Media Ecology

Media Ecology is the study of medium of media. In this post, i will use Apple iPhone as a medium and explain how does it affect in our daily lives and help further understands the term Media Ecology.


According to Griffin (2009, p. 313), Media ecology is 'The study of different personal and social environments created by the use of different communication technologies". Hence, in my perspective Media Ecology is study of environment and medium of the media and investigating use of technology in the world to the society, where the medium changes not the content. Thus the media affects communication styles.

Technology plays an important role in Media Ecology,  it alter our communication styles. This is called Technology Determinism. Even our mobile phones have evolved, now the state to the art phones like the Apple iPhone, and affect us in a certain way. Technology determinism can be divided into 4 parts. Firstly, no determinism in which the media doesn't affect or shape society. Secondly, hard determinism where media alters social structure directly, technology are part of  our daily necessities. Thirdly, soft determinism where media alter social structure and lastly, partial determinism in which media are among many factors shaping society.

So the question is, which part of  technology determinism  are you?

But we have to consider how does the media affects us. First proposition is the 'Hypodermic needle' in which media directly affects the viewer, when a person or a kid play a violence theme video game , it will not directly affect the user, the media is experienced and gains influence overtime as criticize by Cultivation theory. Second proposition is that the media is psychologically harmful and potentially dangerous but media violence does not equate to social or personal risk before considering many factors such as one does not just jumped from one building to another after watching Spider-man movies. Third proposition is that the media damages community and social life, to a certain extend the medium and environment do change interpretation of a content and by considering Apple iPhone, it has immobilized us, we send text messages or instant messages instead of where face to face social interactions, video calls or conference calls rather than face to face meetings, etc. but this does not mean it does not bring benefits to the user.

New technology limits our face to face social interaction

According to Marshall McLuhan, the "Medium is the message?", so based on McLuhan's statement, Apple iPhone is the message, where the medium in communication over its content where the content is always the content of another medium and we must analyze the Apple iPhone as the message. McLuhan further added that mediums can be hot and cold. Let's take the old mobile phones first, the old mobile phones was filled low information load as users were not limited to just talking and despite this low information load, old mobile phones had high participation among the user, user had to talk to the other person on the other line and these talks could last for hours and this is called a cold medium. Fast forward, the mobile phone is now filled with high information load, user can now talk, text, email, video call, play video games, etc but the level of participation has also increased significantly and users are now glued to their phone on a daily basis, so do we still consider McLuhan's claim that  with a hot medium, there is high information load and low participation? This is in my opinion a flaw in his category of hot and cold medium as the current Apple iPhone has both high information load and high participation.

Now a daily necessity for everyone.

The 3 paradigms for media viewing, are as follows, first medium as conduit. Second, medium as language, here the by taking the Apple iPhone, we can now send text or instant messages to people all around the world, abbreviations have been incorporated into our daily communication and lastly, medium as environment, the environment around us changes society, the way people think and act, for instance some people prefer sending messages on the their phones rather than face to face communication, this barrier has build us into a more less social society.


Our mobile phones certainly have evolved, it now can act as our camera, hand-held video game, 'mini laptops', etc. We have grown to a more advance society but is always affected by technology around us. This form of medium have shape and construct our daily lives, the way we talk, act and behave. By understanding media ecology, we are able to understand how the medium affects us as a person and as a society in our lives.

References:

Griffin, E. (2009). A First Look At Communication Theory (7th ed). New York: McGraw-Hill