From: Kenneth Van Oost (kennethvanoost@belgacom.net)
Date: Tue 18 Apr 2006 - 19:57:10 GMT
----- Original Message -----
From: Jesse Micheal Fagan
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Regarding whether the media substrate is neutral or not, there is an entire branch within Media Studies, which argues that it isn't neutral. I'm talking about the Medium Theory school, normally connected to Marshall McLuhan who famously proclaimed that "the medium is the message", that is: the choice of medium is actually more important for our way of life than whichever content it transmits. I think there is a lot of truth to that although it is stated in a rather extreme fashion – which is typical of McLuhan's probing style.
I think the medium is incredibly important.
But I think a better question might be is the same information coming from a man treated the same if it comes from a woman?
Is the same information received from a father treated and received the same if it comes from a friend?
What about the difference between a pastor and a science teacher?
The difference in between the information transmitted via a book and the information transmitted via audio is immense, I would say. I downloaded Stephen J Gould's Evolution and Extinction as a series of mp3s but I couldn't stand the readers voice at all... so I went to Barne's and Noble and got the book instead. That's right, someone's voice caused me to go from spending nothing to spending $14.95 - that man's voice encouraged our economic system... hehe...
Where and how the information is transmitted is incredibly important when determining the behavioral effects on the receiver. And if the information affects the behavior of the reciever great enough it will be selectively retransmitted. So I would say the medium is incredibly important to memetics.
Hi there,
Yes, the medium is important but how the medium treats the info is even and probably
more of importance. Like I said and like you indicate someone's voice and how the info
is (re)represented is a selective criterion. The tone of how something is transmitted thru'
any kind of media determines the memes reproductive power.
That is my idea....
Regards,
Kenneth
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