Understanding Media

Click to hear Marshall Mcluhan lecture:
The medium is the message.

by Kerby Anderson:  More than fifty years ago, Marshall McLuhan¹ wrote the book, Understanding Media. He declared that the electronic media of last century (telephone, radio, television) were changing the way we viewed the world. No longer were we tied to words and text.

McLuhan was famous for turning many phrases, but the best known was: “The medium is the message.” What he meant was that the medium was essentially more important than the message itself. We are often more influenced by how the message is delivered than what the message is.

He also had a flair for the dramatic. He wrote that “electronic technology is within the gates, and we are numb, deaf, blind and mute about its encounter with the Gutenberg technology, on and through which the American way of life was formed.”

McLuhan wrote all of this before the advent of the Internet. I am almost certain he would see the fulfillment of his predictions about technology in the way we use the Internet. We go on the Internet to learn about the world, to post items and pictures on Facebook and blogs, and most importantly we go to the Internet to entertain ourselves.

Most of us are actually addicted to the Internet. George Barna has documented in his studies how Americans are addicted to media and technology. One of my colleagues teaches at a local university and challenges his students to go at least one day without their smart phone. Hardly any of the students can survive a one-day fast from technology. We are used to a steady feast of entertainment and information.

The medium has become the source and often the message is irrelevant. We merely seek more entertainment and information from the devices we carry in our pockets or purses. And if we do read books or magazines, more and more of us read them on those same devices we carry around with us. Most of our information these days comes in digital form.

Marshall McLuhan was right. The medium has become the message.

¹ Herbert Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), was a Canadian philosopher of communication theory. His work is viewed as one of the cornerstones of the study of media theory, as well as having practical applications in the advertising and television industries.
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Kerby Anderson is a radio talk show host heard on numerous Christian Stations via the Point of View Network.

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