Understanding Media
More controversially, he thought that content had little effect on society — for example, it did not matter if television broadcasts children's shows or violent programming — the effect of television on society would be identical. He noted that all media have characteristics that engage the viewer in different ways; for instance, a passage in a book could be reread at will, but a movie had to be screened again in its entirety to study any individual part of it. He made the point that reading, by its very nature, is a sequential medium. One reads it in a sequence. On the other hand, a medium like film presents information more holistically. There is a kind of "all at once-ness" about films and television.