EARLY WORK

Michael started his career in Papua New Guinea, studying the effects of new media in that area. In that case, the new media was written language.

“A new medium can influence the culture in ways we can’t foresee. In Papua New Guinea, it influenced census-taking and map-making.

“The area we were mapping is very rural. For one thing, there was no written language and no proper names.” Michael said people would use relationship names—“Mom,” “Cousin,” and so on. “The census required people come up with fixed names,” said Michael.

Michael said mapping parts of Papua New Guinea was difficult because people were constantly moving: “You needed to get over 200 people in a village to get on the map. People were very interested in getting on the map, but [residents] couldn’t recruit too many outsiders or build a very big village because then there was the problem of distrust and accusations of witchcraft.”

In Papua New Guinea, Michael started asking the question, “What are the hidden effects of media?” That question led to his YouTube video, “Web 2.0: The Machine is Us/ing Us,” which quickly became an internet sensation. Watch the video here.

MOST EXCITING PART OF YOUR WORK

“I love whenever I can get into the field.”

Michael has spent a total of two years in Papua New Guinea. He also loves being in the classroom.

MOST DEMANDING PART OF YOUR WORK

Michael says that many of the most exciting things about his job are also the most demanding. “I teach huge classes, as many as 400 [students] in one class. You can make the case that the more students you have, the better.”

HOW DO YOU DEFINE GEOGRAPHY?

“Geography is the study of the impact of the world on humans, and humans on the world.”

GEO-CONNECTION

Media ecology is the study of media and the social, cultural, and physical environment.

“The basic idea [is] to get outside the idea that media is a tool. It's actually media mediating relationships.” Michael points out that there are “restrictions and biases with all modes of communication, different contextual cues” and “telephone communication,” for example, “is different from face-to-face communication.”

SO, YOU WANT TO BE A . . . MEDIA ECOLOGIST

“Definitely start learning languages. Learning a language opens up the world.”

GET INVOLVED

“Open up to people different from you, know them, like them. Keep on practicing your ability to like people different from you.”