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

Semiotics

SEMIOTICS

Life is full of text or signs, in semiotics, communication specialist study these signs, they explains how discourses and ideologies are visually constructed and how it helps us study culture and laws governing social life.


As stated by Chandler (2007, p.2), ''Semiotics involves the study not only what we refer as 'signs' in everyday speech, but of anything which 'stands for' something else.''  In this post i will use Zooey Deschanel as my text and explain further how semiotics, by using these 7 key terms; signifier, signified, sign, denotation, connotation, codes and anchoring, can be a powerful tool in today's world.

As claimed by Griffin (2009, p. 324), Signifier is ''The physical form of the sign as we perceive it through our senses; an image.'' From my understanding a sign formed by the 5 senses; sight, smell, sound, touch and taste. In the word 'Zooey Deschanel', the letters 'Z o o e y D e s c h a n e l' are the signifier as we see it with our sense of sight. 


As for signified, is the mental image formed by the sign itself, further noted by Griffin (2009, p. 324), signifier is "The meaning we associate with the sign." By looking at the word 'Zooey Deschanel' alone, a mental image of Zooey Deschanel is instantly generated as shown below especially for Zooey Deschanel fans. One signifier can have many signified or mental images.


With the explanation of Signifier and signified already in place, the combination between these 2 terms or meanings lead to the development of a 'sign', as perceived by Griffin (2009, p. 324) "The inseparable combination of the signifier and the signified". Therefore, the letters formed by the word 'Zooey Deschanel' detected by our sense of sight is the signifier and the mental image formed by looking at the letters in 'Zooey Deschanel' is the signified, hence Zooey Deschanel is the sign whereas signs are very broad, it can varies from symbolic being abstract, indexical or less abstract and iconic or real life-like. These signs are  utilized by the Media or Public Relation Officers in big companies to manipulate the society.


As stated by Chandler (2007, p.137), '''Denotation' tends to be described, literal, obvious or common-sense meaning of the sign.'' In my view, it is the literal description of a sign. For example the image found below, the denotation would be 'A pretty lady with blue eyes, red lipstick and dark brown hair holding a 'ZOOEY DEsCHANeL' sign in front of her'.

As noted by Chandler (2007, p. 138), "The term 'connotation' is used to refer to the socio-cultural and 'personal' associations (ideological, emotional, etc.) of the sign." and according to Langer's Theory of Symbols in LittleJohn (1996, p. 70-71), "Connotation of a symbol is the direct relationship between the symbol and the conception itself. Connotation includes all of one's personal feelings and associations attached to a symbol." In my perspective, connotation is the representation of the sign, connotations are like metaphors of a sign. Zooey Deschanel is a sign or a text and the word 'Zooey Deschanel' alone connotes the meaning of adorable, elegant, beauty, sweet, quirky and cute. 

Advertisement companies frequently use 'Anchoring' to advertise their products, the main idea of anchoring is to holds down a certain or specific meaning of an interpretation because without anchorage, image can go to any meaning. Anchoring can shapes how we view and see things. 

Before 'anchoring'

This advertisement of 'New Girl' by Zooey Deschanel is a good example how anchoring works, without the word 'New Girl' the sign just shows a picture of Zooey Deschanel, this can confuse the people looking at the advertisement, this most importantly leads to a number of meanings.

After 'anchoring'

By having the word 'New Girl', it anchor or it pulls the sign to a specific concept, idea or interpretation, it clearly shows that the particular advertising company is advertising Zooey Deschanel's new TV series, 'New Girl'. Hence advertising companies sell the ideas of the product not the product itself and by making full advantage of Semiotics; the study of signs, advertising companies or the media can manipulate what we see or hear as semiotics is a powerful tool in today's world.

References:


Chandler, D. (2007). Semiotics The Basics (2nd ed). New York: Routledge.


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


Littlejohn, S. W. (1996). Theories of Human Communication (5th ed.) California: Wadsworth Publishing Company.