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McLuhan and Media

The title of Marshall McLuhans first article, The Medium Is The Message, in fact

summarizes the whole article. With this statement McLuhan tells that the message which is

trying to be transmitted cannot be analyzed apart from the transmitter systems and methods.

According to McLuhan, we shape our mediums and mediums shape us in return. At this point

our message becomes less important than how it is being transmitted. For instance, if you are

watching a movie, a documentary or a romantic comedy, you are receiving the message and

their creators are sending the messages in the same way. So as McLuhan points out these in his

article, clearly, the word how becomes more important than the word what when it comes

to share a message.

Marshall McLuhan makes a certain division for the media in his article Media Hot and

Cold. He divides media into two groups and describes that media can either be hot or

cold. According to the article, hot media has high definition and cold media has low

definition. He defines these both groups as they are the opposite of each other. He says that in a

hot media, less participation is required from the audience, but in a cold media audiences

participation has a very major role. In cold media the audiences participation is important

because the given information is much more less than hot media and it is less detailed. The

message can be received with a certain effort. On the other hand hot media is full of information

and details. That is why the receivers, the audiences do not have to show such an effort while

receiving the message.

The media, divided into two parts as hot and cold, affects the audiences differently. As

electronic media and printed media are thought, they obviously belong to different groups.

Printed media is considered as hot media, on the other hand electronic media is considered as

cold media. The reason of this distinction is that in printed media lots of information and

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details are given, and the audience can get the message easily. In electronic media such as

television, telephone or, according to our period of time, internet needs the audiences

participation to be well received. The information is not enough and they are not very detailed.

For the missing details and information, the audience is needed so they can complete them.

McLuhan has made a clear and very informative division according to media. The fact that

method being more important than the content gives an opportunity to see from a completely

different point of view on media and on most of other things in life.

Asl Zeren

06.10.2009

McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. London: Abacus. 1964.

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