 Good day. We're going to talk about the critical perspective in communication through the changing landscape in communication. So we're going to have three parts in this discussion. The first one is the changing of communication in the landscape through orality and literacy. Then later on we'll talk about the four epochs of communication according to Marshall McLuhan, a media theorist. And then we'll end up with a blurring of genres, the change and the transition of media from traditional media to new media and how we can distinguish the blurring of genres between the two. So now we'll have the orality and literacy. Okay, so orality and literacy was discussed by Walter Ong and then there were a lot of theories that have added to it. So orality basically is when we involve oral communication, verbal communication in the study of daily life. And then literacy is when writing comes in. So orality begins with how people and tradition, practices, ideas and certain behavior are passed on from one generation to the other through oral communication and verbal messages, verbal codes. Whereas literacy is when we involve recorded ideals and statements that have been passed on from one generation to the other through literature. So we have definitely these recording devices that would attest to all these oral evidences. Okay, so Walter Ong is a professor of English literature, is also a philosopher and a religious historian. So based from that perspective in that background, he also studied the progress of orality and literacy from orality to literacy and how it changes human consciousness and behavior. So we're going to talk about it in detail later on. So the order of things according to Walter Ong is when orality started is the primary orality. This is when all of the interaction is passed through verbal communication and messages. So there were no recording devices, there were no statements, there were no scriptures to attest to all of these. Then later on, when literacy comes in, that's when writing started. So after that print came in and then electronic media. So the changing landscape of communication is also looking at the existence of literacy with or without oral expressions. So that itself would tell us that literacy cannot just exist without oral expressions. So oral expressions paved way to literacy to come in. So the progress started from orality and then to literacy. The orality of language with verbal communication understands that in itself is a basic form of language. So verbal communication is the basic form of language. What does it tell? It tells that verbal communication is rule governed. It also has its own structure. It also has its patterns. And of course it's very important to understand how people lived before and until now and how it changes with occurrence of writing and reading at the same time. Language studies then, according to Walter Ong, is now focused more on texts rather than just the orality or the rhetoric. Why is it so? People believe that when they read something and when there are texts that would actually tell us that, hey, we have something that evidence, something that we can actually analyze with something that we can hold, something that's very difficult now. What we need to understand and what we need to tell our students to further understand the world is through the combination and collaboration of orality and literacy. It's not just about reading texts but reading what happens outside of the text and that's where orality comes in. That is when rhetoric comes in at the same time. Okay, so next after we have transitioned from orality to literacy, we're going to talk about the four epics of communication by Marshall McLuhan, which is eventually trying to be specific with the progress of communication through time. So it begins with the tribal epoch, of course, according to Marshall McLuhan, then the literacy era, print, and then electronic. But before he died, he also said that maybe there is this digital age that will come and he was right all along. And of course compared to Walter Ong, Walter has four stages, the primary orality, literacy era, the secondary orality, which is sort of the print media, the combination of orality and literacy and of course the electronic and the digital era. So we start with tribal epoch. The tribal epoch is basically Ong's primary orality. It started with mimesis, Merlin-Donald's mimetic communication or pre-verbal vocalization. It includes gestures, how we act out different things through non-verbal codes. So we try to imitate, like we're mimes, try to imitate the people around us, trying to imitate the environment, the nature that is around us. So these are face-to-face interaction. Oral communication can be sequential speech because it has to have an order. But at the same time, it's conceptual. So it's intuitive. People try to understand each other through instincts, through symbols. That is not written. There are no literature to tell to that. So it's conceptual, intuitive, more acoustic and auditory. That means it's more of the hearing, the senses. That is very important. So oral storytelling is also important. Their dissemination and gathering of information is through oral communication. In the tribal epoch at the same time, it is very important that we consider the communal space. This is where people talk to each other. This is where things occur. The contact zones where they try to communicate with each other. And it's very important because it is only understood through verbal communication or messages to each other. And then, of course, the literate epoch. The literate epoch is where things started to get a little more academic. People got more knowledge through symbols. They tried to associate symbols, characters, different literature to tell to that. So literate epochs started that. They have different symbols and pieces of evidence that would actually support their oral communication. So, of course, hieroglyphics started in Egypt, petroglyphs and cuneiform has started. There are inscriptions in wood, inscriptions in walls, in cave walls and stones. So this is also the literate epoch is also the beginning of the alphabets. Oral communication is supported by symbols and representations. Learning is facilitated visually and orally. So you have someone to talk to you about it and you have a visual element to support that. So Makluhan argued that logic and linear thinking rose in this epoch. Logic and linear, why? It's a structure and people try to have an order to things that they try to tell. Things that they try to communicate to other people. So they become rational causal, of course. There is cause and effect. They understand that there is a difference between what happened before and why it happened. Of course, visual and again specialized. So the intellect of the people changed. It grew more complex but more structured at the same time. So print epoch is the third one according to Makluhan. This is not just a simple epoch. Print epoch is a revolutionary epoch. So we have oral, tribal, verbal communication. We have literate. So they have pieces of evidence. They have symbols and characters and the international phonetic alphabet maybe. All of these started. But with the print epoch, all of these were spread out. All of the ideas and all of the knowledge were scattered from different places. So it's dubbed as the Gutenberg Galaxy because of the printing press. Of course, the invention of the printing press. And at revolutionized sources of knowledge and public information. So people got more idea. There are specific groups who doesn't know about it before. Now they know it because of the print medium. So in print epoch, the acquisition of knowledge is linear and ordered. Thus needs to be factual and well researched. And so the last part of the print epoch is the art of memory. When we have books, print media, the publishing. These are the things that would tell people and remind people of the certain memories and events that have happened in the past. And that would try to remind them of what's going to happen in the future and for them to help them to try to foresee what's going to happen and what they're going to do to solve that. And then of course, printing press itself produces books which in turn produced citizens. This is very important in order to share knowledge. In order to make ideologies and certain parts of people to be educated more. So the printing press because a lot of people, it's massively produced. People get a lot of information at the same time and they can try to cross check it with other people. So this is where people become more educated. They are more empowered because they have more knowledge about what's happening around and what's happening somewhere else. Which is maybe they're not involved but they know that they can help out. The medium is the message is also important in the print epoch. This is where it started. The medium in itself is the message. The person who holds it, who holds it, the speaker, the actual material, the content, it is very important in order to understand what it means. So the medium in itself has a story to tell. The medium in itself is important in order to understand, in order to look at it, what does it say and what is the content all about? It's very important. And then of course, the fourth epoch according to Marshall McLuhan it is the electronic epoch. Of course, electronic devices, electric wires, that's where it come in. So the electronic way to transmit messages is very important in the electronic epoch. So of course, there were inventions of the telegraph, the telephone, so it became, the communication became convenient. People tried to communicate from one place to the other, more efficient. So mass media started also here, the television, the cinema, the radio and people are getting more informed at the same time. And it's a large group of audience. So messages are transmitted quicker, of course, wider and more efficient. The electronic epoch also revived the presence of orality or the oral tradition. People can hear you from the radio, they can see you on the television, or in cinema or in film. So distance is no longer a major factor in communicating as well. Because of these telegraphs, telephones, television and the radio, people try to communicate now easier and faster than ever. So in the electronic period or the electronic epoch, it is the age of information and communication. Because the electric media instantly and constantly create a total field of interacting events in which all men participate. Why is it important to understand that all men participate? Because it's a larger group of audience. So from oral tradition, that can happen from one tribe to the other, one group to the other, one person to the other. From the literate epoch, from individual pieces of evidence to printing press or the print epoch where it multiplied to different people, it went to electronic where people now can participate. They can now get their feedback or send their feedback across instantly and constantly through communication. So what is the fifth epoch according to Marshall McLuhan? Right before he died, he said, maybe there will be a digital age and he was right all along. The digital age is where we are now. This is the global village. It transcends boundaries. It transcends different communities. So this is the amalgamation of oral, written, print, and electronic. They are now all in one. So messages are transmitted faster than ever, faster than just the electronic medium. Feedback can be quicker and it changed how people behave and especially how people think. Abstract yet objective, that's the digital age, fast but can be disorganized. It is efficient but yet problematic at the same time. So we have to be wary in order to understand the messages we get in this age. So now we go to the media. We have two ways. We have the traditional media and the new media. So we just have to try to compare what traditional media is and what new media is. So traditional, of course, media is mediated communication. You always use a vehicle in order to send your message across. You use a channel. There could be noise around, disruptions and interruptions. And of course it's very important you have a speaker or the source and you have the receiver or someone who gets it. And of course there will be a feedback after that. So the exchange of communication is there. It's important to understand that there is a medium. There is this channel that tries to connect you from one place to the other. Okay. So the first one is traditional media and then the other one is new media. So the mass media is sort of in between. It tries to transcend that traditional media to the new media as a change in the landscape of communication. So traditional media, of course, is what we understand as the folk media. You know, it begins with the tribal epoch as well. We have the oral tradition, the oral primary cultures. So all of these things are trying to be together through verbal communication. So people communicate face to face. We have all these stages, all these performances that have happened in personal settings. So we don't have multiple copies of these. We have different things that would support that. But we have personal interactions and that is what traditional media is. We talk about place. We talk about performances, life performances. We talk about different quotations or different epics that have passed on from one generation to the other. So traditional media only connects people without electronic, without the digital medium or the online space. So the new media is where everything changes now. This is where digital technology comes in. Everything is quicker, everything is faster. You know, you can just get things. You can just get news from one click. You know, you can order things. You can travel at one place to the other. You can get cheap things online. So it changed the way people communicate. It changed the way how we communicate every day. So very important for the new medium is the insertion of computers or the internet. This is the digital media that is interactive and in which incorporates a two-way communication that is fast and efficient at the same time. So very important point on the new media is the online medium. So you have to always think of that. So what is, you know, try to collaborate the print and the new media. How is it happening now? Print before, we can see newspapers. They're all flashed there. This is the sidewalk. And then we have now the e-books. We can have newspaper online. We cannot even buy it. You know, it's free. So you get all of these information now quicker and faster. You know, just have to have a good internet connection. So print and new media. Some of the examples are online news, e-books, e-journals, online magazines. Of course, it's very, very, very fast. And of course we have also different types of agencies that are not just broadcast agencies now. We have online journalism. People are more aware now and we are more updated real time. So what have happened two minutes ago, what have happened five minutes ago, or even an hour ago, can be broadcasted in just 30 minutes. We can just write, you know, a story about it in just 30 to one hour. And then we can publish it online. So that's how quick it is now because of the new media. As electronic and new media, it changed the way we view things every day. It also changed the way we behave. Before we have television, we have radio. We have to switch it on. We have to put our batteries. We have the color cable subscribers. And then we try to tune into our channels at the specific time of the day where it was published or where it is aired. But now it's totally different. You can re-watch it at your own time. You can re-watch it wherever you are. First of all, there is an internet connection. It changed the way we communicate. It changed the way we behave. It changed our habit. So broadcast media is showcased online or through digital channels. So some of the examples are new streaming sites, the tele-radio podcasts. So social media as well. Reality TV. So animated movies. All of these are examples of how electronic media is trying to connect with the digital technology. It tries to change the way we think as well. So we also have the outdoor new media. These are outdoor media. It's talking about posters, billboards, things that we can see in transport system, things we can see in community spaces. So now it changed the way we see things today. When you talk about new media in the outdoor, these are things that are fast. You can see billboards trying to change colors. Billboards trying to change things in just an instant. So all of these outdoor media actually become more interactive in order to communicate to the people or its target audience. So all of these three, print in the new media, electronic in the new media, and outdoor in the new media are testament to how things have changed because of the advent of new media in our daily life. So what is the blurring of genres? Where is this media convergence taking place? Where is it happening? How is it happening? The transition from just the traditional media, let's say print medium to an insertion of digital technology is the media convergence. All of them are meshed together. All of them are collaborating. Thus, there is a blurring of genre. We cannot distinguish which is which. Have you watched this Netflix-bander snatch? It totally changed the way people think. It totally changed the way people behave in television or towards television content. It's different. It's online now and they can even participate. So genres are blurred. You don't know which is which. You don't know if it's already a print newspaper or an online newspaper. Is it a print magazine or an online magazine? Look at Summit Media. They're changing. They changed from publishing to now just pure online. So it changed people's behavior at the same time. So blurring of genres is when we cannot distinguish all of these changes. From orality to literacy, the four epochs and new media and traditional media. Everything have changed. So what is it now? What's in it for us? Where will we go from here? We don't know. Things have changed. We have augmented reality. We have virtual reality now. So what will happen? Will we have another age or will we stick with digital age? And that's how we communicate now. The combination of orality and literacy at the same time. The amalgamation of print. The tribal epoch and oral communication. We don't know. And that's the question and that's the challenge for all of us. In order to understand the changing landscape in communication is we start from where it started to when it started and how it started. To how we're going to progress it and how are we going to push it forward. So that's it. And thank you for listening.