Talking Back to the “The Oral Theory of Everything”

About this episode

This episode discusses the resurgence of a sixty-year-old media theory and its implications on public understanding in the digital age.

Why does a sixty-year-old media theory resurface in the media every few years, while journalists ignore the great communication scholarship that has emerged in the meantime? More importantly, what effects does antiquated thinking have on the public understanding of our current digital discontent? In this episode, Cameron Naylor interviews our usual host, Mack Hagood, about his recent newsletter, “Oral Residue: A Zombie Media Theory Rises Again.” Marshall McLuhan and Walter J. Ong believed that all of human history is dividable into three eras: the oral, the literate, and the electronic. However, this kind of “Great Divide” thinking has long been criticized by scholars who study oral communication, literacy, media, and sound. In this episode we talk about the good, bad, and ugly of McLuhan and Ong’s long legacy. Cited Media: Marshall McLuhan - Understanding Media (1964) Walter J. Ong - Orality and Literacy (1982) Raymond Williams - Television: Technology and Cultural Form (1974) Derek Thompson - Plain English (podcast episode with Joe Weisenthal) (2026) Jonathan Sterne - The Audible Past Harold Innis - works on communication theory Eric Havelock - works on orality and literacy…

People in this episode

Host: Mack Hagood

Guest: Cameron Naylor

Topics covered

• media theory
• oral communication
• digital discontent
• McLuhan and Ong
• communication scholarship
• Great Divide thinking

Keywords

• media theory
• oral theory
• McLuhan
• Ong
• communication
• digital media
• scholarship
• Great Divide
• public understanding

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Understanding Media, Orality and Literacy, Television: Technology and Cultural Form, Plain English, The Audible Past, Poetry, The Iliad and The Odyssey

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