{"id":9,"date":"2016-09-26T10:16:22","date_gmt":"2016-09-26T17:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fnis401fwikler\/?p=9"},"modified":"2016-09-26T10:16:22","modified_gmt":"2016-09-26T17:16:22","slug":"decolonizing-mcluhan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fnis401fwikler\/2016\/09\/26\/decolonizing-mcluhan\/","title":{"rendered":"Decolonizing McLuhan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Re-<\/em>introducing the concept of the ‘medium is the message’ by McLuhan through decolonized thought re-inserting the continued<\/em> existence of indigenous peoples.<\/p>\n

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“The printed book added much to the new cult of\u00a0individualism<\/em>.\u00a0The private, fixed point of view became possible…” McLuhan 50.<\/p>\n

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The colonized Message<\/strong>: A postcard depicting attractive\u00a0Hawaiian\u00a0women\u00a0elated to be welcoming a tourist to their beautiful island.<\/p>\n

The decolonized\u00a0Medium:<\/strong>\u00a0A postcard neglecting to illustrate an authentic representation of\u00a0indigenous women who inhabit Hawaii, rather a sexualized depiction of women, welcoming\u00a0a white settler\u00a0into their lands, culture and traditions.<\/p>\n

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McLuhan famously asserts that to fully grasp the information or knowledge available from a concept, event or innovation, one needs to look beyond what appears to be the obvious. McLuhan warns this often overlooks critical pieces of information that contribute to the complete picture or idea. While McLuhan is correct in drawing attention to the fact that our personal societal and cultural experiences prevent us from understanding multi-faceted events, he neglects to highlight the inverse effect this may have. Although someone may have a different \u2018grounding\u2019 experience of lived culture and traditions, that doesn\u2019t mean people of different backgrounds are incapable of viewing issues or events in a similar perspective. McLuhan defines the \u2018medium\u2019 as \u201cany extension of ourselves\u201d and the \u2018message\u2019 as \u201cthe change of scale, pace or pattern that a new invention introduces into human affairs\u201d(McLuhan 8). Therefore, the message would not be the information being directly and obviously conveyed, but the change it causes. The medium signifies the extension of our thoughts and environment media enables us to create.<\/p>\n

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Medium creating a message<\/strong><\/p>\n

Or <\/em>decolonized thought extending beyond conventional media to change perspectives<\/p>\n

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\u201c\u2026Nothing can be further from the spirit of the new technology than \u201ca place for everything and everything in its place\u201d you cant go home again\u201d (16)<\/p>\n

This sentiment denies the ability for indigenous peoples to revitalize and restore indigenous culture, traditions and livelihoods that were damaged by colonialism. McLuhan asserts the notion that once a mass movement gains momentum, to return to life before is impossible. This mass movement could be technology, new media or colonialism.<\/p>\n

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X <\/strong><\/p>\n

However McLuhan is mistaken in predicting that a new form of \u201c\u2026Politics\u201d is emerging\u2026 the living room has become a voting booth. Participation via television.. Pollution and other events are changing everything.<\/em>\u201d (22) Indigenous peoples are the perfect example of defying this \u201cmass audience\u201d movement of politics by decolonizing space through land as pedagogy to protest political and global issues. This can be observed with the ongoing Dakota Access Pipeline protests and the Oka Crisis. Both are examples of indigenous resistance to a colonial power that has appeal to a \u2018mass\u2019 audience through colonial media sources in the inaccurate portrayal of indigenous lands as sacrificed. Indigenous peoples resist colonialism through displacement by rejecting this narrative and defending their lands despite being \u201csold\u201d from one colonizer to another. Indigenous peoples are using new forms of media while simultaneously implementing protests from a land based, decolonized and traditional perspective.<\/p>\n

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\u201c\u2026The medium is the massage. Any understanding of social and cultural change is impossible without a knowledge of the way media works as environments\u2026 All media are extensions of some human faculty, psychic or physical\u201d McLuhan 41.<\/p>\n

X\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

McLuhan identifies a powerful truth to media that has proven beneficial in advancing decolonization and advocating for indigenous rights. Mcluhan writes, \u201c\u2026Media, by altering the environment, evoke in us unique ratios of sense perceptions. The extension of any one sense alters the way we think and act- the way we perceive the world. When these ratios change, men change\u201d (McLuhan 52). While sexist in the last phrase of the statement, reclaiming a voice through media has changed the narrative and thus the perspective surrounding indigenous peoples. While major mass media outlets initially neglected to report on the protests surrounding the Dakota Access Pipeline, indigenous peoples were able to circulate an authentic, decolonial account of events to resist the colonial injustice taking place on sacred lands.<\/p>\n

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“\u2026It is only too typical that the “content” of any medium blinds us to the character of the medium.” (McLuhan 9)<\/p>\n

X<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this sense, media has been used against <\/em>aboriginal peoples. Reporting on missing and murdered indigenous women throughout Canada has record biases reporting style. When compared with reporting on similar cases, bios, personal attributes and emotional affections are exempt. News coverage of non-aboriginal women runs along the lines of \u2018beloved athlete, student and daughter. Active member of her local youth church group and had aspirations of attending university of British Columbia\u2019 versus, reporting on missing or murdered aboriginal women\u2026 \u2018Aboriginal woman, age 34 frequently seen in the downtown east side.\u2019 This method of delivering a message through a construed medium affects the perspective that is often associated with missing and murdered aboriginal women as being inherent targets because of substance abuse stereotypes that have been perpetuated by a colonial, derogatory and sexist narrative.<\/p>\n

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McLuhan\u2019s presentation of the concept of the medium is the message as innovative itself denies this notion having been existent among indigenous culture and tradition for centuries. Traditionally, it was common for community totem poles to be carved to convey knowledge systems, transfer of property rights and societal dynamics. This notion of various knowledge systems transcended throughout a variety of traditional art forms. Arguably, the concept \u2018medium is the message\u2019 has been employed by indigenous peoples before the era of new media.<\/p>\n

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McLuhan on printed technology as an innovation for individualism denies the legitimacy of Aboriginal oral history and traditions.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the name of \u2018progress\u2019 our official culture is striving to force the new media to do the work of the old\u201d This way of considering legitimate knowledge systems places indigenous legal orders and oral histories as something of the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people find it difficult to understand purely verbal concepts\u2026 we are so visually biased that we call our wisest men visionaries, <\/em>or seers<\/em>!\u201d (McLuhan 117)<\/p>\n

This highlights a problem that continuously confronts indigenous peoples throughout colonial court systems and governmental powers. Aboriginal right to land and natural resources are frequently denied due to the indigenous traditions of passing down property rights through oral histories. Arguably, the tendency to rely predominantly upon visual or written information hinders westerners from perceiving the entire<\/em> message or information being conveyed\u2026 overemphasis on the obvious.<\/p>\n

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Re-introducing the concept of the ‘medium is the message’ by McLuhan through decolonized thought re-inserting the continued existence of indigenous peoples.     “The printed book added much to the new cult of\u00a0individualism.\u00a0The private, fixed point of view became possible…” McLuhan 50. The colonized Message: A postcard depicting attractive\u00a0Hawaiian\u00a0women\u00a0elated to be welcoming a tourist to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45168,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fnis401fwikler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fnis401fwikler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fnis401fwikler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fnis401fwikler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fnis401fwikler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fnis401fwikler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fnis401fwikler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions\/13"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fnis401fwikler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fnis401fwikler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fnis401fwikler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}