Partial test one week 3 Media ecology, myths and third-person effect

Question 1

Definition of Media Ecology

Answer 1

The study of the media environment. Defines how people interact with communication technologies and how this changes and shapes our society and symbolic environment.

Question 2

Why are the changes in media ecology difficult to notice?

Answer 2

Because we are always in the middle of it. It has become a part of ourselves, so it is difficult to observe it.

Question 3

Media ecology theory by …

Answer 3

Marshall McLuhan

Question 4

What is the symbolic environment?

Answer 4

The meaning we as humans have given to words or concepts.

Question 5

Basic assumption media ecology

Answer 5

New technology extends our possibilities which changes the way we perceive the world and interact with each other.

Question 6

Explain quote ‘Medium is the message’

Answer 6

The medium through which a message gets communicated is more important than the message itself.

Question 7

How do we measure media ecology?

Answer 7

• By trying to look at society from a distance

- By looking back at how society changed in the past when new media were introduced, from tribal age to now

Question 8

Explain the meaning of a ‘Global Village’

Answer 8

The current world is turning into a global village, because with all the new communication technologies, it has become possible to get in touch with anyone, anywhere and anytime.

Question 9

Why is the internet turning us back into a tribe-like society?

Answer 9

Because we are no longer influenced by one mass medium. We can look for information that only interests us and get in contact with people that share our opinions. We start forming ‘tribes’ with the people that share our ideas and we start protecting our beliefs. This is causing a decentralisation of power.

Question 10

Explain the ‘Faustian Bargain’ of media, as explained by Postman

Answer 10

A new form of media is always a deal with the devil. We gain something from new media, but it also destroys something.

Question 11

What three questions should we ask ourselves with the arrival of a new medium?

Answer 11

1. Is there a problem for which we need this new technology?
2. Who’s problem is this?
3. Does the medium actually solve the problem and does this outweigh the downsides?

Question 12

Critique on the media ecology theory

Answer 12

It is too deterministic, there are a lot of other factors that change our society. Next to that, it is more a philosophy than a theory, because it was not researched well enough and is therefore hard to falsify. The theory lacks linearity and order.

Question 13

Definition of a myth

Answer 13

An explanation of the world that has an easy and plausible cause-and-effect relationship for which we do not have scientific proof yet.

Question 14

Explain how a new medium can cause revival

Answer 14

It brings back some aspects of older media

Question 15

Explain how a new medium can cause enhancement

Answer 15

A new medium usually provides us with something that makes our communication better/easier/faster

Question 16

Explain how a new medium can cause reversal

Answer 16

A new medium sometimes does not have the intended positive effect, but actually works against the user

Question 17

Explain how a new medium can cause obsolesce

Answer 17

A new medium replaces an old medium and makes it unnecessary or less important

Question 18

Dangerous new media myth

Answer 18

The audience is passive and stupid, the more we throw the new medium at them the more they will emerge themselves in it, for better or worse. The new medium will 1) harm our senses, 2) make us psychologically worse and 3) will make society as a whole worse.

Question 19

Pattern that people follow when judging a dangerous new medium

Answer 19

1. We believe the medium makes us stupid
2. We glorify the media we already have (old media)
3. We panic over the bad effects of the new medium (harming our senses and psychological state)

Question 20

Wonderful new media myth

Answer 20

The audience in this myth is actually smart and active. They know how to use new media in a positive way to educate themselves. This makes them more critical and will eventually balance our society (decentralisation of power).

Question 21

We want to keep believing in myths even though there is no proof for them, in what ways do we ‘proof’ myths to ourselves?

Answer 21

1. We use the smallest, slightest relationship between a myth and real life as proof
2. We historize them (look at Greek mythology for example)
3. Some myths can simply not be falsified, because we are in the middle of them
4. We use different myths to defends other myths

Question 22

Third-person effect in communication by …

Answer 22

Davison

Question 23

Media myths by …

Answer 23

Schonbach

Question 24

Third-person effect hypothesis

Answer 24

People overestimate the influence that mass media have on other people. They believe that they themselves are too smart to be influenced, but the rest of the ostensible audience does get affected.

Question 25

What is the ostensible audience?

Answer 25

The mass group of people for which a certain message is intended

Question 26

The third-person effect itself

Answer 26

People expect others to fall for the tricks of the media and therefore they expect those people to change their behaviour, so they will also change their own behaviour. Example; Seeing on a website ‘last in stock’, you don’t believe this, but you expect others to believe it, so you buy the product anyways because you are afraid that so many people will believe this trick that the product will actually sell out.