Understanding literacy: Theoretical foundations for research in media ecology

The major scholars foundational to media ecology have all shared an interest and focus in literacy. From their study of literacy and its consequences, a set of theories and approaches developed which has provided media ecologists with frameworks with which to study all other media. This essay reviews the major scholarship of Harold Innis, Eric Havelock, Marshall McLuhan, Jack Goody, Walter Ong, and Elizabeth Eisenstein, as they focused on the development of writing systems, and later, printing. The theoretical frameworks to have emerged from their inquiries are central to understanding media ecology.