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Catherine Brand (ID N00185778) Instructor: Jae Kang Media Studies: Ideas Fall 2010 6 October 2010

How does Joshua Meyrowitz’s medium theory analyses the impact of the electronic media on human behavior in everyday life?

This paper aims to explain how Joshua Meyrowitz’s medium theory analyses the impact of the electronic media on human behavior in everyday life. It is an attempt to clarify the different ideas that are developed by the author and that ultimately lead to a better comprehension of his theory. To provide a historical context, this paper considers critical research developments conducted by first generation medium theorists Harold Innis and Marshall McLuhan. It then focuses on Meyrowitz’s medium theory and its analysis of the impact of electronic media by examining the notions of situations as information systems and roles as information networks. This paper concludes with an evaluation of the theory’s contributions and shortcomings.

Before discussing Joshua Meyrowitz’s medium theory it is important to gain an insight into the work of his predecessors, first generation medium theorists Harold Innis and Marshall McLuhan. Trained as an economic historian, Harold Innis (1894-1952) draws a parallel between economic monopolies and information monopolies. He argues that the control of media of communication has an impact on changes occurring in a society and on the sustainability of a society. In The Bias of Communication he rewrites the history of Western civilization by placing the innovation of media technology at the center of social and political changes. He observes that a medium of communication has an influence on the dissemination of knowledge and that depending on its characteristics it is either space or time biased. In fact Innis explains that while a medium that is light and easy to transport is space-biased, a medium that is heavy and durable and that has limited mobility is time-biased. For instance, at the time of the Roman civilization, the properties of papyrus (light, easy to transport and therefore space-biased) support the expansion of the Roman Empire and the creation of a centralized government which delegates authority to distant territories. Brand 2

As Innis, Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) goes against traditional media theories which focus on media content and draws attention to the medium itself. According to him the message of a medium is in “the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs” (McLuhan 8). The message of the electric light is for instance its capacity to enable human association in any place of the world whether it is day or nighttime and to create new activities which could not exist without it. Not only McLuhan analyzes the impact of media on society but he also considers media as extensions of ourselves. He argues that media extend our body, our senses and nerves in space and time. To define the impact of the different media he divides the history into three major periods: oral, writing/printing and electronic. Meyrowitz will later use this division to develop his own medium theory.

Joshua Meyrowitz’s medium theory further explores the impact of media on society and our perception of space and time by considering their effects on human behavior in everyday life. According to him, human behavior or identity is not fixed but changes depending on access to information which differs depending on a person’s social situation. With the development of media of communication, a social situation is not limited to a physical place (home, work space, private sphere, public sphere,…) but extended as an information system. “In a literate culture, for example, an advice book for parents functions as an isolated “place” for adult communication that cannot be “overheard” by young illiterate children” (Meyrowitz 59). Media of communication influence human behavior by either encouraging the segregation of people into clearly defined information systems or blurring their boundaries. To analyze the impact of media on human behavior, Meyrowitz divides social roles into three categories or information networks: group identity, socialization and hierarchy. Group Identity entails roles of affiliation or “being” (such as male vs. female; professional vs. hard-hat; lawyer vs. doctor). Socialization involves roles of transition or “becoming” (such as child to adult; medical student to doctor; immigrant to citizen; husband to father). Hierarchy describes roles of authority (such as political leader vs. voter; company president vs. company secretary; officers vs. enlisted personnel). (Meyrowitz 60) The notion of group identity implies secrecy between different groups but no hierarchy. Socialization can be illustrated through the instance of a child or a student who gradually Brand 3 accesses more information while he gets older or attain a higher level of study. The child or the student aims to reach another, often superior, social situation. Finally the notion of hierarchy not only indicates access to different information but also relations of power and authority between different social roles.

Meyrowitz analyses the influence of media on group identity, socialization and hierarchy and specific access to information by considering the three major periods of time previously defined by McLuhan (oral, writing/printing and electronic). Regarding the age of electronic media, which is the subject of this paper, Meyrovitz explains that people belonging to different social situations get access to more homogeneous information with the advent of the radio and TV. Access to information is not limited to one’s location anymore. While the public sphere is considered to be the domain of men during the writing/printing period, it becomes accessible to women during the electronic period whether women stay home or have a professional activity. Children start to get a sense of what is happening in the world before their parents or professors teach them about it. Citizens are more aware of the political situation of their country and are thus able to participate in political events or activities. The wider access to information which is made possible by radio and TV enables people to understand that their social situation or social role can be extended far beyond a restricted place. In fact, Meyrovitz notice that in the 1960s a new awareness of the world encourages people to claim for rights that are limited to specific groups during the writing/printing period. However although previous divisions in social roles (men vs. women, children vs. parents, citizens vs. political leaders) become more homogeneous during the electronic period, human behavior or identity tends to diversify. People belonging to different social situations get access to the same information and thus the same options. They have the possibility to make decisions that better fit their needs. According to Meyrovitz, this creates new divisions that tend to be more superficial (group of people listening to the same music, wearing the same clothes, etc…).

Meyrowitz’s medium theory adds another dimension to Innis and McLuhan’s approaches. It provides a method to analyze and present the impact of media in a way that is less abstract than previous medium theories. While Innis and McLuhan respectively focus on the influence of media on social and political changes as well as on our perception of the world through the Brand 4 extension of our body, senses, and nerves, Meyrowitz defines information systems and information networks that highlight the impact of media on human behavior in everyday life. In fact he draws attention to the importance of media in the changes occurring in networks of social relations and thus the construction of human identity. Meyrowitz’s medium theory demonstrates how media support the division of social roles during the writing/printing period which limits people to specific activities and locations depending of their age, gender, status and nationalities. It also shows how oral and electronic media blur this division and enable closer interactions between people belonging to these different social categories.

However Meyrowitz’s medium theory also presents shortcomings which are already noticeable in Innis and McLuhan’s works. Medium theory concentrates on the impact of the medium on psychic and social schemes as well as on human behavior in everyday life but it tends to ignore the content. For example, it does not take into account the negative influence of TV on the social construction of gender when it presents demeaning images of women. Moreover medium theory overlooks the influence of economic and political institutions on the dissemination and selection of information made available to the public. It does not provide tools to analyse the benefit that these institutions are acquiring by supporting the use of a medium over another or choosing the information that fits their goals. To enable the understanding of such critical issues a content/institutional perspective should inevitably be considered and combined with the medium theory approach. Brand 5

Works Cited

Innis, Harold. “The Bias of Communication.” The Bias of Communication. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1951. 33-60. Print. McLuhan, Marshall. “The Medium is the Message.” Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: Signet, 1964. 23-35. Print. Meyrowitz, Joshua. “Medium Theory.” Communication Theory Today. Eds. David Crowely and David Mitchel. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1994. 50-77. Print.