Experiencing mediums the logocentric way
The logocentric metaphysic of communication is one that permeates most
of the Western experience of all of the mediums that are discussed in this
book – whether in terms of individual communicative technologies or of
communicative architectures.
In much communication theory too, many of the various assump-
tions which underpin logocentrism can be seen to operate. These are: a
philosophy of the medium as vessel, of individuals as ‘users’ of this kind
of medium, and of meaning as the product of intentionality. Two medi-
ums are postulated within logocentrism: firstly, natural languageas a con-
duit; and, secondly, a technical meansof conveying language, such as print,
television or on-line communication networks.
It follows that, within the logocentric tradition, some technical medi-
ums are viewed as ‘conveying’ messages more powerfully than others, and
are able to provide an immediacy that others are not. The ideology of such
a state of communication is virtual reality itself, in which the process of rep-
resentation withdraws to the point where only the represented remains.
The yearning for such a condition of unmediated transparency is, as Bolter
and Grusin (1999) argue, especially pronounced in the context of digital
technology. They claim that, from the early 1990s, new digital media,
together with the way older media have remediated to take on the form of
the new, ‘fulfill our apparently insatiable desire for immediacy’ (5).Live ‘point-of-view’ television programs show viewers what it is like to
accompany a police officer on a dangerous raid or to be a skydiver or a race
car driver hurtling through space. Filmmakers routinely spend tens of mil-
lions of dollars to film on location or to recreate period costumes and place
in order to make their viewers feel as if they were ‘really’ there. ... In all
these cases, the logic of immediacy dictates that the medium itself should
disappear and leave us in the presence of the thing represented: sitting in
the race car or standing on a mountain top. (5–6)Bolter and Grusin argue that immediacy depends on what they call
‘hypermediacy’ – a fixation with the medium itself (6). Where ‘one
medium seems to have convinced viewers of its immediacy, other media
try to appropriate that conviction’ (9). They point out that increasingly
during the 1990s televised newscasts, with their multiple panels of text,
image and logos, ‘came to resemble web pages in their hypermediacy’ (9).
These examples of multi-media enhancement of the television medium
are driven not simply by demands for rich formats of information, but by
a metaphysical commitment to expressivism, and the transmission model
of communication.
As suggested by Derrida, the experience of medium in logocentric cul-
ture is predominantly an instrumental affair. A medium is lived as just a
tool for expressing meaning, just as language is viewed as a transparent130 COMMUNICATION THEORYHolmes-05.qxd 2/15/2005 1:00 PM Page 130