Week 3 - Media Ecologies, Social Ecologies, Other Ecologies

A significant part of contemporary cultural life is how interlinked and overlapped things are with each other. But exactly how do these processes and events come together, especially in regards to media? Through time and technological change such as the industrialisation of the world beginning in the 1800's, processes have been combined together to not only create a better and more efficient way of living but also to signify that huge ideas in the shift of the world through time can impact greatly on social and cultural changes. A good example of this is the introduction of the camera in the late 1800's and how it evolved and changed the way people not only were photographed but also how it was used to further the development of these new technologies. It allowed people to interact with them and familliarise themselves as opposed to being scared of new technological flows of development.

It is also crucial to realise that almost always the introduction of one technology becomes the stepping stone for an improvement of it in the future and also the mixing of media ecologies, all of which are combined to improve our ways of life. Photographer Etienne Jules Marley used film, a camera and a film projector to catch unstable movement in photos, and highlights the overlapping of media forms due to the proliferation of media through space and time (Murphie 2011: 14 Mar) They are all part of media ecologies, and how they affect media change in cultural contexts , highlighting the evolution of these processes and practices. Also how the overlapping of ecologies constructs a new influential technologies.

In some respect, it seems as though media ecologies possess some characteristics of being technologically deterministic in that their introduction in society causes so much change that it affects and changes routine for society, people and culture. These affects are traced back thousands of years, to ancient Egypt where hieroglyphics were used to reinforce memory and became a benchmark for the evolution into the Phoenician alphabet in conveying monotheistic ideas as a part of the information revolution (Levinsen 1997: 3) This media ecology highlighted the power of memory and the conveyance of ideas to affect literary change and show how media communications are connected to highlight the importance of technological change and convergeancy and how through time causes significant changes to society.

References

Levinson, Paul (1997). 'The First Digital Medium' in Soft Edge ; a natural history and future of the information revolution. London: Routledge. 3-5.

Murphie, A. (2011) Advanced Media Issues Lecture. 14 March

Week 2 - Foundations, Thinkers, Ideas

The effects of media on cultural and social change were a main focus in the topics for this week and how they have since developed. It gave an insight into the nature of change and how everything is constantly changing, particularly the way that we communicate and share things through media.

Media itself was referred to as anything in the middle of anything else (Murphie 2011: 7 Mar) and how the medium is at the centre of culture and technology, influencing society and how order changes due to technological innovation. This idea was particularly important with the introduction of technological determinism, an agent of social change whereby a successful technological innovation creates a new type of society (Murphie 2003: 12) This is an interesting point that shows how influential technologies are in restructuring society and culture deeming them helpless to technological change, or is it the society's decision to incorporate or abandon this new technology. Although it is evident that both technologies and society both influence each other, ultimately they alter our patterns of perception and contribute to the global village (Murphie 2003: 14) they both hold a strong power in the advancing of new technologies that are made to suit the needs of society, as technology is thought to be a technique which has anything to do with our bodies becoming an embodied form of media (Murphie, 2011: 7 Mar)

Despite the strong connection that media, society and culture and technology have in influencing each other, it is difficult to define which aspect holds more power over the other. It is evident that the introduction of technologies is masterminded by society to suit or solve certain needs or problems, they might not always be accepted, and other technological changes might flourish more than others. Although technology can be altered and suited to meet the needs of different societies and socially shaping itself to mould to different societies and cultures, there is no denying that it holds considerable significance within a collective and an individual.

References

Murphie, A. (2011) Advanced Media Issues Lecture. 7 March

Murphie, A. Potts, J. (2003). Theoretical Frameworks in Culture and Technology. London: Palgrave Macmillan. p12,14.

Week 1 - What is a Media Event?

This week marked the beginning of the course and an introduction into what we would be consuming ourself with over the next twelve weeks.

Firstly a large focus was put on 'media events' and their significance within this course but also about their nature. A media event's main characteristics revolve around change; that is sudden and and quite obvious which happens accidentally and spontaneously, and how the media always has to adapt to this change throughout time. Events differ and aren't viewed as static objects, they are ever changing and discussed about as being never ending forms that are part of a larger complex web within society.

As well as change, a media event also affects a change in media usage and cultural change. It would alter the way that media coverage attracts mass media organisations, particularly the element of immediacy when dealing with spontaneity; the "breaking news story" exemplifies this as a crucial event within the viewers lives on television and even disrupting normal segments with live news that alters the way information is shared with the public.

A significant portion of media events fall into the category of weird global media events. This is defined as the singular eruptions that delve into regular media events, which are sudden and come without any warning. The most obvious example of this would be September 11, and the news coverage that broke through routined segmenting but also kept replaying the plane hitting through the Twin Towers because people in the media were unable to share any detailed news with society; instead it caused confusion since the news broke out of our conventional events within society. It became something in everyday life and through these weird global media events, they highlight the importance they have on the media, cultural and social effects due to these events being inflicted upon society.

While media is rapidly changing as the years go by, it has a large impact on how news in distributed to society and affects the nature of reality at how we as individuals and within a greater society relate to data and information and how this is represented to us through the ever changing media systems. These changes affect the present and future of established industries while highlighting the imperative nature of media and communications within a greater society.