Technological talk is everywhere nowadays. All manner of novel developments, good or ill, are associated with the supposed impact of technology. But when we invoke the term ‘technology’, whether in relation to media or in general, just what do we mean anyway? Do technologies drive human history? Or are technologies just tools, extending deeper social, economic, political or cultural structures? In this introductory episode, we consider different scholarly takes on how we might understand and conceptualise media as technologies. We start with one of the most famous ‘technological’ understandings of media: that of Marshall McLuhan, whose catchphrase ‘the medium is the message’ asserted that the historical or long-term effects of particular mediums were of greater significance than media content. Detractors of this assertion, such as cultural theorist Raymond Williams, argued McLuhan’s brand of ‘technological determinism’ put forward a crude and politically naive way of understanding media culture. As we'll see, though, the most useful position is probably somewhere in-between: of course technologies are cultural; but culture is also inherently technological.
Thinkers discussed: Marshall McLuhan (Understanding Media); Raymond Williams (Television: Technology and Cultural Form); David Edgerton (The Shock of the Old); Ursula Franklin (The Real Life of Technology); Stephen Kline (What Is Technology?); Donna Haraway (The Cyborg Manifesto); Bernard Stiegler (Technics and Time 1); and N. Katharine Hayles (How We Think); Michael Litwack (Extensions after Man: Race, Counter/Insurgency and the Futures of Media Theory).
The Mediated City 09 (Re-release): Platform Urbanism
The Mediated City 08 (Re-release): Networked Location
The Mediated City 07: Urban Brandscapes
The Mediated City 06: Street Arts
The Mediated City 05 (Re-release): Media Architectures
The Mediated City 04 (Re-release): Urban Soundtracks
The Mediated City 03 (Re-release): Suburban Screens
The Mediated City 02 (Re-release): Print Urbanism
The Mediated City 01 (Re-release): Surfaces, Depths, Fragments, Publics
The Mediated City 09: Platform Urbanism
The Mediated City 08: Networked Location
The Mediated City: Observing the Digital Picket
The Mediated City 05: Media Architectures
The Mediated City 04: Urban Soundtracks
The Mediated City 03: Suburban Screens
The Mediated City 02: Print Urbanism
The Mediated City 01: Surfaces, Depths, Fragments, Publics
Media, Technology and Culture 10 (2nd Edition): Extractive Technologies
Media, Technology and Culture 09 (2nd Edition): Algorithmic Technologies
Media, Technology and Culture 08 (2nd Edition): Participatory Technologies
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West
Voices of Misery Podcast
House of Whimsical Terror
Just Dumb Enough Podcast
Stuff You Should Know
Timcast IRL