study considers not only the “content” but the medium  and the 
cultural matrix within which the particular  medium operates. 
The older unawareness of the psychic and social effects of 
media can be illustrated from almost any of the conventional 
pronouncements.

     In accepting an honorary degree from the University of 
Notre Dame a few years ago, General David Sarnoff made this 
statement: “We are too prone to make technological 
instruments the scapegoats for the sins of those who wield 
them. The products of modern science are  not in themselves 
good or bad; it is the way they are used that determines their 
value.” That is the voice of the current somnambulism. 
Suppose we were to say, “Apple pie is in itself neither good nor 
bad; it is the way it is used that determines its value.” Or, “The 
smallpox virus is in itself neither good nor bad; it is the way it is