Strategically Communicating

Do the media affect or reflect the world?
Do we speak language, or does language speak us? (as posed by Martin Heidegger)

One of the great challenges for a culture is to study itself, its own behaviors, and to attempt to objectively interpret the meaning of its social constructs. When considering the influence of media — a manmade construct — on the world, one must simultaneously turn around and consider the influence of the world on media. After all, the media exists in the world and was created by the very beings who are affected by the messages it sends. It’s a cycle. It’s a symbiosis. The media affects the world it aspires to reflect.

In the midst of the study and practice of communication, it is all too easy to believe that we, as communicators, are beyond the reach of media at any given moment. Wearing the “Expert” hat can inspire an “us/them” mentality in which the communications professional forgets that s/he is a citizen of the world that the media influences. As this week’s Media Monitor assignment illustrated, we are in no way immune to the message of media.

How do we, as communicators, confidently harness the power of the media — the primary tool of our trade — while acknowledging our own impressionable humanity and susceptibility to it’s voice?