From the Ecology of Broadcasting to the Ecology of Participation. Critical Reflections

More than forty years ago, Marshall McLuhan, among others, famously started theorizing and analysing what will be referred to here as the ecology of broadcasting (McLuhan 1964; McLuhan & McLuhan 1988). His analyses hovered above questions such as: What will television mean to the world we once knew? In what ways has radio reshaped our ways of understanding the world and our place within it? His answers to these questions were mainly based on close, formal interpretations of the mediums’ technological possibilities. If they technically allow for instant communication on a global scale (TV), this is also what they will bring about (as in, for instance, his infamous “global village” metaphor). If they – in technical terms – allow for a restructuring of societal organization (radio, TV), this also becomes their most probable social outcome.2 Ever since it was presented, McLuhan’s thought-provoking theorizing has inspired numerous studies (cf. Postman 1985; Meyrowitz 1985; Thompson 1995), and it has also become an important part of the intellectual heritage of media analyses.