Mcluhan's Theories
Mcluhan's Theories
Mcluhan's Theories
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 2
Conclusion:.................................................................................................................... 15
Bibliography................................................................................................................... 16
1
Introduction
1. Media are not neutral tools, but they have considerable psychic and
social consequences, without regards to their content;
2. Media are extensions of the men’s and women’s senses: they
manipulate our perception of the space and time;
3. Each medium is in constant interplay with other media;
3
1. Media are not neutral tools:
“Media are not neutral tools, but they have considerable psychic
and social consequences, without regards to their content”
For many people, the conventional meaning for "medium" refers to the
mass-media of communication, most notably radio, television, the press and
the Internet. Besides, most of them apply the conventional understanding of
"message" as content or information. For McLuhan, however, this is a
completely mistaken conclusion that, in some way, the channel supersedes
the content in importance. He also includes in his observations and
researches other mediums that are not usually known as such by the public.
The generally recognized scheme of communication is based on three
entities: the issuer, the channel and receiver. It serves the message.
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The message
4
McLuhan asserts that: [...] “All technologies gradually create a human
environment totally new. Environments are not passive containers, but
active processes. [P. 21]. Thus according this, and simply put: [...] "The
message is the medium" means, in the electronic age, a completely new
environment has been created.
Electric lighting has changed the notions of night and day, inside and
outside. But not only that, when it hits the existing models of human
organization it gives way for new possibilities, and brings ne changes in
these models. Cars can drive all night, and athletes play ball in the evening.
In a word, the message of the electric light is total change. It is pure
information without content that can diminish its force transformation and
information.
It is quite worthy to understand that it is not the only the message one
gets from the information contained in a medium that matters, but also the
medium in itself with it particular characteristics and the environment it
creates, represent a message by itself, with the changes it bring on human
understanding of the world. It alters dramatically the way, we humans, look
at things therefore, giving us much more important information about the
world and ourselves than the consequential and temporary information of
any kind speculated by the medium in question. It is the relationship of “the
whole” to a “parte” or of a long chain to a particular sequence of this chain.
5
McLuhan (1964 : 9)
6
Logan (unknown date : 6)
5
organization and working of one medium we are observing, or the
combination of all the media we know); this second notion is the most
importance one; because it is the less obvious and less observable by
people. Media as existing entities and the respective environments they
create, surround us completely, we are so used to the environment created
by media that we hardly think about it. we tend to take media as granted
and use it in our daily lives without trying to contemplates their effects on us
or even trying to figure out the meaning of their existence, nor do we know
the extent of their influence on us. ) As a matter of fact, “McLuhan always
tells us to look beyond the obvious and seek the non-obvious changes or
effects that are enabled, enhanced, accelerated or extended by the new
thing” .7 The aphorism “The Medium is the Message” also carries another
meaning: that of a medium transforming its message or content .8 For
instance, “It does not matter what we say on the telephone. As a service, it is
a huge environment, and that is the medium and this affects everybody
whereas a telephone conversation affects only few”. 9 It concerns only the
two people speaking on that particular phone, in that particular moment.
Similarly, the message of a newscast/news broadcast are not the news
stories themselves, but a change in the public attitude towards crime, or the
creation of a climate of fear.10
7
Federman(2004: 2)
8
Logan (unknown date : 6)
9
You tube
10
Federman(2004: 2)
11
McLuhan (1964 : 8)
6
information, but in the process, we largely miss the structural changes in our
affairs that are introduced subtly, or over long periods of time. 12
12
Federman(2004: 1)
7
(43) Thus, one of McLuhan’s key concerns in Understanding Media is to
examine and make us aware of the implications of the evolution toward the
extension of collective human consciousness facilitated by electronic media.
He especially brought about this concern in his other important notion “the
Global Village”.
The "global village" means every person, being connected to the whole
world, living in proximity to each other, simulated virtual proximity and
movement that comes from the din of the world to the home of each
viewer. Each viewer is at the center of the world. For McLuhan's global
village indicates that the viewer participates in the spectacle of the world.
Thus, the development of media standardizes each village providing the
same cultural references. If the TV seems to him the most powerful media,
McLuhan never forget especially the radio or telephone. They just complete
the trend towards uniformity born of transport development.
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play the role of media (an environment maker) and the people it carries
might just be the message of the train. In the same light mass media such as
television, radio, papers or more broadly the World Wide Web, play the same
role of creating new environments and influencing people’s daily lives.
Media become the message and people the content. New technologies are
media that extend and transform the body's functions and the mind’s focus,
therefore how we can neglect such an important aspect of our lives. These
things (media) are bigger than we thought. They are environments that
surround us completely, and affect us deeply, since we are always in touch
with them or one of them at least they are constantly affecting us on daily
bases
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3. Each medium is in constant interplay with other media
The invention of the wheel, printing, electric light, are media that have
gradually created a new human environments. "The media are not passive
containers, but active processes." They are an extension of our nervous
system, and they change throughout our relationship to the world. The old
medium is contained in this new medium that will reshape a completely new
way. Thus the title of McLuhan’s most famous book understanding media:
the extension of men. Tries to saying, is that: media as extensions of our
senses, establish new relationships not only between our sense of ourselves,
but also among themselves, when they influence each other. The radio has
changed the shape of the newsletter, just as it has changed the shape of the
image in the talkies. Television caused radical changes in radio
programming, as well as in the novel form documentary or descriptive.
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4. Characteristics of Media and how they operate on people:
McLuhan indicates two challenging notions Hot and Cold Media. Probably
no part of McLuhan’s theory is more confusing and confounding to his critics
than his discussion of hot versus cool media in chapter 2 of Understanding
Media. But, we can understand this part of McLuhan’s theory if we impose
some linear order on it.
extends single sense in high low definition (less data)
definition high in audience
low in audience participation participation
engenders engenders holistic patterns
specialization/fragmentation tribalizes
detribalizes includes
excludes organic
uniform, mechanical collapses space
extends space creates vertical
horizontally repetitive associations
photograph cartoon
radio telephone
phonetic alphabet ideographic/pictographic
print writing
lecture speech (orality)
film seminar, discussion
books television
comics
The same thing goes with Television effect. For McLuhan television
creates its own universe, founded and affirms its own legitimacy. It has such
strength, as measured by its audience; it produces its own worldview taken
into account by all. In this respect it differs from all other media and arises
not only as a vehicle for a message but the message itself. The message is
12
television; the cultural norm is enacted by television. Media are means of
communication and dissemination of culture, they are far from being neutral,
and they make their own rules on humans.
13
Conclusion:
Bibliography
14
Boxer, S. (2003). "CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK: McLuhan's Messages, Echoing
On Iraq" in The New York Times (online article retrieved on March 10th,
2011).
Federman, M. (2004).”What is the meaning of the medium is the
message?”. (online article consulted on March 10 th,
http://individual.utoronto.ca/markfederman/article_mediumisthemessa
ge.htm)
Logan, R. K. “The Medium is the Message is the Content: Meaning,
Media, Communication and Information in Biosemiosis and Human
Symbolic Communication” (PDF file), p.6.
McLuhan, H. M. (1964). “Understanding Media”. London: Routledge,
pp: 8-9 &199.
Plummer, K. "Historicist: Marshall McLuhan, Urban Activist" (online
article retrieved on September 20th, 2011, consulted on
www.torontoist.com)
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i
1 We refer to the idea that “the media is the message” as presented in the first chapter: M. McLuhan,