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The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
Similarly, he used ‘tetrad’ 4 to explain the effects of technology on culture and society. He
divided the effects into following four main categories 5 :
• What does the medium enhance?
• What does the medium take obsolete?
• What does the medium retrieve that had been obsolesced earlier?
• What does the medium flip into when pushed to extremes?
Marshal McLuhan visualised the effects of mass media on society and culture in early
1960s when technological development had not hit media spheres as immensely as it
seems now. Due to his prophetic approach in understanding the effects of technology on
culture of a society, he gained the status of a cult hero and ‘high priest of pop-culture’ 6 .
Mass media are the technological institutions. Changes in these institutions have
enormous bearings on culture of a society. The discussion made above solicits that mass
media are dynamic in nature and change their shape and contents very quickly. And,
technological developments in different media spheres have multiplied its impacts on
culture. With these technologies, societies and their traditional practices, understanding
of issues and relationships are at rampant change. There is no denying a fact that mass
media are ‘cultural industries’, as enunciated by the Frankfurt School, which are capable
of producing and altering the culture. However, in modern age, mass media are not just
‘industries’, but are ‘cultural mixers’ which facilitate the cultural assimilation process.
Here, important aspect to consider is as which culture’s colour gets more prominence; of
course the culture of media regulators!
Conclusion
While all cultures are local, all communication is global. This notion carries strong
bearings of unprecedented technological revolution that our age has witnessed. The
revolution has galvanized the influence of mass media over indigenous cultures. Huge
literature indicates mass media effects on culture due to the commercial productions of
media as negative and detrimental to youth, having disruptive effects on overall social
environment. In contemporary ‘global media environment’, the ‘mass media hold a
power position’ and are capable of changing or creating new social and cultural realities
(Said, 1997, pp.135-73).
Interestingly, cultural homogenization is the product of technologically rich mass media,
especially new media like internet and convergent media (tv, internet & phone), while
increasing civilizational cleavages as envisaged by Huntington (1998) in his celebrated
work Clash of Civilization also seems to be the outcome of developed information media.
The differences in civilization highlighted and crystallized by mass media are dividing
4 ‘Tetrad’ has, probably, been derived from the word ‘tetra’ which means four, and its use by
McLuhan also indicates four laws to explain technology (media) effects on culture and society.
5 The four categories explained pedagogical tools and laws can be retrieved from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mcluhan and can also be accessed on
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrad_of_media_effects which discusses the ‘Tetrad of media
effects’. For this paper, it has been retrieved on January 5, 2009.
6 Todd Kappleman narrates one of McLuhan interviews by Playboy magazine titled ‘A Candid
Conversation with the High Priest of Popcult and Metaphysician of Media’. It can be retrieved
from http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/mcluhan.html. We accessed this site on January
01, 2009.
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