Musings of Mcluhan.

The Medium is the Message..

The MEDIUM is defined as an extention of the mind or body

‘Media, by altering the environment, evoke in us unique ratios of sense perceptions. The extension of any one sense alters the way we think and act – the way we perceive the world. When the ratios change, men change.’

McLuhans 3 Ages..
PRE-LITERAL/TRIBAL AGE which is where verbal communication was developed (invention of writing 4000 BC)
PRINT AGE where there is a dominant medium eg. book..
THE ELECTRIC AGE/DIGITAL AGE- the rise of electronic media, for example cinema, radio and television (birth of the computer 1945)..We are now here, in the DIGITAL AGE.

The Rear-View Mirror
‘We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future.’

Also mentioned in the lecture was COOL media which is simple, easy to take in information in small doses, whereas HOT media is more concentrated such as going to a cinema rather than watching a film at home on the television (COOL media)

Two sides to every story..

STRUCTURALISM AND BINARY OPPOSITIONS

‘Structuralism’s enterprise is to discover how people make sense of the world, not what the world is…’ according to John Fiske..

It is basically saying that there is no right way of seeing the world and our cultural backgrounds are what influences are understanding of the world

Binary Oppositions- we understand things through 'opposites' so knowing what it isn't. Therefore we know 'hot' IS NOT 'cold' and vice-versa..

BUT..what's hot for one person may be cold for another, this means that STRUCTURALISM creates categories of binary positions which cannot be moved.

HAPPY is NOT SAD

GOOD is NOT BAD

Binary oppositions are very common in movies for example human and non human examples in a movie such as 'Rise of the planet of the Apes' which is comparisons with apes or 'The Terminator' which is a type of robot or cyborg.

We were shown examples, one of which was Frankenstien where examples of good and evil where mentioned, and many other oppositions

JACQUES DERRIDA explained how the categories do not reflect peoples experiences and meanings which is more complicated..

He explaines how categories of binary oppositions are IDEOLOGICAL, so one side has been traditionally seen as 'better' than the other. This can be seen in small pr large scale, politically, mythologically and in story telling terms such as 'Batman' being the good guy saving gotham city and 'The joker' being the bad guy who is trying to kill batman.. As well as this, there is a divide between life and death (zombies, ghosts, vampires) and inevitably human and non human.

An example of binary oppositions is shown in photographs such as ones done by Fay Godwin, a landscape photographer, who captures images that show the contrast between dark/light as well as land/sky

Finally..the last sort of binary position is between 'self' and 'other' which Jacques Lacan tells us all about. He discovered the 'mirror stage' which is where a child realises the difference between 'self' and 'other' which happens during 6-18months (first sign of conciousness)

Intertextuality..

What is intertextuality..?

Julia Kristeva- 'The term intertextuality denotes [the] transposition of one (or several) sign system(s) into another…’

Intertextuality is used in; remakes and sequels of films, translations in media such as movie to film and vice versa and transitions between genres

What must be understood is that nothing is ever 'original' or 'one-off' therefore it has been copied from elsewhere. As well as this, directors/authors do not control the way their work is percieved by the audience which mea ns it can be interpreted in many different ways. Also, these directors and authors cant control what is going into their work which means that their will be many un-intended meanings (coincidence?)

The scence we watched in the lesson of Madagascar was clearly re-made from the original 'Planet of the Apes' scene- clear sign of intertextuality. This was purposely put their by the director

Another example of this is in the film 'Shes the man' which is interpreted from the 1600 Shakespeare novel. Many examples from the novel are used in the film such as names, places and the overall synopsis. This was a clear intertextual idea of the director..or possibly just a 21st century remake..?

There are 2 types of intertextuality;
1. Self Concious- purposely put there
2. Unconcious (in other words, 'true') which is beyond control or accidental if you may.

EXAMPLES:

All of these example images are of re-makes of original films which means the text has been repeated A.K.A..INTERTEXTUALITY!

Semiotics

The idea of Semiotics is about 'READING THE SIGNS' A Sign , which is the signifier (the actual form of something) plus the signified (the concept of it) therefore the sign 'DOG' creates the signified furry, barking, scruffy, four legged animal.

However, within the idea of 'signs' comes 'Iconic' which is how close a sign is to the real thing, eg. an animation of a dog for example would be iconic as it will show very similar characteristics to a real dog but scribbled drawing of a black and white dog would be much less iconic.

Within this also comes 'Arbitrary' or 'Symbolic' which is the total apposite of Iconic, therefore how far away the sign is from the real thing or reality. An example of this would be the dogs name which has no resemblence to the animal what so ever.

Then comes..

Paradigm: a set of signs to be used in a context (e.g. seaside, skyline)

Syntagm: the particular selection of signs (from the paradigm) (e.g. coastal landscape, night sky, two people kissing etc..)

ICONIC OR ARBITRARY?


Images also has denotations -what the sign is and connotations- what it suggest to the viewer.

Myth- the world view the imagine implies, the idea of the 'thing'

For example:

DENOTATION- two young kids on a street, the girl is laughing at the boy

CONNOTATION- two, wealthy children in the middle of the street. wealth is shown by the way they are dressed- boy is dressed in a suit with a hat and carrying an
instrument

MYTH- boy is from a wealthy background due to his clothing

Process Model Of Communication

Shannon And Weaver's MODEL..

Noise is defined as anything added to a signal between the transmission and reception, so any thing that disrupts the signal..

Redundancy which is predictable or conventional information which is usefull in creating a common ground for communication. This means that things such as 'hello' or a wave is totally predictable but opens up a way of conversating

Entropy (entropic information) is the opposite, therefore its unpredictable information and useful because it shows new information also useful because it gives new information, e.g: 'i broke your lamp', NOT predictable but usefull


According to Shannon and Weaver- communication cant take place without some level of both redundant and entropic information, therefore one extreme or the other would not work.

HOWEVER, there are 2 flaws with this model..

•it focuses on the process rather than the actual information/meaning

•it doesnt account for feedback processes

The whole idea of a feedback loop is... 'Something happens, something happens as a result of that thing happening, the new happening modifies the original happening, the something happens again'

Intro..

This is my blog for Media Histories and Culture module where i will be regularly posting and uploading comments and reflections to the subjects and ideas covered in my lectures and seminars. I will be portraying my creativity and how it relates to the topics i will be learning, as well as showing relevant material i come across during my independant study

I will be illustrating this information through images as well as text and videos.

Enjoy!