James W. Carey

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James Carey was a distinguished and respected communications theorist, media critic and a teacher of journalists latterly at Columbia University. He died in 2006 at age 71.

Contents

[edit] Early career

He attended the University of Rhode Island, where he graduated in marketing and advertising. He gained a doctorate at the University of Illinois, on the economics of communications. Subsequently he taught at the University of Illinois, rising to dean of the College of Communications. Subsequently in 1992 he joined the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University where he founded the university's multidisciplinary Ph.D. program in Communications.[1]

[edit] Communication As Culture (1989)

[edit] Watershed In Connection

Carey's focal points in his book Communication As Culture, and more specifically Chapter 8 entitled Technology and Ideology: The Case of the Telegraph, revolved around the telegraph and its understated role in future developments in communication. The underlining argument in his essay perceives the notion that the telegraph '...permitted for the first time the effective separation of communication from transportation...'. That is, it had become possible for the message to travel faster than people, horses or trains could deliver them', '...the telegraph not only allowed messages to be sparated from the physical movement of objects; it also allowed communication to control pysical processes actively...'. However, he also remarks that whilst the telegraph was a watershed in communication, it only built on previous frameworks and infrastructure, '...[it] twisted and altered but did not displace patterns of connection...'(p. 204). He further elaborates on the notion with an analogy of the infrastructure of telegraph wires following the physical and natural patterns of geography.

[edit] Monopoly Capitalism

His argument also lent to the notion that the telegraph facilitated the growth of monopoly capitalism and imperialism, and to a wider extent the de-personalisation of business relations. Before the telegraph most business decisions were made 'face to face', compared with the faster, less personal service provided with its introduction. Indeed the relationship between merchant to merchant was overnight transformed into one of buyer/seller, and one based on corporate hierarchy, ie. management. As Chandler remarks, '...the visible hand of management replaced the invisible hand of the market forces where and when new technology...permitted high volume and speed of materials...'(1977).

[edit] Redefinition of Space and Time

The article also alluded to ideas that “the telegraph, then, not only altered the relation between communication and transportation; it also changed the fundamental ways in which communication was thought about” (p.204). Carey named this model for thinking about communication, “a transmission model” (p.204) as it displaced “older religious views of communication” (p.204). He believed “the telegraph, like most innovations in communication down through the computer, had its first and most profound impact on the conduct of commerce, government and military” (p.216). Another major idea lay in the interpretation of 'time and space', in that the telegraph essentially changed the notion of time from one which is empirical to one based on geographical time differences. That is, no longer is time measured, '...time has been redefined as an ecological niche to be filled down to the microsecond...a level at which time can be pictured but not experienced...'(p. 228). Space, in Carey's sense, was also a diminishing factor due to the ability of the telegraph to convey the same message over vasts distances in minimal time. Graham Meikle's statement in the M/C Journal also alludes to this redefinition in that '...the telegraph solved problems of communicating across space...opened up a new arena for expansion...'(2003)

[edit] Books

  • Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society, Routledge, New York and London. ISBN 041590725X
  • James Carey: A Critical Reader by Eve Stryker Munson (Editor), Catherine A. Warren (Editor) ISBN 0816627037
  • Thinking With James Carey: Essays on Communications, Transportation, History] by Jeremy Packer (Editor), Craig Robertson (Editor) ISBN 0820474053

[edit] Articles by James W. Carey

[edit] Books and articles concerning his ideas

Books

  • Contemporary consumption rituals: A research anthology., Otnes, C. C., & Lowrey, T. M. (Eds.). (2004). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. ISBN-13 978-0805847796

Journals

  • The Journey of Ritual Communication, Studies in Communication Sciences 7/1 (2007) 117–138 Zohar Kadmon Sella
  • Wedding as text: Communicating cultural identities through ritual. Leeds-Hurwitz, W. (2002). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • Ritual communication: From everyday conversation to mediated ceremony. Rothenbuhler, E. W. (1998). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Ritual and irony: Observations about the discourse of political change in two Germanies. Quarterly Journal of Speech, Knuf, J. (1994). 80, 174-194.
  • "Ritual" in organizational culture theory: Some theoretical reflections and a plea for greater terminilogical rigor. Knuf, J. (1993). In S. A. Deetz (Ed.), Communication yearbook 16 (pp. 61-103). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
  • "Spit first and then say what you want!" Concerning the use of language and ancillary codes in ritualized communication, Knuf, J. (1992). Quarterly journal of speech, 78, 466-482.
  • The role of rituals and fantasy themes in teachers' bargaining. Putnam, L. L., Van Hoeven, S. A., & Bullis, C. A. (1991). Western Journal of Speech Communication, 55, 85-103.
  • Reconsidering James Carey: How many rituals does it take to make an artifact?" Marvin, C. (1990, Fall). American Journalism History, 7(4), 216-226.
  • Indymedia and The New Net News: Volume 6 Issue 2 2003, Meikle, G (2003). M.C. Journal

[edit] References

  1. ^ Steiner, Linda.; Editorial staff (December 2006). "In Memoriam: James W. Carey". Journalism Studies 7 (6): 819-823. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. 

[edit] External links