Media And Information Literacy

MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY

The Evolution of Media

“Young people do not read newspapers anymore; they visit online sites.”

Marshall McLuhan (1969) a Canadian communication theorist who provides a clear story on how media evolved through technological determinism

Technological Determinism A theory that believes that technology is a steering factor in how a society develops its structure and values.

The Evolution of Media According to Marshall McLuhan (1969), the evolution of media has our different ages:

1. 2. 3. 4.

Tribal Age Age of Literacy Print Age Electronic Age

TRIBAL AGE  prehistoric people relied on face-to-face interactions, through auditory senses  the primary medium of communication was speech  characterized as an oral society dependent on speech and word-of-mouth  acoustic space vs. pictorial space

AGE OF LITERACY  Human being learned to read and write, which amplified the use of the sense of sight, lessening the role of the other senses in the human body.  This allowed people to communicate and share information privately through letters.  writings are expressed through hieroglyphs

PRINT AGE  highlighted by the invention of the GUTENBERG PRESS or movable type in the 15th Century.

PRINT AGE Sharing ideas became faster and acquiring information became easier.  Mass-produced writing cultivated a sense of homogeneity, where people spoke and wrote in the same language, which made it easier for a person to associate himself/herself to a group. on this same age laid the groundwork for industrial age

ELECTRONIC AGE period characterized by the dominance of the electric media such as telegraph, radio, film, telephone, computer and television. McLuhan described this age as the force that turned the planet into a global village, where people are all globally connected.

EVOLUTION OF MEDIA TRADITIONAL MEDIA TRIBAL AGE AGE OF LITERACY PRINT AGE ELECTRONIC AGE

NEW MEDIA INFORMATION AGE

INFORMATION AGE The Cambridge dictionary defines new media as the “products and services that provide information or entertainment using computers or the internet.”

On a 1 whole sheet of paper:

What do you think would be the next major mass medium that will be developed in the next ten years?