Major: Internation Communication Student: Dararoath VANDETH Assignment 1 Topic 1: Are Habermas’s idea about the public sphere and McLuhan’s ideas about the global village really compatible? Concept of Global Village Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian philosopher of communication theory, developed the concept of the term ‘Global Village’ in two of his earliest books—The Gutenberg Galaxy, in 1962, and Understanding Media: The Extension of Man, in 1964. He defined global village as a small village where electronic media made it possible, and how the information flows from parts of the world at the same time. (Mcluhan, 1964) No matter how far or near of anything happen around the globe, people can see and hear of what have been occurred immediately, with just matter of seconds. Electronic media, Mcluhan said, made people aware of and respond to issues happened around the globe as if it happen in the same village people are living in. “Today, after more than a century of electric technology, we have extended our central nervous system in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned” (Mcluhan, 1964, p.3). The fundamental concept of Mcluhan on global villag is that the communication at a rapid speed, where it extend the sense of people with sound and vision. Computer and television has extended our sense of hearing and seeing, whereas telephone and radio has extended our sense of listening (Symes, 1995). As director of the Centre for Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto from 1963 to 1980, McLuhan has been know as a “guru” of media culture (http://staging.yorkwilsonfoundation.org/videos/eric-mcluhan.htm) Concept of Public Sphere Jurgen Habermas, a German sociologist and philosopher... ... middle of paper ... ... of political institituions and economy—commercial. Boeder (2005) believes that this could change through the digital communications technology by strengthening groups and individual. In conclusion, Habermas’s idea about public sphere and Mcluhan’s idea about global village are really compatible concerning with three main points as discussed. First, both concepts express a goal of achieving a democracy, which influence on social, culture, economy as well as politics. Second, both ideas put a concentration on the importance of media. Even though Habermas saw that the emergence and convergence of the electronic mass media have radically changed the notion of the public sphere. however the later Habermas still argue that media is a public sphere. Third, both ideas could be implied by other scholars that those give an image of how the digital media work nowaday.
Consider for example, the radio and television. The radio and television (before the advent of the internet) were monumental in their effects on transmitting culture, products, and ideas accross vast distances of the United States. Suddenly American’s could relate to the horrors of war overseas, as well as they could learn of each other’s culture, or product. Of course, this was not the same as being able to transport them there, though newer, better, faster forms of mass transit would be developed to help facilitate just this. But all of these developments pale in comparison to almost a half-century later, with the rise of the internet, and with the increasing array uses for it, in the modern day. +++====
Lin, C. and Atkin, D 2007. Communication technology and social change. 1st ed. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
As Postman states, “Each medium like language itself, make possible a unique mode of discourse by providing a new orientation for thought, for expression for sensibility. Which, of course, is what McLuhan meant in saying the “medium is the message.” Postman has many similarities to McLuhan except that instead of a medium the media is a metaphor. He describes how the technology has changed our extensions of thought and intellect. As Postman states, “We used to have to have extensions of thought and intellect when we the printed word allowed us to have reflection pauses and extended or freeze our thoughts and we used to be thinking individuals with printed word by reading books and the newspaper for our answers” (). In today’s technology there is a possibility to use it as an extension tool the Internet gives us entertainment however, it also connects us socially with people from all over the world at a click of a button, which has given society new platforms to socially connect with others instead of just in
McLuhan’s irrelevance in the direction of the pre-packaged content, that of the traditional media, offers a fresh and alarming approach. It was viewed as something fresh due to the fact that no one ever really thought of a method of conveying information and treating it as anything more, while at the same time is was considered frightening, through its ability to affect and essentially alter an individual’s everyday life and perception of the world around them. Because of the idea that the medium tends to be viewed as the message, it results in distressing one’s ability to recognize the medium as a separate and powerful object. It forces one to ask the question of, what is considered a message? The message is anything and everything. The message becomes what the supervisors of the media want it to be. For McLuhan not all media can work and function in the same way, despite the fact that it may be used to originate the same conclusions.
McCluhan, Marshall and Bruce R. Powers. The Global Village: Transformations in World Life and Media in the 21st Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. Print.
Howard, P. N., & Hussain, M. M. (2011). The role of digital media. Journal of Democracy, 22(3), 35-
The main thesis of this chapter “the medium is the message” refers to how the medium is more influential to our society than the content that is delivered through the medium. Marshall McLuhan stated that the medium is an extension of ourselves. The new scale, described as the “message”, is introduced into human affairs by the medium and it results in series of personal and social consequences. He used the electric light as an example to prove his thesis. The electric light is a medium without a content unless it is given a meaning; however, it still helps to eliminate time and space factors in human association and have a significant impact on the nature of society just like radio and television.
Advances in technology have created a digital age where people across the globe can connect and interact with each other as easily as if they lived in the same community. Globalization has driven the worldwide spread of technology, creating far-reaching connections and what has come to be commonly known as a “global village”. This term, coined by Canadian professor and philosopher Marshall McLuhan, is a metaphor used to describe the shrinking of the world into a closely connected village, free of physical and cultural borders, through the use of electronic media. The source states that this new global identity threatens to replace national and individual identities. In this quote, the author criticizes social and economic globalization, representing
Furthermore, (Hermida 2010b), says that an interesting aspect of twitter is that it functions as a media space where news is always present and consumed by a wide range of users. As a written and multimedium twitter has evolved from writing and pictures to sounds and moving images. According to McLuhan, the power of the message lies in the medium itself rather than in the content of the message. He believes that each medium changes human relations and relations with time and space. For instance, in the case of individuals following the tweets of people caught in a disaster, there is a sense of being there while one hears the specification of the experience from another person through tweets. One can perceive physical proximity to the incident that
He asserts that with the invention of television, writing can basically be eliminated (125). There’s no use for it anymore, after all. What can be more engaging than a form of media that stimulates the senses so? Despite the beliefs of those who lived in the 60s and 70s, the twenty-first century is unfortunately not home to the world of the Jetsons. Writing is still a very powerful form of media, for the very book that this essay is centered around is still influential, forty-nine years later! However, books and newspapers are not our sole source of the written word. Online blogs, articles, and newsletters now exist. Television and books have merged into one: the Internet. Revolutions, riots, and rebellions don’t just happen in our living rooms now, they happen on the go with us. On the subway, when we’re waiting in line at Subway, at our friend’s house as he talks about how he’s “way into subs.” The Internet is now our primary source of information. Evolution doesn’t only just occur in nature. Nonetheless, The Medium is the Massage was published in 1967, and several of McLuhan’s points were ahead of their time and remain relevant today. The most notable of points was made within the first few pages of the book where McLuhan delves into the fact that from the moment we are born to the moment we die we are under constant surveillance and that privacy essentially no
Lewis H. Lapham (New Introduction By) Marshall McLuhan (Author), 1995. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. 3rd Printing, 1995 Edition. The M.I.T. Press.
For Globalism and Local Cultures, Globalism is a social condition that when people over the world share a homogenous, culture and form a “global village” by the means of electronic communications and mass media. However, the author pointed out the difficulties in defining both “culture” and “local”. For “culture”, instead of the traditional definition, the more recent one – “Culture is a set of ideas, reactions, and expectations that is constantly changing as people and groups themselves change” would be adopted by the
Rather than walking, we have cars to help us get to places quicker. Rather than talking with people face-to-face, we call on a telephone. New technology places value on doing things quicker and easier. McLuhan also believed that what changes people is the technology itself, not the content. In Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, he proposed that we focus on the way each medium changes cultures and traditions and reshapes social life, rather than the content. He describes the content of the medium as a “juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind.” (McLuhan 32). To him, focusing on the medium was important because he believed that different types of media changes the balance of our sense. We start isolating and highlighting different senses. For example, print technology highlights the visual aspect of the media, but isolates sound. However, electronic media, such as television, allows us to see and hear, and therefore, reconnects senses that have been isolated by previous media (e.g., print and radio). McLuhan expands on the effects of electronic media in War and Peach in the Global Village, arguing that electronic creates a “global village.” Because electronic media allows people
McLuhan, Marshall, Perf. Marshall Mcluhan Full lecture: The medium is the message. Perf. McLuhan, Marshall. Youtube, 1977. Web. 9 Nov 2011. .
Technological development especially in telecom sector for example, global infrastructure, of technology, wireless system, internet, and undersea fiber, all these inventions has developed much information which can spread faster and firmly across the world in limited time span. So with the electronic media television, newspaper, radio is replaced by internet and computers laptops, tablets, cell phones etc took place and replaced the old traditional media with the new media. Socialization becomes easier for people now, they do not wait or rely on old media for getting information and feedback, and they have access of internet now to get the information about what they want to get know about international and national level. Global communication provides not only the local information but tells about the international currents happenings as well. No doubt online media provide information 24/7 all the time, but on the other hand this point also cannot be ignored that by providing such comfort of knowledge to the people and decreasing the difficult of time and space from people’s life, what sort of impact does global communication has on an individual’s level after having such easiness in one’s