De-technologizing media ecology pedagogy: A plea for tradition, practice and narrative

Abstract

This article explains how Jacques Ellul’s conception of technique intervenes into media ecology pedagogy. Technique appears in media ecology pedagogy through attempts to turn media ecology into an academic discipline and by placing discussions of media ecology in the classroom into the realm of communication theory. The intervention of technique on media ecology pedagogy undercuts the major tenets of media ecology and its ethical orientation, and this intervention also undermines media ecology’s potency to elucidate the human condition. As an alternative to discipline and theory, this article forwards tradition, practice and narrative as pedagogical options and orientations, which allow media ecologists to carry the study of media as environments into a variety of classroom contexts and discussions.