Analysis On The Bias And The Inlfuence Of Internet With The Standpoint Of Media Ecology

Since the beginning of the electronic age, the science and technology of the humansociety has developed rapidly. One of the major achievements is the invention of Internet,which leads us into the Internet age with informationization and digitalization. Almost allthe social activities, including studying, working, living and etc, are inseparably associatedwith the Internet. Due to the importance of the Internet as one of the communicationmediums, and its close connection with our social activities, it is essential and necessary tostudy the Internet. This paper focuses on the Internet itself. We use the theory of mediaecology to analyze the characteristic and the bias of mediums. The objective is to study theunnoticeable influences of the characteristic and the bias of mediums on people’s mind andconsciousness, the society, and the culture. In addition, we try to propose some suggestionsof how to deal with the influences.This paper is organized as follows. In the first section, we provide a generalintroduction of media ecology, including the definition, the intellectual history and threeimportant theoretical propositions. The second section analyzes the medium characteristicsof the Internet as environment from the following aspects: perceptual, symbol and social. Inthe third section, we introduce the medium theories proposed by Innis, Mcluhan, Meyrowitzand so on. Depending on the theories, we analyze the time-bias and space-bias, theextensions of humanity and the bias of scenario integration of the Internet. Specifically, thepotential influence of the biases of the Internet on society, culture and people themselves areemphasized. Inspired by the Boltzmann’s criticism on TV culture, we also study theproblem of humanized Internet. How to minimize the negative influences brought by thebias of the Internet, and realize the balance in the media ecology is considered in the fourthsection. Finally, we conclude the paper in the last section. We briefly summarize theviewpoints of media ecology. Then we get the conclusion that, in the Internet age, themedium has become the indispensable part of our lives. We need to realize the influence ofthe medium and treat it in a proper way.