Electronic media: altering our intelligence

Scott Johnson, former exec creative director at Tribal DDB Dallas recently published an article (Advertising Age) on electronic media / the web and how it changed the way consumers think. Based on the insight that the dominant medium of every age defines the way humans expect the world to be, he explains how e.g. the printing press fostered exposition and long, subtle arguments in communication - because "that's what the printed word does well." Thus, people's brains were conditioned to understand the world in that way.

Today, not only the media but also the advertising industry is challenged to understand the changes in media consumption (and consumer brains) the electronic media brought. "It's like a combinition of electronic and interactive platforms that are constantly rearranging themselves to fit together in a new, complex, protean super-medium". According to Johnson, electronic media such as TV or online space are not well-suited to lenghty arguments - think of political discourse on TV. Smaller pieces of communication would be delivered in increasingly random order.

The job of advertisers, creating orderly, understandable messages, gets more difficult. Consumers are no longer consigned to following arguments brands make, they are participating in them and becoming more powerful as individuals in the communication process. "Electronic media are doing to communication what Georges Braque and Marcel Duchamp did to painting" - we are all grappling with the rise of what he calls electrocubism. In addition, it's about learning how to listen to the consumers again - and going deeper than the interactive buzzword of the month. Conlusion: Don't do research on the consumer; consult with him.

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