Lecture 4 Flashcards
What is McLuhan’s famous phrase regarding media?
“The medium is the message.”
How does McLuhan define media?
Media are extensions of human senses, shaping and controlling the scale and form of human association and action.
What are the three key effects of media on society according to McLuhan?
Scale, pace, and pattern.
What does McLuhan mean by “the content of any medium is another medium”?
Media are intertwined, with one medium’s content being delivered through another (e.g., movies through television).
How does McLuhan describe the transition from the mechanical age to the electric age?
Mechanization is linear and fragmented, while the electric age is decentralized and immediate.
According to McLuhan, how does the electric light serve as an example of a medium with no content?
The electric light has no content but still mediates by enabling new activities like work and sports at night.
What is Friedrich Kittler’s view on the relationship between technology and society?
Kittler sees technology as a political force that determines society and media as shaping human reality.
According to Kittler, what is the historical significance of media?
Media evolution reflects the decoupling of communication from information and interaction.
How does Kittler differentiate between communication and information systems?
Communication systems involve human interaction (messages, persons, goods), while information systems focus on data storage, processing, and transmission.
What is Kittler’s take on technical media like telegraphy and digital technology?
Technical media use physical processes beyond human perception and are governed by mathematical codes, not everyday language.
How does Kittler view the impact of digital technology?
Digital technology decouples information from continuous functions, turning it into discrete data, processed at high speeds.
What did Nietzsche say about the influence of writing tools, as noted by Kittler?
“Our writing tools are also working on our thoughts.”
What is Kittler’s view on communication technology documentation?
There is a lack of sufficient documentation, and understanding communication requires an analysis of its media.
According to Kittler, what is the problem with information theory in understanding communication history?
Information theory focuses on signal transfer but cannot account for the cultural processes of communication.
How does Kittler define the evolution from writing to technical media?
Writing couples storage and transmission, while technical media further decouple communication from interaction and information.
