Philosophy Discussion Forums

Hi everyone,

I am doing an assignment for university that I need help with. It is part of a group project for a compulsory paper for BA students. Part of this is to approach your group topic from the angle of your major. With mine being philosophy, I was wanting to approach this philosophically.

The topic is on the media and climate change. The focus of the assignment is less on the climate change aspect but more on the media's reporting of the facts. I was wondering then, did anyone know of any philosopher who have critiqued the media? This could be a critique of how the media reports on topic. It could be a sort of logical argument for what the media should be and its role in society.

I know, I know, Google, which is what I am trying to do, but some help if anyone can point me in the right direction would be very much appreciated.

Are you familiar with Marshall McLuhan and his book: "The Media is the Message?"
The following is extracted from Wikipedia:

The phrase was introduced in McLuhan's book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, published in 1964.[1] McLuhan proposes that a medium itself, not the content it carries, should be the focus of study. He said that a medium affects the society in which it plays a role not only by the content delivered over the medium, but also by the characteristics of the medium itself.

McLuhan frequently punned on the word "message", changing it to "mass age", "mess age", and "massage"; a later book, The Medium Is the Massage was originally to be titled The Medium is the Message, but McLuhan preferred the new title, which is said to have been a printing error.

McLuhan said the following concerning the title “Well the title, ‘The Medium is the Massage’, is a teaser, a way of getting attention. There’s a wonderful sign hanging on a Toronto junkyard which reads “Help beautify junkyards, throw something lovely away today.” This is a very effective way of getting people to notice a lot of things, and so the title is intended to draw the attention to the fact that a medium is not something neutral, it does something to people, it takes hold of them, it roughs them up, it massages them, it bumps them around, (as it were chiropractically) The general roughing up that any society gets from a medium, especially a new medium, is what is intended to be indicated in that title

Hi Gamnot,
Thank you so much! This is exactly the type of thing I was looking for. A name of a person and a position that ties in well my subject. My only issue will be trying to find an online copy of the book or getting it here in time, but there are probably ways around this.

I am not familiar with this guy at all so it also helps open up a new area of enquiry for me.

Thanks

The title of the book is actually "The Medium is the Message." The book was written in the sixties and was quite popular. I looked but could not find the book on the internet except at amazon and that could be obtained through the mail, but I am sure that if you are near a good library that you could find a copy there. Mcluhan also wrote some other books relating to that topic before his death in the eighties. Good luck on your project.

Big Boss wrote: ↑March 11th, 2018, 4:17 pm Hi everyone,...

Seriously? Are there really anyone left who does not see the media, all of it, as purely entertainment?
You want 'facts'?
'Facts' are no more than 'beliefs'.
Science does not deal in 'facts' but tentative theories.
'Facts' are for self-justifying, ignorant 'believers'.

"New study of the brain shows that facts and beliefs are processed in exactly the same way."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/216551?from=rss