Dispelling the Alphabet Effect

Abstract

Canadian communication theory has accepted as one of its major tenets the superiority of Western civilization brought about by the phonetic alphabet. Challenges to the theory either have not been incorporated into the research literature or have been represented as working theories rather than conclusive evidence. This article seeks to help redress this imbalance by detailing the main claims of the alphabetic literacy arguments in the context of arguments advanced in several disciplines, suggesting that the alphabet effect theory should be dispelled. The article argues that a writing effect unites Western alphabetic and Eastern non-alphabetic cultures in a common heritage, and that historical periods of social advancement of the West and East have alternated in pendulum fashion. The article also introduces alternative views of the relationship between Eastern communication technologies, culture, and history to support the writing effect and pendulum model of the impact of communication technology in the East.Résumé : La théorie canadienne de la communication a accepté comme un de ses principes majeurs que l'alphabet phonétique est à l'origine de la supériorité de la civilisation occidentale. Quant aux défis posés à ce principe, soit on ne les a pas inclus dans la littérature de recherche, soit on les a représentés comme étant des théories de travail plutôt que des arguments solides. Cet article cherche à établir un équilibre en opposant les principaux arguments pour l'alphabétisation que l'alphabet phonétique a permis à des arguments soulevés dans diverses disciplines où l'on propose que cette théorie d'un effet alphabétique soit périmée. Cet article soutient qu'un effet d'écriture unit la culture alphabétique occidentale et la culture non-alphabétique orientale au sein d'un patrimoine commun, et que les périodes historiques de progrès social ont alterné comme une pendule entre l'Orient et l'Occident. L'article présente en outre des perspectives alternatives sur le rapport entre les technologies de communication, la culture et l'histoire orientales pour appuyer l'idée d'un effet d'écriture et d'un modèle de pendule décri-vant l'impact des technologies de la communication en Orient.

Cultural Politics of User-Generated Encyclopaedias: Comparing Chinese Wikipedia and Baidu Baike

“…However, the alphabet effect theory is rightly criticized by Grosswiler (2004) for having an ethnocentric bias (i.e. that Western alphabets are superior to nonalphabetic writing systems).…”

“…that Western alphabets are superior to nonalphabetic writing systems). In particular, the theory's understanding of Chinese writing systems, including the argument that Chinese characters are primitive or inferior to alphabets, has been challenged by various Chinese studies and media studies scholars (DeFrancis, 1989;Grosswiler, 2004;Liao, 2009a). Nevertheless, medium theory has its merits in showing the historical significance of writing systems for media and cultural change, which proves useful for this thesis's focus on media-language evolution and cultural-political change.…”

The Enframing of Code

“…11 Furthermore, it has also been argued that this abstract logical form of cognition made it di⁄cult for the Greeks (focused on abstract geometry) to invent the concepts necessary for the development of algebra (such as zero and in¢nity)^a feat that was instead achieved by the Hindu mathematicians (Logan, 2004). Even though there are many debates about the signi¢cance of the alphabetic encoding as such (Grosswiler, 2004), there is nevertheless general agreement that the sequential encoding of writing has had many very signi¢cant performative outcomes^that is, it produced the manner of beings it was supposed to express^which are now taken for granted as the way the world is (Olson, 1994).…”

From sociality of media to the social as a medium: Diagrams and models of media theory

“…See Baroni (2015) for a pointed critique of the racial prejudices in discussion of alphabetic writing, see also, Grosswiler (2004).…”