Theory/Praxis

As the king of all media, McLuhan, once said, “The medium is the message” [1]. As a child, or quite frankly, as a standard consumer of the media, this isn’t a concept that can be very easily accepted. I myself recall being enthralled by Disney movies, like I’m sure most of us were, and television programs. But apart from telling me idealistic fables about “Prince Charming” and singing animals, what did this do for me? How different would it have been if I had read the stories; how different for my media-ravenous generation would it have been?

The earliest lesson of “media literacy” I can recall getting was when I was 13, in school. When I think about it, I guess for 13 years before I learned all the messages (the semiology, I suppose, before I had even heard the word) behind the things I was consuming, I was simply taking in whatever News Corp and Pepsi-Cola wanted me to. Daniel Chandler defined media determinism as “the assumption that new technologies are the primary cause of major social and historical changes” [2]. The historical social changes include taking our capitalist society, injecting corporations (and other money-making vehicles) into the landscape, and making it completely standard for us when we were less learned media consumers. Changing gears for a moment, think of, for example – The Sound of Music, which was made by 20th Century Fox, which is owned by Fox, which is owned by News Corporation [3]. Whether we like it or not, by buying the newly restored DVD version of a precious childhood memory, we are supporting a multibillion-dollar mass media conglomerate. And, of course, Rupert Murdoch.

Going back to an earlier point, I think media literacy is more vital now than ever, particularly in the age of the – get ready - World Wide Web. The way that all information is presented to us, in an instantaneous, personalized manor, changes the way people act and react, and with the plethora of information available to us, it can easily change history. Think about how quickly a dark spot from a politicians life can be brought to the forefront, decades later, in a matter of moments.

With a medium like the internet having the ability to amplify practically every sense we have, like no medium that preceded it has had the ability to do, it’s so vital for all consumers to be aware of what they’re taking in and how they are absorbing it, particularly for children just being exposed to this for the first time, like no generation before. The overabundance of information we have at our disposal can lead us to do and accomplish great things as a race – but it can just as easily backfire and do the opposite.


[1] Playboy, "The Playboy Interview: Marshall McLuhan." Playboy Magazine March 1969. 28 Sep 2008 . <http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~gisle/links/mcluhan/pb.html>.

[2] Chandler, Daniel. "Semiotics for Beginners." 1994. 30 Sept 2008 . <http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/>.

[3] IMDb. “Company Credits for ‘The Sound of Music’”. 1990-2008. 30 Sept 2008. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059742/companycredits> .