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Internet and Its Bias

Harold Innis was an early 20th century media theorist who analyzed how communication technologies influence society. While radio was new in Innis' time, his theories on time and space bias in media apply to the modern Internet. The Internet promotes both oral culture through social media and written culture through abundant online text. It has also disrupted traditional monopolies of knowledge by allowing anyone to publish information. Additionally, the Internet exemplifies a shift from space-biased to time-biased media by enabling immediate worldwide communication. While expanding access to ideas, the Internet has also increased reliance on technology and potential for exacerbating media biases. Innis' theories remain an important analytical tool for understanding the Internet's influence on communication and society.

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79 views5 pages

Internet and Its Bias

Harold Innis was an early 20th century media theorist who analyzed how communication technologies influence society. While radio was new in Innis' time, his theories on time and space bias in media apply to the modern Internet. The Internet promotes both oral culture through social media and written culture through abundant online text. It has also disrupted traditional monopolies of knowledge by allowing anyone to publish information. Additionally, the Internet exemplifies a shift from space-biased to time-biased media by enabling immediate worldwide communication. While expanding access to ideas, the Internet has also increased reliance on technology and potential for exacerbating media biases. Innis' theories remain an important analytical tool for understanding the Internet's influence on communication and society.

Uploaded by

khushi agarwal
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Essay #1: Innis and the Internet

CDN221: Culture and the Media in Canada

Khushi Agrawal, 1008506822

Word Count: 699 words

February 17th, 2023


The Internet: A Harold Innis Perspective

In the 21st century, the internet has become an indispensable part of daily life. It has changed

the way humans communicate and interact with each other. It transports massive amounts of

data and disseminates it with unparalleled efficiency. Such a massive capacity contained

within a single medium would have been unfathomable to Innis' contemporaries. Harold

Innis, an early media theorist, noted that advances in communication technology are

transformative for humanity.  Although the radio was the most recent innovation during Innis'

life, his theory of time and space formed the foundations of a bias that exists in our modes of

communication and today applies to the Internet. Innis saw the power of a communication

medium to shape the perception of reality, which can be seen in how much influence the

Internet now has on our everyday lives.

Innis discussed the idea of "oral culture" and "written culture." He argued that different media

can promote different ways of thinking and communicating. Oral culture, for example, tends

to be more communal and focused on storytelling, while written culture tends to be more

individualistic and focused on analysis and argumentation (Innis, 1950). With its mix of

audio, video, text, and interactive media, the Internet has the ability to promote both oral and

written cultures. Social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram, for example, which are

largely focused on visual and audio material, are more suited to oral culture. In contrast, the

abundance of written information available on the Internet, such as research articles and news

reports, fosters a written culture that values analysis and argumentation (Babe, 2004).

In many ways, the Internet symbolises a change from space-biased to time-biased media.

While paper and print are still widely used, the Internet has enabled individuals to interact

immediately and worldwide in ways that were not previously conceivable. Innis coined the

phrase "time-binding," which describes how media facilitate the transmission of knowledge

and information across time and space. Our capacity for time-bound activities has been
greatly increased by the Internet, which enables us to instantly communicate with people

anywhere in the world. The start of the pandemic and an increase in activities related to

working from home have all contributed to the expansion of the Internet. Students interact

with their professors, employees with their managers, and businesspeople with their clients

using software like Zoom, making the Internet a significant platform for exchanging ideas

and voicing opinions.

Innis also discussed the idea of "monopolies of knowledge.". These monopolies arose

because the production of these media required significant resources, which meant that only a

few people or organizations could afford to produce them. The Internet, however, has made it

much easier for anyone to produce and disseminate information, disrupting conventional

knowledge monopolies.  Before the Internet, for example, news organisations were frequently

the primary source of knowledge on global events. Today, anyone with an Internet

connection can publish a blog or social media post and potentially reach a global audience

(Wasserman, 2006). However, the internet is not immune to media bias. In fact, the vast

amount of information available online can make it challenging for users to navigate and

assess the quality of information they encounter. Additionally, the algorithms used by search

engines and social media platforms can exacerbate media bias by prioritizing certain types of

content over others.

Notwithstanding his support for the oral tradition, Innis acknowledged that a shift towards the

new tradition was unavoidable, and he encouraged readers to achieve a balance between the

two. The Internet's ever-changing innovations have disrupted the balance of space and time,

which is now driven by the need for spatial expansion and the need to gain control in ever-

shrinking time frames. There are benefits and drawbacks to the extraordinary speed of

communication and expansion. On the one hand, the Internet has enabled instantaneous idea

exchange, rapid decision-making, and worldwide interconnection. On the other hand, it has
resulted in a reliance on technology and a sense of alienation from our surroundings. Innis'

insight into the potential of communication mediums to shape our reality has become even

more apparent since his time. As a result, Innis' discovery of communication bias is a

valuable analytical tool for communication academics and researchers (Comor, 2001).
Works Cited

Babe, R. E. (2004). Communication and the transformation of economics: Essays in

information, public policy, and political economy. Routledge.

Comor, E. (2001). Harold Innis and the origins of Canadian communication scholarship.

Canadian Journal of Communication, 26(3), 273-288.

Innis, H. A. (1950). Empire and communications. University of Toronto Press.

Wasserman, H. (2006). Whose news? The media and the public's right to know. University of

British Columbia Press.

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