"The Media Is the Message"
Ron Zachariasen
This phrase has always been enigmatic to me also. With the huge amount of content on all sorts of media, I think a better way of conveying the essence of this saying is "the medium can be the message." How can you tell when it is? ... you just know.
Examples:
You find yourself in a jungle among people who desire to aggressively defend their village. You get shot with a bamboo arrow. That arrow is the medium and it is their message.
You are a teenager who has found a way into a XXX theater for the first time. No matter what the film or video, the feelings that occur with watching smut, (defilement, revulsion, a strange taboo-like kind of pleasure, etc.) is the message.
You discover a fragrant love letter from you wife in your briefcase.
Oh sure, what is said is a message, but the surprise, the fragrance and
the whole idea is also a powerful message.
Technology can be thought of as a message. Many (most) times throughout
history technology moved forward due to the desire to either defend one's
own turf or get some other's turf. Technology and the aggressive way we
invested time and resources into it is a message. To me it says we, as
a species, are war-like in many respects. We are set apart from other animals
in that we have a certain moral understanding, we hold others to it, yet
we know we cannot perfectly hold to it ourselves and don't expect others
to either.
Now, with that last paragraph as a transition, I can get to your point.
DTV is a message in itself in that the huge amount of time, thought, effort, money, politics and research that went into it is a testament to what we, as a culture, obviously think is very important. Entertainment. That is what drives much of this world and especially the United States. We desire (demand) to be entertained. And the businesspeople, entrepreneurs and engineers are only too happy to provide.
It seems to me instead of the work week continuing to get smaller, we, in general, are voluntarily working longer hours so we can ... why? ... buy stuff to entertain ourselves.
The result our cultural eye's focus on entertainment is that people are understanding there is more to life than being entertained. They have felt a real spiritual hunger. While mainline churches are declining in attendance, the bible believing churches are continuing to grow.
It could be DTV will perpetuate and accelerate this and cause a nation-wide revival!
Sorry for the length. This is unusual for me. It just spiraled right out.
Ron Zachariasen, Eng.
Video Center, U of Iowa
While not a technical topic at all, I suspect that a video engineer has a
perspective on how the technology interacts with the society. That being
said, I realize my message may be slightly off-topic. If you consider it
so, please ignore it but don't flame me. Thank you.It seems that recently the generally accepted idea is that a bigger
screen is better, higher resolution is better, etc.In being so caught up with the details of the technology, have we
forgotten about programming to the point we're willing to watch anything
as long as the visual is big and crisp and the audio is impressive?I've never understood what is meant by 'The Media Is the Message', but
somehow it seems that this phrase is of great relevance. Does anyone care
to explain what is meant by this phrase?All responses are greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Radu Hociung.
--
Radu Hociung,
3B Electrical Engineering, U of Waterloo
Reply to: rsho...@uwaterloo.ca
David Horn
Radu Hociung <rsho...@uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
> ... I realize my message may be slightly off-topic. If you consider it
> so, please ignore it but don't flame me. Thank you.
>
> It seems that recently the generally accepted idea is that a bigger
> screen is better, higher resolution is better, etc.
>
> In being so caught up with the details of the technology, have we
> forgotten about programming to the point we're willing to watch anything
> as long as the visual is big and crisp and the audio is impressive?
Good point. Unfortunately, the artistic community has the opposite
problem, being so caught-up in the programming that they expect the
technology to conform to IT. That's where we get 2.35 X 1 display
ratios and multi-channel audio far exceeding the ability of commercially
available equipment to support it.
I would like to believe that people in both groups are wiling to sit
down and talk with members of the other camp, but somehow I doubt they
could agree on a common language.
> All responses are greatly appreciated.
Well, at least you got one. Others would be better responders though.
--
Opinions expressed here are mine,
Ericsson's opinions are available at
http://www.ericsson.com
<< For reply email remove .NOSPAM >>
Ralph Reinhold
If you are talking about Marshall McCluhan, it is "The Medium is the
Massage."