Media

What effect do different communications media have on our communications?

"The full range of human beings' communications skills includes vocal inflections, as well as facial and body gestures. With the introduction of the phone and radio, we had to re-learn how to understand a message by listening to the tone of the voice that was speaking. With the introduction of film and television, the transportation of human images reappeared in a limited form, subject to the vision and censorship of those who controlled the camera lens.

With email and online forums (like newspapers, books, and other web pages) the subject matter comes in the form of the printed word. Here, interpretation of the message is subject to the imagination of the reader, who may find that certain words, by themselves, have a different meaning than the writer intended."

"The Medium is the Message." - w:Marshall McLuhan