[Live Video] Thinking Beyond Content: McLuhan and Probes

In the eleventh video of Adam Niven' s #FBLiveVideoChallenge for Media Theology Adam introduces Marshall McLuhan and one of his probes about media.

#mcprobe: New Media Aren't Tools for the Church; They're Tools that Alter the Church

With new media devices and new media technologies, the Church continues to consider how these tools may be put in service of the Church. But like the rest of culture, the Church is not immune to the way these tools go to work at reshaping it as they are embraced.

#mcprobe: Is the Church in the West prone to Activewear Syndrome?

With the change in circumstances for our family this year in moving from Perth WA to the Sunshine Coast QLD I've had to take on more of the school drop offs and pick ups. Which is fine, but there is this strange phenomenon that I know I'm not the only one who's noticed.

#mcprobe: Daily Bible Readings are for the Privileged Educated Individual

There's a whole industry of publishing built on the notion that good Christians read their Bibles daily. It's most likely part of the reason that the Bible remains an all time best-seller. It's certainly the reason that any Christian bookstore worth its weight will have a wide selection of "365 days of X for Y" type books. But, this activity, a daily reading of the Bible - normally to be carried out individually and accompanied by some kind of quiet reflection (que the journal industry) - is jammed packed full of privileged educated individual bias.

Playboy:: Buying it for the Articles, Excuse Becomes Reality

This week the world was thrown into shock as it found the oldest Playboy excuse is soon to be become reality:

"Oh you found my Playboy. I buy it for the articles."

That's right, Playboy announced it will be having a change of direction (come March next year) and follow Tobias Fünke's lead into the world of never nudes. That's right, according to CEO, Scott Flanders, when you're "one click away from every sex act imaginable for free...it's just so passé..."

#mcprobe :: it started here

Being too young to have been exposed to McLuhan in his heyday, my discovery came a number of years ago was kind of like pulling a loose thread on a woolen sweater. Like many, my first exposure was to his most infamous aphorism

the medium is the message

but without notice, it became: the medium is the massage; the medium is the mess-age; the medium is the mass-age; the tedium is the message; and  the tedium is the mass-age. All of a sudden I had my hands full of loose wool and McLuhan was saying "See, it's a unicorn".