Date post: | 14-Jun-2015 |
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Grand theory.
What does Innis do?
Road map of academic argument
Minerva’s owl departs when the civilization is in decline
And just before the owl leaves scholars produce their best
Innis takes a wide look at history and asksWhat is the effect of media technology on learning.
Framed another way his question is: what is the impact of media on learning. And such questions are common in media effects research as well as educational research.
He posits his theories:
THEORY:If the technology is complex- i.e Sanskritthen its costs are high and
Monopolies and hierarchies are created.
Flexible languages can adapt to vernaculars
But if not flexible then
Monopolies and hierarchies are born
Reading is different from writingIt implies passive recognition of power
When a new technology appears
A realignment occurs in monopoly of knowledge and hierarchy.
Bangalore
Church vs Lutherans
A technology that denies access to vernacularWill be broken down by forceCavalry example
i.e paper and printing technologiesbroke the power of the church.
andThe masses always have more power/force/strengththan the ruling class
So rulers have to use public opinion to stay in power
Therefore monopolies of powerHave relations withOrganized force.
Interest in learning requires stability
Powerful organized force for protection
Concentrated learning requires
written tradition
Rigidity and lack of contact
with vernacular
A great institution is The tomb of the founder
As this rigidity increases the relations betweenThe vernacular and organized force collapse
And while this is happening a new technology Comes in from the fringes of society.
i.e Church banned printing press in FranceBooks were smuggled in from elsewhere.
In the meantime scholars produce their best work.
Move to more secure
Areas and cause
Flowering there
i.e Ionians.
Organized force will be successful when
Oral tradition
vernacular
technology
combine
Nationalistic Narratives andIdeologies Are examples Of this
When art reaches a state of perfectionIt will decline
Perfection imported will have a stifling effect
New technologies for Innis
Transport
Script
Cunieform
Papyrus
Parchment
Paper
Radio
etc
Cunieform = old technology controlled by priests
Horse = new technology enabled formation of city state unions
Political organization evolved
Village city union of cities Pharoanic empire system
More flexible writing technology gave rise to more accessible Hebrew bible, allowed escape from temple ---- is this true?
writing Refutes mythsRoman gods die
Allows poetry and shades of meaning
Rigid systems of law
Abstract thought- philosophy
History is born
But in the Roman era the oral was still important
Plato ----- Oral + written tradition
Aristotle--- reading not oral instruction
Allows flexibility , open ended immortal inconclusiveness
Monarchy of mind Love for collections- dilettantes, taste, respect
Scholars now concerned with conservation, clarification, past
Books became
powerful meant
for those who
read all books
Literature became divorced from real life
Ivory tower
Libraries became powerhouses to offset power of Priests and temple
With the decline of the oral traditionpower of expression and creation and groovesthat determine channels of thoughtdeclined too.
Literature, poetry , theatre died
Jurisprudence and gladiator
spectacles flourished
Hebrew
Ordinary people speak Armaic
Hebrew can’t absorb vernacular so
Christianity escapes lower status by
Deploying new fresh vernacular language.
New technology parchment replaces papyrus
Durable/ compact/ easier to use
Allows silent reading to self
cumbersome/ not durable
Kept in scrollsRarely consultedRead aloud to group
China
Buddhism
Printing
Paper
Paper’s appearance
in Muslim Empire
Coincides with the most
splendid period.
Minerva’s Owl
From Ionians to Athens to Greece to RomeTo Europe. When Muslims take Egypt parchmentstops Europe stagnatesThen Arabs introduce Greek ideas to the West
The churchVsPrinting and translation of bible
inquisition
The development of printing
The classicsPamphletsBooksMagazines
JOURNALISM and newspapers develop
The influence of cable
Effects of discovery of printing press
-savage religious wars 16 and 17th C- consolidation of vernaculars- rise of nationalism- revolutions
-Latin declines
-Oral tradition dies
-Scholarship wanes