Teaching media ecology Russian style

Media ecology is an interdisciplinary humanistic endeavour relying on inspiration and intuition, encouraging discovery learning and training of perception rather than memorization of facts and slovenly adherence to methodologies. However, teaching it often calls for a set of frameworks and methodologies that would provide a structure for students. This article briefly reviews four familiar frameworks developed by the founders of western media ecology (Nystrom’s synthesis of communication models, McLuhan’s tetrad, Postman’s set of seven questions, Ellul’s milieus as expanded by Garrison) and introduces a series of frameworks developed by the founder of the Russian school of the ecology of culture, Yuri Rozhdestvensky. These frameworks address levels of morality, semiosis of societies, communication strata and strata of culture. The article shows how these models can be applied in the classroom to encourage probing, discovery and pattern recognition. Finally the article proposes that inspiration and intuition be joined to a set of discipline specific methodologies.