| dc.description.abstract | Literature Review: David Riesman conceptualized three distinct cultural groups called the Tradition-directed, Inner-directed, and Other-directed. These groups mark three distinct shifts in how humanity absorbed information starting with oral-tradition, which led to written language, which has since transitioned to the screen image. Starting with the tradition-directed whom Riesman described as “The society based on oral-tradition, with its dependence on the memory of elders, links people together in small tribal groups and in their families. These people may be nomadic, but they are not socially and psychologically mobile in the modern sense; they are led by folk tales and songs to identify with the tribe as it has been and will be, or possibly with a legendary golden age, but they are not incited to imagine themselves outside of its comforts and coherence” (Riesman 1950,2001). A shift occurs in society according to Riesman, when it transitions into a written society which he characterizes as inner-directed. Inner-directed societies are more mobile in both a geographic and a psychological sense. They are able to keep records and pass on knowledge to posterity. Riesman characterizes this shift by saying “The bookish education of these inner-directed men helped harden them for voyages: they wanted to convert the heathen, civilize them, trade with them-if anyone changed in the encounter, it would be the heathen, while as they, moved about the globe or up the social ladder, remained very much the same men: The epitome of this was the Englishmen of the tropics who, all alone dressed for dinner with the home-guard ceremonial, toasted the queen, and, six months later, read with a proper sense of outrage the leader in the London Times. His ties with the world of print helped steady him in his course far from home and alone. (Riesman 1950, 2001)” The last transition that Riesman describes is the Other-directed. This transition is marked by the movement away from physically printed media to digital media. Riesman suggests this of the other directed man :“They are men molded as much by the mass media as they are by their schooling; men who are more public-relations minded than ambitious; men softened for their encounters rather than hardened for their voyages; if they move about the globe it is often to win the love of the natives or to try to understand their mores, rather than to exploit them for gain or for the glory of God. Meanwhile, as we have seen the natives (as they used to be called) are themselves in many cases on the move, and the sharp differences between societies dependent on the oral tradition and those dependent on print are tending to become less important with the coming of radio and film (Riesman 1950, 2001).” Riesman wrote at the same time as another key cultural theorist, Marshall McLuhan. His work on the different transitions in society will heavily mirror McLuhan’s work on different media and the message that each conveys to society at various stages. Marshall McLuhan was a cultural theorist who looked specifically at how media was dispersed and absorbed throughout key historic points across cultures. He emphasized the importance of various types of media is distributed with his famous quote “The medium is the message” (McLuhan 1964). He goes on to say that as the medium changes, we see key historic shifts in how society fundamentally adopts a new way of absorbing information in a different medium. The first historical medium that McLuhan shows how humanity absorbed media through is the “acoustic space.” Put simply sounds transmit culture to the individuals living in said culture. He goes further to say “Acoustic space structure is the natural space of the nature-in-the-raw inhabited by non-literate people. It is like the ‘mind’s ear’ or acoustic imagination that dominates the thinking of the pre-literate and post-literate humans alike (rock video has just as much acoustic power as a Watusi mating dance). It is both discontinuous and nonhomogeneous. Its resonant and interpreting processes are simultaneously related with centers everywhere and boundaries nowhere. Like music, as a communications engineer Barrington Nevitt puts it, acoustic space requires neither proof nor explanation but is made manifest through its cultural content (McLuhan 1964).” This historical medium of oral translation went virtually unchallenged throughout history until the advent of a technological innovation by Johannes Guttenberg in the mid 1400’s. McLuhan goes on to say that “The history of the western world since the time of Aristotle has been a story of increasing linguistic specialism produced by the flat, uniform, homogenous presentation of print. Orality wound down slowly. The scribal (or manuscript) culture of the middle ages was inherently oral/aural in character. Manuscripts were meant to be read aloud. Church chantry schools were set up to ensure oral fidelity. The Guttenberg technology siphoned off the aural-tactical quality of the ancients, systemized language, and established heretofore unknown standards for pronunciation and meaning (McLuhan 1964)” This transition of different historical medium is finalized with a shift to screens. Although this was not finalized during his life, his prediction in this text about the medium that would next be absorbed by society has largely come true. “But since World War 1 and the advent of those technical wave-surfers Marconi and Edison the rumbles of aural-tactility, the power of the spoken word, have been heard. James Joyce in Finnegans Wake, celebrated the tearing apart the ethos of print by radio, film (television), and recording. He could easily see that Goebbels and his radio loudspeakers were a new tribal echo. And you may be sure that emerging mediums such as the satellite, the computer, the data base, the teletext-videotext and the international multi-carrier corporations such as ITT, GTE, and AT&T will intensify the attack on the printed word as the ‘sole’ container of the public mentality, without being aware of it of course. By the twenty-first century most printed matter will have been transferred to something like an ideographic microfiche as only part of a number of a number of data sources in acoustic and visual modes (McLuhan1964).” Both cultural theorists have observed the transition of society through both different mediums and what these different mediums ultimately mean to the individuals absorbing the media. These key transitions from oral through written to screen culture are linked to a different type of sociological theory, in particular the theory of the demographic transition. This transition has been discussed at length by noted demographer Warren Thompson. Warren Thompson is credited as being the first demographer to identify the theory of the demographic transition by observing global trends of birth and death rates in the late 1800’s. This theory was expanded upon by other demographers and is linked by Riesman to theories of cultural development. It breaks down society into five separate transitions that a society goes through throughout its development economically. These stages are characterized by: 1) High death rate, high birth rate, 2) High birth rate, and a rapidly declining death rate, 3) A gradual decline in the birth rate, and a gradual decline in the death rate, 4) A low birth rate and a low death rate, 5) A very low birth rate and a low death rate. This transition is being felt globally and ties into what the aforementioned cultural theorists observed about societal trends. Thesis Statement: This study will attempt to show how the linkages between these two theorists relates to the massive demographic shifts demonstrated in the demographic transition theory. To illustrate these demographic shifts and their correlations with the types of media and culture we will be looking at countries that are simultaneously adopting Western technology pertaining to screen culture while undergoing dramatic downward shifts in birth rates and Total Fertility Rates. Theoretical Framework: The primary method for research on this project will be secondary data analysis of China, Korea, and the United States. There are several indicators of the demographic transition that reflect the changing cultures and the different ways that societies have absorbed media. For the purposes of secondary data analysis, demographic trends such as Crude birth rate (CBR), Total fertility rate (TFR), and percentage of rural population will be used. These demographic indicators will be measured with indicators on the transition from the different forms of media consumption such as mobile phone subscriptions per 100 persons and broadband subscriptions per 100 persons. In addition, this study will look at how urbanization particularly can exacerbate both the adoption of screen culture as well as the subsequent shifts in demographic trends. These demographic indicators should illustrate how with the rise in consumption of screens, subsequent screen/Other-directed culture connects with demographic trends. Project Description: This study will attempt to show how the linkages between David Riesman and Marshal McLuhan relate to the massive demographic shifts demonstrated in demographic transition theory. To illustrate these demographic shifts and their correlations with the consumption of media through different mediums and the transition to different cultural frames, this study will be looking at countries that are simultaneously adopting Western technology pertaining to screen culture while undergoing dramatic downward shifts in birth rates and Total Fertility Rate. The primary method for research on this project will be secondary data analysis. There are several indicators of the demographic transition that reflect the changing cultures and the different ways that societies have absorbed media. For the purposes of secondary analysis, demographic trends such as Crude birth rate (CBR), Total fertility rate (TFR), and percentage of rural population will be used. These demographic indicators will be measured with indicators on the transition from the different forms of media consumption such as mobile phone subscriptions per 100 persons and broadband subscriptions per 100 persons. The countries that this study will focus primarily on include China, South Korea, and the United States to illustrate countries that have both been the recipient of screen culture for a relatively short period of time as well as to illustrate the epicenter of screen culture. These should illustrate how with the rise of consumption of screens and subsequently screen/Other-directed culture link with demographic trends. The results show moderate to strong negative relationships with all of the aforementioned demographic indicators suggesting a link between the adoption of screen culture in a society and shifts in the demographic transition. | en |
