Ged Carroll

Category: media | 媒體 | 미디어 | メディア

It makes sense to start this category with warning. Marshall McLuhan was most famous for his insight – The medium is the message: it isn’t just the content of a media which matters, but the medium itself which most meaningfully changes the ways humans operate.

But McLuhan wasn’t an advocate of it, he saw dangers beneath the surface as this quote from his participation in the 1976 Canadian Forum shows.

“The violence that all electric media inflict in their users is that they are instantly invaded and deprived of their physical bodies and are merged in a network of extensions of their own nervous systems. As if this were not sufficient violence or invasion of individual rights, the elimination of the physical bodies of the electric media users also deprives them of the means of relating the program experience of their private, individual selves, even as instant involvement suppresses private identity. The loss of individual and personal meaning via the electronic media ensures a corresponding and reciprocal violence from those so deprived of their identities; for violence, whether spiritual or physical, is a quest for identity and the meaningful. The less identity, the more violence.”

McLuhan was concerned with the mass media, in particular the effect of television on society. Yet the content is atemporal. I am sure the warning would have fitted in with rock and roll singles during the 1950s or social media platforms today.

I am concerned not only changes in platforms and consumer behaviour but the interaction of those platforms with societal structures.

  • Fopp vinyl update

    Further to my posting regarding Fopp and its vinyl section. As you can see from the mail below they will still be keeping their LPs, it is only 12″ singles that they are no longer selling.

    Hi

    just so you know it’s just the 12″ singles that were are losing not the LP’s

    Hopefully, you’ll still shop at Fopp.

    Cheers

    Fopp
    1 Earlham Street
    Covent Garden
    London
    WC2H 9LL
    T: 020 7379 0883
    F: 020 7240 8355
    E: earlham.street at fopp.co.uk
    W: www.fopp.co.uk

    THIS E-MAIL AND ANY ATTACHED FILES ARE CONFIDENTIAL, PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT AND MAY BE LEGALLY PRIVILEGED. If you are not the intended addressee or have received the e-mail in error,
    any use of this e-mail or any copying, distribution or other dissemination of it is strictly prohibited.
    If you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender immediately and then delete the e-mail.
    E-mail cannot be guaranteed to be secure, error free or free from viruses. Neither the sending company nor its employees accepts any liability whatsoever for any loss or damage which may be caused as a result of the transmission of this message by e-mail. If verification is required, please request a hard copy version.

    —– Original Message —–
    From:
    To:
    Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2004 11:01 PM
    Subject: store_londoncoventgarden – Posted : 22:01:51 27/03/2004

    =================================================
    store_londoncoventgarden – Posted : 22:01:51 27/03/2004
    =================================================
    First Name : Rorsharch
    Email address : rorsharch at rorsharch.com
    =================================================
    Enquiries
    =================================================
    Enquiry CD :
    Enquiry Vinyl :
    Enquiry DVD
    Enquiry Book :
    General Enquiry :
    Hi, I was very disappointed to hear today that you will be getting rid of
    the vinyl section. You have gone to the trouble of building it up and having
    a top quality team to run it alongside a really good selection, not a pile
    of crap like many stores. I go to Fopp because I can buy my DVDs, vinyl and
    books under one roof. SAVE THE VINYL or I’ll shop elsewhere. Who do I need
    to take it up with at your head office?
    =================================================

    More culture related content here.