Media Ecology

Media ecology looks into the matter of how media of communication affect human perception, understanding, feeling, and value; and how our interaction with media facilitates or impedes our chances of survival. -Neil Postman
Maybe I am just sensitive but I cannot watch violence in movies or television without being affected negatively. In fact just about everything I see and listen to impacts me which on the upside can produce positive and joyful experiences but if I am not careful there can also bear out negative consequences. Billboards are in my opinion a kind of vigilante form of media especially dangerous to the media sensitive. I have thought about moving to Vermont just so I would not have to look at them anymore.

Ogden Nash got it right when he said:
I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree;
Indeed, unless the billboards fall
I'll never see a tree at all

This may seem neurotic but Carl Jung thought neurosis had the ability to give invaluable instructive guidance. It pointed out a tension between the conscious and unconscious mind. Maybe the angst some of us feel at the sight of the crawl on cable news or Paris Hilton escapades is the canary in the mine warning us of trouble ahead.
What I like about the concept of media ecology is that it questions the ways that forms of media don't just add to the mental landscape but change the composition entirely. When I look at media this way than it makes me feel much more responsible for what I put out into the world and question the effects it will have on others. Although media ecology is does not have a clear framework it is interesting in that it is showing "movement toward increasing integration of both the physical and the social sciences". http://www.media-ecology.org/