Recently, CNN has revamped the format of their programmes to include more subtitles. Immediately after a guest says something, it is posted in the bar at the bottom of the screen. According to Marshall McLuhan in Understanding Media, this will turn television into a slightly cooler medium and require greater audience participation to keep up with the addition information that they are offered. Highlighting the key point – along with the visual medium – will increase audience retention of that specific information relative to a written article or radio broadcast. However, the phrases are so superficial and pedantic that the …
Player Development, Part II
The Toronto Raptors held a career forum last week at the Air Canada Centre. A panel of various employees represented different aspects of the organization: concessions, sponsorships, ticketing, facilities, and other jobs. Whilst the speakers were genuine in their desire to inspire the many high school students in attendance, they largely failed. The seminar was a complete contrast from the hullabaloo of an Association game, which was a bit of a surprise, like seeing all the McDonald’s employees in line at Harvey’s in Union Station before the game. The Raptors promised an interactive and interesting event and fell quite short. …
Medium=Message
If the medium is the message, where does Barack Obama’s announcement of Joe Biden as his running mate fit in? First leaked by CNN and announced shortly afterwards via text message and on the Internet at 3:00am, the message employed an entirely different medium than previous vice-presidential picks. Does Obama wish to say that he is the candidate of change because he used a new format or that his ticket now possesses stability and foreign policy experience because of Biden’s profile? Marshall McLuhan meant to say that fact that people in the 1960s had begun watching television in mass numbers, …