General David Sarnoff’s idea that “The products of modern
science are not…good or bad; it is the way they are used that determines their
value” (11) really resonated with me and McLuhan’s idea that the “medium is the
message”. If we backtrack and think about
McLuhan’s statement, he talks about content being received through a medium, as
well as the content being considered a medium in itself; meaning that “the
‘content’ of any medium is always another medium”. Continuing from this statement is Sarnoff’s idea
about “products of modern science”, which I fully agree with. The examples given in the text were apple
pie, the smallpox virus, and firearms where McLuhan reiterates how it is not
the actual product that is bad, it is how we as people perceive them and use
them.
In this interview between a Fox News reporter and Jon
Stewart, a wide range of topics are discussed, but the idea I want to emphasize
is the conflicting and continuous debate over the news reports being shown on
television. Stewart often makes the
argument that Fox’s reports are biased, and in his own show he creates satirical
content using old news reports, often times Fox’s. This video clip as well as Stewart’s own show
epitomizes McLuhan and Sarnoff’s statements.
Even though the content of the two shows are the same, meaning they both
show the same news reports, the medium in which the public receives this
information is very different so therefore the messages perceived are very
different. While Fox covers one story,
Stewart will take that same story and either combine it with another similar
story or use it to add more content in a satirical, humorous fashion.
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