When I was studying at university I fell in love with the poetic, critical analysis of the post-structuralists. For these writers, the location of truth was always shifting which meant seeking it in other places — context, place and so on.
Two of the most important side effects of this search are “surprise” and “curiosity”. We are curiously drawn to the new, unique and novel, holding our surprise in abeyance until it leaps from us shrieking. The post-structuralists deliberately used creative language to tap into this sense of the world, but also to interrogate it. This quote by Raymond Williams (while not really a post-structuralist) is a great example of a shifting truth — and it seems to apply even more stringently today to brands, consumer culture and marketing than ever before.
So next time someone asks for your mass media strategy, you know how to respond. Go digital.
With thanks to Blaiq.
Hey Gavin,
was so refreshed to see Raymond Williams dropped in a blog post – the guy was out-and-out a media prophet in the true sense of the word and someone who was not afraid to buck the recurring trend towards technology hype.
His work Television as Cultural Form was responsible for impressing upon me the need to understand that new technologies are not simply adopted by people, but that they are adapted by people. This simple aphorism fundamentally positions technology as a tool and in doing so forces us to focus our attention not on the features and benefits of tech itself, but on the way humans use the technological tools around them.
Now that is insightful, especially when backed up by a compelling reading of TV as an industry. Regardless of what your thoughts on Marxism and materialism are, Raymond Williams was a rigorous and inspirational thinker.
Cheers for the link Gavin.
Hi Gavin, I just have to comment on this one. Since a lot of research shows that people are reading less and that visual media is more how many learn new indformation today, we’re seeing a shift in how many people actually learn. One problem is that our schools fall behind in letting people express what they know through the media, since schools and universities still rely on paper and pencil tests and papers to determine how much you know!