What is Media?
Media are the collective communication outlets or tools used to store and deliver information or data. It is either associated with communication media, or the specialized mass media communication businesses such as print media and the press, photography, advertising, cinema, broadcasting (radio and television), publishing and point of sale.
Who Created the Media?
John M. Culkin, Jr. (June 21, 1928 – July 23, 1993)
John Culkin (1928-1993) was one of the first educators in the U.S. to initiate explicit media education curriculum in schools. Indeed his professional life was focused on a steadfast conviction that America needs to create a media-literate population. He further believed this to be the responsibility of the school.
In 1964 he wrote, "The attainment of (media) literacy involves more that mere warnings about the effects of the mass media and more even than constant exposure to the better offerings of these media. This is an issue demanding more than good will alone; it requires understanding. And training in understanding is the task of the school!"
Culkin's ardent study of the media began while at a Jesuit seminary at Woodstock College, Maryland (1958-1962). There, in his spare time, he "stumbled upon" Marshall McLuhan, then an English professor at the University of Toronto, in "obscure journals" and made a mental note that the then unknown author was someone he would like to meet one day. At one point, Culkin wrote McLuhan, and the two developed a lively correspondence. Culkin also traveled in France and Italy during the summers where he was impressed by the educators he met who were developing critical audiences for film. He brought Canadian film educators to the seminary to acquaint his colleagues with their techniques for developing film literacy.
After ordination, Father Culkin went to the Harvard Graduate School of Education for, as he put it, "a little polish." There he earned the Doctor of Education degree in curriculum development, writing a film study curriculum as a dissertation (1964) and gaining prominence as a film scholar. One day McLuhan phoned him there to say he was just down the road at Brandeis University to give a lecture...could they meet later at the local pub?
It was a fortuitous meeting. Culkin became a renowned and excellent interpreter of McLuhan's thoughts and work, writing important early articles about the media shift in The Saturday Review. McLuhan in turn, appointed Culkin a fellow at the University of Toronto's Centre for Culture and Technology and proudly announced in correspondence with a colleague "...I obtained the services of John Culkin, the film Jesuit, who is known throughout the world among film-makers and teachers."
