Why mTheory?

"We don't know who discovered water, but we're certain it wasn't a fish."
John Culkin (qtd. in Edmund Carpenter's
They Became What They Beheld )

We've been born into a world where most of what passes for reality is mediated for us. Even before television, radio, newspapers, computers, and books begin telling us stories about what is happening out there, our parents or otherwise speak to us about the perils and joys of the world. The extent of this mediation continues to be debated in far-flung circles of discourse--for example, to what extent does our early language acquisition shape our views of the world, our sense of time, space and identity? However, as human beings we intuit that there is something out there that exists, undeniably, apart from us and our perceptions, and many of us hunger for at least a few brief moments of face-to-face with the real.

Who in North America doubts that media play a significant role in our lives? Think of politics, commerce, education, recreation, art and culture, or social interaction--it would be difficult, if not impossible, to discuss any of these activities without some acknowledgement of the medium through which we "know" about these things. Given this, it continues to amaze me that there are so few media studies programs in North American schools and universities. They do exist, and there are some very good programs scattered here and there. Why is it, then, that academics have been unable to communicate their insights about media to the people? We are certainly inundated by messages speaking to technological determinism, the belief that technology must be adopted as it becomes available if we are to evolve as a species. There is certainly enough cynicism--both high- and low-brow versions--to keep us distressed and depressed about the fate of the world 'til doomsday. Where are the perceptive critics of the media who can counter this wave of technological promotion on the one hand, and cynicism on the other? mTheory attempts to balance this pervasive dialectic.

In some ways, mTheory is a response to Ctheory. There is no question that the Krokers and their collaborators are dedicated, knowledgeable, creative and intelligent. But they are speaking to one another. They are not communicating with the people who are being transformed into digital flesh. Why is this?

Why has the academic community immersed itself in jargon? Why are these brilliant communicators failing to communicate? Well, if they subscribe to the Frankfurt School of media criticism they have trouble with low culture and think that's all the masses care about. Or they believe that the issues are too complicated for common consumption (in which opinion they join certain engineers, lawyers, and politicians). If they're poststructuralists, they're so paranoid about identity and POV and authority that they have no ground of reference to stand on. I don't know the answers to the questions I'm asking, but I am suggesting that those with true media savvy are not trying hard enough to reach the people who are hungering for insight. mTheory is written by people who are trying to communicate something plausible about the media. They begin in their own experience. They write to be understood. And it doesn't have to be all Dick and Jane.

mTheory is a collaborative venture begun by people on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Yes, we're on the edge of the (former) empire, and we think that gives us a certain vantage point. We've been influenced by the tradition of Canadian media theorists beginning with Harold Adams Innis, and including Marshall McLuhan, Edmund Carpenter, Wilson Duff, Joyce Nelson, George Grant, Bruce Powe, Moses Znaimer, and Arthur and Marilouise Kroker. Innis created a philosophical niche for the media analysts who live on the margins, and he established a strategy for investigating the medium, as well as the message. If you read the writing of these people, you will be struck by, yes, their eccentricity in some cases, but also by their deep commitment to questioning the dilemmas faced by humanity. And, let's face it, we are often confused, often feel betrayed by promise lost, often hunger for something that we can believe to be the truth. Instead of hearing something that we know to be false.

When you're a fish, water is your world.