Group items tagged

each medium embodies a bias in terms of the
organization and control of information.

Time-biased media, such as stone and clay, are durable and
heavy. Since they are difficult to move, they do not encourage territorial
expansion; however, since they have a long life, they do encourage the
extension of empire over time.

Space-biased media are light and portable; they can be transported
over large distances. They are associated with secular and territorial
societies; they facilitate the expansion of empire over space. Paper
is such a medium; it is readily transported, but has a relatively short
lifespan.

It was Innis’ conviction that stable societies were able to achieve a
balance between time- and space-biased communications media.

He also believed
that change came from the margins of society, since people on the margins
invariably developed their own media. The new media allow those on the
periphery to develop and consolidate power, and ultimately to challenge
the authority of the centre.

Oral communication, speech, was considered by Innis to be time-biased
because it requires the relative stability of community for face-to-face
contact. Knowledge passed down orally depends on a lineage of transmission,
often associated with ancestors, and ratified by human contact. In his
writings, Innis is forthright in his own bias that the oral tradition
is inherently more flexible and humanistic than the written tradition,
which he found rigid and impersonal in contrast.