Deck 25: Media Ecology

Question 1

Marshall McLuhan alleged that the invention of ________ fostered the sudden emergence of mathematics, science, and philosophy in ancient Greece.

A) hand signs
B) drawing tools
C) the alphabet
D) the number system

Answer 1

C

Question 2

________ is the study of different personal and social environments created by the use of different communication technologies.

A) Media ecology
B) Community ecology
C) Interaction ecology
D) Social ecology

Answer 2

A

Question 3

According to Marshall McLuhan, which of the following was a crucial invention that changed life on Earth?

A) the number system
B) the phonetic alphabet
C) the spinning wheel
D) the metric system

Answer 3

B

Question 4

McLuhan believed that the course of history was determined by:

A) modes of production.
B) localities of living.
C) changes in technology.
D) conceptions of time.

Question 5

McLuhan claimed that the "primitive" people of the tribal village:

A) had well-developed senses of hearing, touch, taste, and smell.
B) developed deep feeling of community.
C) led richer, more complex lives than their literate descendants.
D) All of the answers are correct.

Question 6

McLuhan's aphorism "The medium is the message" suggests that:

A) the channel is more influential than the content it carries.
B) television is the most effective form of communication ever invented.
C) print culture was superior to the global village.
D) television is a hot medium.

Question 7

According to Marshall McLuhan, a transition from the present age into a complete electronic age will take another ________.

A) 200 years
B) 50 years
C) 100 years
D) 10 years

Question 8

Scholars suggest that we may be in the ________ age, the next epoch in human history.

A) digital
B) Internet
C) multimedia
D) web

Question 9

What is a Faustian bargain?

A) a deal with the devil
B) attributing status to a higher priced technology
C) exchanging one media for another
D) the expectation that the new form of technology will be of greater worth than what it replaces

Question 10

According to Marshall McLuhan, the ________ was the dominant sense organ in humans during the tribal age.

A) eye
B) nose
C) ear
D) tongue

Question 11

The phonetic alphabet transformed the world into a global village.

Question 12

McLuhan was widely accepted academically, but failed to connect with popular thinking.

Question 13

McLuhan felt that the electronic media were retribalizing the human race.

Question 14

The dominant medium of any age shapes its people.

Question 15

McLuhan held that we should focus attention on the everyday experience of technology.

Question 16

According to Marshall McLuhan, the tribal village was a visual place where the sense of vision was developed far beyond the ability to hear.

Question 17

McLuhan proposed that we have entered the digital age.

Question 18

Postman, unlike McLuhan, believed that media ecology should make moral judgments.

Question 19

For Postman, television has cost society more than what it has given the society in return.

Question 20

In the years since his death, McLuhan has achieved a rather rare feat-unanimous approval from the academic community.

Question 21

________ is McLuhan's most notable or memorable aphorism.

Question 22

According to McLuhan, human history is divided into four epochs, with each period marked by ________.

Question 23

A(n) ________, which is referred to as a "deal with the devil," is an exchange that at first seems beneficial but may come at a high price.

Question 24

Outline the principal characteristics of the four ages or epochs featured in McLuhan's history of humanity.

Question 25

Define and critique McLuhan's assertion that the medium is the message.

Question 26

What are the major strengths and weaknesses of McLuhan's theory?

Question 27

How might McLuhan respond to research that suggests that people who spend considerable time online experience higher levels of depression and loneliness than they would if they used the computer network less frequently?

Question 28

Does McLuhan create a romanticized (or perhaps paternalistic) notion of the lives of so-called "primitive" people?

Question 29

Compare McLuhan's approach to the channel (or medium) and the content (or message) of the mass media with the information theory championed by Shannon and Weaver.

Question 30

Could media ecology be considered a theory of public rhetoric?

Question 31

Image a conversation between McLuhan and Walther. How might McLuhan respond to social information processing theory? Conversely, what comments would Walther make in regard to McLuhan's assumptions about technology's negative impact on our social realities?