Week 1 - Lecture Notes on Media Theory

Lecture 1 : Med!um

•
What !s med!c! theory ?

theory asup pos!t!on or a system of Ideas !ntended to
•
:




expla!n Someth!ng espec!ally one based on general pr!nc!ples
,




!ndependent of the th!ng be!ng expla!ned for example . :


darw!n's theory of evolut!on .




•
When we start look!ng at th!s not!on of theory ,
we d!scover
d!fferent types of
Knowledge :




nomothet!c
knowledge !deog!aph!c knowledge

a!ms at
general! zat!ons not much a!ms to
•
so
•




and for mutat!on of laws formulatelawsbuta!.ms at

Understand!ng the Mean!ng
natural of (
mostly !n
Ont!nyent un!que and
•

Sc!ences
. .




often Cultural or subject.ve
" "
*
water bo!ls at 100 degrees C Phenomena
>
( subject to

↳
Knowledge cla!m that
a
change)
g.ne.a.ag.ne.a.nu , .mu
, .nu .nu,
un!versal ly val!d
"
how were
property
•




from observat!ons relat!ons
organ!zed
general
•
so
,
to !n

Iaws
"
Anc!ent Greece ?


theory as tals!f!able (
Popper ) theory as a toolbox
• •




( Foucault )

, example of nomothet!c and !dea
graph!c knowledge



both

formu / ate
nomothet!c Knowledge cla!m
a
general
rule and
nomothet!c knowledge cla!m
law



!deograph!c Knowledge cla!m



↳ because !t !s
mak!ng analys!s of that
an part!cular
and
water at that
part!cular moment probably !f
,
you go
analyze !t !n 2000
years the chem!cal Compos!t!on of
f- astern Med!terranean sea w!lt have
changed

bas!e !dea beh!nd cla!m do
So the those Knowledge !s
•
:



you
want to
general!ze or do
you
want to br!ng Out the

?
un!que ness and
spec!f!c !ty of that
th!ng

!f nomothet!c
*


general!ze :
!t br!ngs Out and
spec!f!c !ty !deograph!c
•


un!que ness :