Marshall Mc Luhan Media ARE Communication Becca Mc

Marshall Mc. Luhan: Media ARE Communication Becca Mc. Mullin

Background • Born in Edmonton, Alberta , Canada July 21, 1911 • Married Corinne Keller Lewis in 1939 • Graduated from Cambridge University in 1942 • Taught at many different Universities, including UWMadison, St. Lewis University, and University of Toronto • Died in his sleep on December 31, 1980 at the age of 69

Books • Wrote and published many books • Understanding Media • The Medium is the Massage

The Medium is the Message • The medium through which a message is carried is just as important, it not more important than the message itself • The medium shapes and scales how humans will interact with each other • Basically, the channel through which a message is sent can contain more meaning than the message alone • The Medium is the Message

Light bulb! • Without the physical aspect of the light bulb, the light would have no form, and therefore, no meaning • The light itself is pure information • It is a message without a medium • It is the combination of both the message AND the medium that creates a full meaning

Types of Mediums • Mc. Luhan claimed there were two different types of mediums: Hot and Cold • These are used in different ways and have different effects on the target audience

Hot Mediums • Mediums that make one single sense work in “high definition” • That is, they enhance one single sense in such a manner that a person does not need to exert much effort in filling in the details • Require little audience participation

Hot Mediums • Radio • Solely focuses on hearing • Enhances single sense so that it is working more than the other senses, but does not require too much energy or focus to do so

Hot Mediums • Photograph • Visually high definition • Provides great detail of image but does not take great effort to understand meaning

Cold Mediums • Mediums in “low definition” • Require high audience participation • Participant must fill in missing information • Often try to illicit a specific response from the audience

Cold Mediums • Comics • Minimal detail in visual presentation means the participant must exert a high amount of effort to fill in details the artist may have intended to portray • Audience must actively work to determine secondary meaning

Cold Mediums • Symbolism in Advertising • Nike’s “non-product specific message” • We all recognize the Nike Swoosh, but it takes conscious thought to relate the symbol to the name • This symbolism has become a recognizable norm • This message can be found in many different forms (television, magazine, etc. ) so it requires a greater variety of audience participation

Global Village • Mc. Luhan’s way of describing the effect of technology in bringing people into faster and more intimate contact with each other • Basically, technology would bring the world closer together quickly and easily • This would be easier to send out mass communications and broadcast codes • With everyone interconnected, we will all be affected by the same ideas, news and influences. • Mc. Luhan used this term to describe the radio in the 1920’s but it can also be relevant in today’s society

Global Village • Predication of the World Wide Web • Mc. Luhan hypothesized that “borderless electronic media would undermine the nationstate, ” meaning information could pass between people of different nations easily • Mc. Luhan’s ideas about uniting the world through technology was eventually a reality with the invention of the internet

Global Village • Mc. Luhan also predicted the disadvantages of technology • He anticipated the “homogenizing and dehumanizing effect of mass media” • Understood how too much media and technology could be detrimental to our society