Culture as Communication

Semester and Year	FA 2010
Course Number	IDSEM-UG1193
Section	001
Instructor	Vasu Varadhan
Days	Mon,Wed
Time	11:00 AM - 12:15 PM
Units	4.0
Level	U
Foundation Requirement	SOC

Description

This course examines the concept of culture through its forms of communication. The shift from orality to literacy and on to electronic processing has important consequences for the social, political, and economic structures within a culture. If we take as axiomatic that every culture wishes to preserve itself through its forms of communication, we then need to ask ourselves which forms of communication are best suited for this purpose. What happens to cultures when traditional forms of communication are forced to compete with the newer technologies? What do we mean by “knowledge” in the age of information? The impact of written narrative on orality will be discussed as well as the changes brought about by the invention of the printing press. We will examine the development of electronic media, including the newer technologies such as the Internet, and analyze their effects on individual and cultural levels. Readings may include Plato’s Phaedrus , Ong’s Orality and Literacy , Achebe’s Things Fall Apart , McLuhan’s Understanding Media , and Lessig’s The Future of Ideas .

Course Type

Interdisciplinary Seminars (IDSEM-UG)