Media quotes
3.6K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside media — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"A new medium is never an addition to an old one, nor does it leave the old one in peace. It never ceases to oppress the older media until it finds new shapes and positions for them."
"You see, Dad, Professor McLuhan says that the environment that man creates becomes his medium for defining his role in it. The invention of type created linear, or sequential thought, separating thought from action. Now, with TV and folk singing, thought and action are closer and social involvement is greater. We again live in a village. Get it?"
"... Their power to see environments as they really are."
"Media are means of extending and enlarging our organic sense lives into our environment."
"At electric speed, all forms are pushed to the limits of their potential."
"The laws of the media, in tetrad form, bring logos and formal cause up to date to reveal analytically the structure of all human artefacts."
"Any understanding of social and cultural change is impossible without a knowledge of the way media work as environments."
"The new media and technologies by which we amplify and extend ourselves constitute huge collective surgery carried out on the social body with complete disregard for antiseptics."
"Erwin Schrodinger has explained how he and his fellow physicists had agreed that they would report their new discoveries and experiments in quantum physics in the language of Newtonian physics. That is, they agreed to discuss and report the non-visual, electronic world in the language of the visual world of Newton."
"Well, thank God for a media that will ask questions."
"Television is interesting, in that the pace is quicker and you can see your work more quickly than with movies. And then, with the added social media aspect, you can access that relationship to the fans directly and you have control of the content of what you say, your perspective, your opinions and your ideas."
"One of the reasons I think that Donald Trump has been a popular figure, he's very available to the media. But he also has a reputation for and has a history of attacking people when he thinks they're not sufficiently deferential to him. I think that's clear."
"I respect the media. But periodically things come up. Like the guy in Toronto [CP24 Interview]. This is what I run into, also. Everybody that helps you is not necessarily your friend. And everybody that fights you is not necessarily your enemy. So you always have to be on guard."
"Why is it you assholes always feel the need to tell the media your evil plans before you kill us?” asked Becks. “Is it a union requirement or something?"
"Today, journalists more than any other cohort of professionals, are responsible for the confusion that surrounds power and its criminality in contemporary society. As Janet Malcolm said in another context, 'Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible.'"
"The UN was very media-shy, and its relationship with the press was very controlled; although periodically I spoke to the press, the rule was, only the secretary-general speaks to the press; only the secretary-general makes... So you would see many situations where under-secretaries-general would come in and speak. I opened that, and I encouraged all of them to speak in their areas, whether it was peacekeeping or humanitarian efforts."
"You may have noticed over the years that the UN became a bit more media-friendly, a bit more open to the media than in the past."
"The currents rage so deep upon us, this is the age of video violence."
"Kill them now, cause I need some kicks. I need some kicks, I'm getting bored."
"Growing up, it was difficult to find role models I could relate too. Mass media told me to emulate sexy singers or sexy actresses. Jane Goodall was the closest thing I found to a woman I wanted to be like."
