This link has been bookmarked by 15 people . It was first bookmarked on 08 Aug 2008, by Adam Bohannon.
-
13 Oct 11
-
16 Aug 11
-
14 Oct 10
-
Innis’ central focus is the social history of communication media;
-
- How do specific communication technologies operate?
- What assumptions do they take from and contribute to society?
- What forms of power do they encourage?
three basic questions:
-
key to social change is found in the development of communication media.
-
each medium embodies a bias in terms of the organization and control of information
-
Any empire or society is generally concerned with duration over time and extension in space.
-
Time-biased media, such as stone and clay
-
Space-biased media are light and portable
-
the organization of empires seems to follow two major models. The first model is militaristic and concerned with the conquest of space. The second model is religious and concerned with the conquest of time.
-
It was Innis’ conviction that stable societies were able to achieve a balance between time- and space-biased communications media.
-
Innis, Harold Adams. The Bias of Communication. 1951. Intro. Marshall McLuhan. Toronto: Univerity of Toronto Press, 1964.
-
---. Empire and Communications. 1950. Ed. David Godfrey. Victoria, B.C.: Press Porcepic, 1986.
-
-
06 Oct 08
Jeton AlijiHarold Adams Innis:
The Bias of Communications & Monopolies of Power -
09 Aug 08
-
08 Aug 08
-
The Bias of Communication
-
he relative stability of cultures depends on the balance and proportion of their media.
-
a key to social change is found in the development of communication media.
-
each medium embodies a bias in terms of the organization and control of information.
-
Time-biased media, such as stone and clay, are durable and heavy. Since they are difficult to move, they do not encourage territorial expansion; however, since they have a long life, they do encourage the extension of empire over time.
-
Space-biased media are light and portable; they can be transported over large distances. They are associated with secular and territorial societies; they facilitate the expansion of empire over space. Paper is such a medium; it is readily transported, but has a relatively short lifespan.
-
It was Innis’ conviction that stable societies were able to achieve a balance between time- and space-biased communications media.
-
He also believed that change came from the margins of society, since people on the margins invariably developed their own media. The new media allow those on the periphery to develop and consolidate power, and ultimately to challenge the authority of the centre.
-
Oral communication, speech, was considered by Innis to be time-biased because it requires the relative stability of community for face-to-face contact. Knowledge passed down orally depends on a lineage of transmission, often associated with ancestors, and ratified by human contact. In his writings, Innis is forthright in his own bias that the oral tradition is inherently more flexible and humanistic than the written tradition, which he found rigid and impersonal in contrast.
-
-
09 Jun 07
-
Harold Adams Innis, a political economist, is widely credited with initiating an important discourse on media from a distinctly Canadian perspective. He directly influenced Marshall McLuhan and continues to be a central figure in communications theory.
-
-
20 May 07
-
30 Apr 06
Would you like to comment?
Join Diigo for a free account, or sign in if you are already a member.