Comparing and contrasting the two, using
quotations as evidence to justify your ideas and arguments. Think how the
arguments of the two pieces differ, and which you feel is most convincing.
In the extract written by Raymond Williams, he
argues why Television was created and the effects it is having on today's
society. Before televisions were widely owned, cinema was more of a one
off experience which gave it more enjoyment, however Williams argues that ‘it is clear that television did not
supersede cinema because it improved picture quality, but rather because it
chimed with the broader economic and cultural move towards a more domesticated
and privatized everyday life.’ Today cinema is still popular as a
recreational hobby, as it is more of a social activity compared to watching
television in the privacy of our own homes whenever and wherever we feel like,
especially with the opportunity to record programs and the ability to buy films
on DVD and Blueray after the cinema release.
Within film, ‘Programmers, he argues, looked for
particularly ‘colourful’ subjects and ideas to exploit this technical
development.’ Which can be seen in early colour films, such as Wizard of Oz
where the sets and costumes were purposely made as bright and vivid to show off
this new medium. He argues that television helped develop many mediums, such as
photography, film and animation, as a power for ‘a medium of news and entertainment’ and ‘social communication.’
Less obviously he recalls
how television helped adapt and develop electricity. ‘The advantages of electric power were closely related to new
industrial needs: for mobility and transfer in the location of power sources,
and for flexible and rapid controllable conversion.’ This had a massive
effect on the rail system, as electric rail services could be used, saving coal
and other resources when using the steam engine. This also reduces labour time,
costs and man power, at the same time as increasing the speed in which they can
run.
He then goes on to discuss
the effect of television, and how that even if it had not have been invented, ‘we would still be manipulated or mindlessly
entertained, but in some other way and perhaps less powerfully,’ as boredom
and the intellectual need to develop will always win over. Which then leads to
how ‘we often discuss, with animation,
this or that ‘effect’ of television, or the kinds of social behaviours, the
cultural and psychological conditions, which television has ‘led to.’ Television
is not always the root cause for these problems however, and can be suggested
that it is just an aid for socially unacceptable behaviour to arise and be
deemed acceptable.
McLuhan’s essay differs as
it is written about ways we think about contemporary mediums, such as ‘‘the medium is in the message’, the global
village, the extension and environmental nature of technologies,’ which are
all theories which he has created and developed, looking into the psychological
nature that technology as a whole has on us, rather than an in-depth discussion
on just the medium of television.
Rather than discussing the
effects that television has had in developing other mediums, he looks deeper
into how technology has integrated itself into our everyday lives, becoming
part of us rather than it’s own entity. He understands technology to be an ‘extension of man’, which have effected all
of our senses, ‘the eye, the ear, the skin, the hand and the foot. Even the
spoken word.’ Allowing communication and development of mankind, whether it
be for the good intellectually or entertainment wise, or for the bad by showing
inappropriate behaviour as social norms.
Even now, we are adapting
more and more to the technology around us, and ‘Today, after more than a century of electric technology, we have
extended our central nervous system itself in a global embrace, abolishing both
space and time as far as our planet is concerned.’
These ideas differ
considerably with Williams, as he doesn’t reflect on any of the negativity that
technology can bring, but feels that it can offer us as humans a different way
of living for the better, and sees technology in a positive light. Not only as
it has helped aid the development of other mediums, but has developed us as
humans, and our understanding of the world around us in which we live.
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