today?

4. Lecture 1: Main points
Communication as ”A social exchange of meaning whose outcome is the measure or mark of a social relationship” (Mosco, 2009)
Therefor important to study how communication ”works” and how communicaiton might change society
In media studies, one prominent way to do so is from the ’medium theory’ perspective

5. …not suitable for our purposes

6. Harold Innis ( )
Canadian Professor of Political Economy, University of Toronto
1913. Starts undergraduate studies at McMaster University
1917. Christian and democratic duty to help in the First world war. Artillery man. Physical and psychological damages.
War influenced Innis: the dangers of technology, Canadian nationalism

7. Harold Innis biography cont.
1920. Post-graduate studies. Awarded Ph.D at University of Chicago
Influenced by Chicago communication scholars George Herbert Mead and Robert E Park. Communication is more than sending a message. (see also Fiske, 1990; Mosco, 2009
Dies in Not yet fully acknowledged scholar.

8. Harold Innis and his influence on Communication studies
The Fur Trade in Canada (1930) and the beginning of ’media imperialism’ paradigm
Empire and Communications (1950) and The Bias of Communication (1951)

9. Innis suggested that:
“We may perhaps assume that the use of a medium of communication over a long period will to some
extent determine the character of knowledge to be
communicated and suggest that its pervasive
influence will eventually create a civilization in
which life and flexibility will become exceedingly
difficult to maintain and that the advantages of a
new medium will become such as to lead to the
emergence of a new civilization.”
(Bias of Communication, 34)

10. The Bias of Communication: Main argument
Human action is limited within the scopes of time and space
Communication media are resources to overcome the limits of time and space
Different types of communication media have different characteristics
Media are either space-biased or time-biased

11. In Scannells words:
”Different media, using different materials, have different consequences for the control of time and space. Innis called this the bias of communication.” (Scannell, P. 2005, p. 127)

12. Characteristics of a society where ’time-biased’ communication is dominant
pre-literate, oral and tribal
Emphasis on continuity
Repetition and memory
New knowledge limited
Less possibility for abstraction
Geographically confined
Emphasis on collectivity and the common good
Space is scarce and thus needs to be guarded
Religion generally important

13. Characteristics of a society where ’space-biased’ communication is dominant
secular, materialistic and impersonal
abstract knowledge
modes of thought are more rational
space is something to be conquered
Political power

14. Greek civilization and Roman Empire
- Ancient Greece the ’oral tradition’ was dominant = ”face-to-face” communication. TIME-biased - Roman Empire/Imperialism was underpinned by writing. SPACE-biased

15. ’Monopolies of Knowlege’
Important point Innis wanted to put forward
Marxist background evident
Communication disturbs/enforces class struggle

16. Monopoly of Knowledge: Quick Case Study
The journalist before the Internet and ”web 2.0”:
The journalist possessing a monopoly of knowledge:
Journalists are the ones who ’find the facts’
Journalists are the ones skilled in writing
Journalists are the ones telling the truth

17. Monopoly of Knowledge: Quick Case Study
The journalist after introduction of new communication media
The journalist ’monopoly of knowledge’ disturbed:
Anyone can publish ’journalistic work’ on the web and thus ”set the agenda”
Anyone can search the web for ”the facts”
Journalist as a type of social class (profession) challenged

18. How is Innis relevant today?
What is the bias of todays media landscape and how is that bias visible in our societal structure?
Other visible disturbances/enforcments in different ”monopolies of knowledge” today?

19. James Carey (1934-2006) ’A Tribute to Harold Innis’
”Satellites and cable television, video phones and computer information utilities, telex and direct broadcasting, multinational corporations and common markets have posed anew all the questions Innis raised” (Carey, 1989)

21. Discourses of ’The new world’
Human rights
Starship earth
Global village
The cosmopoltian society
Post-modernity

22. References and reading tips
Carey, James. (1989). Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society. Taylor & Francis
Crowley, David & Heyer, Paul. (2007). Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society. Pearson Education Inc.
Innis, Harold. (1950). Empire and Communication. University of Toronto Press
Innis, Harold. (1951). The Bias of Communication. University of Toronto Press
Innis, Harold. (1930). The Fur Trade in Canada. University of Toronto Press
Mosco, Vincent. (2009). The Political Economy of Communication. SAGE Publications
Scannell, Paddy. (2005). Media and Communication. SAGE Publications