Philosophy of Media Course

Philosophy. Study the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence.

COVID-19 update: arrangement of our courses

We are now delivering courses online and in-person. Please check the delivery format of each class before enrolling.

Please note that course materials (excluding prescribed texts) are shared electronically within 48 hours of course commencement. Printing is not available.

Join us for this ten-week philosophy of media course, as we analyse the concept of ‘media’ and its definition. We will explore the types of ‘media’ from the invention of writing, through print media to telephone, radio, television, and finally the internet.

During this course, we will focus on key philosopher Marshall McLuhan, who is considered by many to be the inventor of media philosophy in its contemporary sense. McLuhan was a visionary in his ideas of how communications would revolutionise the 20th century and beyond. McLuhan’s most famous phrase ‘the medium is the message’ became the catalyst for the media studies industry. We will also consider his revolutionary idea, that the information machine is producing a ‘global village’ which alters our sense of space and time.

The relationship between the human brain and media technologies will also be debated. Nicholas G. Carr’s book The Shallows (2010) is an example of this approach. We will also explore a range of philosophers and neurobiologists on this topic.

Throughout the course, the political and economic impacts of media technologies will be never far from our analysis. There is much new scholarship in this field, for example Tom Wheeler’s new book From Gutenberg to Google (2019).

The course will take both a continental and analytic approach to the issues facing contemporary social media, such as the use of Facebook and Twitter.

Aims

Our aim is that you will leave this course with a historical perspective on the media and the capability to discuss and debate current and future implications of the information revolution.

Outcomes

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• describe what it means to be human in relation to the media technologies we use
• describe the history and evolution of media technologies, and their impact human society
• describe the connection between us and media technology, and its effects on the human brain
• consider the future possible impact of technology on social, political and economic life
• consider the ethical implications of the information revolution.

Content

What is ‘media’?

We will introduce this concept and evaluate the elements that make a form of communication into a ‘media’. For example, what is the difference between a personal conversation and a formal speech designed for a mass audience?

Socrates to social media

We will review types of ‘media’ from the invention of writing through to print media, telephone, radio and finally the internet. The focus will be on the way the medium changes the reception of the message. The impact of social media on both private communications and political reality will be introduced here, and then considered in more depth later in the course.

Marshall McLuhan

McLuhan is considered by many to be the inventor of media philosophy in its contemporary sense. He was a visionary in his ideas of how communications would revolutionise the 20th century and beyond. The ‘medium is the message’ is McLuhan’s most famous phrase; in his philosophy it is a multifaceted concept, we will look at it in detail.

McLuhan: The global village

In his book The Global Village: Beyond existing Communication Models (1989), McLuhan coined the term ‘The Global Village’ and predicted some of the issues of the interned before it had even arrived. Quote: “We have extended our central nervous system itself in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned…. the technological simulation of consciousness will be collectively and corporately extended to the whole of human society”.

Neil Postman

Postman wrote extensively in works such as: Amusing Ourselves to Death; Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology (1992). He is much less positive in his approach to the technological revolution than McLuhan. In Technopoly, Postman proposes that humans are surrendering their human judgment to a whole range of media machines.

The production of attention

Different types of media will encourage or discourage emotional affects as a means of gaining audience attention. As every advertising expert knows, something as simple as font style, page layout or color quality, can make the difference in viewer engagement.

The invention of travel consumerism

This week we will focus on a single issue of past media: the invention of the glossy travel magazine. The broader issues here will be the politics of global travel and national identity. Book: The Transported Imagination: Australian Interwar Magazines and Geographical Imaginations of Colonial Modernity (2018).

New technology and the brain

There is much debate on how new medias may be changing the way in which the human brain learns and processes information, we look at a range of these views. One example is Nicholas G. Carr The Shallows (2010).

Social Media: What’s good about the technology revolution?

New types of media have brought many benefits to society, and many more are predicted. We will assess some of these benefits, particularly the impact of social media platforms such as Facebook.

Where to from here?

As one might expect, there is no dearth of future predictions on the next stage of technological developments. We will assess some of these predictions.

Intended audience

Anyone with a general interest in philosophy and the course themes.

Delivery style

Lecture/seminar

Materials

Course notes are distributed electronically.

Recommended reading

Carr, Nicholas G. 2010, The Shallows, Atlantic, GB.

McNulty, T. 2018, Literary Ethics, Revisited: An Analytic Approach to the Reading Process, in New Literary History, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 383-401.

Postman, N. 1992, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, Knopf, New York.

Postman, N. 1985, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Penguin Books, UK.

Wheeler, T. 2019, From Gutenberg to Google: The History of Our Future, Brookings Institution Press, Washington D.C.

Wilkins, L. (ed) and Christians, C.G. (ed) 2020, The Routledge Handbook of Mass Media, Routledge, New York.