The intellectual roots of media ecology in the work and thought of Neil postman

Abstract

This essay addresses the work and thought of Neil Postman, the individual most responsible for formulating and developing the theoretical framework for understanding media that has come to be known as media ecology. While the term media ecology was coined by Marshall McLuhan, it is Postman who defined and expanded its meaning over the course of a career that now spans twenty four books and innumerable articles, creating, in the process, a theory of media of great power and coherence, and which continues to generate new thinking and understanding. The essay outlines Postman's theory of media ecology as it is based in four themes that recur across his work: media education; media/cultural conservatism; technological criticism; and general semantics, or the study of language as medium/technology.