The Dead Sea Scrolls were a hugely important discovery for biblical scholarship. They contained ancient manuscripts of Scripture as well as extra-biblical literature that helped scholars understand the cultural and historical place of these scriptures. Media Ecology is about to experience a Dead Sea Scrolls moment. Eric McLuhan has gathered and expanded on all of […]
Surprise: You’re the New Medium
February 8, 2017 By
So get ready for your parents to complain that if you really loved them, you’d keep the snap streak going. -David Pierce, “What Lies Ahead” (Wired, February 2017) The content of the new medium is the what? That’s right: the old medium. Of course, in the digital age, what the hell even is the old or new […]
Eschatology and the Technological Future Review
February 6, 2017 By
Michael S. Burdett is a postdoctoral fellow at Oxford’s Wycliffe Hall and holds degrees in engineering, physics, and theology. My imagination tells me he can answer basically any kind of question you have. For example, the last few editions of Wired magazine’s probably left you with a few lingering concerns over genetic engineering, the future of […]
Media Ecological Poetry: “Religious Climate”
January 19, 2017 By
Dr. Read Mercer Schuchardt and his colleague, Dr. William Irwin have recently published a swift but piercing piece called “Religious Climate.” It’s William Carlos Williams meets Neil Postman doused in Scriptural truth. What could possibly be cooler? Religious Climate by William Irwin and Read Mercer Schuchardt
A brief note on “millennials” and their “problem”
January 9, 2017 By
Wired published a piece in their September 2016 issue titled “Like. Flirt. Ghost: A Journey into the Social Media Lives of Teens.” It consisted of mini-portraits of five individuals from across the country. The author, Mary H. K. Choi, writes gracefully, allowing them the flexibility and flux to be and not to be what they […]
Jacques and Wendell
January 4, 2017 By
A writer for the International Jacques Ellul Society recently published a wonderful little essay comparing the thoughts and standpoints of their namesake with that of Wendell Berry. If you’ve got a little less than 10 minutes of free time and you want to feel smarter and more human at the end of it, then give […]
Media Ecology in Music
December 30, 2016 By
Being privy to the effects of technology on culture is all the rage these days. Whether you’re Childish Gambino writing an entire album entitled “Because the Internet” or whether your a bluegrass group eccentrically weaving the themes of worship and wireless together, if you want the ear of the modern public you better have something […]
McLuhan Reconsidered by LA Review of Books
December 28, 2016 By
How to Become a Famous Media Scholar: The Case of Marshall McLuhan Following the link, you’ll find an article by Jefferson Pooley for the L.A. Review of Books. The title, you may have noticed, is a bit sardonic. And reading the rest of the article will convince you, the author clearly has his issues with […]
Amish is the new counter-culture
August 26, 2016 By
Ross Douthat, a columnist for the New York Times, published a short article pushing a “technology-driven hypothesis” for the apparent decline in youth of various immoral behaviors over the past few decades. The basic idea is extremely simple. Instead of studying how digital media “affect” our values and rituals, we should pay attention to how they […]
Film and History Association Conference Call for Papers!
July 9, 2016 By
The Film and History Association Conference has dedicated four special sessions to the Media Ecology Association! They’ve called for papers and proposals from anyone who has something to add to these four conversations: Media, Iconology, and Celebrity on Screen – Cinema and the Shaping of Popular Culture Gods “For over a century, the film industry […]
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