By Gianne Carlo U. Reyes
What are the differences between primary oral cultures and literary cultures? How are they related with
each other?
The main difference between oral cultures and literary cultures is the manner of how they are being
communicated. Primary oral cultures exchange information by speaking or the use of speech. Whereas, the
literate culture makes use of writing. In this point in time, literary culture now makes us of printed media
as well as writing.
Primary oral cultures likely depend on perception to have the ability to receive and understand
information. This means that a person can easily receive information and can clarify their concerns by
asking the sender about the conveyed message. In spite of the fact that oral cultures directly convey
messages, the information passed from one person to another slightly deviates from the original depending
on how the recipient interpreted the information. Literate cultures, on the other hand, use writing and printed
media to pass information. It can be stored through various platforms. Written or printed, the information
is stored and kept at its original and can be passed on to more recipients.
Though both cultures differ in modes of communication, both conveys information and are actively
used at this point in time. Using speech as well as printed media, expressing information is effectively
practiced and executed.
What does Walter Ong mean by the intersubjectivity of communication? How does this differentiate
communication from media?
Communication is intersubjective and the media model is not (Ong 172-173). The intersubjectivity
of communication means that only humans have the capacity to form true communication wherein people
are trying to exchange information. Furthermore, Ong argues that communication cannot be treated as
media in the light of the fact that it can give a false impression of the nature of verbal and other types of
communication. The intersubjectivity of communication differentiates communication from media. The
particular reason for that is it involves human consciousness. ‘Communication is distinctively human and
which signals the capacity of human beings to form true communities wherein person shares with person
interiorly, intersubjectively’ (Ong 173).
To sum up why the intersubjectivity of communication differs from media is that the latter
disseminates information in a one-sided manner, where only the sender passes the information to the
receiver/s, not allowing an exchange of information unlike the former.
How does the ‘media’ model of communication show chirographic (i.e. writing) conditioning?
According to Ong (173), willingness to live with the “media” model of communication shows
chirographic conditioning. First, chirographic cultures regard speech as more specifically informational
since it is first written; thoughts are organized, before it was verbally spoken. Second, the written text
appears to be a one-way informational sheet, there is no need for a real receiver to be present when the texts
take form. The media model is conditioned by writing before it reaches the recipient, where sometimes the
receiver can be fictional. In conclusion, Ong stated that making the communication be based upon texts is
how the media model of communication show chirographic conditioning.
Source:
Ong, W. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. London, UK: Routledge, 1982