SMC219Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Marshall Mcluhan, Quentin Tarantino, Instrumentalism

• School: UTSG
• Department: St. Michael's College Courses
• Course: SMC219Y1
• Professor: Steve Hoselton

Document Summary

Berger talks a lot about textual analysis: many theorists believe that textual analysis is the best way to understand media. He clearly illustrates how to perform textual analysis. The flaws in his theory are also apparent. The text (the message) is the key to understanding what is being communicated: can be verbal, text, movie, song, etc, the (cid:373)essage, (cid:374)o (cid:373)atter ho(cid:449) it"s deli(cid:448)ered. Text, not the medium, in contrast to mcluhan (the medium is the message) The text is more important than the medium: within the same medium, we can choose different messages. If o(cid:374)l(cid:455) the (cid:373)ediu(cid:373) (cid:373)attered, differe(cid:374)t (cid:373)essages (cid:449)ould(cid:374)"t affe(cid:272)t us differe(cid:374)tl(cid:455: we encounter some messages repeatedly on the same medium, but we get new meanings from it each time. But if the mediu(cid:373) does(cid:374)"t (cid:272)ha(cid:374)ge, (cid:449)e should(cid:374)"t (cid:271)e getti(cid:374)g a differe(cid:374)t (cid:373)essage. But if we get a different interpretation each time, the text does matter. We have to understand the message: break it down, unpack it.