October 27, 2026
THE DAILY McLUHAN DIALOGUES™ • McDialogues™ Understanding the Grammars of Electric Culture and Propaganda Science An Exploration of Technology Ecology as an Anchor in a Sea of Change and Tactical Training in Counter-Propaganda Science by Nelson S. Thall . Former Director/Chief Archivist, Marshall McLuhan Center On Global Communications, Ross, Ca. and McLuhan Media Scientist, Former President/Director, Marshall McLuhan Centre On Global Communications, Toronto, Canada.
THE CANDIDATE IS ON THE SCREEN. THE VOTER IS IN THE CIRCUIT: What Changes in Us Even When Our Political Opinions Stay the Same?
A Graduate Student of Technology asks:
The Guardian reports AI-driven disinformation ahead of the American midterm elections. Is the danger simply that voters might believe a lie, or is something else happening to us while we watch and respond? The Guardian
Nelson S. Thall replies:
The candidate is the figure. The communication environment is the ground. In 1976, McLuhan called the planetary information environment the “hidden ground of American politics.” The MMM AI did not invent that environment, and its role is not confined to manufacturing messages. Meta describes AI systems that use our activity to help select what reaches us. Its 2025 announcement proposed using views and likes to personalize political content. About Facebook But describing the machinery is only a beginning. Imagine two people watching the same political clip. One applauds it. The other denounces it. Both post responses, watch for replies and answer again. Their disagreement concerns the candidate. Their shared pattern is watching, answering and waiting for an answer. One may even circulate the clip to condemn it. Opposing the message does not necessarily interrupt its circulation. We can see their different opinions. Their common way of participating also deserves attention.
McLuhan wrote that the effects of technology “do not occur at the level of opinions or concepts, but alter sense ratios or patterns of perception.” The MMM The distinction is between what we believe and how we perceive. His observation that “the user is the content” concerns our relationship with the medium, not simply the data we supply to a platform. The MMM We are not outside this environment looking in. We are participating in it. What happens to our attention, our expectations and our sense of belonging through that participation? Suppose every false political post disappeared tomorrow. The pace of our exchanges and the replies we expect would still deserve examination. Correcting a lie matters, but correcting the message and recognizing the effects of the medium are different tasks. We watch the candidates to see whether they can change our minds. An unchanged opinion is not proof of an unchanged observer.
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Sources: George Chidi, The Guardian, October 27, 2026; Marshall McLuhan, “The Debates,” The New York Times, September 23, 1976, p. 41; McLuhan, Understanding Media (1964), MIT/Routledge edition, p. 18; McLuhan’s letter to J. M. Davey, March 2, 1971, in Letters of Marshall McLuhan (1987), pp. 427–428; Nick Clegg, “How AI Influences What You See on Facebook and Instagram,” Meta, June 29, 2023; Joel Kaplan, “More Speech and Fewer Mistakes,” Meta, January 7, 2025.
All intellectual property contained herein was conceived, originated and authored exclusively by Nelson S. Thall. Artificial intelligence, aka a pseudo-conscious machine (PCM), was not employed. We hired a stenographer. All rights of authorship and ownership vest entirely and exclusively with Nelson S. Thall.
© 2026 Nelson S. Thall. All Rights Reserved.
I can be reached at: nelson@themediumisthemessage.com