The Technological Determinism of Means of Mass Communication in Time and Space (in Harold innis’s Theoretical Concepts)

This article deals with the main provisions of the communication theory of the Canadian scientist, the founder of the Toronto School of communication theory, H. A. Innis. The main motives for changing the scientific interests of H. Innis from economic history to the theory of social communications are shown. The research carried out H. Innis was aimed at analysis of the concept of mass communication means and its influence on social and political processes. It indicated that H. Innis defines two types of media: temporal and spatial. Each type of mass communication means is characterized by a special material of production and a way of storing and transmitting information. In terms of civilization, temporal media are focused on modernity and traditions, preservation of moral and religious values, and spatial - on future and innovations, development of technology and secular culture. In accordance with H. Innis’s communications theory, the technology of mass communication influences the competition of media among themselves and promotes the emergence of a monopoly on knowledge.