In the late 70’s, along with Kit Laybourne, I made a PBS series about the Media called MEDIA PROBES. Each of the 8 parts dealt with a different medium: Photography, Language, TV News, Political Advertising, Sound, Design, Soap Operas, and the Future.

For the Future show I decided to look at what would happen when personal computers liked up with cable to make interactivity possible. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had predicted the internet. Now, I wish I had invested in it, rather than in a PBS TV show about it. Continue reading →

When I first began the research for a PBS series on the media, I had the opportunity to hear Marshal McCluen give a talk at NYU. It was the late 70’s and “The Medium is the Message” had burst onto the scene and for many of us, radically changed the way we looked at the media.

The President of NYU gave an introduction, filled with hyperbole. McCluen got up, walked humbly to the podium, Continue reading →