As our symbols and media have evolved significantly since the invention of the alphabet-hailed as the first communication technology-so have our thinking processes, social and political structures, and conceptions of reality. It assumes that the symbol systems and technologies people use to think with, communicate, and represent our experiences play an integral role in how we create and understand reality. Media ecology is distinct from communication studies proper in its focus on the integration, interdependence, and dynamism of media and technology in human affairs. вЂњEcologyвЂќ is also a transgressive and encompassing term, drawing upon systems theory and cybernetics in order to make sense of the evolution of humans and technology in the coproduction of culture. вЂњMediaвЂќ refers to communication technologies as well as other communicative forms, such as the brain and body, the classroom and the courtroom, and the languages, symbols, and codes of successive historical eras. Media ecology is an expansive, inclusive, and therefore multidisciplinary field, borrowing from a range of academic disciplines, including technology and information studies, linguistics and semiotics, and cultural studies. It comprises a theory about the complex interplay between humans, technology, media, and the environment, with the aim of increasing awareness of mutual effects. Media ecology focuses on media as environments, and environments as media, with an explicit concern for their evolution, effects, and forms. Previously, вЂњmediumвЂќ had been conceptualized in terms of transportation now in communication studies it is typically understood as an environment. In biology, a medium is defined as a substance within which a culture grows in media ecology, a medium is a technology within which human culture grows, giving form to its politics, ideologies, and social organization. Neil Postman famously used a biological metaphor to explain вЂњmedia ecology,вЂќ a term he borrowed from McLuhan to spearhead an intellectual tradition.

Marshall mcluhan communication theory