The Medium is the Message
This theorist coined the phrase "the medium is the message"
Who is Marshall McLuhan?
Ong said this technology transformed human consciousness.
What is writing (or literacy)?
Postman believed television turned this serious domain into entertainment.
What is public discourse or news/politics?
Carr worries that the internet is doing this to our ability to think deeply.
What is making us shallow or fragmenting our attention?
This theorist feared that TV turned everything into entertainment.
Who is Neil Postman?
McLuhan described this as the "extensions of man."
What is media or technology?
Ong coined this term to describe cultures that have no knowledge of writing.
What is primary orality?
Marvin studied how this shaped professional identity in the 19th century.
What is electrical communication (telegraph, telephone)?
According to Turkle, this phrase describes our digital lives: “We expect more from technology and…”
What is “less from each other”?
This media ecologist focused on time/space bias.
Who is Harold Innis?
Innis distinguished between these two types of media bias.
What are time bias and space bias?
Eisenstein argued this invention sparked the Reformation and scientific revolution.
What is the printing press?
Postman argued that media technologies are not neutral but influence this.
What is culture/society/values?
Rushkoff says tech companies follow this harmful “grow at all costs” model.
What is extractive capitalism?
Turkle warns that always being online can make us feel this way, even when we’re surrounded by people.
What is lonely?
According to McLuhan, this type of media environment returns us to tribal culture.
What is acoustic/oral/electronic media?
Ong believed this kind of thinking was diminished by the visual, literate mind.
What is narrative or poetic thinking?
Marvin believed new media technologies often reinforced this instead of democratizing society.
What is hierarchy or social control?
Carr borrows this neuroscience concept to explain how our brains adapt to digital habits.
What is neuroplasticity?
This theorist examined the shift from oral to literate culture.
Who is Walter Ong?
Innis argued that empires fall when they lose this balance.
What is the balance between time-biased and space-biased media?
Eisenstein emphasized the permanence and reproducibility of print, unlike this earlier medium.
What is oral tradition or manuscript copying?
According to Postman, schooling should focus on this kind of thinking.
What is critical or rational inquiry (not entertainment)?
Rushkoff argues that this practice (rooted in place and presence) is a key way to resist dehumanizing technologies.
What is building local, face-to-face community?
This theorist advocates for digital literacy as a form of civil resistance.
Who is Douglas Rushkoff?