Digital
Film, Games and Animation, Context of Practice 1.
Compare and
Contrast two extracts from Raymond Williams: The Technology and the Society and Herbert
Marshall McLuhan : Understanding Media:
The Extensions of Man.
Williams and
McLuhan were intellectuals and philosophers, both viewed as cornerstones in the
study of media theory.
McLuhan has
been regarded as controversial regarding his phrases “Media is the Message” and
“Global Village”, but with the recent explosion of the World Wide Web, he is
credited with predicting it. Five years his junior, William’s work is lighter
and actively resists the specialised vocabulary usually found in academic
writing.
Both consider
a range of ideas, connect them and bridge the gaps, compartmentalism is unified.
Ideas gel. Their influence remains today and it would be
foolish to dismiss either as passé.
Williams is
easier to read, however re-reading McLuhan reveals the depth of his thought and
its implications emerge, creating a solid impression. Williams is foundational in the field of
cultural studies, but is surprisingly dismissive on many points. He says there is for him “nothing in the
technology to make the form of it inevitable”. His focus in this piece on television seems to
forget the fundamental nature of humans –they are good and bad, and these
elements have influence.
However both
find common ground in the following areas:-
Electricity as a powerful starting point.
Looking at history helps us to see patterns.
Things can be predicted.
The contrast
between these pieces lies in their focus. Williams views television in
isolation whereas McLuhan views media as evolutionary.
Williams
uses the statement that “Television has altered our World”, including nine
examples. The power of these is lost
because he begins the first five of them with “television was invented as a
result of scientific and technical research…”
This is a poor technique - it weakens the initial statement because of
repetition, furthermore it reduces the impact of the following clauses because the
reader “turns off”, skims, and as each begins “Television…” is tempted to go no
further.
McLuhan
looks to man’s origins to locate a pattern, vast, yet logical. He analyses how man has thought through the
ages. He sees electricity as the pivotal form from which everything has grown and relates this to the human nervous
system. We create within our framework
of experience: reflecting our own brains.
McLuhan
gives us “the medium is the message” – a short sharp phrase to support or
reject. He stirs our thinking so that we
can enter and develop the debate. It is
food for thought which could ignite new progressive ideas. Da Vinci predicted tanks and helicopters by giving
his thought process free rein; McLuhan does similarly. This could well be the hallmark of
genius.
Recently
Google has been charged with copying books illegally, and has enabled anyone to
access information previously held in elitist far-flung libraries. Consequently the world can talk and learn
across the planet. McLuhan predicted
this. Wild guess? Or the logical progression from primal man to
present day? Clearly this progression is
actual and logical. Where next? Avatar sets the seed…. Can we occupy other bodies and experience
other lives? Why not? Ten years ago Star Trek voyagers spoke to
their computers. It was fantasy – now
it’s reality.
McLuhan
inspires imagination, whereas Williams lacks this spark. McLuhan expounds theories. Williams does not. McLuhan’s chosen area is the typewriter – an
old fashioned item compared to Williams’s television. We see television daily, few have used a
typewriter. McLuhan’s example is
good. He notes the dress code of the typist’s
pool, the new ideas, and the desire to follow.
He analyses the pattern. Men and
women “want”. He sees the global
aspect.
The pattern
of explosion coming round to implosion is clear, the computer removes the need
to go out. Man stays in one place while
input and output are conducted by the machine.
Exercise is done in front of a screen and as man’s body fails his brain
still functions via the computer. Contact
is made via machine. This is McLuhan’s
“extension of consciousness”. What
Williams didn’t consider is what happens if the “control” of the media falls
under the influence of villains. Hitler
influenced widely via speech and the radio, how far reaching is media? McLuhan saw the need to understand the effect
of these extensions because he saw that modern actions and reactions occur
almost at the same time. He saw too that
we think traditionally not currently.
“Western man acquired from the technology of literacy the power to act
without reacting”. That statement stands
today.
“The medium
is the message”. McLuhan saw that our
culture splits and divides things to control.
The medium is the extension of ourselves and it introduces scale. McLuhan discusses this referring to production
systems but his analogy using light is excellent. Light is a medium without a message but with
it you can spell out words…thus this medium produces another medium –
vocabulary. The message is that mediums
change the scale of human affairs. Speech
extends into writing –for all time and all people. McLuhan sees the psychological and social consequences. Electricity brings the ability to perform
brain surgery or play football at night, bringing extended available hours for
activity, and entertainment – these produce desire, greed, and ownership which produces
social division. McLuhan sees both sides
of the argument good and bad.
McLuhan saw
that Robert Browning’s comment “A man’s reach must exceed his grasp” summed up
the human state. Ahead of his time, recognising
electricity was the key to our future. He
saw that we also serve this great master.
McLuhan
predicted massive scale to this electric age – the World Wide Web –our central
nervous system translated into electronic technology.
The link to
the typewriter pulls us up – ancient – not related, but it is. Typists set a style everyone wanted– a
uniform way of dressing, a job to aspire to.
A machine of desire for every company – every home. A good comparison, because the typewriter evolved
into the word processor and the keyboard. Communication has exploded and is exploding
further with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Williams can
seem vacuous by comparison but this is dangerous thinking. McLuhan appears clever because his
predictions have found fruit, had they not, he would be dismissed and
forgotten. Williams may see a resurgence
of interest regarding his phrase “There is nothing in the technology to make it
inevitable” after all we should be in control shouldn’t we? Williams leaves us room for thought: -
“Technology
is not autonomous.”
“The role of
intention in research and development is crucial.”
He offers
hope that humankind will govern its own progress. Television has altered our world and he insists
that television was invented as a result of scientific and technical research, despite
extolling the idea that the technology is in effect accidental. He states there is no reason why any
particular invention should have come about, directly contradicting McLuhan. He puts forward the idea of creation for
creation’s sake but wrecks his own argument when he comments on the expensive
nature of television. No one would
produce a highly technical expensive item without being able to recoup costs. Television was designed for a market; ergo it
was not “accidental”.
Williams criticises
television, implying that we are mindlessly entertained and manipulated. He is on the mark. Subliminal messages are easily transmitted
and ideas implanted. Television, like
the advertising which pays for it is a powerful medium. It has brought about social change and
progress.
In
conclusion both texts have similar messages.
Williams offers arguments and approaches which are foundational, saying
that “there is nothing in the technology to make this inevitable”. In contrast McLuhan takes a more forceful
line saying the media progression is totally predictable.
Humans
experience though their senses, but as the western world is predominantly driven
by capitalism, businesses must find a way of creating a product that betters
its predecessors. Man has always needed
to create and is following a basic desire to put ideas into fact. Williams says technology comes first, then
people find a use for it. This is too
simplistic. Technology and man are like
a pair of horses pulling together – one cannot move forward without the other –
but together they can pull a massive load.
Williams saw
television as having power to alter all that had gone before, social
communication and social relationships, our perception of reality, increasing
mobility and expanding knowledge. He
spoke exclusively of television whereas McLuhan spoke in wider terms.
In the final
analysis it seems McLuhan had the deeper understanding and knowledge, predicting
that our world would become global and that mass media would affect our
behaviour and thinking. Media
technologies have become an extension of man.
McLuhan warned of the dangers of an individual or society extending
itself to this degree. Individuals can
now claim fame via YouTube. Images can
be digitally altered and messages changed.
Here lies great danger. Media can
and is being manipulated by unscrupulous people. The internet is set to dominate our lives. McLuhan was wise enough to see the need for
care. We would do well to heed his
message. McLuhan’s global village is an
idealist vision but man is open to corruption and so far in history all his
ideals have eventually failed.
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