Communication, Technology And Culture

Of all affairs, communication is the most wonderful. As the logical starting point of communication, the definition of the word communication determines the path of communication research to a large extent. In the descriptions of communication, the most well-known is:Communication refers to the transmission of social information or the operation of social information systems. The definition of communication as the transmission of information, which is predominant in American thought, has been dominated the basic framework of communication studies. When communication-effect research mode was incredibly well known, James·W. Carey proposed a refreshing view--a ritual view of communication.James W. Carey redefined communication according to the ritual view: Communication is not point to the transmission of information in the air, but to the maintaining of society over time; is not refers to the behavior of the sharing of information, but rather the representation of sharing beliefs. In Carey’s view, the origin and the highest state of communication does not mean the transfer of intelligence information, but to build and maintain an orderly, meaningful cultural world, which can be used to dominate and to accommodate human behavior. Carey’s ideology had a great influence on American journalism and communication research, promoted the culture turn of communication research, and opened up a new path for the communication research.James W. Carey’s proceedings Communication as Culture--Essays on Media and Society was published in china in2005. It provides a place for us to study communication means and modern technology from a cultural perspective, and lets us hear another voice in addition to empirical studies in the field of communication research in United States. This paper is intended to study James W. Carey’s unique concept of culture and technology on the discourse of the ritual view of communication, and analyze its relationship with the technical school, expecting to provide a new perspective to study James W. Carey’s thoughts and explore its research path. The paper is divided into five parts:The introduction part gives a brief discussion of James W. Carey academic thoughts, summaries the previous studies on his communication thoughts, and describes the research ideas, research methods and other related issues.Chapter I is about James W. Carey’s ritual view of communication, starts from the analysis of the two core concepts of ritual and communication, discusses the background and ideological foundation of the ritual view of communication, and focuses on the distinction between the transmission view of communication and the ritual view of communication.Chapter Ⅱ is about the relationships between communication and culture, technology and culture. It mainly discusses James W. Carey’s concept of culture and technology. Carey advocated of the need to face reality, to remove the mystery of electronic supremacy, and at the same time he opposed the view that technology and cultural were opposite. James W. Carey believed culture and technology is nearly seamless.Chapter Ⅲ is a continuation of chapter Ⅱ. On the basis of Chapter II, Chapter III discusses the relations between James W. Carey and the technical school, focusing on Carey’s inheritance and development of technological determinism and its inspiring significance for later scholars.Chapter Ⅳ is about James W. Carey’s thoughts’ referential significance to our communication studies and the exploration of the research path of his thoughts, including the research fulcrum and methods and so on.James W. Carey’s ritual thoughts do not occupy the mainstream position in academia of the United States, but it has a very important academic significance. Carey’s thoughts about communication give us some inspirations different from the mainstream paradigms. Carey put his research in the context of the United States, instead of copying the cultural models in the UK, which also has a great referential significance for our own communication studies.