 In this video I'd like to discuss what is sometimes known as the Toronto School of Literary Criticism because of its origins at the University of Toronto. More recently, probably broadly more known as the medium theory of critical analysis. So we're going to take a look at that in this video. First of all, let's talk about what we're talking about when we say the Toronto School or medium theory. We're talking about framework or lens of critical analysis that examines artifacts using a framework that considers the influence of the communication technology or what is known as the medium utilized in addition to and separately from the content of the message. So again, looking at this, not only in combination with the message, but also separately from the message. What is the medium of that communication? What technologies are involved? How is that message being communicated and what implications does that hold for us? That's really where we're coming from here when we talk about medium theory. A little bit of history behind the medium theory. First of all, the initiator of the starting at the University of Toronto was a professor. He was actually an economic professor initially named Harold Innis and he really extrapolated this idea of economic monopolies which was this area of economic monopolies and really expanded that to consider what he called information monopolies. And so as an extension of that then started to look at history and sort of reframe history through the lens of communication and see how exactly communication has impacted and directed history and how changes in communication technologies have changed the relationships between people over the years and his work and really influenced one of his students and would become one of the forefront scholars in this area, a gentleman named Marshall McLuhan. You see here Marshall McLuhan, one of the most famous communication theorists in this area of medium theory, media ecology. He posited that the media have a major impact on culture, that there's a significant impact between the media of that time, the contemporary media of that time and the culture, the impact that that would have on the way culture develops and the way people interact with one another. And he really broadened the definition of media to include all technology, not just the technology of things like newspapers and radio and TV, but all technology like cars and other kinds of machinery, any kind of technology is a method of communication or that he would have said is a medium of communication. So he included all technology in his works there and his considerations. So McLuhan really one of his more famous extrapolations of this was through what he was known at the time as technological determinism has come to be known as media ecology. So media ecology and the way that this technology has impacted our interactions and the way that we communicate and the way that we really relate to one another over the history of all humankind really. Just very simply to kind of move through this because I think it's so fascinating, so important here. He started when he's talking about media ecology, he said the first kind of stage or age that we had is the tribal age, which is preliterate before we had any kind of written language or anything like that. So everything was oral, everything was communicated orally and if you wanted information had to be passed by word of mouth by through oral communication and the tribal age. Then the first kind of pivot in humankind, according to him would be what we call the literate age, which is the development of that written language. So for example, the Phoenicians developed written language and that really changed the course of history in the Mediterranean. Now you could convey messages over large, large expanses, you can convey an accurately over large geographic areas, but it really allowed people to then kind of in some way separate from the tribe a little bit. You weren't so reliant on the oral history and the oral communication, you could receive communication over further distances and so therefore distance yourself from the tribe a little bit and have to be in direct geographic connection with the people to be able to communicate with them. But anyway, the literate age really is the first pivot and it really affected the way that we relate to one another with the way that we communicate with one another. Then he said the next advent in communication that really changed the world and this is a massive one is the invention of the printing press. The Gutenberg printing press really changed the world and ushered in what we call the print age. So now we have not only a handful of people who can be literate, because at the time during the literate age, even though people could read and write, it was a handful of people that could do that. It was not really widespread. There just weren't, first of all the materials, if you're going to learn how to read, you've got to have materials to be able to learn that and to learn how to write and somebody to teach you to do that. There just weren't enough materials and there weren't enough people to do that. So it was really limited to those who were very wealthy, those who were in religious service, things like that. It wasn't just common for people to be able to read and write, but the print age changed all that. It provided the material so that now everybody could get their hands on a book in some respects. Now it wasn't just limited. Now more people could learn to read and write and the print age really allowed us to kind of isolate even further. Now we could receive messages from over great distances and over great expanses of time and have consistent messages and those types of things. So the print age really ushered in this mass literacy and changed the way that we interact with one another, really kind of in some ways allowing us to isolate even further. You see that in connection with the Westford expansion, for example, in the United States during that era, where you weren't as reliant on the tribe for everything. You could hack it out in the wilderness. One person could go out and hack it out in the wilderness and create a home for themselves and create a livelihood for themselves and still be connected with the world through these books and still be literate and still have their own ideas and things like that. So the print age really was one of them, just this massive shift in the way that we relate to one another, the way that we communicate with one another, the way that we understand the world around us. Then the next pivot point for McLuhan was what he called the electronic age, which is the advent. We started with the telegraph, again carrying large amounts of information over vast different distances immediately. There was no longer even the delay of having to wait to get your newspaper or wait to get that book or anything. Now you could have that information immediately. Of course, this then extends into things like radio and television and even to a certain extent the initial stages of computers. But really, again, creating what McLuhan called the global village. So then we were able to be separate and still together. We were able to be separate, be in our own homes, be fairly isolated, not have as much contact with other people if we didn't care to, but still be very much connected to what was going on in the world around us through the television and have these common touch points of these television shows and radio shows that were very popular and still sort of be speaking the same language, so to speak, have the same interests, have the same information, and yet be very separate. McLuhan didn't really get into the next age, what people have added and what we call the digital age, because this was really after his work and after his passing that this really came into fruition. But now we're in what many scholars call the digital age, and it's different from the electronic age in the sense that it's interactive. The digital age is much more interactive. We have social media through the web, much more interactive ways of communicating than we do in the electronic age with television and radio. And this, again, is impacting the way that we communicate with one another. Again, in some ways, drawing is closer together and in other ways, pushing us further apart, right? Because we literally don't have to have any contact with people as we've discovered over the last year with this pandemic. We can be very successful in isolating ourselves from one another and yet still be very, very connected in some ways. So now we have what we call the digital age. So anyway, just really fascinating stuff and identifying the ways that communication or the medium impacts the way that we communicate with one another and how we communicate with one another and the implications that holds, and we'll get into all that in just a second. Finally, outside of the University of Toronto, where there were a number of scholars, I mean, just giving you the barest look at the University of Toronto and the Toronto School, there were a number of important scholars in this area of medium theory that came through the University of Toronto studying a variety of different things. But beyond that, then we have, in the 1980s, really the advent of the medium theory and the person who coined that medium theory is named Joshua Mayorowitz, he coined that term medium theory to really serve as a broader umbrella, so to speak, of different related theories because there are a lot of different areas within medium theory that, as you can imagine, there's a lot going on with media and a lot that people have to say about it. And so there are all these disparate theories, but they all kind of fall under this umbrella of medium theory then that was just a term coined by Joshua Mayorowitz in the 80s then. So he had Harold Dennis back in the 40s, really starting his work and coming into his age in the 50s, 1950s, Marshall McLuhan really came around in the 60s, starting in the mid 60s, many published books and things. And then finally Joshua Mayorowitz in the 80s kind of provides a little bit of timeline for what we're looking at here. In terms of the major premises of medium theory, now remember, again, this covers a broad range of materials, medium theory does. So it's more of an umbrella theory, doesn't cover just one thing. But some of the major premises that are really discussed a lot of times in media and medium theory are that first of all, communicating through a medium is different than communicating face to face. It just is. There's there are differences that are involved when you're communicating through a medium or some sort of technology that are involved when you're communicating face to face. First of all, you have what we call barriers to entry, for example. So people may not have access to all the same technologies. It's possible that they may not have access to the same technologies, right? They may some people don't have access to the internet. Some people don't have a smartphone. Some people don't have all these things. So you have, you have to first of all have access to that medium, right? And so if you don't, then that's going to be an issue, right? So barriers to entry can be an issue and can be a difference in communicating through a medium. You also have things like the disinhibition effect that have happened in mediated communication that are different from face to face communication. The disinhibition effect being that, you know, people get more brave on the other side of a computer on the other side of a screen when there's a technology between them and the other person, you get more brave, which is why you see lots of flaming online and people, you know, really raging online in a way that they wouldn't necessarily and saying graphic things that they wouldn't necessarily say if they were face to face with somebody. But they do so when there's a technology involved because they have that, that separation. It's what we call a disinhibition effect. So things like that are going on. And those are just examples of ways that communicating through a medium is different than communicating face to face. Secondly, media are more than just channels of communication. Technically, a medium does refer to the channel of communication or how we are communicating, but it's much more than that that's involved. So again, just for some examples, medium different mediums or media media is just a plural for the word medium. So different media will encourage and or discourage types of interaction. So certain media will will encourage people to engage with one another, encourage people to have that kind of interaction, or others will discourage it, right? Sometimes it will discourage it. So that medium can have that impact. Secondly, you have one of McLuhan's other kind of famous contributions to this area is a statement he made in a book that he wrote called the medium is the message. The medium is the message. And by that, one of the things you meant by that is that the medium that you choose to communicate an idea will impact how it's received. It's also something about how you feel about that message. It says something about how that other person feel about that should feel about that message. So for example, if you have a critically important message that absolutely must get to this person with that question, you're not just going to write it down on a post-it note and stick it on the fridge. When you write something on a post-it note, it's kind of a throwaway thing, literally, right? Post-it notes are able to be thrown away. And so when you write something on a post-it, then the assumption is that that message is also something that can be thrown away or must not be that critical. That you want the person to have this information, but it's not like life-saving information or really crucial information of a sort, right? That you write stuff down there that is intended to sort of be thrown away. And if you want to, if you have something that really is critical or life-changing or life-saving or whatever, that you will choose the appropriate channel for that, the appropriate medium for that, which is probably not a post-it note. In the same way that, that, you know, so, anyway, the way you communicate a message or the channel that you choose to communicate a message through is important to how that person relates to that message. It says something about how you feel about that message, about how you feel about that person. So the medium is the message, these media are more than just a channel of communication. They are part of the message themselves. We also need to understand that every medium is different. Every medium is different. They're not all the same. So we have, just to name a few little differences in the mediums. We have, first of all, unidirectional mediums versus bidirectional mediums. So some mediums are one way only. Television, radio, newspapers, those are really, you can provide feedback. They're really significantly one way or only. They are unidirectional, as opposed to bidirectional mediums like the telephone or even texting, things like that, are intended to kind of go both ways. So mediums are different in that regard, whether they are unidirectional or bidirectional. They're also different in the sense of, are they unisensory or multisensory? Are they engaging a lot of different senses? Or are they just, you know, primarily relying on one? Radio primarily relies on auditory senses, right, on an hearing that. But other sorts of mediums rely on multisense television in a more elaborate way, relies on both sight and hearing. So that's multisensory. When we engage in different types of mediums, there are different senses that are involved. Is this medium visual or text-based? So again, television, which is obviously visual medium, as opposed to newspapers and books and magazines and things like that, which are primarily text based. Now they include some visual elements, but they are primarily text based. Or the difference between a phone call and a text. So phone call obviously is very auditory oriented, but text is text-based. So and then there are socio and economic considerations. Again, we talked about entries or barriers to entry. Is there a particular socio-economic group of people that this message is intended to get to or is more likely to get to based on your choice of channel? So we need to, those mediums are different in that regard as well. Finally, we have micro versus macro medium levels. Another major premise here, micro versus macro medium level. So a micro medium level is something that is intended for the individual. The influence of that medium is the influence of that medium choice by the individual is for specific purpose. It's more narrow. It's narrow in the odd, more narrow in terms of the audience, more narrow in terms of the purpose of the message, as opposed to macro, which is more of a cultural type of communication. It's how the development of a medium impacts the kind of social interactions or thinking or social roles and those types of things in a broader context. So when we talk about macro medium, when we look at mass communication, for example, mass mediums like television and radio, those are intended to impact and address a larger number of people and not just an individual person or an individual idea they're intended to cover a variety of large groups of people, large groups of ideas. So micro versus macro medium levels are other considerations. OK, so what are some of the common questions that we ask when we're using the medium theory, critical analysis, what are some of the common questions that we come across here? First of all, why did the creator choose this medium and what does that medium say about their intent? So we need to think about from the perspective of the creator, from the perspective of the person who is sending this message, why did they choose that medium? Again, there are almost an infinite number of ways that we can communicate a message, you know, from post-it notes to television programs and so forth. So why this medium? Why did this person choose this? And what does that say about their intent of this message? What does it say about who they're trying to reach and the type of message that they're trying to send? In what ways might this medium influence the reception by the receiver? So again, we know that the choice of the medium will impact the person receiving that message. So if you see something on a post-it note, you're more likely to think of it one way as opposed to somebody rushing and then telling you face to face or catching on the phone or something like that, right? So in what ways might that medium influence the reception by the receiver? How is this person going to be impacted if they see something on a post-it note as opposed to if they see something, you know, broadcast on a television station, how is that going to impact their interpretation of that message and the reception of that message? Next, how might the makeup of the audience be affected by the choice of the medium? How might the makeup of that audience be affected by the choice of the medium? Who is going to receive that message? Again, what's the anticipated audience and how do we know based on the makeup of that audience, how are they going to be affected by that choice of medium? You know, we make those choices and we intend for a particular audience to hear it. What impact is that going to have? What relational implications might stem from this choice of medium? Again, people are going to have interpretations of this. So what does this choice of medium say about your relationship with that person? Say about your intended relationship with that person, your desired relationship with that person or that audience? What relational implications might stem from that choice of medium? What socio-political implications are inherent within this medium? So in other words, what types of classes of people are we trying to reach here? We're trying to reach, you know, people have access to certain media, again, barriers to entry. Are we trying to reach people who have access only to certain types of media? Are we trying to reach a broader audience who a larger group of people are going to have access to that medium? Or so how are the socio-political implications inherent within that medium? And then finally, how is this medium viewed and or used in a broader context? You know, oftentimes new media will have not as great an impact on people or they won't have the right the same type of impressions. So it used to be, for example, when you were a movie actor, it was considered, you know, really serious downgrade to appear on television, because television was seen as a lower type of medium. So if you're communicating on television, your message must not be as important or you won't be taken seriously. More recently here, with the AdVenom podcast, which for a long time were kind of viewed as kind of just this hobby that nerds have and things, but they won't be another gaining a wider footprint. But you still have some people who are like, I don't I don't do podcast appearances. I don't want to appear on podcasts. They just sort of beneath me. So we need to consider how that medium is viewed and used in a broader context. Okay, so I want to take a look at a specific kind of medium as we as we use this for critical analysis. And as usually do, I picked a particular item here. So this is something that you know, in the last year, during really the start of the pandemic, I've kind of really started becoming interested in podcasts. I really wasn't before. I was kind of one of those snobs that thought, you know, podcasts really doesn't have anything to offer me, but really gotten into podcasts in the last year. So thought I'd take a look at just generally at a podcast and using it for this, you know, criticism, critical analysis of medium theory. So I chose one of my favorites, which is armchair expert with that shepherd really enjoy piece of the show. Don't always agree with it, but I really appreciate his perspective and and enjoy his guests and enjoy his method of conversation here. So so we're going to take just a quick look at in general armchair expert, not a specific podcast episode, but really just just a podcast in general, the program in general. So what are some of the common questions that we ask when exploring a medium like this? First of all, why did the creator choose this medium? And what does the medium say about their intent? I mean, based on my listenership, so to speak, of this podcast over the last year or so, I understand he chose this medium for a variety of reasons. First of all, it allows him to be expressive. He enjoys conversation, enjoys challenging other people, enjoys being challenged himself, also falls outside of the role of the FCC's who doesn't have to worry about what he's talking about and what language they're using. And he can talk about whatever he wants with whom every once there's no real regulation involved here. So but I think it also allows him to be a little more personal with the audience. He's explained a couple of times that he enjoys podcasts because making a movie, for example, if he's directing a movie and wants to express something that way, it takes two years. And then it comes out and within a couple of weeks it's over and people either watching or they don't. But it takes, you know, and people, it just takes a long time to send, you know, sort of a very brief message, whereas a podcast, he has the opportunity to do this on a regular basis and have it be more contemporary. And so anyway, I think he chose this medium because of its immediacy, both in terms of time wise. It comes out. It's much more relevant because much more contemporary comes out much faster than a movie or something like that would. But also the immediacy of the intimacy of talking with that person and the intimacy with the audience, the relationships that they feel that there's that connection. So I think he chose that medium for a variety of reasons, including those. How might this medium influence the reception by the receiver? Well, again, there are people have different views on podcasts. So that's going to have an influence on that. Just your general view of podcasts will impact how you how you view that. And but I think in addition to that, the medium influences the receiver by that kind of again, that the personal type of relationship that you have through a podcast, not only because it feels like a conversation, it feels like you're there in the room, feels like you're involved, but also it is literally in your ear. Most people listen to podcasts through their headphones or at least in their car speakers or something like that. So it's right there with you. It's very intimate. It's almost inside your body in a sense. So so it can influence the listener in that way. So you feel very connected to these things. How about the makeup of the audience affected be affected by the choice of medium? Well, it's going to reach a certain kind of age range is probably not going to reach senior citizens. You know, they're not. I don't know a lot of seniors that are in a podcast. So that's a medium that doesn't really hit for them. And even, you know, I'm on the maybe the upper age, I guess, of that. Again, I was slow to come to podcasts. I'm in my mid 40s, and I was really slow to come to podcasts. So the makeup of the audience is probably going to be younger. It's probably going to be people who are more interested in a variety of ideas. And because that's the podcast really promotes a variety of ideas, not just celebrity interviews, but it's interviews on on politics and medicine and health and wellness and all kinds of things. So it's going to be people who are interested in that type of thing and in self enhancement and in other people. And so. But then they're going to be, though, that cross section, who are also interested in listening to podcasts, which is, again, going to be more limited to probably younger demographic. What relational implications might stem from this choice of medium? Well, that's interesting, because this isn't really a person to person is more of a mass medium. So that's one thing to consider, first of all, but also secondly, that that does feel very personal. You feel like you get to know Dax and Monica, his cohost on this podcast, you feel like you get to know the people because it is such a sort of intimate experience that you feel like you're getting to know these people on a personal level. So so there are kind of relational implications that might stem from that choice of medium. Certainly it's more connected, more personal, more intimate than would be a, for example, even a TV show or something that you would see in print, but feels much more personal than that. But social political implications are inherent within this medium. We can talk about barriers to access or barriers to entry. Who's going to have access to these podcasts? I mean, theoretically anybody that's really available on the web, but that implies that you've got some way to to listen to it conveniently and to to access it, that you've got internet access, that you've got a you've got a podcast program that you're using to play that you've got a smartphone or a computer or something like that. So there are, you know, social political implications that would leave out certain groups of people that, you know, there's a barrier to entry in terms of technology inherent within this this medium. So there are those types of things to consider. And how is this medium viewed and or used in a broader context? Again, it's sort of on the edge. It's sort of becoming more mainstream podcasts are sort of becoming more popular, I think. And maybe that's just my bias and having gotten into it myself over the last year. But but I can tell you before that, yeah, I was I was definitely on the podcast or on the lower end of the spectrum, and they really don't have much offer. They're very shallow in my mind. They were very shallow and very, you know, people couldn't find anything better to do. And just people spotting off and who really cares about all that. So so I do think there are pockets of that still, although it is like I said, I think gaining traction as a more of a mainstream media and as a way for people to promote projects and things like that people are coming around, people use that. No, I don't do podcasts. I only do major television interviews are starting to do podcasts because they see the value. And so it's starting to gain some traction in that regard for certain people. So but it is still kind of a technology that's really in its infancy when you when you consider it's only really been around for a few years and only been popular for the last couple of years in the way that, you know, extremely popular. So so there are still some skeptics or some people who see it as a shallow and not really worthy of your time. But anyway, so again, these are just some some basic ideas of how we apply this type of lens. And the most more thing to remember here is that for medium theory, we're all we're thinking about not just the content of that message, but how it is being conveyed. What's the technology being used? How does that impact the message? How does that impact our culture and our cultural development? Just all of these things related to how a message is being communicated and the importance of that. So just you know, continue to be critical and and and think about things in terms of not just the content, but the medium as well. If you have any questions about this or any other type of critical analysis, I'd be happy to chat with you. Just send me an email and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. In the meantime, get out there start thinking about not just what is being communicated, but how it's being communicated and what impact that might have on the overall message and the overall relational implications.