If the medium is the message as mentioned by Marshall Mcluhan, the message is communication and community. A book is a medium and as such, it is a method of delivering the message that it was written or constructed to contain. The issue is not the medium. It is a very powerful visual medium that functions much like a multi- channeled radio. The message must not be deconstructive and somebody needs to figure out why every nut in an FBI vault gets a book and motion picture about his sad life. We don't really need to know everything but it seems to suggest a kind of normalcy when people are asked to pay $10.00 to watch it and eat popcorn and gummy bears. JFK was a really good file from the vault though; really, really good! It was inspiredly educational. This is also quite true of "Perdition" although it is a fictional scenario based on real and personal historical experiences.
It is well accepted that societies are in essence a settled population or people that are tied together by a singular identity, values and beliefs and as such, the critical, essential and necessary values need continual reinforcement and buttressing by the retelling of popular stories that continue to shape and establish the society's foundation.
This essay will demonstrate that the power of the media is to either re-enforce and thereby construct or deconstruct the essential, bedrock values of a society and can give way to dangerous new, amorphous and shifting mores. It will argue further that the power of the media, through various magazines, newspapers and other outlets targets certain population segments to deliver the said message of the moment as handed down by those who have a vested interest in the message's communication thereby demonstrating the media's power upon the population in general in addition to the young and impressionable. It will also argue that the unwitting power of the media is to shape emotive consciousness and awareness and can thereby provide feedback to various societal stakeholders using various social media analytics and social media metrics. Horkheimer and Adorno's fundamental analysis of the media in addition to the work of Karl Deutsch's analysis of the political importance of feedback as obtained via media will be central to the discussion.
According to Karl Deutsch feedback is an important facility to politics in terms of communication. Deutsch argues that;
"... certain other concepts, namely, feedback and equilibrium, both of which have an important place
in the literature of systems theory ....feedback is a communications network "that produces action in
response to an input of information, and includes the results of its own action in the new information by which it modifies its subsequent behavior."' Stated differently, feedback represents an output which is returned to the system as an input . Equilibrium means
simply a " return to a particular state which was disturbed . " Feedback is measured by lag and gain . "Lag is the time that elapses between the moment a negative feedback system reaches a certain distance from its goal and the moment it completes corrective
action corresponding to that distance . Gain means the extent of the corrective action taken " by the system in an effort to reach its
goal .' Clearly, if operational indicators of each of these variables could be developed and applied to the study of political systems,
the result would be a major advance in our understanding of their capacity for survival under stress and their ability to adapt themselves to the demands imposed upon them. In the political system, as conceptualized....certain types of feedback may be identified . The first is "goal-seeking" feedback, "the feedback of new external data into a net whose operating channels remain unchanged ." The second is " learning, " " the feedback of external data for the changing of these operating channels themselves . " '
Deutsch went on to argue that there is a further kind of feedback called "Consciousness" that,
"...scans internal data....as a "collection of internal feedbacks of secondary messages . Secondary messages
are messages about changes in the parts of the system . Primary messages are those which move through the system in consequence
of its interaction with the outside world . " These secondary symbols
of consciousness may change the behavior of the system...as such a model has potential utility for the
study of a wide range of phenomena, be they decision-making units for the conduct of foreign policy, the political systems of advanced
or less developed countries, or international organizations . Its primary deficiency lies in the difficulty of obtaining adequate data
about primary and secondary messages or in tracing the flow of communications within political systems ."
In the postmodern political world that incorporates the information superhighway, meta data is understood as the internal data mentioned in Deutsch's theories as published in the late 60's. Meta data is constructed from various sources that include television viewing, mobile phone usage and internet browsing. Your service providers' make you aware of this in your service contracts. As such, the likeability of the consciousness created in a socio-political system can be analyzed and used to provide the stakeholder with feedback. The information super highway as incorporating the media allows for somewhat immediate obtainance of feedback through the population's basic usage and in response to global or local phenomena as reported in various media outlets. Sometimes the simple question is whether anyone still cares about eating human or horse at a burger joint or is it still amoral for people to enter a subway fully naked in Philadelphia? The immediacy of feedback demonstrates the media's power and facility as a tool in tandem with interests of various societal stakeholders to shape consciousness and monitor consciousness via the media. This kind of tool is very useful in the hands of a maleficent, "hobbit minded" paranoid hegemony addict who is not sure of his or her position or of his or her "love" all day long if this could be so and the wheel would spin continually. It would have worked in ancient Israel also to the benefit of Pharaoh if Moses neglected to write his God-inspired Carta-esque societal principles and laws so to speak to achieve the ordained independence. Israel would have had to continually declare its independence while seeking subconscious authority or approval from the Pharaoh or the emperor as it may be. You don't need a Euro-ish Disney princess when you have a burger queen and movie starlets like an Elizabeth Taylor. She will have a rock group named after her soon maybe. But, the maleficent "hobbit minded" is loved although they seem to want to create emotional scenarios that are getting a little childish. You are loved and as such there is no need for any more Blue Water Horizons or Brittany disasters. We think you are a very beautiful type of computer some day.
The message of the medium is communication and community...The stakeholder could just blow it all up since he is afraid of urban density due to his tiny sense of personal space or he could see slow but steady population growth as something reminiscent of a nice crowded "high school hall way" experience every where you go with the natural occurrence of oxytocin...and they can aid this by rebuilding a consciousness that founds strong community. Apparently, people are thinking of the following and how you could put a gay or gayish guy in every sitcom who does not feel like he is going to kill a straight guy for feeling different. Not all gay guys want to kill straight guys any way. It would be sacrilege to put a gay character in a remake of Leave It To Beaver only because that is Leave It To Beaver. But, there are lots of gay characters on Tv and straight people too to ensure everyone feels represented. Gay people are human beings and should have a right to express their love for God in church if they wish. No one is denying them anything and this includes the love. People want to think that kids can just enjoy life without being told they have to kiss someone of the same gender to know who they are. But, the fear is that if you don't respect the gay you created as a result of several beatings for not loving your favorite sport or for playing the piano, the gays have found a way to make the toughest swanson dinner guy gay as well. It could be the best selling pilsner maybe or the blue sex pill. It is the subject of a movie plot. This is not opinion.
It is the continuing policy of Londinium TV Channel to discuss everything in a light hearted manner and to let everyone know that homosexuals are human beings. It is also to share the gospel. They should be as well respected in public as any bible believing Christian. Hatred is not tolerated against homosexuals and nor should anyone tolerate anyone, including homosexuals, perpetrating crimes of anger, passions and violence.
Warren Lyon, Editor.
Londinium TV Channel.
Wait for the conclusion and the rest of the body two years from now. See you then. I got to go and see a man about a wife; innit?
Warren Augustine Lyon, Greenfield Urban Consultancy
Please also visit: www.angelronen.blogspot.com.
The message of the medium is communication and community...
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