Tim McCarthy and the Business of Good

Newsletter - "The Message is the Medium" by Tim McCarthy

Aug 29, 2016 9:45:00 AM / by Tim McCarthy

Marshall McLuhan was a brilliant professor who coined the phrase “the medium is the message”.  

Stated briefly, he believed that television, movies and advertising vehicles held a message just by their use.  That is, advertising on TV had sound, motion and pictures,  so they meant one thing; radio’s sound-only medium meant another; a billboard, sight and brevity yet another, and so forth. When we receive a message on radio it is perceived differently than a message received via TV.  

Therefore, the “medium is the message”.

A couple of recent experiences make me wonder if I’m experiencing an opposite phenomenon:  the message is the medium.

After a recent presentation to CEOs in a southern, conservative part of the country, I was told that my message was obscured by cursing at times during my presentation.

My knee-jerk response was to pass it off as the difference between areas of the country.  My language would have actually been considered mild in some East Coast cities.  

Then I looked up Wikipedia’s reference to cursing which is in part “use of words that are generally considered to be strongly impolite, rude or offensive.”  

So my question to myself became obvious:  Am I damaging my medium (speaking, writing) by making rudeness part of my message?  

In some cases, yes and in some cases it’s just seen as intended – a tension breaker and point maker.

But why risk losing my message?    

This morning, the message is the medium jumped back at me when I read this quote from Mahatma Gandhi: 

“My message is my life”.

Holy cow!  

It took me another step higher than how I speak.  That is, if anyone notices me at all they are much more likely to see how I live than anything I might be saying.

It’s kind of like a lifetime extension of my Mom’s admonition that my kids will not learn from what I say as much as they will see what I do.  

That was always tough for me.  It was way easier to tell my kids to do their homework then to do my own.  

Living our message is way tougher than saying it.

And so I must work to do and not just say “The Business of Good”.  

Peace,

Tim McCarthy

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Tim McCarthy

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