Harold Innis "The Bias of Communications

Impact of technologies on societies

"A medium of communication has an important influence on the dissemination of knowledge over space and time and it becomes necessary to study its characteristics in order to appraise its influence in its cultural setting."

Innis - study of success or failure of "empires" (power structures) dominated by economic considerations.

"Obsession with economic considerations illustrates the dangers of monopolies of knowledge and suggests the necessity of appraising its limitations."

Innis alternative - role of communication media in the organisation and administration of various social formations.

Innis - particularly concerned with communication media "bias" towards space administration, and/or the temporal survival of structures of power.

Material form of communication media connected with the ability of social formations (such as empires) to survive via force and ideology

Raymond Williams perspective - media as practices responding to the dominant tendencies of societies

"Technology is a social construct and serves the prevailing system of social power, though it often contributes to changes in the organization and distribution of that power".

Innis - the most critical factor in society is how means of communication create a framework of limits and boundaries within which social power (as well as modes of cognition) operate.

For Innis, social power was measured along two axes - space and time.

Media types:

Durable but difficult to transport (religious groups) Less Durable - easy to transport (political groups)

Innis society as an organism comprised of institutions (politics, religion, law, economics). Lifeblood (connection between institutions) is the movement of information.

Information allows the pattern to connect.

"We can perhaps assume that the use of a medium of communications over a long period will to some extent determine the character of knowledge to be communicated and suggest that its pervasive influence will eventually create a civilisation in which life and flexibility will become exceedingly difficult to maintain and that the advantage of a new medium will become such as to lead to the emergence of a new civilisation."

Mono-bias societies inherently unstable. Multibias societies more likely to experience stability - provide environment for creative and cultural innovations.

Thus rise and fail of empires is studied by Innis from the viewpoint of communication technology

Introduction of a new medium threatens the established relationships/patterns and provides a range of possibilities for new ones.

'The bureaucratic development of the Roman Empire and success in solving problems of administration over vast areas were dependent on supplies of papyrus. The bias of this medium became apparent in the monopoly of bureaucracy and its inability to find a satisfactory solution to the problems of the third dimension of empires. namely time. A new medium emerged to meet the limitations of papyrus. The handicaps of the fragile papyrus roll were offset by the durable parchment codex. With the latter the Christians were able to make effective use of the large Hebrew scriptures and to build up a corpus of Christian writings.'

Relationship between papyrus and the success of the Roman empire Success of Christianity was consequent on the emergence of parchment.

Groups holding a monopoly on information in any given society were placed in a powerful position.

Ergo any technologies which undermined that monopoly would lead to a change in political power.

Post-Gutenberg publication of the scriptures in the vernacular - Protestantism and Reformation.

"By the end of the sixteenth century the flexibility of the alphabet and printing had contributed to the growth of diverse vernacular literatures and had provided a basis for divisive nationalism in Europe."

Printing press - public opinion, democracy in Europe.