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The Internet Monopoly Of Knowledge Media Essay

Paper Type: Free Essay Subject: Media
Wordcount: 669 words Published: 1st Jan 2015

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Innis clearly demonstrated how media technology influences the growth and collapse of human awareness and societies. He argued time-bias and space-bias are both important to the development of an empire. From oral tradition through the development of electronic media, Innis described how the bias of one medium interacts with another medium, and their equalization which caused the fabrication of monopolies of knowledge.

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Monopoly of knowledge exists on the Internet. However, there are new meanings and new standard of judgment of globalization nowadays which changes the state of affairs. Innis’ theory can be argued because of the availability of easy access to information that constitutes monopoly of knowledge, but on the other hand, it also demolishes centralization of power and deliberation of opinions.

In this book, McLuhan asserted media affect the society. He argues media affect society starting from the individual level because media are extensions of the self, the human body and the mind. For example, cars are extension of the human foot. Thus, media as agents can change our experience of the world through our interaction with each other. It is not the technology or the content media sent out but the characteristics of the content it conveys to us that affects the society.

McLuhan’s theory in this book can be more deeply applied to computer technology and the Internet advancement today. Information technology can be any extension part of the human being. It can change our experience of the world not only with physical communication but also virtual interactions. These advancements create problems and disputes that affect the society.

In chapter 12, Silverstone considered globalization as a multifaceted and contested process. It is a state of mind and also a material reality. He described the conflicts and ambiguities persisted in global culture, and the inconsistency between homogenization and fragmentation in global media. Silverstone alleged globalization is dependent on cultural and social change through space and time. In chapter 16, Silverstone emphasize the constantly changing media has the power to change our world, where these changes remodel a new kind of politics, and recur a politics for the world of new media.

Innis & McLuhan studies are both related to Silverstone’s work, they all suggested the influences media have on society through time and space bias and society conversely effects what is available from media. As McLuhan addressed in Understanding Media, “we shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us”.

WL Bennett

New Media Power: The Internet and Global Activism

Benneth uses illustrative examples to show how the Internet and some other digital technologies enable people to participate in global political activities effortlessly. Bennett’s studies are practical because he illustrated many successful cases of global activism. He pointed out that the Internet, as a communication tool, is particularly advantageous because it overcomes limits of time and space and it allows efficient message distribution at a relatively low cost. As technology enhances, new media plays an important part in contesting power which facilitated global activism.

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Carey, James. W.

The Antioch Review

Carey in his essay interpreted, compared, contrasted and critical analyzed Innis and McLuhan’s arguments relating to the roles of mass media in social change. He discussed Innis’s idea of time and space bias, monopoly of knowledge and McLuhan’s account of all communication media as extension of man. He also examines the differences between Innis’s theory of how communication technology affects social organization and culture whereas McLuhan sees its effect on sensory organization and thought. Carey’s extensive analysis offered an easier understanding of Innis and McLuhan’s studies.

 

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