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Understanding McLuhan
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Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso
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07153_Field_TCUM T718.txt
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1996-04-10
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889b
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16 lines
would have quite altered the result of the Kennedy-Nixon
campaign. TV is a medium that rejects the sharp personality
and favors the presentation of processes rather than of
products.
The adaptation of TV to processes, rather than to the
neatly packaged products, explains the frustration many
people experience with this medium in its political uses. An
article by Edith Efron in TV Guide (May 18­24, 1963) labeled
TV “The Timid Giant,” because it is unsuited to hot issues and
sharply defined controversial topics: “Despite official freedom
from censorship, a self-imposed silence renders network
documentaries almost mute on many great issues of the day.”
As a cool medium TV has, some feel, introduced a kind of rigor
mortis into the body politic. It is the extraordinary degree of
audience participation in the TV medium that explains its