Learning Intention:
To think about the media as an ecology, a synergistic and symbiotic cultural environment.
From the Specification
“Media ecology refers to the complex environments within which media texts, producers, distributors, technologies and audiences exist. It is a way of conceiving the structure of these environments, their content, and impact on people.”
A question for class discussion:
How can the media be thought of as an, ‘Environment?’
An Analogy
“An ecologist studies the relationship between living things and their habitats.”
So, in the example above, an ecologist would study the lifecycles and symbiotic relationships between living thing in this pond, like water quality, diversity of species, the food cycle, climate, pollutants…
A Media Ecology
So, to continue with the analogy
Task:
Write down the ten most important elements that make up a Media ecology (think…key concepts).
Make a list in your notebooks computers and be prepared to add to it.
An Attempt
Here’s my (poor) attempt from 3 years ago.
Please recommend changes / amendments / additions…
Please find a link to an editable copy here.
Extension Task
Think about this essay title:
‘Analyse the significance of a particular technological development in the media’.
Start thinking about this essay and how the introduction of the smartphone has had on the changing media ecology (in the slideshow above).