Your Lecturer

The centrality of media and technology in the Canadian mind

Four reasons 1. The french-english cultural tension that resulted in the official development and

implementation of the bilingualism and multiculturalism policies as from the late 1960s. Denton Tower in carleton it is a symbol for Bi and Bi commission (Bilingual and Bicultural) T

2. The cultural media invasion from the American media system that prompts the Canadian call for a distinct cultural identity.
 “CanCon” Canadian content in CRTC M music A artist P produced or performed L lyrics

3. The challenge of maintaining a balance between the concepts of free trade, competition etc. on one hand and public subsidy, public interest, etc. on the other hand in Canadian complications public policy

4. The federal provincial tensions on regulating cultural policies and Canada’s own struggle to strive for a distinctly Canadian cultural identity

For that the theoretical research on communication technologies of Harlod Innis and Marshall McLuhan”s have enriched the historical Understanding of social change and its relation to the media of technology used in a given society

CBC Documentary Renaissance (link on blackboard)

The Two step Flow of Communication Developed by Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955)

Example: Opera Winfery

Harold Innis - Oral communication maintains culture over time (time Bias) - Written Communication maintains culture over space (space Bias) - Harlod Innis Research Foundation

Marshall McLuhan -one of the first analysts of electronic communication - Electronic media created a “global village” and acted as an “outered nervous system” - McLuhan Research centre - he wrote a book called “understanding Media” It revealed the “magical world: the new media

of communication- radio, television, film, photography - human beings had returned to primitive tribal ways of communicating - an extension of the individuals arguing that each medium embodies a certain bias toward a

human - “the medium is the message” 


Media are transmitting our knowledge and experience embedded within the very structure of our society. As he thinks that we should not be concerned with the tools of communication(the media) and ignore the (message) constructed.

- Each medium requires us to become engaged using a different bias or “degree of participation

- Hot media: are those that require low participation or involvement from the users’ part (i.e. Radio..you are just listening and are not require to do certain action/involvement)

- Cool media: are those media that require high level of participation or involvement. (i.e television) .. you can not watch television without seeing the images. It is more captive.

- Print asserted the senses of individualism and competition as opposed to electronic media that created a “global village”

- he asserts that the world had become a “a global village” - The media reduced the spaces between and the separation from fellow humans and hence

could alter their behaviour 
 “Our new electric technology that extend our senses and nerves in a global embrace has large implication for the future of language”

Oral society 
 knowledge and history are held by people

Literate society - Literacy allows for the visual representation of ideas and the ability to compare and contrast them - When the roman empire collapsed, the development of local written languages lead to the

development of European nation states

Electronic Society - Castells(1996) networks are shifting the basic structure of society and driving globalization.

Information society - A society where ICT are key to the creation of wealth and defining the direction of social

development - ICTs play a key role in this shift in labour processes

Social changes: shift to the nuclear family and the distinction between work and leisure time

Photography created connections to people and events in far away places

THE COMMODIFICATION OF COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION: A KEY FACTOR IN ECONOMIC GROWTH AND a barrier between “haves” and “have-nots”

Progression of press ownership: Disorganization alignment with political parties, ownership by corporation

Newspapers shifted away from purely political alliances as readership expanded and advertising

Is the press becoming dominated by corporate interests ?