Liang Yi is a lecturer at Hebei University-UCLan School of Communication and Creativity, a PhD in Communication, and a member of the North American Media Environment Society.
Tang Yuanqing is a professor and doctoral supervisor at Communication University of China, and a distinguished professor at the School of Journalism, Communication and Film and Television of Hainan Normal University.
This article is the research result of the Hainan Provincial Ideology and Public Opinion Research Base's project "Innovative Research on Ideological Work in the New Era".
Dr. Eric McLuhan (hereinafter referred to as "Eric"), a Canadian media environmentalist and director of the Harris School of Art in Toronto, unfortunately passed away on May 18, 2018. Eric is an internationally renowned and award-winning communication scholar who has taught at many universities in the United States, Canada and other countries. The Media Ecology Association (MEA) of North America pointed out in a letter announcing Eric's death that Eric had more than 40 years of teaching experience in a wide range of subject areas such as literature, perception, high-speed reading skills, communication theory, media, culture, Egyptology, and the nature and structure of the Renaissance.
As we all know, Eric is the son of the famous communication scientist Marshall McLuhan (hereinafter referred to as "Marshall"). Eric's academic background is similar to that of his father Marshall. He received a bachelor's degree in communication from Wisconsin in 1972 and a master's degree and doctorate in English literature from the University of Dallas in 1980 and 1982 respectively. His academic research is often associated with his father, perhaps because his father is too dazzling, perhaps because his academic research is based on his father's knowledge, and he does not receive the academic respect he deserves. But in fact, he is recognized as a media environment scientist with great achievements in today's media environment academic circle.
When discussing the Renaissance,
Propose issues that media environmental studies should pay attention to in the future
Since 1964, Eric's research and reflections have been published in the form of books, magazines and journal articles. In addition to papers, he has also published books on media, perception and literature, including three seminal books (co-authored with his father): "The Laws of Media: The New Science", "Communication Theory" and "Media and Determinative Causes". In media studies, Eric discussed the issues that media environmental studies should pay attention to in the future in conjunction with the Renaissance.
Eric said that the "Renaissance" first appeared in English in 1845, and the invention of the telegraph appeared at the same time as the "Renaissance". The Renaissance triggered by telegraph technology still exists today. Currently, the West and the world are still in the grip of the largest Renaissance in human history. The development of media technology has triggered large-scale environmental changes. Evidence of the contemporary Renaissance can be seen everywhere. Every imaginable corner of our culture, art and science is currently involved in the fermentation process of continuous discovery and rediscovery. Today's life is irrational and ever-changing. The existence and popularity of electronic media has made this ferment invisible. Since the mid-19th century, the process of birth and development of new cultures and the alternation of different cultures has not stopped, and the Renaissance triggered by electronic media has shown no signs of weakening. On the contrary, it has shown various signs of acceleration. This acceleration is related to media technology. An important phenomenon in the transformation of Western culture today is the revival of tribal experience among large audiences. Tribal experience is the development of media technology, which is brought about by electronic media. Internet technology allows audiences to transcend time and space, be online at the same time and participate in various network activities, bringing tribal experience to the audience. The large-scale disappearance of public reading is a side effect of print media, but the simultaneity and participation of electronic media have given birth to large-scale audiences.
In short, the Renaissance triggered by telegraph technology still surrounds us. The Renaissance that affected us in the 20th and 21st centuries is so important and invisible; and the environmental changes affected by such large-scale media technology should become the object of media environmental studies. This is what Eric pointed out that current media environmental studies should focus on. Eric also said that environmental science is the study of all natural environments and the different substances we put into the land, air and water. Media environmentalists try to understand issues including local and global pollution. He then quoted his father's famous assertion: Just like air and water, the media created by humans are also environments, and different technologies wear different coats. Marshall believed that new or old media should be understood within their context. Regarding this point, many media environment scholars implicitly or explicitly have the same idea, that is, the media is the environment, the media shapes the new environment, and the media is an extension of the world. Therefore, to understand media is to understand and study the impact and shaping of media on a world that is still in the midst of a Renaissance.
2. Study media technology in connection with “determination of cause and effect”.
Will lead to the end of “straw man arguments”
In Street's view, Eric was an important academic contributor to media environment studies, and perhaps his most important academic achievement was his development of Aristotle's view of deterministic causation as a means of understanding the effects of human communication, creative expression, and technological innovation. After his father's death, Eric co-authored "Media and Determining Causes", which was published in which he established a new way of understanding human activity and creation, a way that was more meaningful than trying to embed these phenomena into simple causal relationships. This will ultimately lead to the end of the “straw man argument” of technological determinism.
So, why is Eric’s research connected with Aristotle’s view of decision-making and causation and leading to the end of the “straw man argument”? There are two main reasons:
1. Eric’s analysis shows that Marshall’s goal has always been to explore, record and explain the operation and creative process of determining causes in literary and cultural works. He has no special interest in other causes such as effective causes.
Media environmental studies study the determining reasons for the impact of media on people and society, not the only and all reasons. Regarding things and causes, Aristotle proposed the famous "four causes": material, final, formal and efficient. Aristotle himself often used the creation of works of art as an example to illustrate four different causes. In the Metaphysics, Aristotle frequently discusses cause and effect. But Aristotle's "Determining Causes" are considered the least explained and least understood, Eric said. Determining causes remain a mystery and have long been thought of as plans or blueprints. People often don't want to know the reasons for anything. People don't want to know why radio made Hitler and Gandhi resemble each other, or what the printing press did. As users of the medium, they simply want to participate. Determining cause remains a great mystery in this age: the educated mind finds it too contradictory and irrational. Students of communication will discover that over the past 500 years, Western science has systematically excluded the study of cause and effect through a simple process of fragmentation and quantification.
According to Eric, Marshall's book "The Laws of Media" co-authored with him also focuses on this area of determining causation. Their Four Laws, which brought Aristotle up to date, analyzed the mode of action of the subject's forces and provided an analysis of the determinants (of media evolution) for the first time ever. Marshall's statement that "the medium is an invisible, ever-present whirlwind of service or damage" means that the medium affects human beings as the determining cause. In other words, Marshall and his views only reveal that technology has an impact on human beings because technology itself is the determining cause, but it does not mean that technology is the only cause and all causes, and there are other causes. Moreover, Marshall had no particular interest in other causes.
The interesting, understandable, yet difficult thing to understand about Eric and determining causes is that Eric was both combined with Aristotle (incorporating his theory of the four causes) and rebelling against Aristotle (and placing determining causes outside of logic). Eric points out that determining causes are outsiders of dialectics, arising from the most fundamental and profound places of grammar and rhetoric. When analyzing Eric's scholarship, Straight said that the decisive reason is a rebellion against logic. What Eric provides us is a non-Aristotelian Aristotle.
2. The recognition and criticism of Marshall and other media environment scholars as technological determinists is to first distort the views of Marshall and others, misrepresent Marshall and others as technological determinists, and then attack this distorted view.
In the preface to his book Media and Deterministic Causes, Strait states that Marshall and other media environment scholars have been criticized as technological determinists. In fact, technological determinism is a vocabulary added to media environment scholars without due consideration. Language such as "cause-result" is easily mixed in and applied due to habits and routine activities. So we should put an end to arguments like this shorthand “stirrups caused feudalism”. "Determining causes" are sudden and emergent, and are the causal relationships that media environment scholars think of when considering the impact of technological changes on individuals and society. Eric linked media technology with Aristotle's "determining cause" analysis, thereby pointing out that Marshall's analysis of the impact of technology on humans and society is a "determining cause" analysis, rather than an analysis of "all causes" that lead to results. “Determining causes” should not be summed up simply and dogmatically by the shorthand “cause-effect” to mean that technology is the sole and all cause of its impact on people and society.
In short, a "straw man argument" is when someone wants to prove that one point or argument is better than an opposing argument by first distorting the other person's point of view and then attacking the distorted point. Then, the criticism of the "distorted" view is naturally untenable. By linking Aristotle’s causes of decision-making, Eric explains that the views of media environment scholars are not simply arbitrary technological determinism, thus leading to the end of the “straw man debate”.
Eric's thinking on the causes of contact determination is not only a combination of Aristotle's determination of causality that keeps pace with the times in the media technology environment, but also a breakthrough in Marshall's academic research and even media environment research. This kind of research is also new to the major representative scholars of media environment during the period when his academic views were published (2005). “Like father, like son,” and as we read those fascinating, encyclopedic articles, we discover that “determining why” isn’t what you think, but it’s crucial to how you think.
3. Actively participate in society affairs,
Calling on media environment scholars to take immediate action
On September 4, 1998, the Media Environment Association (MEA) was established in the United States. Eric is an influential media environmental scientist in the world. Although he has not served as the president or vice president of MEA, as an ordinary member of MEA, he actively participates in the affairs of the society. As a public intellectual, he actively participates in society activities. He is an important speaker at several MEA annual conferences and a member of the editorial board of the MEA journal "Explorations in Media Environment".
Eric always has academic exchanges and harmonious interactions with many scholars in the field of media environment through conferences organized by the Society of Media Environment, journals and other platforms, making positive comments on their research and praising the significance of scholars' work. For example, he believes that Thomas Farrell's work "Walter Ong's Contribution to Cultural Studies: Phenomenology and the Communication of the World I and You" is a (attitude) humble book. Farrell has provided valuable services to the academic field of culture and communication. Readers can have a good sense of Ong's overall range of insights by reading it. As he said, scholars have already conducted a lot of useful research, and I will give just a few examples: Murray Schafer's "The Tuning of the World" takes the training of musicians and composers away from the concert hall and towards the larger environment; Jane Jacobs (such as 1961, 1969, 1984) studied the dynamics of cities from the perspective of the media environment; the works of Innis and Eric Havelock are indispensable, and they opened up necessary research paths.
Also based on MEA, the world's first academic community platform for media environment studies, Eric published an article specifically discussing media environment studies, pointing out three actions that media environmentalists need to take immediately:
One is to learn everything from art by training our perception, critical awareness, and studying how the art of each culture makes a system of responses suitable for exploring cultural and perceptual changes (like the remote warning lines of a radar station or a seismometer).
The second is to organize projects to study the effects, especially side effects, of all new and old technologies and their media environments in all different cultures and societies. There is a need to document how different media respond to different cultures, and to learn to predict the possible effects of new media.
The third is to design and implement controlled (purpose) research so that new media that are harmless to a certain culture will not affect the happiness of another culture, so that another culture may not discover its harm and toxicity.
On the basis of specifying three things that media environment scholars should take immediate action, Eric passionately issued a call to scholars, calling on media environment scholars to face the future. He (2006) said: "If you are really a media environment scholar, these (three actions) are your future and should also be your present."
The four academic lives are unique and bring inspiration to researchers.
Eric's academic life has unique characteristics. First of all, Eric has extensive knowledge, pioneers and innovations based on the research of other scholars, and has his own research results. However, his academic life is closely related to and inseparable from his father's academic life. Without Marshall's achievements and reputation in the field of communication, Eric would not have achieved world-wide attention. From this perspective, it is probably his father Marshall who made Eric's academic career possible. Secondly, Eric's academic status was special. He was a famous "lecturer" and did not receive an academic position like "professor" until his death. From this perspective, it may be his father Marshall who influenced his promotion in terms of professional status. Eric’s academic achievements and experiences can bring the following enlightenment to scholars:
1. Innovative ideas and unique academic achievements are the lifeblood of a scholar’s academic life.
This is especially important for the academic successors of famous teachers, because while the outstanding achievements of teachers bring positive influence to future generations, they may also obscure the academic achievements of future generations and affect the objectivity of the world's evaluation of their academic achievements. Although Eric has a PhD, he does not have an academic appointment; he is not a professor. It is not difficult to see from the previous discussion that Eric has his own creative academic achievements. If he were not Marshall's son, he might be promoted to professor smoothly. People tend to only notice his father's brilliance and achievements, and only regard his research as a continuation and promotion of his father's ideas. It seems that without Marshall, Eric's academic research is not worth studying and has nothing to talk about.
However, this attitude may be reckless, and this may not be the case. For example, in the book "Medium and Determining Causes", the first three chapters are the work of Marshall except for the second chapter, which contains the cooperation between Marshall and Barrington Novitt, while the fourth chapter is the independent work of Eric. Moreover, this chapter is regarded by Street as a major breakthrough in the study of his father and media environment.
2. In the academic research of media environment and communication studies, the scope of research scholars must be broadened and the research on the academic content of scholars must be deepened. Otherwise, the opportunity of “academic mining” may be missed.
The translation, evaluation, absorption, and reflection of Western research work in domestic academic circles are currently developing, and the recognition and attention of scholars of the media environment school are gradually increasing. However, there are still differences and biases in foreign and domestic perceptions of the relationship between media environment scholars and technological determinism. Through the above research, it can be seen that the debate on this issue should be ended by Eric's achievements.
Eric's academic achievements are related to his father Marshall and other scholars such as Aristotle. It can be seen from his works that he studied a wide range of scholars, which is one of the reasons for his academic achievements. What we need to reflect on is that in the process of communication research, the scope of research scholars should be broad and the content should be deep, so as to facilitate full research from multiple angles and help researchers achieve achievements.
As far as media environment research is concerned, the research on foreign media environment scholars needs to be further broadened in scope and deepened in content to promote the common prosperity and development of the three major schools of communication in my country. In the West, currently active media environment scholars include Street, Levinson, Lin Wengang and some Canadian scholars. Although there has been an upsurge in studying Marshall in China, overall, there are only a handful of domestic scholars studying media environment. Compared with the media environment research scene abroad, the domestic research situation can be described as lonely.
In short, no matter how fierce the controversy over McLuhan and his son is in academic circles at home and abroad, it is undeniable that they are the flagships of media environmental studies. On the basis of continuing the academic research inherited from his father, Eric has also made his own original academic contributions. It is necessary for the academic community to pay more attention, research and reference to his academic achievements.
This article is an abbreviated version, with references omitted. The original text was published in the 2019 Issue 10 of "International Press".
