Medium theory is a mode of analysis that examines the ways in which particular communication media and modalities impact the specific content (messages) they are meant to convey. It also refers to a set of approaches that can be used to convey the difference in meanings of messages depending on the channel through which they are transmitted. Medium theorists argue that media are not simply channels for transmitting information between environments but are themselves distinct social-psychological settings or environments that encourage certain types of interaction and discourage others. Moreover, this set of approaches focuses on the distinct affordances that a given medium may possess that affects the messages that are being conveyed through it. The key assumption is that, rather than just being the means by which the communication takes place, media is a diverse set of environments that enable the communication to happen; as such, it may alter the meaning and sense of the information that is transferred through it. Accordingly, medium theory is distinct from the more generic 'media theory', the majority of which place its emphasis on the content of communication (e.g., sex and violence) rather than the medium. Joshua Meyrowitz originated the term in his 1985 book, No Sense of Place. Meyrowitz used the term to refer to the body of literature that focuses on the technological aspects of media beyond their content. It aims to look beyond the content to the medium which reveals the key to its social impact. Such works includes to those of Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, Walter Ong, Jack Goody, and Neil Postman, among others. Currently, medium theory occupies a marginal position within American communication and media studies. In Canada and elsewhere, the theory continues to inform studies that assess large-scale social changes that follow the adoption of a new medium.
History Joshua Meyrowitz originated the term medium theory in his 1985 book, No Sense of Place, as a unifying label for the body of work from various mid-20th-century scholars who explored how the different characteristics of different media motivate unique forms of interaction. (These works came from a variety of fields, including history, anthropology, political economy, philosophy, religion, classics, and communication.) This label described works that focused on the technological aspects of media beyond their content. To Meyrowitz, "the term media of communication refers to all channels and means through which information is transmitted among people except direct, face-to-face modes of communication." In a later work, Meyrowitz asks: "What are the characteristics of each medium…that make it physically, psychologically, and socially different from other media and from live interaction, regardless of content and grammar choices." Though the term medium theory itself was coined in the 1980s, the roots of this mode of analysis can be found in each major development of a new medium throughout history. In ancient Greece, Socrates observed that writing differed from oral dialogue in several key ways: written texts were incapable of answering questions put to them, reached audiences for which they were not intended, and weakened the memories of those who relied on them. His student Plato continued the tradition, but with a reversal of value judgments about at least some modes of orality versus text: Plato was enthusiastic about writing but wanted to banish the oral poets from his Republic. In the 15th century, Johannes Gutenberg touted the ways in which his own invention of movable type differed in method and potential effects from the work of the scribes. In the 16th century, Martin Luther and his followers consciously exploited the revolutionary potential of print via the first mass-mediated publicity campaign. With the advent of film in the early 20th century, film theorist Rudolf Arnheim defended film as being a potential art form as opposed to a simple mechanical reproduction of reality. He proposed a form of medium theory that suggested that artistic and scientific descriptions of reality were shaped as much by the peculiarities of the chosen medium of representation as by the reality being portrayed. With the growing influence of electronic media in the 1940s and 1950s, political economist Harold Innis offered significant advancements to the development of medium theory with his Empire and Communications (1950) and The Bias of Communication (1951), two books that extend the principles of economic monopolies to the study of information monopolies. Innis rewrote the history of civilization, from early Mesopotamia and Egypt to the British Empire and the Nazis, as the history of communication media and their influences. Perhaps the most notable medium theorist is Marshall McLuhan, who came into the public eye in the 1960s, during the increasing dominance of television, especially with his second medium theory book, Understanding Media (1964). McLuhan suggested that television and other electronic media were having a significant impact on the culture as they diminished the social significance of literacy.
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