Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man

Essay Topic: “The Medium Is the Message”: to what extent is McLuhan’s maxim still a useful framework for understanding media today? Outline McLuhan’s approach to media and discuss its strengths and weaknesses.

Introduction:

“We become what we behold” (Understanding Media: The Extensions of man, McLuhan M, p.34). Marshall McLuhan was one of the prominent theorists of the technological age. His career focused on understanding the effects technology in communication has and will have on human beings, stating that technology has become an extension of our senses. One interpretation of his framework is “noticing change in our societal or cultural ground conditions indicates the presence of a new message, that is, the effects of a new medium” (Federman, M 2004). The following essay will analyse his theoretical framework, its relevance in today’s media age and its strengths and weaknesses.

Is it a useful framework for understanding media today?

Firstly, before determining whether McLuhan’s framework is useful we must understand what is meant by media. Media can be defined as “content and distribution mechanisms through which information and/or entertainment are transmitted” (Bainbridge 2011, p.456). With this, it can be ascertained that media are mechanisms we use to communicate messages with other people. According to McLuhan, however, the medium in which we communicate has a far more significant impact on human behaviour and life than any one message. His secondary underlying meaning is whether media is controlling or enhancing our lives, where McLuhan famously quoted “we shape our tools and afterwards our tools shape us” (Naughton J, 2011).

First of all, was it useful in the past? McLuhan’s breakthrough point of view on media came to life in the midst of the 1960’s, this was a time when mass media through electronic imagery (TV) was first beamed into living rooms which had a profound impact on human beings’ everyday lives. Therefore, it would have been extremely useful at the time as society was going through massive change and his work could be used as an “analysis of different media as modes of communicating social and cultural information” (Gibson, T, 2008). “The fact that more people watch television than go to church is nothing new to us, but it was one of the tell-tale signs of a cultural shift” for McLuhan (Kappelman, T, 2001). Currently, media is going through explosive and exponential change, which is having a profound change on human behavior as these media embed in everyday life. According to the host of CNN's The World Right Now program, Hala Gorani, “Facebook may have not set out to be a news service, but it inevitably it will be” (Khadem, N, 2016) which only shows us how far social media has embedded itself into our lives – to the extent that it has, for many, become a primary source of news. Proving, McLuhan’s maxim is extremely useful, if not more relevant, to understanding media today.

Teresa Gibson has done in-depth research into McLuhan’s work and believes that his maxim is still profoundly important today and can be used as “models of interdisciplinary research” (Gibson, T, 2008). Using McLuhan’s framework, we can look at the bigger picture, rather than focusing on any one medium. For example, when we look at the vast change the internet has gone through since 1960, the effect is has had is that it has enabled the ‘lone voice’ to be heard – a person who would normally have no impact now has the ability to voice their opinion and evoke change. E-commerce has emerged, we can now have social interactions with people we might not have otherwise been able to, watch videos and make purchases all on one device without moving. This has had an extreme effect on the commerce industry and the way in which they embed their products into our lives. “Companies use this platform for product marketing through advertising, where they promote brands, discuss features, and create awareness” (Amedie, J, 2015).

McLuhan’s approach to media and its’ strengths and weaknesses

Marshall McLuhan’s approach to media was different to many other scholars. He had a very vague description of what media was, to him it was anything from “writing, clothing, and automobiles, to television, radio and computers” (Mehta, C, 2002), and described media as extensions of man and their senses. McLuhan did not focus on semiotics, but rather the influence of the media. For example, he believed that the fact that the television was broadcasting into our living rooms was more significant that any of the messages we were being broadcast through the television itself (McLuhan, 1964).

He distinguished media as hot and cool, famously calling radio a ‘hot’ medium as it is “low in audience participation” and is “horizontally repetitive” (David Bobbitt, 2011). His idea of ‘hot’ and ‘cool media is focusing on the experience of different media and how they engage people on different levels and “therefore, a medium’s “hotness” or “coolness” is not just a function of the nature of the medium itself but also the nature of the society into which the medium is introduced” (David Bobbitt, 2011). Some people don’t agree with McLuhan’s approach because he ignores content being distributed through media, however it is important to understand that his approach is looking at the wider spectrum of any one message and that media is “not the information they carry but what they are doing to us in terms of shaping our behaviour” (Naughton J, 2011).

The strengths to his approach are that he ignores the ‘noise’ that is created by a message or content and observed the way media changed lives, culture and behaviour. He looks at the long term subtle effects of media on humans and the way we interact with others, he coined the phrase ‘global village’ where he predicted the “intensification of the world community to its present expression” (Kappelman T, 2001). He was able to foresee this as he ignored any single message being communicated to us and solely focused on the media and the effects of the growing industry. Further, he ignored any sort of judgement, good or bad, on the media industry and was only interested on how it was changing humans and our behaviour. The weaknesses, however, are that his approach was widely misunderstood due to its’ vague terminology and complex prose and some scholars stating that his work lacks perspective (Balka, 2000). McLuhan expressed he sometimes did not understand his own work testifying “I don't pretend to understand it,''…''after all, my stuff is very difficult” (Whitman A, 1981) and even called his writing “mosaic” (McLuhan, 1964).

When we apply his theoretical framework to a modern media, however, we can see that his maxim is still widely applicable and useful today. In terms of the internet, Facebook for example, we are unaware of the vast changes that the accessibility Facebook has had on us. It has found a way to incorporate itself into our everyday lives, and arguably controls us. However, it can be used as a tool to facilitate communication between people across the globe, instantaneous data transfer, and e-commerce. Facebook is seen as a tool to facilitate easy and fast communication and is seen as a basis for many people to form relationships both social and business. However, I believe that Facebook and social media is illusory and is blurring the line for people between “making online connections and forming real relationships” (Naughton J, 201). Additionally, “social media’s ascent has led to an Internet experience based less on pages and more on people” due to the effect they have on us (The Medium is No Longer the Message, You Are, 2009). Furthermore, an extreme adaptation of McLuhan’s theory can be applied to AI (Artificial Intelligence). As McLuhan stated that media is an extension of man, then could the existence of AI be making ourselves obsolete? We are using AI in cars that can drive and park for us which is not an extension of our senses but rather a replacement. The effect that further advancement of AI could have on humans could be detrimental, as they would replace people’s jobs making us redundant by our own extension of our senses.

Conclusion

To conclude, it is difficult not to be amazed at McLuhan’s remarkable intellect and ability to understand media on an entirely different level than others. He was a cultural critic and a visionary who believed in ignoring any one message and focusing on the effect that media has on us culturally, behaviourally and in the long run. He provided us an alternative method to looking at our everyday interactions with media and how they are extensions of ourselves. His framework forces us to look beyond the message and see the impact of the medium, it teaches us to see the media for what they really are. He truly was the “leading prophet of the electronic age” (Kappelman T, 2001).

Works sited:

• Naughton, J, 2011. Thanks Marshall, I think we've got the message. The Guardian, September 2016, 1.

• Gibson, T., 2008. Double Vision: McLuhan’s Contributions to Media as an Interdisciplinary Approach to Communication, Culture, and Technology. MediaTropes, vol, 1, no.1, .

• Federman, M, 2004. What is the Meaning of the Medium is the Message.Preuzeto

• Jason Bainbridge, 2011. Media and Journalism: New Approaches to Theory and Practice. 2 Edition. Oxford University Press p. 456

• Understanding Media: The Extensions of man, McLuhan M, p.34

• Balka, E., 2000, ‘Rethinking ‘The Medium is the Message’: Agency and Technology in McLuhan’s Writings’, Media International Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy, vol. 94, no.1, .

• Chirag Mehta. 2002. A Critique on the Works of Marshall McLuhan. [ONLINE] Available at: http://chir.ag/papers/mcluhan.shtml. [Accessed 6 September 2016].

• David Bobbitt. 2011. Teaching McLuhan: Understanding Understanding Media. [ONLINE] Available athttp://enculturation.net/teaching-mcluhan. [Accessed 6 September 2016].

• Todd Kappelman. 2001. Marshall McLuhan: The Medium is the Message. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/mcluhan.html. [Accessed 6 September 2016].

• The Age. 2016. Watch out CNN, New York Times. Facebook could be the world's media provider: Hala Gorani. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.theage.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/watch-out-cnn-new-york-times-facebook-could-be-the-worlds-media-provider-hala-gorani-20160930-grs4jy.html. [Accessed 17 October 2016].

• Amedie, J, 2015. The Impact of Social Media on Society. , 1, 4-6.