more media

What have I learnt about various understandings of media that I did not know before the Media and Reality course? The course has definitely strengthened my opinion that people do not necessarily have the same comprehension of media and what constitutes media. Initially the course pronounced several very interesting questions, but to nobody's surprise answers were rather hard to find. Or at least answers everyone could apply to. Are there different kinds of media and corresponding concepts of media? As the course dealt with medium theory, system theory and phenomenology (briefly), the short answer is "yes". I am not at all sure whether McLuhan and Luhmann would be able to communicate at all if they had ever met. Or, with Luhmann's understanding of communication processes, there would be communication, but understandings would be misunderstandings. I do however find Jesper Tække's efforts of combining the two approaches (although definitely leaning heavily to the system-theoretical side) interesting; although I do not always follow his lines of reasoning. Which is probably because I have only read Luhmann's The reality of the mass media and moreover, I have poor knowledge of the founding fathers of system theory. At least, now I recognize important phrases and concepts of system-theory and sort of understand their meaning.