INTRODUCING MEDIA ECOLOGY

What is media ecology?

View the CIE video here

Introducing Marshall McLuhan - central to discussions about media ecology

In Laws of Media: The New Science (1988) he presents four laws that he called the tetrad - for laws for looking at our culture that can be asked about any media or new technology:

Enhance: what ability does this media aim to extend or enhance?

Obsolesce: What media is pushed aside by this new media? In other words, what previously served the purpose that this new media replaces?

Retrieve: What older media or function does this new media bring back in new form or release to serve a new function? 

Reverse: At its extreme, what effects occur that are opposite from its intended enhancement?

In this lesson, we apply McLuhan's tetrad to two case studies, the smart phone and the iPod