Tag Archives: affordances

Lectorials, Media 1

Medium theory and technological determinism

In today’s Lectorial the concept of medium theory was introduced, as well as the role technology has to play in wider social and cultural development.

Medium theory is the study of particular types of media, and the way they differ (physically, psychologically and culturally) from other types of media. To me it seems related to the idea of media affordances, but on a much broader and more philosophical level. There are three main metaphors that are used to answer the question “what is media?”:

  1. Media as conduit, otherwise known as textual analysis (i.e. media contains codes and messages that can be decoded and analysed)
  2. Media as language (i.e. particular forms of media have a unique language and grammar)
  3. Media as environment (i.e. the analysis of media without regard for content [textual analysis] or grammar [affordances])

Technological determinism is the idea that shifts in society and culture are caused by technological advancements. This theory contrasts with an instrumental approach, which says that a society develops and uses the technology it needs as it needs them.

I can see how technological determinism might be an attractive theory in consideration of the industrial revolution, when advancements in manufacturing, transport and communication revolutionised many aspects of society and brought with them large-scale changes to the way society is organised in a relatively short time (i.e. modernity). But is it still applicable today, where the pace of development has greatly accelerated and is more or less continuous?

I remember before the iPhone came out – the mobile web was still in its infancy (text-only WAP browsers), and apps were basically not a thing. There was a strange year-long period there where you could actually SMS questions to a service and some person in an office somewhere would research the answer for you and send it back. Weird times. Did the introduction of the iPhone, arguably the most significant technological advancement so far this century, cause the rapid improvement of the mobile web, a shift to the app economy, and related developments? Or is it that there was an invisible, unarticulated demand for these things, and the iPhone just happened to be the first device that managed to satisfy that demand? It’s probably an impossible question to answer, which is what makes gauging the validity of technological determinism difficult.

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Lectorials, Media 1

Affordances

Affordances: the specific and unique attributes or functions of a medium.

It’s interesting to think about what makes a particular medium suited for some stories but not others. In this week’s lectorial we discussed how sound has a particular set of attributes because sound reception is a psychological process interpreting physical vibrations:

  1. Sound is physical – you feel it (e.g. low sounds can make you uncomfortable)
  2. It provides precise spatial and directional information
  3. It can be a very intimate form of communication – because you feel it can communicate very delicate personal information (e.g. whisper)
  4. Often portable – you can be doing other things while listening to sound

This got me thinking about what the affordances of other media might be.

Podcasts

  1. Use sound’s intimacy to tell human stories – it’s right in your ear
  2. Portable, can be used when driving or doing housework etc. (This could also be a weakness as it allows for a less attentive audience.)
  3. Major weakness is that it can’t use visual accompaniment in any way

Live television

  1. A shared experience between communities, either in the studio audience or in society at large (e.g. event television)
  2. Allows for “wow” moments, unplanned or surprise experiences
  3. At the mercy of the live participants, so resulting quality can be inconsistent

Long-form magazine articles

  1. Can use (and edit) quotes to steer a reader’s point of view to the story
  2. Text can compensate for low quality audio recording, as the legibility of the speaker isn’t an issue
  3. Allows deep focus – reading an article is the only activity that can be done at that time

Comedy/spoken word performance

  1. Like a written story but speaker can use cadence and emphasis to add colour
  2. Live audience feedback is contagious and concentrates reactions

There are obviously many, many more affordances that could be listed for these and other media, and hopefully we get a chance to work with some of these types of content in future workshops.

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