| The purpose of the study was to examine changes in a culture when a new medium is introduced into it through an analysis of the "reported" use of videotape in American corporations during 1956-1980.;The study described and analyzed developments in videotape technology between 1956 and 1980 and compared these developments with the reported use of the medium in the American corporate context in the same time period. The relationship(s) between technology developments and its reported use were then analyzed in media ecology terms.;The study used articles from generally recognized journals and trade publications in the areas of video production, audio-visual communications, corporate communications, public relations, training and human resources development, as well as general consumer publications for analysis. Articles were chosen if they dealt with a specific use of videotape by one corporation for either internal or external purposes.;Analysis supported Marshall McLuhan's contention in Understanding Media that "Once a new technology comes into a social milieu it cannot cease to permeate that milieu until every institution is saturated" (p. 177). The study also lent support to Harold Innis' contention that media tend to have a bias toward either time or space.;The study also reflected the need for "standardization" and "portability" of a technology in order for its diffusion into a culture to occur at any meaningful level. The issue of technology accessibility, as discussed by Neil Postman, was also in evidence.;Further, the study provided evidence that new media do, indeed, impact on older media; i.e., videotape had virtually eliminated 16mm film as an internal media production tool by the 1980s.;In addition, the study provided evidence that as a medium evolves, so do users' professional paradigms, as Thomas Kuhn might have contended.;The study did not, however, adequately provide support for the contentions that so-called dominant media create knowledge empires that ultimately go into disequilibrium or that media create total environments that are not necessarily defined by the content of the technology. |
