Harold Adams Innis:

The Bias of Communications & Monopolies of Power

From the end of WWII until his death in 1952, Innis worked steadily on an investigation
of the social history of communication, studying the communication media of the last
4000 years. From the thousand page manuscript which he left at his death came his two
pioneering communications works: Empire and Communications (1950), and The Bias
of Communication (1951).
Time-biased media, such as stone and clay, are durable and heavy. Since they are
difficult to move, they do not encourage territorial expansion; however, since they have
a long life, they do encourage the extension of empire over time. Innis associated these
media with the customary, the sacred, and the moral. Time-biased media facilitate the
development of social hierarchies, as archetypally exemplified by ancient Egypt. For
Innis, speech is a time-biased medium.
Space-biased media are light and portable; they can be transported over large distances.
They are associated with secular and territorial societies; they facilitate the expansion of
empire over space. Paper is such a medium; it is readily transported, but has a relatively
short lifespan.
For Innis, the organization of empires seems to follow two major models:
1. The first model is militaristic and concerned with the conquest of space.
2. The second model is religious and concerned with the conquest of time.

Comparatively, the media that have supported the military conquering of space have
been lighter, so that the constraints of long distances could be lessened(reducidas).
Those media that supported theocratic empires had relative durability as a major
characteristic so that they could support the concepts of eternal life and endless
dynasties. (ix)
Innis perspective is based on an examination of how new media arise(emergen) in the
first place. In order to understand any medium, we must attend not only to its physical
characteristics, but also to the way in which it is employed and institutionalized. Innis
sees a dialectical relationship between society and technology: they influence one
another mutually. According to this view, certain social forms and situations encourage
the development of new media; these media, operating within existing situations, react
back on society to produce a new cycle of change. It would thus be a mistake to
consider Innis a technological determinist: he does not believe that technology drives
social evolution. He does, however, appreciate the considerable power invested in
communications technologies and monopolies of knowledge to shape culture. Instability
resulting from a lack of balance between time- and space-biased media, and agitation
from the margins of the empire can equally drive social change. In 2000, the rapid
adoption of music-sharing software like Napster provoked an immediate reaction from
both the recording industry and the law-makers. New regulations encouraged the
development of new technologies.
He establishes dialectic between media with a time-bias and those with a space-bias:
According to its characteristics [a medium of communication] may be better suited to
transportation, or to the dissemination of knowledge over time than over space,
particularly if the medium is heavy and durable and not suited to transportation, or to
the dissemination of knowledge over space than over time, particularly if the medium is
light and easily transported.