Blog Post Assignment #2
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CS 400 U Fall 2024 Bog Post Assignment 1
"Lana del Rey knows, Lana del Rey sees, and most importantly, Lana del Rey understands."
2.)
ReplyDeleteHarold Innis' analysis of medium theories can relate to the film Pontypool in terms of time-biased and space-biased media. In Pontypool, the medium of radio plays a central role in how information and disinformation spreads. This ties to Innis' concept that media forms can control how societies perceive reality and how power is maintained. In Pontypool, the space-biased medium of radio transmits an infectious form of communication, turning from symbols of connection into vectors of destruction. Innis talks about the dangers of communication systems that lead to societal breakdowns, much like the collapse of ancient empires that overemphasized one form of media.
The media forms in Pontypool are contemporary extensions of oral communication:
Radio → allows for real-time/one-to-many communication across large distances. Grant Mazzy uses his voice to reach listeners, amplifying traditional orality by broadcasting spoken words across time and space. Radio helps spread the virus because it transmits the infected words beyond people’s immediate surroundings.
Telephone → a more personal form of communication, becomes a medium through which the virus is transmitted from speaker to listener. The infection occurs from the meaning and understanding of language, which relates to how orality depends on shared understanding in conversation.
Electronic amplification → allows the human voice to reach larger audiences in real time. However, amplification can also become a vector for the uncontrollable transmission of language-based infection.
These technologies represent extensions of orality, where voice and sound maintain primacy, but their socio-technical affordances magnify the reach and scale of oral communication. This aligns with Innis' theories of media, where modern technology extends communication but introduces risks when technology becomes uncontrollable or overly dominant.