Category Archives: Communication Media
How We Became Posthuman 1 – Definition and Subjectivity – Hayles
Hayles, N. K. (1999). How we became posthuman: Virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature, and informatics: University Of Chicago Press. Katherine Hayles puts forth this text on post humanism, which essentially discusses how information lost its body, that is, it is inspired by Hans Moravec’s prediction that one could in the future download an entire human…
The Gutenberg Galaxy – Experiencing a new technology – McLuhan
McLuhan, M. (1968). The gutenberg galaxy: The making of typographic man: Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1968. This text, obviously enough by title, largely addresses the effect of the Gutenberg press on both oral and chirograph communication. There is much to this that will be of use to me as I get further into my…
Movies: The Reel World – McLuhan
McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. 1st MIT Press ed. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1994. In this chapter, McLuhan begins by noting that movies, which for the purposes of this post only certain aspects refer also to video, merges the mechanical and the organic in a special way. On the base level, the…
The Spoken Word: Flower of Evil? – McLuhan
McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. 1st MIT Press ed. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1994. “Language does for intelligence what the wheel does for the feet and the body. It enables them to move from thing to thing with greater ease and speed and ever less involvement” (113). McLuhan begins this essay with…
The Agenbite of Outwit – McLuhan
McLuhan, M. (1997). Media research: technology, art, communication: Routledge. As Narcissus fell in love with an outering (projection, extension) of himself, man seems invariably to fall in love with the newest gadget or gimmick that is merely an extension of his own body” (121). McLuhan does not mean that we are prone to fall in…
Environment to Anti-Environment – McLuhan
“From the development of phonetic script until the invention of the electric telegraph human technology had tended strongly toward the furtherance of detachment and objectivity, detribalization and individuality. Electric circuitry has quite the contrary effect. It involves in depth. It merges the individual and mass environment” (112). I did not take too much from this…
Acoustic Space – McLuhan
McLuhan, M. (1997). Media research: technology, art, communication: Routledge. In many preliterate cultures the binding power of oral tradition is so strong that the eye is subservient to the ear. … In our society, however, to be real, a thing must be visible, and preferably constant” (39). I largely concur with this direction of thought….
The Electronic Age: The Age of Implosion – McLuhan
McLuhan, M. (1997). Media research: technology, art, communication: Routledge. In The Electronic Age – The Age of Implosion, McLuhan discusses the idea that the explosion of the electronic age has actually created an implosion of our models of perception. This is to say that we are now ever-more aware of individuals at much greater distances…
Myth and Mass Media – McLuhan
McLuhan, M. (1997). Media research: technology, art, communication: Routledge. “The effect of media, like their “message,” is really in their form and not in their content” (10). “The spectator or reader must now be co-creator” (12). In Myth and Mass Media, McLuhan discusses language and mass media in regard to the making of myth. While…
Cyberliteracy(3) – Anonymity and Interactivity
Gurak, L. J. (2001). Cyberliteracy: Navigating the internet with awareness. New Haven Conn.; London: Yale University Press. Beyond Reach and Speed, the features of anonymity and interactivity define cyberliteracy even more. Anonymity Anonymity refers to the fact that in most settings, we can never really be sure who is on the other end.