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06492_Field_TCUM T57.txt
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1996-04-10
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937b
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16 lines
we turn from the content of messages to study total effect.
Kenneth Boulding put this matter in The Image by saying, “The
meaning of a message is the change which it produces in the
image.” Concern with effect rather than meaning is a basic
change of our electric time, for effect involves the total
situation, and not a single level of information movement.
Strangely, there is recognition of this matter of effect rather
than information in the British idea of libel: “The greater the
truth, the greater the libel.”
The effect of electric technology had at first been anxiety.
Now it appears to create boredom. We have been through the
three stages of alarm, resistance, and exhaustion that occur in
every disease or stress of life, whether individual or collective.
At least, our exhausted slump after the first encounter with the
electric has inclined us to expect new problems. However,