History & early approaches -
Innis & McLuhan
Class Media technology & society
Innis
Technology & communication
Context = 40s
→ talking about radio & tv, but could be about TikTok
→ ideas from a completely different time, but can still be used today
Modern tech = intimately linked to industrialisation & mass production
Innis’s doctoral thesis = geography of Canadian Pacific railroad
→ discovered railroad = fur trade route
→ economy driven by political geography of space (fur as fashion in
Europe)
Double bind
= goods consist of product & culture
→ economic & political implications of transport and culture
US cultural transport
→ selling movies to other countries, but also selling their
culture/values/brands/lifestyle
→ aka media imperialism to exert cultural hegemony through export of
commodities
Kpop cultural transport
→ commercialising the culture, tourism, soft power
TikTok
→ international debate about who owns the platform, actually about
power/censorship/control
→ not only about content, also about gathering & selling personal data
History & early approaches - Innis & McLuhan 1
, Innis = look at what this media actually means
→ goes back to the written word and its influence
Bias of communication
= the communication tools & resources at hand shapes what a society looks
like
= level of literacy can make you included or excluded, there is power in
communication
Focus on constraints of space and time
Society that only has speech
→ no objective reproduction, ideas become fluid, smaller and slower
society
→ social memory is oral, you don’t have to be able to read/write
Writing/literacy as a starting point ⇒ immediate power imbalance
→ has always been linked to religious, political and economic power
→ developed as means to coordinate & control human activity across
extended time & space
→ to record & transmit information over great distances & time
Media literacy in today’s society
→ creation of digital divide
→ divisions evolve with tech
Focus on materials
→ affects the scope, character & purposes of the message
“the medium is the message”
→ eg paper much easier to transport than rock, but rock lasts longer
(space- vs time-biased)
→ still relevant today
⇒ first focus on material, later on content
💡 Bias of communication = different media, using different material,
have different consequences for the control of time and space
Importance of written tech for empires & creation of power
→ formation of stable societies determined by available forms of transport
History & early approaches - Innis & McLuhan 2
Innis & McLuhan
Class Media technology & society
Innis
Technology & communication
Context = 40s
→ talking about radio & tv, but could be about TikTok
→ ideas from a completely different time, but can still be used today
Modern tech = intimately linked to industrialisation & mass production
Innis’s doctoral thesis = geography of Canadian Pacific railroad
→ discovered railroad = fur trade route
→ economy driven by political geography of space (fur as fashion in
Europe)
Double bind
= goods consist of product & culture
→ economic & political implications of transport and culture
US cultural transport
→ selling movies to other countries, but also selling their
culture/values/brands/lifestyle
→ aka media imperialism to exert cultural hegemony through export of
commodities
Kpop cultural transport
→ commercialising the culture, tourism, soft power
TikTok
→ international debate about who owns the platform, actually about
power/censorship/control
→ not only about content, also about gathering & selling personal data
History & early approaches - Innis & McLuhan 1
, Innis = look at what this media actually means
→ goes back to the written word and its influence
Bias of communication
= the communication tools & resources at hand shapes what a society looks
like
= level of literacy can make you included or excluded, there is power in
communication
Focus on constraints of space and time
Society that only has speech
→ no objective reproduction, ideas become fluid, smaller and slower
society
→ social memory is oral, you don’t have to be able to read/write
Writing/literacy as a starting point ⇒ immediate power imbalance
→ has always been linked to religious, political and economic power
→ developed as means to coordinate & control human activity across
extended time & space
→ to record & transmit information over great distances & time
Media literacy in today’s society
→ creation of digital divide
→ divisions evolve with tech
Focus on materials
→ affects the scope, character & purposes of the message
“the medium is the message”
→ eg paper much easier to transport than rock, but rock lasts longer
(space- vs time-biased)
→ still relevant today
⇒ first focus on material, later on content
💡 Bias of communication = different media, using different material,
have different consequences for the control of time and space
Importance of written tech for empires & creation of power
→ formation of stable societies determined by available forms of transport
History & early approaches - Innis & McLuhan 2
