Getting connectedThe emergence of the network as

both a computional architecture and a structural logic

Recap week 5

Marshall McLuhan

‘The medium is the message’McLuhan’s argument that it is the characteristics of

a particular medium rather than the information it disseminates which influence and control society.

Soanes, Catherine and Stevenson, Angus (2005). “McLuhan, (Herbert) Marshall” The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Revised 22 March 2010 fromhttp://www.oxfordreference.com.ezproxy2.library.usyd.edu.au/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t140.e45699

Medium characteristics“The characteristics of a particular medium”

What are the characteristics of New Media?

• Manipulated• Networkable• Dense• Compressible• Interactive• Impartial

Flew, Terry(2008). New Media: An Introduction 3rd edn. Oxford University Press.

Network

Structural logic

Network

Structural logicNode

Tie

Flow

Transport network

Electricity network

What network?

Social graph

Six degrees of seperation

Six degrees of seperation

How Kevin Bacon cured cancerhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK1Cb9qj3qQ

Test case

If you look around you how many networks can you locate just in this seminar room?

The Global web

“Human beings experience time in the network society as timeless and

space as placeless.”

Barney, Darin(2004). The Network Society, Polity, Cambridge UK, pp. 26-27

The Global web

“The volume and velocity of communication increased markedly. The number and use of new means of transport and communication exploded with trains, automobiles and aeroplanes, together with telegraphs, telephones, radios, televisions and, finally, computers and networks.”

Van Dijk, Jan (2006). The network society: social aspects of new media, London; Thousand Oaks, California: Sage, pp. 23

The Global web

McLuhan’s Global Village“The globe has been contracted into a village by electric

technology and the instantaneous movement of information from every quarter to every point at the same time. In bringing all social and political functions together in a sudden implosion, electric speed has heightened human awareness of responsibility to an intense degree.”

McLuhan, Marshall(1964). Understanding Media. Gingko Press, 1964, 2003. pp.6

Recent developments

Minister Stephen Conroy of the Department for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy does not consider the internet to be a “special” platform. He compares the internet with older media formats as books, newspapers and films.

Moses, Asher (April 1 2010). Internet's not special, says communications minister Revised 10th April 2010 from http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/internets-not-special-says-communications-minister-20100401-rg7h.html?autostart=1

Discussion

If the characteristics of New Media are manipulated, networkable, dense, compressible, interactive and impartial can Stephen Conroy compare the internet to old media formats?

Discussion

If everything has been interconnected by networks for decades was the internet a simple prediction for Marshall McLuhan?

Thanks.

Any questions?