James W. Carey

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.

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. [Cite journal
last =Steiner
first =Linda.
authorlink =
coauthors =Editorial staff
title =In Memoriam: James W. Carey
journal =Journalism Studies
volume =7
issue =6
pages =819-823
publisher =Routledge Taylor & Francis Group
location =
date =December 2006
url =
doi =
id =
accessdate =2008-01-07 ]

Communication As Culture (1989)

In his 1989 publication, "Communication As Culture", James Carey devotes a particularly compelling chapter to a seminal analysis of the telegraph. Carey looks at the telegraph as a means of communication, analysing its historical background, as well as the social and commercial changes that it triggered. In particular, Carey focuses on the way in which the telegraph was able to separate communication and transportation [Carey, J. 1989. "Communication as Culture", Routledge, New York and London, p. 203] , the telegraph’s reconfiguration of time and space, and its effects on ideology and other aspects of social life.

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 separated from the physical movement of objects; it also allowed communication to control physical 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.

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).

Reconfiguration of Space and Time

One of the most significant effects that the telegraph had was that is was able to restructure of time and space, in relation to both social and commercial life. James Carey proficiently explores this concept throughout this chapter, detailing the ways in which the telegraph initiated changes in how one communicates across distances and over time. Carey states that the telegraph made geography irrelevant [Carey, J. 1989. "Communication as Culture", Routledge, New York and London, p. 217] in relation to communication. The telegraph “allowed symbols to move independently and faster than transportation” [Carey, J. 1989. Communication as Culture, Routledge, New York and London, p. 204] .

James Carey focuses heavily on the significant changes that the telegraph has made to society, in relation to the diminishing constraints of space on communication. The insignificance of geography subsequently enabled communities to move away from the local and towards the national, and international or global. The telegraph allowed people from one side of the world to communicate almost instantaneously with someone on the other side of the world. Carey notes the changes that the telegraph has triggered in language and literary style. He points out that due to the cost of sending a telegraph, language and literature transformed into a more concise form. The “telegraph made prose lean and unadorned” [Carey, J. 1989. "Communication as Culture", Routledge, New York and London, p. 211] , and subsequently separated the readers previously personal connection with the author. No longer, Carey notes, could personal anecdotes or humour be included. He does however mention that the decreasing relevance of space changed language for other reasons as well. Due to the beginnings of globalisation that the telegraph established, language could no longer be localised, or colloquial. As James Carey notes, the telegraph “led to a fundamental change in news” [Carey, J. 1989. "Communication as Culture", Routledge, New York and London, p. 210] . Literary styles had to become objective in nature, so as it could be read by individuals of all different beliefs and opinions, as well as individuals from many different communities, regions or countries. Carey also notes how this change in the perception of space changed the way that people thought. A new social awareness was apparent, as individuals were able to easily communicate with people over vast distances, who may have very different beliefs or ways of living to their own.

In this work Carey focuses more on the reconfiguration of space as opposed to time, however he does explain that with space diminishing as an obstacle in communication, time becomes somewhat more important. The existence and use of the telegraph meant that the uncertainty of time in relation to trading, for instance, becomes more relevant than the uncertainty of space. Time was almost ‘expanded’ in a way, as trading time was no longer limited to daylight hours, as one may be trading with someone in another time zone or even in a different hemisphere.

According to James Carey the telegraph initiated communication changes, which reconfigured space and time. He argues this succinctly in Chapter 8 of his book.

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

Articles by James W. Carey

* [http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/admissions/struggle/ The Struggle Against Forgetting] an essay based on his September 1995 opening day speech at Columbia.

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

References

External links

* [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/26/nyregion/26carey.html The New York Times: Obituary] (May 26, 2006)
* [http://www.studyplace.org/wiki/index.php/Digital_Carey Carey Archive] from conference held in October 2007
* [http://www.mtsu.edu/~masscomm/seig96/carey/carey.htm Where journalism education went wrong] - a speech given by James Carey at Middle Tennessee State University
* [http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/forums/carey_memoriam2.htm Memorial Website] by MIT Communications forum
* [http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0304/02-feature.php Indymedia and The New Net News] by Graham Meikle.