Media Ecologies

‘Media ecology’ is the term used to describe the fusion of technologies and society. Through the development of societies, we find ourselves in the electronic age, where we can constantly and instantaneously communicate through many mediums and to a seemingly infinite audience. Because of this ability, the function of communication has intertwined itself with the shaping of social ideologies, and various concepts, so prevalent in modern society.

Whether political, business, dietary, or fashion related, ideas can be extrapolated on a larger scale than ever before, reaching people online, through television, radio, or billboards just to name a few, but is this the kind of world we want to live in, and can we avoid it if we tried? The media, to a great extent, is in control of what we know, and in many ways, how we feel about what we know. If we were to deny the media, and the mediums in which it is delivered, it would be at the cost of knowing anything outside of what we witness ourselves. For example, if one was to block all news sources in an attempt to be unaffected by any ideological influences, one would be totally detached from anything happing outside of their own personal experience, which would makes it impossible to be connected to almost any local information, let alone any important international events.

Marshall Mcluhan, a theorist of the electronic age, comments that ‘humans can no longer live in isolation, but rather will always be connected by continuous and instantaneous electronic media.’ This is true, particularly in western or more economically wealthy and capitalistic countries, where there is an abundance of mediums and resources at their disposal. The most obvious example of this is the potency of IOS, and android phones. In a vast majority of Australia’s population, we carry a device that gives us instant access to messages, Facebook, and an incredible amount of news and online entertainment, which undoubtedly influences us in many ways.

Although we understand that media sources shape how we view the world, by limiting and controlling what information, and the angle that information takes, having a controlled, and arguably distorted version of reality, is better than having a sheltered and limited one.