Poster Meets Innis: Poststructuralism and the Possibility of Political Economy’ Robert Babe Western University

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2006 ‘Poster Meets Innis: Poststructuralism and the Possibility of Political Economy’ Robert Babe Western University

Edward Comor University of Western Ontario, [email protected]

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Citation of this paper: Babe, Robert and Edward Comor. "Poster Meets Innis: Poststructuralism and the Possibility of Political Economy." Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies 16 (2006), 5-22. TOPIA 16

Robert E. Babe and Edward Comor

Cultural Studies and Political Economy Column Poster Meets Innis: Poststructuralism and the Possibility of Political Economy

This is the fifth and final column in the Topia series exploring intersections between political economy and cultural studies. The column inTopia 15 (Babe 2006: 91-101) documents the tendency on the part of mainstream American communication/media scholars—from John Dewey in the first decades of the 20th century to postmodernist writers of today—to obscure to the vanishing point concerns and methods of political economy. The earlier column suggests that “readers should scrutinize carefully the writings of contemporary poststructuralist/postmodernist authoritative figures to determine just where they stand on issues of political economy” (98). That is precisely what we do here: we focus on the American poststructuralist Mark Poster and compare his writings to the media analysis of Canadian political economist Harold Innis. About seven years ago, a doctoral student in England suggested to one of us that an interest in Innis would make an interest in Poster something of a “natural fit,” as their theories are, from the student’s perspective, so similar. From the surface-level similarities between them one could conclude that the two approaches are easily integrated. Our contention here is that this veneer of similarity masks deep-seated differences and revealing contradictions. As Poster is one of the more “materialist” of the poststructuralists, the incompatibility of his framework with political economy has broader applicability. Interestingly, Poster claims that poststructuralism “is a uniquely American practice.” The writings of seminal French theorists, such as Derrida, Baudrillard, Lyotard and Foucault, he explains, “have far greater currency in the United States than in France” (Poster 1989: 6). If this is correct, then the fundamental contradiction between poststructuralism and political economy we posit in this comparison gives added support to the evidence presented in the previous

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intervenes It is this focus on 2 3 the representational property of language is for Poster of particular significance in the era , turn from action to language. 1 must to designate the consequences of these particularly “interventions,” , In In this third stage, the era of account, electronics, words by (or Poster’s signs more generally) cease to represent the outside/non-linguistic world. to media, according Electronic of language). (self-referentiality chiefly to themselves They instead refer particularly Poster—drawing on Jean Baudrillard—allow or cause signifiers to float equanimity focus on actions or activities and neglect language, in our electronics era, electronics our in language, neglect and activities or actions on focus equanimity he contends, social theorists Poster as a poststructuralist. language that defines of electronics. Electronics brings writ of ages the in about Whereas hitherto. than essential such more even is language theorizing fundamental linguistic change that ing and of face-to-face communication, analysts (the “grand theorists”) could with (1989: 126). Language, although important in all stages configuring individual identities, in structuring human relations and The third stage is that of electronics.He affords sostage muchthat he often ofuses the term, hismode of information, to attention refer solely to it. to He de- this clares, for example, “The mode of information designatessocial relations mediated by electronic communication systems, which constitute new patterns of language” and the concern for depicting through language objects not present in the immediate the in present not objects language through depicting for concern the and space. time and over through scattered and events environs totality of face-to-face relations” (1990: 6). In the second stage, where exchanges are are exchanges where stage, second the In 6). (1990: relations” face-to-face of totality predominantly mediated by print to is the constructedfore and the as “self an agent in rational/imaginary autonomy” (ibid.). This is presumably a consequence of the private nature ofreading/writing societies, face-to-face entail exchanges symbolical correspondences because commu nicators are conversing about objects in their immediate environs, or as he puts it, “the self is constituted as a position of enunciation through its embeddedness in a with regard to language (1989: 82). to language (1989: 82). with regard He proposes three general stages in the mode of information, each corresponding to a particular manner of transmitting messages. In the first stage, occurring in oral in the network of relations that constitute a (1990: society” 7, emphasis added). As the means of communication change, “the relation of and language action, self and change coined other” also the (1990: term, 6). the Poster mode and society, idea of information For For Mark every Poster, medium of communication, from cave paintings and clay “profoundly satellites, communications and databases computer to tablets language and poststructuralism. We begin by looking at, and commenting concepts. these three upon, of information Language and the mode Mark Poster At the core of Mark work Poster’s are the concepts of the mode of information, column column concerning the penchant of mainstream American theorists to dismiss or 2006). rule (Babe political economy considerations of out

TOPIA 16 | TOPIA 16 | - - - from, indeed out of phase with, its use value and its exchange value.… The ad shapes The ad shapes value.… and its exchange with, its use value indeed out of phase from, a new everyone which language, a new speaks or set of meanings (floor wax/romance) language of commodity calls the collective better which speaks everyone. Baudrillard [T]he code may be understood as a language or sign system unique to code.” ads “the mediated communication systems. (1990: the mode of information, to electronically 58) states of being are portrayed in a manner that optimizes the viewer’s attention without attention without the viewer’s portrayed in a manner that optimizes states of being are 1990: 62-63) (Poster critical awareness. arousing relation with the that has no traditional a word a signifier, The [television] ad takes now floor wax attaches it to that object.… Johnson’s and object being promoted, value that is distinct a semiotic has been given The commodity rescue. equals romantic In TV ads, where the new floating signifiers is most clearly seen, mode of signification TV ads, where In the ultimate in its structure ad replicates TV Each attached to commodities.… are TV ad in the established new connections are language is remade, facility of language: relation no have signifiers, which new which Floating meanings emerge.… through desirable or undesirable that convey and words set in play; images are to the product, fixed place, no point of perspective, no discreet centre, no clear boundary” (1990: 11). In part this is an outcome of the exaggerated separation con of in also are time advertisements television and/or But senders. space and receivers message between Second, linguistic change in the electronics era affects processes of constructing of self- processes affects era electronics the in change linguistic Second, continuous in multiplied and dispersed, decentered, is self “the Poster, For identities. (1990: instability” 6). “In this he world,” continues, subject “the has no no anchor, began in earnest in the age of print, Poster claims phenomenon to such a as degree to bring that about qualitative changes in the of nature electronics magnifies that communicators rooms, chat computer in instance, For 128). (1989: relations human anonymity and can assume and change identities at a whim. retain record of the event, by an instantaneity of act and observation, by an immediacy and immediacy an by observation, and act of instantaneity an by event, the of record copresence of electronically mediated meanings to a large extent self-referentially” (1989: 9). While the distancing between message senders and message receivers and space relations among communicators: he exchange of writes, symbols “the be tween human beings is far now less subject to constraints (1990: of space and time” the because upheavals” profound and massive, “vast, to rise giving are Electronics 2). social world has “become now constituted in part by … a simultaneity of event and conception of truth and the real. conception of truth and the real. position on these three consequences of linguistic change in Let us consider Poster’s time the change electronics that proposes Innis, like Poster, First, era. electronics the tion with things and come to stand in the place patterns of things, new in short, about when brings language transformation linguistic This 13). itself”(1989: represents of human relations, new processes of establishing self-identities and a transformed We will We analysis return to of Poster’s the floor wax commercial.For the now, main connec their lose words when grief to comes “representation Poster for that is point And citing a specific example: And citing a specific in relation to referents, transforming language; that is, the linguistic context within function: which people - - - - -

4 discourses are inherently self-referen all such marginalization to the mode of information, media, and knowledge control of discourses—in brief, to the “representations” through which the marginalized are discussed. characterized, depicted, thought about, interpreted, media of communication 1990: (Poster 81). Third,Innis wrote“monopolies about of and knowledge” the related power to control of the predominant media of connects com and society in marginalized those with concern expresses Poster munication. (primarily radio) and speculated on their implications for structuring consciousness. consciousness. structuring for implications their on speculated and radio) (primarily For both thinkers, these various modes of communication help establish to the flight different refers Poster Like Innis, of and communicators.” space relation[s] “time new by characterized eras in change civilizational for metaphor a as owl Minerva’s of context on the truth claims of theorists. Second, would “mode Poster’s seem of to information” conform to “biases Innis’s of communication.” Innis, after all, vestigated the time-space in biases of various modes orality, of writing and electronics truth. could be thought is of apparent Poster how as the It covering same ground as Innis. First, both are concerned about the reflexivity of scholarship, about the impact of countervail power on the part of those who exert power by claiming universal truth. universal claiming by power exert who those partof the on countervailpower Like Nietzsche, Poster insists that “truth is not a transcendent unity” (1989: Furthermore, 15). he views the fissure between language andreality as an opportunity to be seized in the struggle to subvert centres of power based on claims of universal tial, and hence bear little or no descriptive accuracy regarding the material world, even though they undoubtedly affect mindsets or beliefworld. By systemsdenying concerningthe possibility that of representation, poststructuralists believe they most clearly with Derrida and other deconstructionists.most clearly with Derrida According to poststructuralism Poster, is just what is needed for de-authenticating discourse/knowledge because it asserts that reduce reduce domination, discrimination and repression of ethnic, linguistic, sexual and other marginalized groups, discourses (or what up links Poster that here is others it de-authenticated; be can and must systems) knowledge might term knowledge or For Poster there is a distinct advantage to assuming the poststructuralist stance in the in stance poststructuralist the assuming to advantage distinct a is there Poster For (“grand discourse Every centres. poststructuralismera: power undermines electronic narrative”), and all knowledge systems including scientific knowledge systems, he believes, buttress structures of power (1989: 26). The contention, then, is that to meanings, in the continual process of reinterpretation, in the contention of opposing of contention the in reinterpretation, of process continual the in meanings, (1989: claims” 15); life “social in part becomes a practice of positioning subjects to 15). (1990: messages” and interpret receive increasingly difficult, or even pointless, for the subject to distinguish a ‘real’ existing existing even pointless,difficult,for or ‘real’ the subject toincreasingly distinguish a in poststruc tendency “The writes: Poster 15). (1990: signifiers” of flow the ‘behind’ turalism is therefore to regard truth as to a exult multiplicity, in the play of diverse 79-80). Third, as language loses its property ofrepresentation, “‘reality’ comes tostituted be con in the ‘unreal’ dimension of the media” (1989: 85). Indeed, “it becomes sequence in this regard as they fashion viewers into consumer-subjects “with floating floating “with consumer-subjects into viewers fashion they as regard this in sequence signifiers attached to commodities notby any intrinsicrelation to them butby the (1989: fantasy” subject’s the in imprinted once at is which desire, unfulfilled of logic

TOPIA 16 | TOPIA 16 | . - - - - societies Frye argues Frye

is predomi is , in tribal (oral) to the warp and

writing greater Anatomy of Criticism of Anatomy to the material circumstances of daily

and like all literatures refers primarily to directly

through various modes of information. Innis’s literature literature published decades after decades published individuals , literary critic Northrop Frye insists that that insists Frye literaryNorthrop , critic The Great Code, Great The Anatomy of Criticism of Anatomy phenomena through the lens of the presuppositions and prior expectations set 1962). by (Kuhn their discipline—i.e., their literature that all contemporary western literature can be traced to Old the and template New (Frye Testaments set 1982; by 1990). the Science philosopher ThomasKuhn also denies the representational aspect of scientific literature, arguing that science is observe who investigators like-minded by practised activity socio-cultural a primarily science is first andforemost a itself, as opposed to the material phenomena that purportedly constitute its subject In matters. Frye, works Frye, of literature reflect andrefer to one another through their conventions, a seamless of words,” images, and archetypes genres, so forth. is an Literature “order structure: “The new poem, like is the born new into baby, an already existing order Frye, For (ibid.). it” receive to ready is which poetry, of structure the of typical is and In In nantly self-referential, that it is largely independent of outside factors For (Frye 44). (1960: declares he 1957: itself,” literature to significance in prior is “Nothing 17). that, due to the importance of legends, myths, superstitions and sacred stories, the self-referential (“floatingproperty signifiers”) of language was society. society than it is today in our largely secularized oral transmissions, but their mysticism did not always correspond woof of everyday existence. In animistic societies, each blade of grass is deemed to be host to a spirit or again deity, making dubious the validity of assertion Poster’s that “symbolic correspondence” characterizes oral One society. might even suggest poetry depicting the intervention in human affairs of the gods ofMount Olympus did not correspond (we now think) life Testaments,in likewise, ancient were inscribedTheGreece. Old from andNew Undoubtedly Undoubtedly Poster is correct that some communication sponds to in the immediate oral circumstances cultures of the corre communicators. But it is that also much trueof oral communication in tribal societies is/was devoted to histories and recounting myths which set the ontological framework for everyday life. Homer’s diachronic and synchronic linkages (Wernick 1999: 265). linkages (Wernick and synchronic diachronic Linguistic transformation? spondence to representation and, finally, to self-referentiality. For Innis, by contrast, contrast, by Innis, For self-referentiality. to finally, and, representation to spondence between tension or balance the alter to is evolution media of consequence major the between space, over control vs. time through control between change, and continuity the only we “reality” now know is of the order of language. Innis would never re duce reality to language, although he certainly emphasizes the bidirectional impact between language practices and material proposes conditions. that Poster the major consequence of media evolution is to transform language—from symbolic corre interest interest is in the role of various media in constituting the organization of Furthermore, Poster contrasts language and action, Poster, and For era. mediated electronically present, our maintains comprehending to key is change that linguistic Despite Despite such commonalities, important distinctions and cleavages between Poster is far and more interested Innis are than manifest. Innis in Poster the “constitution” or the “structuring” of - - - - today increasingly today increasingly While this feature of language is always present in its use, present of language is always While this feature process of sustaining cultural meanings. (Poster 1990: 13, emphases added) 1990: meanings. (Poster of sustaining cultural process structure. structure. and the non-linguistic mechanisms of self-referentiality meaning is sustained through in the delicate less of a role playing less and fades into obscurity, thing, the referent, The representational function of language has been placed in question by different by different been placed in question of language has function representational The aspect self-referential the which shift to the forefront patterns each of communicational field … whose power as an intelligible constituted Language [is now] of language.… its internal linguistic but from something else representing from not so much derives

successful is Poster, and other poststructuralists, in avoiding totalizations emanating successful is Poster, from a “transcendental ego”? The following extracts fromPoster’s work speakthemselves: for absolutism of the “grand narrators.” By “connecting one’s theoretical domain to one’s one’s to domain theoretical one’s “connecting By narrators.” “grand the of absolutism sociocultural world or to some aspect of it,” he explains, “one ensures that discourse in one’s does not advance emanate from a transcendental ego” (ibid.). Just how Since an Since consider important the of context feature in poststructuralism which is “to one is theorizing,” the theorist becomes aware of importance of the topic one is choosing to (1989: 7-8). treat” In other words, post and reflects upon “the relative structuralists endeavour to adopt a position of theoretical relativism rather than the reference) far outweigh their differences, thereby rendering the mode of information of mode the rendering thereby differences, their outweigh far reference) itself a totalizing discourse? mode of information, by covering variegated phenomena, obviates “grand the narrative.” But charge do of not the commonalities Poster proposes truth,“reality,” destroying subjects; (decentring communication of modes electronic for the various authenticity and the efficacy of reason; transforming language into a system of self- ties, he claims, each of the electronic media (telegraph, telephone, radio, television, computers, satellites) requires its own detailed, unique exposition. “There is a mul tiplicity of discourses within the mode (1989: of 139). information” The electronic too, is implicated in structuring/concentrating As power. a riposte Poster proposes that by into introducing poststructuralistthe concept of of information” the “mode it rendering poststructuralism, of tendency “totalizing” the lessened has he discourse, (1989: 7). Despite totalization” now importantmerely a commonal “nontotalizing Poststructuralism as a discourse Poststructuralism An obvious criticism is that poststructuralism is itself “a discourse,” and hence it, played by Poster, such as Innis’s historicist concept of time-space bias, that distinguish distinguish that bias, time-space of concept historicist Innis’s as such Poster, by played clearly the electronics era from what preceded it. And the biggest Innis’s? position rather than question: Poster’s What we accede to does it make if difference today, compared to the age of print or of tribal cultures, so as to constitute an entirely entirely an constitute to as so cultures, tribal of or print of age the to compared today, would be no. answer new era. Frye’s A related question concerns whether there may be other factors ignored or down Here Poster agrees that the self-referentiality of language “is always present in its use.” use.” its in present always “is language of self-referentiality the that agrees Poster Here The question is is“self-referentiality” of whether monumentally greater significance Contentions Contentions like these undermine assertion Poster’s that electronics ushered writes: radically new era. Poster in a

TOPIA 16 | 10 TOPIA 16 | 11 - - - - -

5 reason. The art of appropriating the universal was the main business of the was the main business The art the universal of appropriating reason. textual whose collective impressionists master were The philosophes Enlightenment. for a particular of humanity but spoke that 31) social class. (1989: ventriloquized voice epoch of the books on a whole must close we the proletariat to bid farewell As we the class struggle era of the dialectic and politics, the (1990: 130). is not a transcendent unity (1989: 15). Truth The intellectual’s will to power is stashed in his or her text in the form of universal form of universal text in the his or her is stashed in to power will The intellectual’s tively unimportant compared to the linguistic consequences purported to be inherent inherent be to purported consequences linguistic the to compared unimportant tively information must replace the mode of production as the fulcrum for contemporary critical thought and strategy (1989: 106). This position alsoIs deservesownership critical and scrutiny. control of mediarela tion. But with electronics, discourse has superceded property as the primary site of domination. In the postmodern era, the task of critical theorists of mode must the be Hence, them. to subvert and reveal domination, of patterns language-based these 1989: 116). Poster concedes that in the industrial age, Marxist theory, centring on of the ownership means of production, was perhaps adequate to highlight patterns of domina hegemonic in the industrial age, just as Enlightenment writings were counter-he gemonic in the age of faith. For our era, maintains, Poster there needs to be a new critical theory accountable to the changed mode of information; poststructuralism contributes to critical theory today by “raising the question of language” (Poster the movement of revolution by providing a counter-ideology that delegitimizes the ruling (1989: 107). class” Of course critical theory existed long before the arrival of postmodernism and writings, poststructuralism; for Marx’s example, were counter- systems, including scientific knowledge systems, are implicated in power (1989: 26), (1989: power in implicated are systems, knowledge scientific including systems, to redress domination and repression, discourses themselves discourses) must (including be de-authenticated. scientific Thus poststructuralism is the latest advance in critical theory. He characterizes critical theory as an approach seeking “to assist anachronous? knowledge all discourses, all since that first, asserts, He interesting. is riposte Poster’s that poststructuralism undermines the very possibility of political Poster economy. himself states: “Linearity and causality are the spatial and temporal orderings of the now-bypassed modern era” (Poster 1989: 90). How can one do political economy if language is no longer representational, merely self-referential, and if causality is Poster notes Poster that Habermas regards poststructuralism as an essentially conservative, or right wing philosophy (Poster 1989: 28, structuralism abandons the 62). Enlightenment, which for Habermas our present purpose contends implies that post is merely a matter of rhetoric, persuasion, presentation. We is pursue merely a this matter point of in rhetoric, the persuasion, We presentation. next section. economy and political Poststructuralism formation in the electronic age given his main argument that language is now self- logic that proposes also Poster representation. for capacity its lost has and referential no have place in and our reason era, which indicates his position is not debatable: it It It is surprising that Poster makes truth claims for his position on the mode of in - - - - within post close debate relevance relevance of political economy in the ” (Poster 1990: 59, emphasis added). From a increasing increasing That is all is enabled to construct media simulations, why and how are Who assurance of reason to contain meaning, and the confidence in the ability of logical assurance of reason argument to determine the truth…. mediation of communication in The electronic performative, and the rhetorical, figurative, the postmodern lifeworld brings to the fore of language. (1990: 10) features self-reflexive and as a consequence social life in part becomes a practice of positioning subjects to 1990: 15) messages. (Poster and interpret receive model of language, the representational of signs upsets the This self-referentiality In the [electronic] mode of information it becomes increasingly difficult, or even difficult, or mode of information it becomes increasingly the [electronic] In of signifiers the flow existing “behind” pointless, for the subject to distinguish a “real”

and others with communicatory power will have won the Lippmann day. claimed that political/economic power accrues to those who can construct believable “pseu poststructuralism negates the Poster’s doenvironments.” very possibility of critique; can get: as we as real are pseudoenvironments reflexivity and his ostensible concern for the marginalized), structuralist frameworks through the presumption that hyper-reality is there is” “all (to paraphrase the Lee old song), Peggy advertisers, PR professionals, propagandists they so enabled? What is the nature of these simulations, and whose interests do they do interests whose and simulations, these of nature the is What enabled? so they promote? What aspects of material reality are obfuscated through this approach to reality material address fruitfully cannot we that claims Poster course Of simulation? at all. But once we, in effect (and professed givenPoster’s ironically, promotion of the phenomena of simulations, self-referentiality, hyper-realities and simulacra ad dressed by Poster all point to the electronics age. Similar Similar questions can be raised pertaining discourse to on Poster’s surveillance and lead the Following age. electronics the in information” of “mode his of aspects other analyses of pseudoenvironments (Lippmann 1921), Lippmann’s Walter by provided linked to romance in the commercial for the purpose of increasing the product’s ex linked to in romance the for commercial the purpose of the increasing product’s economic/media the of account on this does wax floor of purveyor the value; change environment in which it operates. Viewers participate in a language system that is consequences. rife with political economic causes and psychological, but linguistic: the TV viewer participates in a communication, is part is communication, a in participates viewer TV the linguistic: but psychological, of a new language system. analysis is political naive economy in perspective, the Poster’s extreme. Floor wax is Regarding the Johnson’s floor waxPoster commercial, argues thatRegarding the linkingJohnson’s floor wax and romance means that “the commodity has been given a semiotic distinct value from that and is indeed out of phase with its use value He continues: and “The socialits effect ofexchange thevalue.” ad (floor wax/romance) notis economic or for advertising or that, if so used, those Surely issues are better its understood by Poster. drawing on analyses concerning ads take on the characteristics outlined by and commodification. control ownership, he makes much of television advertising’s imputation of nonsensical properties to products as an instance in which language loses referentiality in the electronic age. Thereis nothing inherentin the technology of television thatrequires it to be used in new media? (One recalls here the dictum of the anti-political economist, Marshall Marshall economist, anti-political the of dictum the here recalls (One media? new in position 2000: 305-06). (Babe Poster’s medium is the message” that “the McLuhan, hinges on an affirmative answer, but his evidence is unconvincing. For example,

TOPIA 16 | 12 TOPIA 16 | 13 ------at the centre of his analysis (Watson Intellectually, the university, said the Innis, university, Intellectually, consti 6 and their biases Satan declares: “The mind is its own place, and in itself can can itself in and place, own its is mind “The declares: Satan Paradise Lost, Paradise conditioned. He called these thoughts Innis and made practices an impor “biases.” spontaneous and that human beings (including social scientists) often act on the basis the on act often scientists) social (including beings human that and spontaneous of ingrained behavioural patterns involving thought,Innisunreflexive responded to Urwick by recognizing that these thoughts and practices are themselves structurally the unpredictable subject of social behaviour. “Life,” according to Urwick, “...moves “...moves Urwick, to according “Life,” behaviour. social of subject unpredictable the by its own immanent force, into an unknowable future” (Urwick 1935: 76). Innis challenged both the belief that human behaviour is ultimately rejection Urwick’s of unpredictable the scientificand project. While agreeing that much behaviour is the result of the inherent unpredictability of the thoughts and actions of tendencies. subjectivist with basically infused is scientist social The beings. human free-willed Hence, no human being could truly be objective while examining and interpreting per called “The Role of Intelligence” (Innis 1935). It was prepared in response to an in It was prepared 1935). (Innis Intelligence” Roleper ofcalled “The suitable not was paradigm science natural the that argued who Urwick J. E. by article for the social scientist because, unlike the natural world, the social world is inher ently unpredictable and ever-changing. This state of affairs, said Urwick, is largely Following Following his classical studies contemporaries, Innis sought to investigate by placing those history interpreting it pa pre-communications-studies a in appears first bias of concept Innis’s 291). 2006: forge an inherently reflexive social scienceby developing a political economic of bias is prominent. in which the concept proach ap Bias developing developing a self-reflexive mindset. (Innis totalitarianism” of flood the by surrounded island dwindling and small “a tutes 1946: 73). In this communications context studies Innis’s constitute an attempt to modernist social science, including political is economy, anathema to this project, because the author invariably assumes a position of omniscience, a totalitarian (“to talizing”) posture. Innis, on the other hand, never gives up on the Enlightenment project and, ironically perhaps, came to view classicism as the starting point for a recognition of necessary self-reflexivity, on the dependence of knowledge on context” (1995: 74). both, For a method its is needed to critically authorial assess “the Poster, For 75). (1995: develops” she or he categories the and theorist the of position Harold Innis For capacities. reflexive developing of goal the to dedicated both are Innis and Poster both, in the words of “the Poster, problem of communication theory begins with In Milton’s Milton’s In make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of it For Heav’n.” Poster, is discourse, rhetoric and power. this awesome performance information that have mode of the electronic in truth as their best defences. relegates Poster these to the dung heap of anachronous curiosities. Wide acceptance of poststructuralism would be a boon for professional persuaders and propagandists. tive tive ploys to persuade? Professional communicators, of course. Who is better able to hire the services of media professionals than the wealthy? such as Marginalized environmentalists may draw on reason, logic, data, evidence groups and a quest for In In statements poststructuralism, like despite these, its Poster’s concern for the mar ginalized, buttresses existing power and further marginalizes performa dissent. and figurative use to Who pseudoenvironments, concoct or perform to situated is best - - - - 7 decentring uses of the Internet later demonstrated, could lead to lead could demonstrated, later Internet the of uses decentring and

pre-modern emphasis on tension and balance. While Innis emphasized the dialectics the emphasized Innis While balance. and tension on emphasis pre-modern modernist Poster’s contexts, holistic and ecological in limits its and action human of communities. bias asserts his focus on individuals and marginalized itself through focused on the balance or imbalance of a given society’s constituent biases. In a way, way, a In biases. constituent society’s given a of imbalance or balance the on focused ironically media electronic related and Internet the to relative hopes political Poster’s Innis’s to opposed as scientist social modernist the of sentiments progressive the reflect as both centring both as a general and systemically replicating neglect of time. Rather than assessing a given medium as itself enabling or disabling some ways of thinking and acting Innis relative to identities), liberated and cultures decentred of affiliation Poster’s with (as others For Innis, holistic, historical and dialectical ruminations produced a pessimistic out pessimistic a produced ruminations dialectical and historical holistic, Innis, For look when assessing the age of electronic communications. Efforts to control space, normalized normalized through various media. Because bias can never be assessed in isolation from the historical, dialectical whole, the deleterious implications for the temporal conditions of life—for collective memory, for sustainable practices, for primary political concern. long-term considerations—constituted Innis’s (i.e., “market share”) interests of corporations and, in some cases, states. As for such, Innis, contemporary political economic relations are largely sustained through the widening and deepening of historically-structured biases relations individualist and gratification immediate the applications, commercial of case involving, in the tegic application tends to weaken inter-related capacities concerning time (involving (involving time concerning capacities inter-related weaken to tends application tegic assessed be can Internet, the now and television, Radio, sustainability). and duration as technologies that, for the most part, have been structured to serve the spatial stem directly or solely from the medium itself but, rather, it is the outcome of how a how of outcome the is it rather, but, itself medium the from solely or directly stem medium or given complex of media agents. is structured and already-biased used by organization institution, medium—an given a modernity, capitalist of context the In stra their generally but territory, or space over control facilitate technology—may or Biases Biases are organizational and conceptual orientations most not does Bias space. and generally time existence: human of indices fundamental expressed two of terms in rather than an essential source of critical questions. This viewpoint compelled him do Broeke—why we attend to pursue the Ten question posed by philosopher James to the things to which we attend?—and bias was the primary in response. developed heuristic tool Innis and their subsequent implications for the state of knowledge. and their subsequent Alarmed by the rapid growth of specialization in social science in the 1930s, Innis was concerned that the university was becoming the arbiter of instant solutions practices—Innis understood that the social scientist can develop a needed self-aware needed a develop can scientist social the that understood practices—Innis could scientist social the that thought Innis mediators, key these identifying By ness. take preliminary steps in the task of redressing the influences of his/herown biases Here Here the framework is established for the development of bias Innis’s of commu nication. By examining how day-to-day lives are institutions—how mediated key nodal by points of organizations social-economic power and affect thoughts and tant assertion: while objectivity is impossible, the social scientist analytical tools needed can to become aware of develop his/her own subjectivities, how they the are again and again. unconsciously expressed they are and why constructed and how

TOPIA 16 | 14 TOPIA 16 | 15 - - information is processed. Ideas how reflexive.Poster neglects to mention that un 8 scholarship also. a Culturally, monopoly of knowledge refers to about what is realistic and unrealistic, imaginable and unimaginable are generated wealth wealth is a primary determinant of who gets what information, those with financial resources tend to dominate. political Such economic dimensions are not, of course, encompass they power of points nodal other among activities; media mass to limited Structurally, Structurally, a monopoly of knowledge implies production, distribution and powerful uses of information. In forces a capitalist market at system, in work to access peripheryand policy the at placed been has servicemodel public the in which the of information and experiences in his writings are remarkably under theorized. He what determining in involved processes and structures forces, the address to neglects assessed contrast, in Innis, influential. and available are experiences and information of knowledge. as aspects of the monopolization these directly, subjective subjective rather than inter-subjective interpretations. In methodological Poster’s individualism, back-and-forth informing the mode of information, technological and determinism implicit informing the cognitive processes used to make sense organizations and technologies, his work classical empiricism and is contemporary positivism more that through arguing by his Innis beyond application significantlywell thought of Enlightenment of critique bias. his delineatedtakes Poster from realities (through the structural pervasiveness of are ICTs) being liberated through Information and Knowledge Information Although Innis affirms the efficacy of material reality, at least in termscally structured of histori relationships mediated by constructed but changing institutions, laden conditions (and for Innis media) maintaining shared truths or, to borrow from from borrow to or, truths shared maintaining media) Innis for (and conditions laden Gramsci, common sense (and sometimes hegemonic) realities are under-theorized or ignored. electronics-based electronics-based mode opens up prospectively independent interpretations. From print enabling “the liberal humanist subject” to electronic facilitation media’s of a structural, power- historical, the 4), 2003: (Poster subject self-reflexive prospectively general sanguinity and his emphasis on ideas rather than of material relations. For Poster, information is directly related to knowledge. What one knows of and identity meaning is transcribed through experience or an while readers on discourse dominant a imposes information of mode print-based autonomously constructed. A are] are] decentralized, multicultural, and increasingly Innis globalized…” to compared 13), (Poster 2003: 144; 2003: (2001: optimist an not 2). is he says Poster Although and other political economists, his work is relatively idealist, in terms of both his tions concerning modes of information. Innis, in contrast, is more concerned with how intellectual capabilities are historically structured. In an interview conducted in 2003, Poster argues that consciousness in becoming the “especially fluid,” in part as emerging aresult postmodern of“sites ornodes world ofresistance is [that the capacity to understand biases (including one’s own) entails an assessment of how, how, of assessment an entails own) one’s (including biases understand to capacity the in any particular place and time, human relationships have been structured. Poster generaliza of context the in opportunities and meanings language-related on focuses For For Innis, time/space biases facilitated by media always emerge context or of historically-structured decline power in relations. poststructuralist Poster’s faith the in discourse is, in comparison, relatively ------) was not the formula the not was ) 10 and modernity’s pernicious neglect and modernity’s 9 cultural cultural norms. Such norms are rife with po

it installs a new regime of relations between human and matter and between matter human and matter and between between of relations it installs a new regime and thereby relation of technology to culture the reconfiguring and non-matter, in the past, a discourse developed— within which, undermining the standpoint from (2001: 100) to be natural—about the effects of technology. one that appeared foreshortening of practical prevision in the field of human action—has penetrated the in the field of human action—has penetrated prevision of practical foreshortening 1952: vi.) (Innis policy. of public most vulnerable areas Intellectual man of the nineteenth century man of the nineteenth Intellectual absolute nullity in was the first to estimate the as an independent system, complex, and treated insistent, time. The present—real,

Poster, like Poster, Innis, understands a medium as a kind of environment in which some neglects Poster Innis, unlike But retarded. are others while facilitated are capabilities able, fragmented” (77). says Internet, Yet The remains. the capacity, technological to tendency references by buffered although toward totalization through language, technological determinist questions because “resists” Poster, duced to provide his work with the kind of historical (and dare we say “materialist”?) “materialist”?) say we dare (and historical of kind the with work his provide to duced contingency needed to avoid the swamp of idealism. Electronic communication, in gives integrity to the poststructuralist Poster, vision self of as “the multiple, change tions of “linguistic reductionism.” “My effort,” he writes, “in theorizing the mode of mode the theorizing “in writes, he effort,” “My reductionism.” “linguistic of tions information, has been to counteract the textualist tendency linking by poststructur communications…” electronic with it connecting by change, social with theory alist intro were production and exchange information of Technologies 75). 1995: (Poster Media Determinism Both Poster and Innis have been accused of technological emphasis on technological context has been a to response accusa or Poster’s media Ironically, determinism. difficult” (Innis 1951: 31). difficult” flexive thought. For Innis, an exponential growth of information and the individual’s individual’s the and information of growth exponential an Innis, For thought. flexive “humachine” emerging Poster’s in (as it manipulate to ability for a self-reflexive civilization—quite the opposite: “Enormousobserved communication,” Innis, “have made improvements understanding [i.e., reflexivity] more in gies, for Innis, tends to produce tragic results. Addressing the bias enacted through the contemporary mechanization of knowledge of time, Innis would argue that the Internet accelerates the peripheralization of re Following the myth of Prometheus, the application of prospectively freeing technolo freeing prospectively of application the Prometheus, of myth the Following Innis would have considered apocalyptic. considered would have Innis of employers in supporting particular ways of thinking and acting. into oblivion. cannot be theorized use To compulsion of the quotidian” dull Marx’s phrase, “the The same electronic technologies thatPoster views to be prospectively liberating, acceptable/unacceptable acceptable/unacceptable ways of thinking. Poster is processing naive of modes constructed socially negates in electronically mediated munication his claim requirements that the and com system educational the instance, for overlooks, He information. through through structured and mediated litical economic influences and implications. The paucity of dialecticalthinking in thought constitutes one Western importantmainstream instance of culture shaping

TOPIA 16 | 16 TOPIA 16 | 17 ------these communica

…. To ask then about the To …. political step toward this end is not just getting everyone getting just not is end this toward step political

emphases added) effects … are the ways in which it institutes new the ways in which that do not fit social functions, ones effects … are is that problem modern organizations. The easily within those of characteristically the is adopted that does not from become intelligible if a framework new functions can only to modernoutset limit the discussion patterns of determination is to challenge or to risk challenging our existing to democracy of the Internet relation 96-97, as they concern these questions. (2001: and concepts approaches theoretical While there is no doubt that the Internet folds into existing social functions and folds into existing social functions and the Internet is no doubt that While there political cogent as possible long-term far more extends them in new ways … what are civilizations face annihilation when they are overwhelmed by the unchecked and constitute generalizations only. More accurately historically and constructed importantly, and all they are biases structured are into thinking daily as social a interaction result and of complex and sometimes conflicting dynamics. For Innis, whereas whereas space-biased media promote secularism, centralization, impe bureaucracy, rialism and the use of force. As implied earlier, such references to societies being temporally or spatially biased Space-biased Space-biased media, on the other hand, are light and fragile, permitting wide-scale distribution but limiting in their duration over time. These celluloid include paper, and electronic signals. For many, Innis’s writings convey a Time-biased deterministic media pattern. foster hierarchy, decentralization, provinciality and tradition, A typical reading of Innis on the role of communication technology or media goes trans to difficult and durable characteristically are they because this: like something port, time-binding media include the spoken language, parchment and clay, stone. For For Innis, accusations of determinism are also inaccurate, but as a result of his re drive relationships human biased structured, of complex a economy, political flexive not the ping-pong of discourse and technology. history, “online”; instead, “online”; the assumed self-reflexivity of postructuralist thought itself is the “ping” ofThe discourse key. and“pong” of the technology go back and forth, back and forth, counters the other. as one determinant supposedly in decentralizing “the apparatuses of cultural production” opens up the possibility of a more just, heterogeneous and thus, it is assumed, less oppressive world (2001: the importantly, But, 108). of subjectivity. As of explains, Poster subjectivity. “because it changes the space/time configuration of communicating individuals, it changes the social traits of individuals … making different hierarchies out of humanuse potentials”Internet’s the (2001: identity, 147).and meaning around centres Because order contemporary the with the problem through through the auspices of poststructuralism can Internet technologies be used to gen erate postmodern politics. TheInternet is assumed to be a decentring tions system ideally suited for those escaping pre-constituted (modernist) notions In In other words, only by redressing the Western scientific/modernist narrative But wait. Perhaps, for Poster, the Internet environment itself enables human thought thought human enables itself environment Internet the Poster, for Perhaps, wait. But and action—enables liberation to Poster: According among self-constituting, decentred “cyborgs”? to flesh out the power-laden structures shaping a medium’s ongoing history, includ ongoing history, to flesh out structuresthe shaping power-laden a medium’s of its participants.ing the biases ------Innis feared feared Innis

The second reason for our choice of the word “disturbing” directs us to Innis’s larger Innis’s to us directs “disturbing” word the of choice our for reason second The stimu and redress simultaneously can media communication new how with concern late political economic crises. In its implicit promotion which borders, nation-state as such barriers spatial of annihilation the by of stimulated the short term—itself tations of people. But, clearly, the Internet and related technologies are disturbing at disturbing are technologies related and Internet the clearly, But, people. of tations least some established ways of thinking and acting. intensification of state-mediated acts of violence in a sporadic and sensational war on terror that interests is such spatially as everywhere. the Vested labour movement or some domestic corporations, and media such as the book, paper currency or the orien and activities spatial and temporal the influence to continue will nation-state, markets extending to “relationships” with individual consumers; anti-status quo mo quo anti-status consumers; individual with “relationships” to extending markets bilizations in the form of the so-called global multitude contributing to the neglect of ongoing systemic nodal points of power such as labour and the nation-state; an spatial segmentation. For Innis (as for contemporary Marxists like David Harvey), the Internet enables the powerful to extend their reach and control over space and perpetuates a cultural and personal neglect of time. A political or strategic outcome of this has been a deepening emphasis on controlling space: corporate control over cally facilitated bias of the to Internet annihilate both time and space—its tendency to impel people to do much more in less time and with little regard for spatial bar riers—challenges a broad range of vested interests and favour other relatively long-term media memory that or tend decision-making to and/or various modes of through ICTs and complementary as disturbing developments. structures ICTs through the historically and technologi First, for two reasons. “disturbing” use the word We space, its lead role in political the capitalists, distribution on and exchange pressure of systemic electronic forms the of of information, context the in importance its and ers and citizens to make decisions, buy commodities and take part in consumption promoted biases the viewed have would Innis quickly, and efficiently more activities relation relation to other mediating institutions, organizations and technologies. For Innis, shaping mediators structurally-biased many of one just been have would Internet the and time of annihilation its In conceptualized. and organized are space and time how answering questions and toward the task of framing them. the questions and toward answering While Innis died more than fiftyyears ago, we can speculate on how hemight have assessed the Internet. he Surely would have seen its development holistically and in ence, technology and the mechanization of knowledge and, with them, western civi western them, with and, knowledge of mechanization the and technology ence, (Innis 1951: lization” 190). The social scientist/critical theorist mustovercome this institutionalized bias through the re-balancing of scholarly concerns—away the from search for concrete facts and an toward elaboration of abstract ideas; away from phasize” phasize” and “implies” when making references to bias. In what might be read as a 1930s, the from narratives master modernist on assault poststructuralist conditions that of “the freedom of thought are in danger of being destroyed by sci As with emphasis Poster’s on poststructuralism as a method often of Innis’s suggestive mode reflexiveof thought, presentation arguably involves an effort to engage the reader in a kind of dialogue. Innis always took pains to use words such as “em ongoing ongoing predominance of either time or their space tragically, and, biases dominance their of by media very the vested by biased (or themselves are class) who interests liberation. prospective

TOPIA 16 | 18 TOPIA 16 | 19 - - - - Topia. Jody Berland, for inviting these contributions, and to col editor, Topia’s 1. He writes: “Language is not simply a tool for expression; it is also a structure that 1989: defines the limits of communication and shapes the subjects who speak” (Poster 128). Notes Many thanks to seldom if ever referred to by such Poster, as and, Bourdieu Raymond Pierre Mattelart, Armand School, Williams, Birmingham the of members other Stuart Hall and Innis. of course, Harold One One fecund way of pursuing this integration would be to pursue technology the and question knowledge in of the works of theorists explicitly dismissed by Poster for being “totalizing”—Habermas, Schiller and Adorno, for example—and others Fortunately, this column would series affirm need not conclude on a dour We note. Fortunately, with all possible emphasis that there are ample cal economy opportunitiesand cultural studies, to some of which integrate have been explored politi in this series. studies, as exemplified by Poster. The inconsistencies between political economy and economy political between inconsistencies The Poster. by exemplified as studies, from moving on insistence Poster’s to level, one at attributable, are poststructuralism action to language, and to his persistent claim that the link between language and is severed. material reality economy and cultural studies. At this juncture we would seem to have arrived at an impasse: despite surface similarities, there are fundamental inconsistencies between political economy (as practised by Innis, for example) and poststructuralist cultural Economy? Cultural Studies and/or Political From the outset, these columns have investigated intersections between political “opening “opening a path of critique and possibly new politics” (Poster 2001: 103), probably appear would to centralize power by fetishizing the individual and universalizing time. way of organizing and conceptualizing the short-term as the predominant tity and meaning as itself a kind of medium—an academic discourse whose structure structure whose discourse academic medium—an of kind a itself as meaning and tity perpetuates the modernist myth of progress and the ascendant neoliberal meta-nar rative. For Innis, electronic technologies and poststructuralist discourses, far from the here-and-now. of complex a to relation in technologies electronic new examine only not would Innis mediating dynamics, he would view the poststructuralist preoccupation with iden political economic investors crises. Transnational respond to market with “signals” sellers of demands the with up keep to fail consumers selling, panic of acts spasmodic to buy more commodities more often, and the environmental crisis reaches a point of no return while cultures around the world become increasingly concerned with enemy, the immediate enemy, need desires to through satisfy consumerism, one’s or public policies concerning social services, the Internet and the general commoditization of deepening for stage the set have efficiency and speed on placed value the and culture could be used to “buy time” for a culture, an economy, or a government—we already already government—we a or economy, an culture, a for time” “buy to used be could appear to be experiencing crisis-deepening trends. These involve the rapid erosion of the time to make decisions. Whether such decisions involve the bombing of an trust we will soon meet again in the pages of leagues for their comments. We ------Canadian Communication Thought: Ten Foundational Writers. Foundational Writers. Canadian Communication Thought: Ten

dimensions of main column directly explores political economic Topia in the 1970s were feminism, gay liberation, The focuses of protest writings—as by Foucault’s prison reform—the groups addressed antipsychiatry, margins of to capitalism which were equally at the well as other challenges protest; of production (racial, ethnic, and regional the theory of the mode argues ecologists; and so forth). Thus poststructuralism antinuclear movements; in question the centering of critical for a plurality of radical critiques, placing 1989: 106) theory in its proletarian site. (Poster have made efforts to redefine human subjectivity in the current context by You the somewhat awkward locution “network digital information humachines.” characterize such “humachines” in a threefold manner: (1) as evolving and You unavoidable; (2) as dangerous to yet at the same time resources for power; and 2003: 2) (3) as sites or nodes of resistance…. (Poster from old to escape It is difficult run deep. analysis of social The habits patterns, from the long-heldconceptual of society that in the field assumption of established the contours The theorists who priority over language. action has Emile Durkheim— more ambiguously and society—Marx, Weber, the study of 89: 126) 19 language. (Poster to action over all gave precedence

mercial and administrative interests. concept of the “humachine” as fol Murray summarizes Poster’s 10. Interviewer Stuart J. 1989: 4). (Poster posed of linguistic phenomena” differs from argues that Innis specifically, not addressing Poster 4. Jody Berland, although not focus on representa in two major respects: first, Innis does postmodernist positions approach (Ber and second, he employs a more materialist tions as do postmodernists, postructuralists, and is more “materialist” than most above, Poster land 1999). As noted apply to poststructuralism generally. between Innis and Poster hence contradictions dialogues, preserved the by transcribing 6. Innis preferred Plato to Aristotle. The former, “opposed the establishment of a finished oral dialectic in the written form and thereby a “totalization.” Innis added that Plato would term Poster system of dogma”—what books and refused to be bound by what he “would not surrender his freedom to his own to Innis, “in Aristotle the power of (Innis 1972: 57). By contrast, according had written” a source of confusion…. The dead hand the spoken word declined sharply and became (Innis 1971: 57; man” the spirit of Western of the written tradition threatened to destroy Charron 1999). cf. Innis, “provides the basis for scientific investiga 7. “[T]he sediment of experience,” writes permit prediction are reinforced in and “the habits or biases of individuals which tion” [or should constitute] the chief interest the cumulative bias of institutions and constitute of the social scientist” (Innis 1935: 284). 8. The previous References Babe, Robert E. 2000. lows: 5. the rela materially affects ways in which language point to various 3. “Poststructuralists 2. the United States (Babe 2006). stream media/communication research in of knowledge” as shorthand for the growth 9. Innis generally used “the mechanization normalization of acritical, unreflexive of information (“useful facts”) and the concomitant “knowledge”) driven forward by mostly com intellectual pursuits (“useless,” unreflexive Press. University of Toronto Toronto: the social field is com his or her discourse and the ways in which tion of the theorist to

TOPIA 16 | 20 TOPIA 16 | 21 - Ithaca: Chicago: Harold . Toronto: Explorations . In Topia: Canadian Canadian Topia: Canadian Journal Canadian Journal of Charles R. Acland and W.

Charles R. , edited by Harold Innis in the New Harold Innis , 2nd ed. Chicago: University Princeton Univer Princeton, NJ: Press of The Academic Toronto:

Press. Ryerson Toronto: . Anatomy of Criticism , edited by revised by Mary Q. Innis. Toronto: Press. University of Toronto Toronto: Press. University of Toronto . Toronto: Macmillan. New York: . Amsterdam: G&B Arts International. Press. . Cambridge: Polity Buxton, 309-21. Acland and W. , edited by Charles R. 1 (February). Marginal Man: The Dark Vision of Harold Innis Marginal Man: 1 (August). 15:91-101. Public Opinion. Opinion. Public Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays Anatomy of Criticism: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Empire & Communications, Cultural theory and Poststructuralism: In Search of a Context. Cultural theory and Poststructuralism: Boston: Beacon and Marshall McLuhan. , edited by Edmund Carpenter 14 (Fall/Winter). The Information Subject The Mode of Information: Poststructuralism and Social Context. Poststructuralism The Mode of Information: The Second Media Age The Bias of Communication Changing Concepts of Time. Words With Power: Being a Second study of “The Bible and Literature.” With Power: Words Economy and the Modern State. Political The Great Code: The Bible and Literature. The Great Code: The Qui Parle Harold Innis in the New Century: Reflections in the New Century: Harold Innis and Refractions of Chicago Press. 1921. Lippmann, Walter. Mark. 1989. Poster, Press. University of Toronto 1962. Thomas. Kuhn, ———. 2001. Humachines: A Conversation with Mark ———. 2003. Network Digital Information Poster. Penguin. Toronto: Notes. Some Further Innis, Harold. 1935. The Role of Intelligence: ———. 1951. ———. 1952. ———. [1950] 1972. The University of Chicago Press. ———. 1995. Innis in the New Century: Reflections and Refractions of Economics and Political Science of Economics and Political Alexander John. 2006. Watson, ———. 1946. Economics and Political Science Economics and Political University Press. McGill-Queen’s Montreal & Kingston: Northrop. 1957. Frye, Canada. ———. 1990. in Communication Press. ———. 1982. Century: Reflections and Refractions and Postmodernism.” Studies Cultural Economy, 2006. “Political ———. Studies Journal of Cultural Cornell University Press. ———. 1990. Innis. Colonial Space after Critical Theory and Space at the Margins: 1999. Berland, Jody. In sity Press. Excerpt from of Poetry. ———. 1960. The Language University Press. Buxton, 261-80. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s Press. University McGill-Queen’s 8. Montreal & Kingston: Buxton, 281-30 W. Acland and In Innis’s Works. Themes in 1999. Postmodern Charron, Ray. Press. University of Toronto In Sense, and Postmodernity. Innis, Time 1999. No Future: Andrew. Wernick, Process. 1935. The Role of Intelligence in the Social Urwick, Edward J.