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Example research essay topic: Played An Important Time And Space - 1,628 words

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... researches were based on three main questions. The scientist intended to show how specific technologies operate and their contribution to a society. Harold Innis examine the influence of the media on different forms of power. The development of communication media was pointed as a key to social changes. Innis proved that media gave an opportunity to control the information.

So, those who possess media means have power. The author of the book followed a relationship between society and technology. He showed an interaction between them. According to his point of view new media are developed provoking with new social forms and situations.

They are reflected with the society and cause a new cycle of change; though Innis did not believe that technology is a main force in social evolution. Contrary, he was sure that new technologies are barriers to the process. However, he agreed that two processes influenced culture greatly because they have considerable power. One of them is developing of communications technologies, the other one is monopolies of knowledge. The scientist examines cultural and political origin of the concept of monopoly. In his work Innis determined several sources of monopolizing of knowledge: mastery of complexity, control of raw materials for media, performa tivity and speed.

Innis shows that monopoly of knowledge creates a hierarchical structure when those who are better educated are known as professionals and has greater power, and others are amateurs. As for performa tivity, the best example of it is Egyptian priests. Their knowledge of writing gave them power to predict the regular flooding of the Nile. They were powerful and honored because they accessed to knowledge. The next aspect to monopolize knowledge is speed.

Those who have the knowledge first will benefit. He underlined that those who have the knowledge first have advantages; and those who control it have the power to define reality. (Lets remember how confession is used to convey the moral teachings of the Roman Church, or blackout during the Gulf War). The scientist analyses the significance of communication and the monopoly of knowledge. He writes: The monopoly of knowledge centering on stone and hieroglyphics was displaced by new and more efficient medium papyrus (Innis, 35). So, monopolies of knowledge are in danger in the longevity of empires.

New media threaten to substitute the previous monopolies of knowledge. A critical examination of the monopoly of knowledge is a fundamental part of the work of the scholar in communication. It is known from early examples that societies are divided into a mass of the ignorant and a knowledge elite, taking into account a tend of monopoly of knowledge which encourages centralization of power. So, monopoly of knowledge gives a great power; though it was pointed by the author that power cannot be concentrated in one hands because it is a process which must continually be reasserted for its continuance.

Nowadays, we become victims of influence of monopolies in the delivery of news to radio to television to the internet. They determine our consciousness of cultures very often. As Innis emphasizes, the media impact on the survival of empires and the development of their cultural traditions. The media and monopolization of knowledge became a weapon in well-educated peoples hands. "The social revolution involved in a shift from the use of stone to the use of papyrus and the increased importance of the priestly class imposed enormous strains on Egyptian civilization and left it exposed to the inroads of invaders equipped with effective weapons of attack. " (Innis, 36) Cultures which began to use new communications technologies made vulnerable cultures with former monopolies of knowledge. However, instability is the tendency of monopolies of knowledge as well. Competitors and critics try to destroy monopoly of power and perhaps gain it for themselves.

The example of this instability is nuclear proliferation. Innis tries to examine any medium. He draws attention not only to its physical characteristics, but also the way in which it is used and institutionalized. He sees a dialectical connection between society and technology.

He states that they influence one another mutually. According to his opinion, certain social forms and situations promote the development of new media: these media, operating with existing situations reproduce a new cycle of change. So, instability and agitation from the margins of the empire can drive social change. For example, in 2000, the rapid adoption of music sharing software caused an immediate reaction from both the recording industry and the law-makers. New regulations promoted the development of new technologies. For Innis Canadians have to take constructive efforts to expose the cultural possibilities of various media of communication and to develop them along lines free from commercialism. (Innis, 34).

In his book Innis can be seen as a technological realist. He emphasized the creative possibility of each new media and technological dependency. Technology became the locus of human domination for him. Innis is considered to be a technological realist believed in the creative possibilities of each new medium. The chapter The Bais of communication is devoted to the history of western civilizations. The author analyzes the significance of communication to the rise and decline of cultural traits (Innis, 33).

He emphasizes dialectic between media with time-bias and those with space-bias. He writes that a medium of communication may be better transportation of knowledge over time, than over space, especially if the medium is light and easily transported. Thanks to the effectiveness of the use of the media we come to know of the achievements of empires. Innis examines the rise and fall of empires from the Egyptians, Sumerian and Babylonians to the 20 th century North American and European empires.

We know about the history of empires from the time biased documents that have survived. Innis thinks that the media accepted by a particular civilization will shape the character of knowledge, transmitted by that culture, not only in the original sending, but also in our eventual reception. Innis understands that the everlasting of empires depends on their ability to transport themselves over both time and space. For example, the discovery and adoption of a calendar with the dates for religious festivals in Egypt promotes the establishment of an absolute monarchy and the imposition of the authority of Osiris, Ra, the Nile and the Sun on upper Egypt. Utilization of periodic floods of the Nile facilitates an absolute authority which is further reinforced by eternal calendar. The invention of the calendar becomes a way to transport an empire over both time and space.

For Innis, civilizations can be characterized by the monopolization of the means of communication and the skill to use the media. He presents the development of new technologies in communication as constant sources of cultural renewal. Harold Innis concept of the bias of communication helps researchers to understand their own time as well as past civilizations. Innis represents Canadian society as being trapped between the cultural heritage of its European past and the expanding space of the American Empire. So, as a result of it, dependency of Canada on America is growing. Innis was greatly afraid of dependency of Canada.

He worried greatly about Canadian cultural disintegration and its survival. The writer depicts real people and shows that ancient history is not always object for worship. On the contrary, Innis view of ancient civilizations was a little idealized. According to his works, technology and mechanization were to blame for regress in cultural and social life of the modern society. The scientist considers that ancient civilization had higher level of culture and of social life. He proves that mechanization has led to the exploitation of human forces.

In his turn, Norman Cantor shows the ancient world with all its good or bad sides. The writer emphasizes that technological innovations were one of the main factors that determined cultural level of a civilization. Highly developed ones were greatly interested in the development of new media means. Those innovations played an important role in the development of social relationships. Cantor notes that early societies widely used slave labor. About 40 % of the populations were slaves, Cantor pointed.

Exploitation of human labor was not depended on the development of new technologies. The level of mechanization of the process was low. In his work, Cantor follows the trace of the evolution of the societies and their cultures. He states that antiquity can tell us about our own times. Cantor writes: The ancient world has handed on to later centuries more than just the silver cup of civilization around which modern society and culture are integrated...

Antiquity has also passed on the poisoned chalice of thought and behavior patterns that represent so much trouble, deprivation, and, for us, death, in the third Christian millennium. (Cantor, 43) It is clear that though the level of technology and innovations were not as high as it is in our contemporary times, the ancient societies suffered greatly from different troubles. The social and cultural life of the ancient world was based on the strong dominating the weak, the rich exploiting the poor. Cantor says: Will we ever cut off this side of classicism and achieve a free, peaceful, and equitable society? ... That remains the great question of history. We both love and perpetrated antiquity, and fear and loathe its adverse heritage. (Cantor, 222) It goes without saying, that technology has always played an important and often shaping role in the Canadian society. It has also influenced the evolution of Canadian intellectual culture.

It has made a contribution to global critical thought. Nowadays technology reflects on the social, political, economic and cultural forces shaping Canadas future. Bibliography: Norman F. , Cantor. Antiquity: The Civilization of the Ancient World. New York: Harper Collins, 2003. Harold, Innis.

The Bias of Communication. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1952.


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Research essay sample on Played An Important Time And Space

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