The Medium Is the Message

Maybe Marshall McLuhan was right: the medium is the message. In today’s media- and celebrity-driven environment, how and by whom a message is delivered may be much more important than the message itself.

The recent “60 Minutes”/Vanity Fair poll found that Rush Limbaugh is considered the nation’s most influential conservative voice. Twenty-six percent of those polled chose Limbaugh, followed by 11 percent who cited Glenn Beck.

Why are voices like Limbaugh’s and Beck’s heard so clearly and why do they exert such influence on the American public? Basically, they deliver the same idea packaged in various ways: liberals are bad and conservatives are good. So what’s behind their popularity and visibility and impact?

One possibility is that they’re the radio/TV talk show hosts we see all the time—they’re media celebrities—and most Americans know them: Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, etc. These conservatives position themselves as experts on important issues but, instead of reporting or carrying out serious investigative journalism of their own, tend to simply comment on and criticize the work others are doing.

So maybe that’s the whole point about why we don’t hear progressive voices as clearly. Progressives more often than not work in print media—and who has time to read these days? Studies show that newspaper readership (and the number of newspapers) has been steadily declining in recent years, while TV viewing has reached an all-time high. The good news is that approximately 75 percent of Americans get their news online, but—while the Internet should be the great equalizer—conservatives have a strong Internet presence as well.

There are other implications of these trends. One study showed that the majority of viewers watching a controversial news program were not able to identify the consequences, implications, or ethical issues involved. Does this suggest that Americans are looking for news commentators to tell them what to think?

Almost all conservative TV and radio personalities condemn abortion, environmentalism, animal rights activism, feminism, and—most importantly—secular humanism. Their political agendas are inextricably entwined with a religious or moral agenda. Is this forum the new church in America today? We’ve long blurred the line between information and entertainment; have we now also eliminated any distinction between infotainment and religion? Is the conservative media a new “pulpit” for religious ideology, and are conservative talk-show and TV commentators the new preachers?

What would this mean if Jesus lived today rather than 2,000 years ago? He might appear on “Oprah,” probably land a book deal, and Fox News would work overtime to discredit him. He might get his own talk-show, go into national syndication, and have the media salivating for a scandal. Would he have to submit to the 12 stations of the media cross in order to be heard and taken seriously? Or would his teachings resonate with listeners no matter where and how he spoke, the message transcending the medium to become inspiration for a worldwide community of believers?