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The medium is the massage, 27 July 2011
In last week's Observer, John Naughton reminded us how important Marshall Mcluhan was. He foresaw the digital revolution by half a century. Born 100 years ago last Thursday, he coined the phrase “the electronic global village”, 35 years before the internet. But he was probably best known for his phrase the ‘Medium is the Message. It was baffling, but in 1967 a book called “The Medium is the Massage” was published, which synthesised his ideas and gave a clue to what he really meant. Thanks to Brain Pickings, a free weekly newsletter and this article by Maria Popova for bringing this my attention.
McLuhan’s big idea was that the important thing about media is not the information they carry but what they are doing to us in terms of shaping our behaviour. He spotted the different meanings of the word “Medium”. One is a channel for communicating information. The other, familiar to biologists, is an environment containing the nutrients in which tissue cultures – orgnanisms – grow.
More from John Naughton...
“Change the medium and you change the organisms. Our communications media likewise constitute the environment wjhich sustains, nurtures – or constrains – our culture. And if the medium changes, so does our culture.”
And from McLuhan...
“We shape our tools and afterwards our tools shape us...All media works us over completely...When information is brushed against information…the results are startling and effective. The perennial quest for involvement, fill-in, takes many forms.”
“Your family…The family circle has widened. The world-pool of information fathered by electric media – movies, Telstar, flight – far surpasses anything mom or dad can bring to bear. Character no longer is shaped by only two earnest, fumbling experts. Now all the world’s a sage.”
His thoughts have been amply brought to life in last week’s parliamentary Murdoch hearings and playwright, Lucy Prebble’s commentary in the Guardian.
“Cast and audience are no longer delineated. The form of this is beyond theatre; a new form of glowing screens of varying sizes creates a medium between the audience and its drama. We do not just watch the committee on television, but also have access in real time by computer, to a further host of characters and audience, mingling and responding alongside it. My Twitter feed, for example, featured the Guardian’s Alan Rusbridger, both audience and major character himself, holding to account the Murdoch’s answers. And then there was my phone, the smallest glowing screen, as my friends commented not just on the televised events, but also the net’s response to them. Never has such an event of complex, institutionally interwoven scandal coincided with a dramatic form that so accurately represents its content: technology, information dissemination, friendship and whispers…If it seems the News of the World has become a stage, then all us men and women have become players."
This made me think of what is really bringing Murdoch down. Again from the Guardian, last week Emily Bell wrote:
“The central impulse of News Corp has always been one of commercial competition; now it must think about citizens and stakeholders.”
Which brings us back to McLuhan. Exploring the big picture significance of worldwide connectivity, he says:
“The stars are so big,
The Earth is so small
Stay as you are.”
For businesses and the brands they drive, you do have to know who you are and stay true to it, but you can’t ignore the changing world around you. At the outset, News Corp's Sky was not a consumer friendly brand – quite they opposite. But Sky changed because it made commercial sense. Now News Corp needs to change again and run the business in a more professional, less cosy and, perhaps, more generous way. And recognise that Mcluhan's electronic village has come of age - and it's pretty powerful. You can't control the conversation any more - just be a part of it and facilitate it.
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