Abstract
Ong argues that communication technologies shape how people think and organise knowledge. Oral cultures rely on memory and storytelling, while writing and print encourage permanent, analytical, and individual thought. Modern digital media combine written technology with the immediacy of speech.
Context
Walter J. Ong (1912-2003) published Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word in 1982.
Ong's thinking was influenced by Marshall McLuhan. Both studied how communication technologies influence human thought and culture, but they approached the subject from different directions:
General / specific
McLuhan developed a broad theory of media, arguing that every medium, such as speech, writing, print, television, or electronic communication, reshapes society. His approach emphasises the structure and technological characteristics of media rather than only the messages they convey.
Ong focused more specifically on the relationship between orality, literacy, and consciousness. He examined how people in oral cultures use memory, repetition, rhythm, and communal interaction, and how writing and print encourage more abstract, visual, linear, and individualistic forms of thought. His approach is more concerned with language, education, cognition, and the psychological effects of literacy.
Technological / cultural
McLuhan’s analysis is generally more global and technological. He explored how media reorganise social space and time, famously claiming that “the medium is the message.” For McLuhan, the arrival of electronic media could reconnect people through what he called a “global village.” His writing is often suggestive, encouraging readers to recognise patterns across different media.
Ong’s approach is more historical and cultural. He traced transformations from primary oral cultures to literate cultures and later to electronic communication. Although he recognised the importance of technology, he paid closer attention to how communication systems affect memory, knowledge, education, and human consciousness. Ong also underlined that electronic media do not simply return society to orality; they create a form of “secondary orality” that depends on writing and technological systems.
Neutrality
The two thinkers are similar because both reject the idea that media are neutral channels. They argue that changes in communication also produce changes in perception, social organisation, and intellectual life. However, McLuhan concentrates on the medium as a technological and social environment, while Ong concentrates on the effects of communication systems on language, thought, and consciousness. Together, their approaches provide a broader understanding of how oral, written, print, and electronic forms shape human culture.
Influences on Ong
In his introduction to Orality and Literacy, John Hartley presents Ong as a bridge between classical humanistic scholarship and modern media studies. Ong draws on classical rhetoric, literary history, philosophy, and theology, applying these traditions to communication technologies and their effects on human consciousness. Hartley cites the following influences on Ong:
In Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue (1958), Ong examines how Peter Ramus (1515–1572) replaced dialogue and oral discussion with a method organised into divisions, schemes, and classifications. Ong argues that this shift reflected the growing influence of writing and printing. Knowledge began to be presented as a visual, ordered and fixed system, rather than developing through the oral exchange of questions and answers. For Ong, Ramus’s method contributed to the weakening of the rhetorical and dialogic tradition and anticipated modern ways of organising knowledge. At the same time, it facilitated teaching and memorisation by transforming ideas into clear, hierarchical structures.
Marshall McLuhan argued in The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962) and Understanding Media (1964) that the media shapes perception, culture, and social organisation. McLuhan’s work on electronic media influenced Ong’s concept of “secondary orality.” Ong used this term to describe the return of certain features of oral culture — such as participation, immediacy, and communal involvement — through electronic media such as radio, television, and telecommunications. However, Ong developed these ideas in a more systematic historical and psychological framework, especially in Orality and Literacy.
In Preface to Plato (1963), Eric Havelock argues that Plato's critique of poetry is explained by the transition from an oral to a written culture. In ancient Greece, Homer's poems functioned as an encyclopedia: they transmitted history, morality, religion, and social norms through memory, rhythm, and repetition. Plato rejected this educational model because he considered it based on images and emotions, not on abstract reasoning. For Havelock, alphabetic writing allowed for the separation of knowledge from memory and fostered the development of philosophy, science, and the theory of Ideas.
In The Communication Bias (1951), Harold Innis argues that each medium of communication influences the organisation of a society in a particular way. Some media, such as stone or writing, are durable and favour the preservation of traditions and knowledge over time. Others, such as paper and printing, are easily transportable and allow for the control of large territories. For Innis, a society needs to balance both types of media. When an institution dominates one medium of communication too much, it can also concentrate political and cultural power.
Taken together, these authors demonstrate how communication technologies influence the way people remember, think, learn, and communicate. Hartley's main argument is that Ong helped connect the humanities with modern media studies by integrating the history of communication into the history of human consciousness.
The evolution of Ong's thinking in his writings
Walter J. Ong’s thinking developed from the study of Renaissance rhetoric into a wider theory of communication and human consciousness.
In Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue (1958), Ong examined how Renaissance education moved from oral debate toward written systems of classification. He argued that changes in communication also changed the way people organised knowledge.
In The Presence of the Word (1967), he focused on the importance of spoken language. He viewed speech as immediate, personal, and connected to human relationships and spirituality.
Interfaces of the Word (1977), expanded Ong's ideas to include writing, print, and electronic media. He argued that communication technologies influence culture, imagination, and thought.
His major work, Orality and Literacy (1982), established his best-known distinction between oral and literate cultures. Oral cultures depend on memory, repetition, and participation, while literate cultures encourage abstract, analytical, and visually organised thinking.
His later works, such as Hopkins, the Self, and God (1986), connected communication with literature, religion, and the self. Ong, a Jesuit priest argued that Gerald Manley Hopkins, a 19th. century English poet and Jesuit priest, presented the self as unique but not independent: human identity gains meaning through its relationship with God. Ong sees Hopkins as a poet who connects identity, nature, language and faith. The self becomes fully understood not through isolation, but through its relationship with God.
Ong's thought progressed from studying rhetoric and education to explaining how language technologies shape consciousness and society.
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Summary
Introduction
In his introduction, Walter J. Ong examines the fundamental differences between cultures that rely primarily on oral communication and those shaped by writing. He maintains that oral and literate cultures not only employ distinct methods of communication but also organise knowledge, thought, memory, and social relationships in different ways. Ong presents literacy as a technology that profoundly transforms human consciousness and culture.
The author begins by noting that speech is natural to human beings, whereas writing is a learned technology. All human societies communicate through speech, yet only some develop writing systems. Since oral cultures cannot store information in written records, they rely heavily on memory, repetition, rhythm, formulaic expressions, and communal participation. Knowledge is preserved through practice and transmitted from generation to generation via speaking and listening.
Writing, by contrast, separates words from the speaker's immediate presence and renders language visible. It allows ideas to be preserved, revised, reorganised, and examined over time. Ong explains that writing grants language a degree of permanence and independence: a text can exist apart from its author and be read by people who were not present when it was created. This fosters more abstract, analytical, and private forms of thought.
The introduction also challenges the notion that oral cultures are intellectually inferior to literate ones. Ong argues that oral societies possess sophisticated knowledge systems, yet their thinking is adapted to the conditions of oral communication. Oral thought tends to be additive rather than heavily subordinate, repetitive rather than abstractly organised, and closely tied to human experience and practical situations. These characteristics help speakers remember information and audiences comprehend it.
Finally, Ong explains that the study of orality remains important even in societies with high levels of literacy, as spoken language continues to be the foundation of all communication. Literacy develops from orality and new technologies, such as the printing press and electronic media, continue to transform the relationship between speech, writing, memory, and consciousness.
The introduction establishes the book's central argument: communication technologies influence not only how people express ideas but also how they think about, remember, and understand the world.
1. The Orality of Language
In recent decades, scholars from various fields, such as anthropology, sociology, and psychology, have explored oral societies and prehistory, examining human existence prior to the advent of writing.
Ferdinand de Saussure, a key figure in modern linguistics, highlighted the primacy of oral speech as a fundamental aspect of verbal communication. While the utility of writing is acknowledged, its limitations and dangers are also recognised.
Despite growing academic interest in orality, the study of language has focused primarily on written texts for centuries. This preference stems from the imaginative and analytical capabilities fostered by writing. Primary oral cultures learn through practical experience rather than formal study, unlike literate societies where writing facilitates critical thinking and analysis.
The ancient Greeks' fascination with language evolved into a structured art form and rhetoric became established as a fundamental academic discipline. Although rhetoric enhanced the understanding of oratory, it still relied on written texts for research and study. This reliance on written documentation has influenced interpretations of oral expression.
Understanding orality and literacy reveals the complex interplay between the two. While literacy expands consciousness and knowledge, it can also overshadow the rich traditions of oral culture. This book seeks to build a nuanced understanding of both orality and literacy, acknowledging the limitations of written forms while striving to preserve the legacy of oral traditions.
2. The modern discovery of primary oral cultures
The recognition of orality has ancient roots, extending from Ecclesiastes to Romanticism, a movement that lent academic prestige to folklore and dissociated it from being merely a vestige of literate cultures.
The "Homeric Question" exemplifies the tension between orality and writing. Milman Parry revolutionised this field by demonstrating that The Iliad and The Odyssey were not merely literary works but products of oral composition. Parry revealed that the use of formulas and repetitive structures was not a limitation but a necessary technique in oral cultures for preserving knowledge.
These ideas were expanded upon by Albert Lord and Eric Havelock. The latter linked the evolution of Greek philosophy and analytical thought to the introduction of vowels into the alphabet. Today, these studies remain relevant for understanding how oral consciousness shapes cognition and culture, even in literate societies.
Finally, Walter Benjamin complements this analysis by reflecting on the integration of oral traditions into modernity and the digital age, questioning how technical reproduction and the current context transform cultural preservation.
3. Some psychodynamic aspects of orality
Oral cultures rely exclusively on the spoken word. Because the spoken word is ephemeral and transient, it shapes an understanding of language, learning, and memory that differs from that of literate societies. In these contexts, language is a form of action and words possess a dynamic, almost magical, character, contrasting with the static, labelling nature of writing.
To preserve knowledge, these cultures employ mnemonic techniques based on rhythm, repetition, and fixed formulas. This gives rise to a mode of thought characterised by the following:
- Additive and aggregative: it constructs ideas by stringing together concepts and using epithets.
- Redundant: it relies on repetition to ensure comprehension.
- Conservative: it prioritises tradition and intergenerational preservation.
Oral communication is interactive, often competitive, and deeply linked to physicality, gestures, and a sense of community. Unlike textual memory, oral memorisation is flexible and adaptable, drawing upon a shared repertoire. Ultimately, these societies prioritise lived experience and community bonds over the distant, visual observation characteristic of literate cultures.
4. Writing Restructures Consciousness
A deeper understanding of oral cultures helps clarify the role of writing in shaping human consciousness. Writing, more than any other invention, has drastically transformed the way literate people think. It structures thoughts that originate in natural capacities but are processed through the technology of writing.
Writing generates "context-free" language or "autonomous discourse", discourse detached from its author, unlike oral communication, which allows for direct questioning. While oral cultures engage in a form of autonomous discourse through rigid formulas, writing presents a challenge for refutation due to its permanence.
Plato’s scepticism regarding writing resonates today in concerns about technologies such as computers. He argued that writing is inhuman and weakens memory, much like modern fears regarding calculators. Furthermore, once written, texts cannot interact or debate, rendering them static entities, unlike spoken words. While contemporary society has internalised the use of writing, Plato viewed it as an alien technology. Writing relies on external tools and requires conscious control, whereas oral language emerges naturally from culture. Writing enhances consciousness and facilitates a degree of internal reflection and analysis.
Various independent writing systems have evolved, each rooted in pictorial representations. Cuneiform and hieroglyphs illustrate how writing systems developed from basic visual symbols into more complex, codified systems that define languages and cultures. The alphabet, a unique and efficient writing system, emerged from earlier systems and proved highly adaptable. Unlike complex character-based systems, it simplified the representation of sounds, thereby enabling greater literacy and communication. Initially, literacy emerged as an art practiced by a privileged few, and the social transition toward widespread literacy took time. Written records began to replace oral memory, yet a marked preference for oral testimony persisted, especially in societies newly introduced to writing. As writing became widespread, oral traditions began to lose their dominance. Nevertheless, many societies continued to regard oral testimony as more authentic than written texts, owing to the element of personal involvement and the possibility of directly questioning the statements.
The isolation of sentences resulting from writing has profound implications for the construction of meaning. Unlike oral communication, which exists within a shared temporal context, literacy relies on the removal of context, demanding precise interpretation and greater analytical reflection. Rhetoric evolved alongside written forms, serving as a bridge between oral and written communication. Learned Latin exemplifies a language centered on writing and the academic sphere, highlighting its fundamental role in shaping academic discourse over the centuries.
5. Print, space, and closure
In oral cultures, words exist primarily as sounds and depend on memory, interpretation, and the interaction between speaker and listener. Print, by contrast, separates words from the speaker and places them in a visible space on the page. This allows readers to examine, reread, compare, and analyse language privately and repeatedly.
Ong argues that print fosters spatial thinking. The arrangement of words, lines, paragraphs, chapters, indexes, titles, and page numbers gives knowledge a visible structure. Print also allows for clearer distinction between individual words through spelling, punctuation, spacing, and standardised formatting. As a result, readers become more aware of language as something that can be visually organized, classified, and manipulated, rather than merely heard and remembered.
The chapter also focuses on the concept of "closure." Printed texts often appear complete, stable, and independent of the circumstances in which they were produced. Unlike oral communication, which can be modified through repetition, interpretation, or audience response, a printed work appears to have defined boundaries and a finished form. This sense of closure reinforces the idea of a complete argument, a final edition, and a text that can be studied independently of its original author or audience.
Ong links print to the development of individualism and private reading. Since printed materials can be read silently and in solitude, readers interact with texts in a more personal and detached manner. Print also reinforces concepts of authorship, ownership, originality, and intellectual property, as a work can be identified as a stable product created by a specific individual. Ultimately, Ong’s main argument is that print does not merely preserve spoken language; it restructures consciousness by making communication visual, fixed, ordered, and closed.
6. Oral memory: plot and characterisation
The transition from orality to literacy impacts various genres of verbal art, especially narrative. Narrative has largely absorbed other forms, such as drama, serving as a fundamental pillar of many verbal arts and methods of knowledge transmission. This analysis emphasises the effects of the shift from orality to literacy on narrative structure, suggesting that narrative remains central to all cultures, including oral traditions.
In primary oral cultures, traditional storytelling is vital for storing and organising knowledge, as individuals cannot generate abstract categories for comprehension. Significant oral narratives, such as those of the ancient Greeks or Native American traditions, serve as important repositories of cultural knowledge. The capacity of storytelling to link extensive knowledge results in substantial, repeatable forms of knowledge communication, surpassing briefer, more transient forms like maxims.
Analysing the evolution of narrative reveals how oral traditions function differently from written forms. In oral cultures, memory influences narrative plots, which diverge from the linear storylines predominant in literate cultures. Narrative organisation in oral traditions is episodic rather than strictly chronological, relying heavily on mnemonic structures and poetic techniques, as exemplified by the epics of ancient Greece. The influence of literacy on narrative structure fosters a more compact and organised plot compared to the episodic nature of oral narratives. Literacy enables autonomous narrative arcs, giving rise to the more defined structures of modern literary genres such as detective novels. Characterisation evolves in complexity from the simplistic, flat figures of oral traditions to the more nuanced and complex characters found in novels with greater psychological depth.
The emergence of the "round character" illustrates changes in narrative intent stemming from writing and the printing press. While "flat characters" served primarily as vehicles to sustain plots in oral cultures, round characters, characterised by depth and unpredictability, arose in response to the growing introspection and complexity demanded by literate audiences. This shift reflects broader cultural advancements in psychological understanding and personal identity, influenced by writing and printing technologies.
7 Some Theses
Literary history is beginning to draw upon insights from studies on orality and literacy, analysing oral representations and elements present within texts. Despite significant findings, many literary historians still overlook the importance of the polarities between orality and literacy for understanding genres, characterisation and the writer-reader relationship. A historical approach to literature requires acknowledging its oral roots, which are evident in medieval and Renaissance works.
The transition from orality to print, and ultimately to electronic formats, has significantly affected narrative forms and plot development. Genres such as the epic have evolved alongside the demystification of their oral origins, while the novel reflects a shift toward more conversational styles.
Studies on orality and literacy should impact the social sciences and philosophy. They raise questions regarding how the evolution of writing has influenced human consciousness and how different cultural frameworks interact with textuality. Insights from orality could enrich the understanding of religious texts, particularly Christian teachings concerning the nature of the Word of God.
Human consciousness has evolved in tandem with the development of writing. Writing has fostered greater self-awareness and interaction among individuals. The interplay between orality and literacy influences religious traditions and the ways in which communities express their beliefs.
Themes
Media Shape Consciousness
Ong argues that media influence how people think, remember, and relate to one another. Speech emphasises presence, interaction, memory, tone, and shared experience. Writing creates distance from the speaker and fosters analysis, reflection, and private reading.
The printing press reinforces these effects by organizing knowledge into stable, standardised texts. Electronic and digital media create a "secondary orality": communication becomes immediate, interactive, conversational, and participatory, yet it still relies on literacy-based technologies.
Media do not merely transmit ideas; they shape attention, memory, authority, identity, and community. However, Ong presents these as tendencies rather than strict rules: media influence thought without entirely determining it.
Secondary Orality
Digital media combine various forms of communication simultaneously:
- Oral: Messages can sound conversational through voice notes, podcasts, live streams, and video calls.
- Literacy-based: Users write posts, articles, comments, captions, and messages that can be edited, saved, and reread.
- Visual: Meaning is conveyed through images, videos, emojis, graphics, and design.
Unlike traditional print media, digital media are also interactive. Audiences can instantly respond to, share, remix, and modify content. A single social media post, for example, can include text, a photograph, a short video, emojis, links and comments. This creates a hybrid form of communication. Digital messages may be written, yet they mimic colloquial language by using abbreviations, informal grammar, and a conversational tone. At the same time, they can be carefully edited and permanently stored, much like written texts.
For Ong, this represents "secondary orality": a renewed emphasis on the immediacy and participation characteristic of speech, yet enabled by writing and electronic technologies. Digital communication, therefore, combines the permanence of writing, the immediacy of speech, and the persuasive power of visual media.
Media influence attention
Ong’s ideas suggest that different media foster different ways of paying attention:
Oral communication unfolds in real time, requiring listeners to follow the speaker's sequence of ideas. Repetition, rhythm, tone, and storytelling help maintain attention. Since speech is ephemeral, listeners cannot easily pause or reread it.
Writing and print allow for a more measured and focused type of attention. Readers can pause, reread, underline, compare sections, and reflect privately on an argument. This fosters sustained concentration and detailed analysis.
Electronic and digital media tend to encourage faster, more fragmented attention. Television, websites, and social media use images, sound, motion, notifications, links, and rapid shifts to engage users. People are likely to switch topics quickly rather than follow a lengthy argument.
Digital media also foster selective and interactive attention. Users choose what to watch, ignore, share, or comment on. They do not merely receive information; they constantly respond to it.
This can lead to both benefits and drawbacks:
- Faster access to information
- Greater engagement and participation
- Easier multitasking
- More visual and interactive learning
- More distractions and interruptions
- Difficulty maintaining attention
- Preference for brief or simplified content
- Less patience for slow-paced, complex arguments
Ong’s argument is not that one medium is simply better than another. Each medium trains attention differently. Print may foster depth and concentration, while digital media may favour speed, connectivity, and responsiveness. The key is recognising how the medium influences what users perceive, remember, and ignore.
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