Mixing Multimedia
The medium of story, or song, or dance, or paint can vary significantly according to how the form of a medium imbeds itself in the message, and to what extent a person chooses to participate in consuming the message and the medium. The mixing of different mediums, or media, to convey ideas, data, information, and sometimes knowledge is not exclusive as much as it is inclusive.
Today text mixed together with audio, graphics and animation is often packaged on CD-ROM with links to the Internet or as direct downloads from the Internet to your computer.
Marshall McLuhan suggested that specific content might have little effect on society because, for example, it does not matter what the ebook, audio or video recording may contain, the effect on society would be the same.
The global digital data stream has indeed woven a fabric represented as a global village electronically connected, delivering multimedia on demand, regardless of content and few stated assumptions about the effect.
Techno-evangelists like Gates, Jobs and their media minions propagate ideas that computers and their peripherals will inevitably become standard appliances at every corner of society, home, business, school, library, government, cyber café, and location or application you can think of.
While that may be true, like all other forms of propaganda it is only part of the story. The effect of technology cannot and should not be used to disenfranchise human relations between each other in favor of the propagandists’ market domination driving so-called social networks.
The medium, old or new, has always been the messenger, and the message is the content. Arguably digital media tends to disconnect individual relations with family, friends and community as connections to the internet consumes a disproportionate amount of time.
For the time being the shock value of negative content used for implanting messages of human rights abuse, crime, war and unfortunate circumstances only serves a short term cultural retardation because the alternative is so much better. Without electronic media dominated by a few megalomaniacs or basically when the lights go out, there won’t be many alternatives but to return to the more traditional organic and really personal means of expression. You can dance if you want to . . .
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