Chapter 8 of this book is entitled “Mediums”:
John Dyer. From the Garden to the City: The Redeeming and Corrupting Power of Technology. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2011. [endorsements]
“The message is the content we transmit from our minds to our audience, while everything that surrounds those words can be considered a medium.” Mediums may include “an email, a handwritten note, a phone call, a Facebook wall post, or any other tool we use to communicate” (p. 117).
Dyer makes three arguments about mediums (pp. 117–31):
- “Mediums communicate meaning.” This is evident “in the way we use various communication mediums: formality, difficulty, and speed.”
- “Mediums create culture (and cultural divides).”
- “Mediums shape thinking.” Two examples: printing press and photography.
Related: Among other things, John Dyer maintains the extraordinarily useful “Best Commentaries” site.
Has the term “media” fallen out of favor?
Andy, Thanks for taking time to overview a chapter. Hope you found the rest of the book helpful!
David, early in the book, I mentioned that I chose to use the term “mediums” as a plural for medium to prevent confusion with the term “media” as currently used for the politically charged news world.
I’m looking forward to reading Dyer’s book.
I think many (including myself) make assertions about “messages” and “mediums” (e.g., “Changing the medium w/o changing the message”) without ever doing much sustained thinking on what a “medium” actually is and what it entails.