Theory of Media Ecology: Era of Communication

STILL in terms of media and human civilization, McLuhan and Quentin Fiore (1967) states that the medium of an era determines the essence of a society. They propose four eras in the history of media, each of which relates to the dominant mode of communication in the era. McLuhan further states that the media acts as an extension of the human senses of each era.

Tribal era. This era is characterized by oral tradition. People not familiar with writing. In this period, according to McLuhan, culture centered on the ear. People hearing without having the ability to censor messages. Context of face to face communication merely. This is what brings the collective society.

The era of literacy. It is an era in which the written communication is growing rapidly and the eyes become dominant senses. This period was marked by the introduction of the alphabet. Context of social communication already is indirect because it can be represented by writing. "The world says" give birth consequence individualistic society.

Print era. McLuhan calls the book as "the first teaching machine" in this era. All kinds of paper can be duplicated in large numbers. In this era of the main technologies are printing to rely on vision as the dominant sense. Same with the era of literacy.

Electronic era. Media becomes an extension of almost all human senses in this era. Telephone and radio extension of the oral tradition. Television extension of sight and hearing. Computers / Internet also present as an extension of the senses by combining a variety of media (print, audio, visual) until he called multimedia. "The computer is the most remarkable of all fashion technology ever invented ... because the computer is an extension of our central nervous system" (McLuhan & Fiore: 1996).