|
The Resonating Interval:
Exploring the Process of the Tetrad
By Anthony Hempell |
Tetrads: Present
Radio-Television (Broadcasting)
If you live in Western civilization, chances are a large portion of your
cultural, social, and political information and ideas come from the
broadcast media environment. The true achievement of broadcasting lies
in the creation of the advertising industry, the engine behind mass
consumer culture, cultural identity and marketing.
Table 9: Tetrad of "Radio-Television" (McLuhan & Powers, pp.175-6
)
|
| ![[tetrad diagram]](tetradsolo.gif) |
|
Improves (regional) simultaneous access to entire planet--everybody: "On the air
you're everywhere":
The Enhancement of Global Robotism: simultaneous experience
of two environments at once. This is somewhat limited, as it ignores the
relative lo-fi and restrictive aspects of broadcasting technology which
restrict the experience of the broadcasted environment to a narrow funnel
of the camera lens and microphone.
Back to diagram
Obsolesces wires, cables and physical bodies:
The beginnings of a truly global communications environment. Makes the
jump from an instantaneous "wired" network (telegraph, telephone) to an
instantaneous, ubiquitous media environment: "Around the world on short
wave."
Back to diagram
Retrieves tribal ecological environments: echo, trauma, paranoia,
and also brings back primacy of the spatial, musical, and acoustic:
The re-tribalization (and homogenization) of culture: discussing
"Seinfeld" around the water cooler at work. The common media-told stories
of modern culture: Sitcom plots, the news, Superbowl, the Challenger explosion.
Back to diagram
Reverses into global village theatre (Orson Welles'
Invasion From Mars: no spectators, only actors):
Feedback loop: Media image as reality: Kennedy vs. Nixon;
the Vietnam War vs. The Gulf War (CNN); "real-life" conflict, disaster
and misery as entertainment: COPS, America's Most Wanted, Ricki Lake.
Broadcasting is the spark that detonates the explosion of mass
"consumer" culture.
Back to diagram
|
Introduction | The Global Village | Tetrad:Concept | Tetrads:Past | Tetrads:Future | Bibliography
copyright ©1996 by Anthony Hempell.