Larry D. Lauer

“How Media Revolutions Change Everything”  is the title of a TCU Honors College colloquium I will be leading this fall.  These honor students come from all academic disciplines, and enrollment is limited to 18. This will truly be an adventure in ideas for all of us, as we will be pausing to think about the consequences of media more than we will be consuming it. 

Our goal will be to consider how the ways people think and act change, and how various segments of society change,  when a new communication medium becomes dominant. For example, does family interaction and behavior change when a new medium is introduced in the home?  And do political campaigns, schools, churches, and even governments, change as a consequence new media as well? We will consider all of this, and more.

Most agree that significant change in all these areas is observable, and that there are compelling questions about how it impacts each of us. In thinking about our adventure, however, I quickly realized that we must first determine  just “how to go about thinking about” these issues. Otherwise our initial opinions are likely to be mere personal biases based on previous selective perception. So to inoculate this danger we will first discuss, and possibly revise, these  four preliminary assertions:

1. Every issue has a framework or context that should be outlined before forming any opinion. Otherwise, it is not likely to be an educated opinion. For example, should we not clarify the basic background factors that made each topic an issue in the first place, and also identify all the key questions that should be answered?

2. Next, we should not clarify the arguments that form the various opinions that are currently held about each issue?  This analysis is really an individual “imaginary debate” exercise, and should lead us to a clear understanding of how different opinions get formed.  

3. Now should we not differentiate “taking sides” from “possessing the truth?”  And will this not generally lead each of us to a conscious awareness of the dangers of ongoing polarization?

4. Finally, is it not wise to articulate that a final way forward for any issue is rarely known at the outset, and that usually ultimate solutions evolve only after initial compromises and later revisions based on implementation and  experience?  

My students and I are about to embark on an exciting exercise in constructive thinking about media. This should lead to a better awareness of how our lives are changed, sometimes dramatically, by the media we choose to use most. Stay tuned… more weekly posts are sure to follow!