The medium is not the message

David Marash has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast journalism. Most recently, he anchored news from Washington for the global news channel, Al Jazeera English and he served for 16 years as the chief international correspondent for ABC News Nightline. In the ever-expanding world of global communication, there are lots of 'new media' like internet and mobile phone links for the transmission of text, voice and pictures, and literally a world of new players guiding the still dominant 'mainstream media,' but for all that, content still matters. All the media are capable of transmitting all kinds of data, so what is crucial is how the owners and practitioners of communications media shape and refine, select and define their output. In a world where information is essential, the values of those 'deciders,' will inform our political, economic and social futures, will determine whether we have a shrinking, inter-connected planet, or an increasingly fractured, adversarial one. Read an April 2008 Columbia Journalism Review interview with David Marash about his experiences at Al Jazeera. A Josh Rosenthal Education Fund Lecture