By Lawrence Sunday Ogwang
1.1 Who is Herbert Marshall McLuhan?
Herbert Marshall McLuhan was a Canadian noted
philosopher and media theorist whose work form the cornerstones to the study of media theory. He was
born on July 21, 1911, and he died on December 31, 1980.
In his academic life, he dealt with so
many concepts which later turned into theories. This include; medium is the message published in
1967. McLuhan later adopted the term "massage" to denote the effect
each medium has on the human sensorium, taking
inventory of the "effects" of numerous media in terms of how they
"massage" the sensorium.
Another of his work is understanding the media: An extensions of
man, a 1964 book in which he
proposes that the media, not the content that they carry, should be the focus of
study. He suggests that the medium affects the society in which it plays a
role mainly by the characteristics of the medium rather than the content. The
book is considered a pioneering study in media theory.
In his other
book The Gutenberg Galaxy, he
is believed to have made a prediction of what he calls the global village referring to the interconnectedness of the world
through technology.
Technological determinism is a reductionist
theory
that assumes that a society's technology determines the development of its social
structure and cultural values. Technological determinism tries to understand
how technology has had an impact on human action and thought. Changes in
technology are the primary source of changes in society. The term is believed
to have originated from Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929), an American
sociologist and economist.
1.2 Medium is the
message:
"The
medium is the message" is a deliberately paradoxical phrase
coined by Marshall McLuhan and introduced in his book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, published in 1964.
coined by Marshall McLuhan and introduced in his book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, published in 1964.
It
means that the nature of a medium (the channel through which a message
is transmitted) is more important than the meaning or content of the message.
He, later on, wrote a book with that title.
However,
as a result of the typesetting error, to his amazement, the title came out as “the medium is the massage”. This
metaphorical title appeased McLuhan so much and he kept the book with its title.
He adopted the term "massage" to denote the
effect each medium has on the human sensorium, taking
inventory of the "effects" of numerous media in terms of how they
"massage" the sensorium.
Any critical mind would
raise the question: Is the form that you
receive a message as significant as the message itself? Marshall McLuhan
argued that throughout history what has been communicated has been less
important than the particular medium through which people communicate. The
technology that transfers the message changes us and changes society, the
individual, the family, work, leisure and more.
In his 1964 book Understanding Media: The
Extensions of Man, McLuhan wrote about how media affects daily life.
But instead of focusing on the content–today, the tweets, Facebook posts, and
news articles that many of us regularly consume–he was interested in how the form
of the content, that platform that delivers it to you, can impact your
psychology in insidious ways.
Hong Kong social activist Alex Chow remarks in his computer animation
that “McLuhan wasn’t
saying that content is inconsequential, he was saying that when we pay too much
attention to it, we ignore the power of form in shaping our experience. So, if
you don’t understand the medium, you don’t fully understand the message.”
“The medium is the message” is NOT just
about elevating the importance of medium or “form” relative to the content. It
is about the transformative effect of the entirely new environment that is
created by any new medium, the entire service industry that supports a medium,
which could not continue to exist without it. The medium is just the figure in
a much bigger environmental ground. McLuhan explains this best in a 1974
lecture entitled “Living at the Speed of Light”, delivered at the
University of South Florida:
“In the case of a car and the highway, when I say the
medium is the message, I’m saying that the motor car is not a medium. The
medium is the highway, the factories, and the oil companies. That is the
medium. In other words, the medium of the car is the effects of the car…”
All
in all, Marshall McLuhan is emphasizing that the medium of communication is
more persuasive than the message itself. The message does not stimulate the
medium but the medium influences the way you are going to send the message.
1.2.1 The
medium is the message and social media.
Although McLuhan did
not develop his theory in the digital age, his works can provide perspective to
new communication platforms such as social media. He believed that the medium
used to deliver the message has a significant effect on how the content
formulated, received and digested.
For marketing
professionals, McLuhan’s ‘The Medium is the Message’ theory shows that the
manner in which a message is greatly influenced by the channel that it is being
employed. The response of the audience will depend not only on what is being
said but the medium in which it is being delivered.
With the rising
popularity of social media platforms, the same general rule applies, and it is
essential that you deploy your message according to the nature of the platform
you are using in order to be effective. Your social media marketing must
carefully employ a balanced mix across multiple channels to develop strong
relationships with your audience and generate qualified leads.
Social media platforms
like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and many other social media sites
each according to its features at least dictates the way you are going to
communicate.
1.3
Understanding media: The extensions of man
Marshall McLuhan's
Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, is an acclaimed book that has
become a cornerstone in media theory
since its publication in 1964. It examines humans' relationships to the
different types of media to which they are exposed on a daily basis and Considers
how meaning is derived from any medium of communication at any point in time.
Media are according
to him "extensions" of our human senses, bodies and minds.
The core of McLuhan’s theory and the key idea to start
within explaining this is his definition of media as extensions of ourselves. He
writes: “It is the persistent theme of this book that all technologies are
extensions of our physical and nervous systems to increase power and speed” and,
“Any extension, whether of skin, hand, or foot, affects the whole psychic and
social complex.
Some of the principle extensions, together with some
of their psychic/mental and social consequences, are studied in this book”.
From the premise that media, or technologies (McLuhan’s approach makes “media”
and “technology” more or less synonymous terms), are extensions of some
physical, social, psychological, or intellectual function of humans, flows all
of McLuhan’s subsequent ideas.
Consequently, the wheel extends our feet, the phone
extends our voice, television extends our eyes and ears, the computer extends
our brain, and electronic media, in general, extend our central system. Thus, McLuhan’s
key concerns in Understanding Media is to examine and make us aware of the
evolution toward the extension of collective human consciousness facilitated by
electronic media.
1.3.1 Hot
and cool media
McLuhan splits the book
understanding media: the extensions of man into two main sections. The first
explicates a distinction between what he calls “hot media” and “cold
media.” Secondly, he provides the light
bulb as an example of medium and message.
1.3.1.1 Hot media
Hot media represent extensions
of our physical capacities, refining or enriching them with a high density of
information. In this category, he includes images and text, since they are
dense with visual data processed by the eyes. Moreover, they are relatively
unambiguous from an objective point of view, since the totality of information
they present does not mutate.
McLuhan states in Understanding Media, “Any hot
medium allows of less participation than a cool one, as a lecture makes for
less participation than a seminar, and a book for less than dialogue…our own
time is crowded with examples of the principle that the hot form excludes, and
the cool one includes (23). Therefore, hot media can be thought of as any
medium in which the audience plays a passive (or, at least, not very active)
role, exercising little control over the information that is being consumed.
Examples: photograph, radio, phonetic alphabet, print, lecture, film, books and
so on
1.3.1.2 Cool media
In contrast, cold media extend
physical capacities but do so by reducing the density of information. They
require their audience’s active interpretation in order to be legible as
intended. For example, the cartoon and television program are both cold media
because the totality of the information they present is entangled in a
time-lapse made up of countless frames (which were almost always in lower
definition than professional photography at McLuhan’s time of writing).
Curiously, despite presenting
denser information, hot media are harder to learn from since they invite less
participation, which produces recursive feedback. Cold media are easier to
learn from because they consist of this more social, participatory, function.
Examples of cool media are a cartoon, Telephone, Seminar, discussion, television,
Comics etc.
1.3.2 The light bulb
Next, McLuhan provides the light
bulb as an extreme example of a device that can be interpreted as a medium with
absolutely no semantic content. The light bulb is itself a glass enclosure with
a filament that reacts to electricity that flows from an outlet. It emits light
waves; however, the light waves in themselves carry no information or message
until they reach another medium, such as a solid surface.
In this way, McLuhan argues, a
light-emitting device “creates an environment by its mere presence.” He goes
even further, arguing that the content of television (as in the show it aired)
does not really matter. Rather, television as a medium contains the totality of
its effect on society. This argument is most often interpreted as, “the medium
is the message.”
1.4 Global Village
Long before a world
interconnected by technology, there were visionaries like Marshall McLuhan who
predicted that there would soon be a world where everybody is interconnected by
technology in the 1960s.
The most prominent of McLuhan's
predictions was that of a global village, that would connect all people,
everywhere, thanks to technology. This concept was based on the idea that
culture would move towards greater personal interaction, after leaving behind
early eras of humanity, focused on the spoken and written word. He predicted
the global village, one world interconnected by an electronic nervous system,
making it part of our popular culture before it actually happened.
By the term global village, he
meant different parts of the world that form one community that’s linked by the
internet. He chose the insightful phrase "global village" to
highlight his observation that an electronic nervous system (the media) was
rapidly integrating the planet so much that events in one part of the world
could be experienced from other parts in real-time, which is what human
experience was like when we lived in small villages.
McLuhan's belief was that the world was entering a
fourth ''age'' he called the electronic age, where people everywhere would be
able to find and experience the same information through technological tools.
His studies on trends in technology, and how human
communication was affected, helped him develop his hypotheses about the future,
and how innovations such as the coming internet, (he didn't yet know its name,
of course), would impact individuals and culture as a whole.
Enter the internet, McLuhan's once-predicted ''global
village.'' It is a tool that connects most everyone, everywhere, with a few
clicks of a mouse. We can experience what is happening on the other side of the
world by simply finding the right website. We can read about cultures we've
never experienced first-hand. We can even view never-before-seen photos and
videos of wildlife, and aboriginal people, that we are separated from by
thousands of miles.
While McLuhan promoted this concept, he was not the first to think
about the unifying effects of communication technology. One of the earliest
thinkers along this line was Nicolas Tesla,
who in an interview with Collier's magazine in 1926 stated:
"When wireless is perfectly
applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it
is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able
to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only
this but through television and telephony, we shall see and hear one another as
perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of
thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do
his will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be
able to carry one in his vest pocket."
1.5 Technological
determinism
Technological determinism is a theory that assumes that a society's technology
determines
the development of its social structure and cultural values. Technological
determinism tries to understand how technology has had an impact on human
action and thought. Changes in technology are the primary source for changes in
society.Technology
is viewed as the driving force of culture in a society and it determines its
course of history.
The first major elaboration of a
technological determinist view of socioeconomic development came from the
German philosopher and economist Karl Marx,
who argued that changes in technology, and specifically productive
technology, are the primary influence on human social relations and
organizational structure, and that social relations and cultural practices
ultimately revolve around the technological and economic base of a given
society.
Marx's position has become embedded in
contemporary society, where the idea that fast-changing technologies alter
human lives is universal although many authors attribute a technologically
determined view of human history to Marx's insights, not all Marxists are
technological determinists, and some authors question the extent to which Marx
himself was a determinist. Furthermore, there are multiple forms of
technological determinism.
Technological determinism seeks to show technical
developments, media, or technology as a whole, as the key mover in history and social
change. It is a theory subscribed by "hyper globalist" who claims
that as a consequence of the wide availability of technology, accelerated
globalization is inevitable.
Therefore, technological development and innovation
become the principal motor of social, economic or political change. Strict
adherents to technological determinism do not believe the influence of
technology differs based on how much a technology is or can be used. Instead of
considering technology as part of a larger spectrum of human activity,
technological determinism sees technology as the basis for human activity.
Technological determinism has been summarized as 'The
belief in technology as a key governing force in society ...' (Merritt Roe
Smith). 'The idea that technological development determines social
change ...' (Bruce Bimber). It changes the way people think and how they
interact with others and can be described as '...a three-word logical
proposition: "Technology determines history"' (Rosalind
Williams).
1.5.1 Media determinism as a form of
technological determinism
Media determinism is a form of technological
determinism, a philosophical and sociological position which postulates the
power of the media to impact society.
Two foundational media determinists are the Canadian
scholars Harold Innis
and Marshall
McLuhan. One of the best examples of technological determinism
in media theory is Marshall McLuhan's theory "the medium is the message" and the
ideas of his mentor Harold Adams Innis. Both these Canadian theorists saw media
as the essence of civilization.
The association of different media with particular
mental consequences by McLuhan and others can be seen as related to
technological determinism. It is this variety of determinism that is referred
to as media determinism.
1.5.2 Hard and soft determinism
In examining technological determinism,
hard determinism can be
contrasted with soft determinism.
A compatibilist
says that it is possible for free will
and determinism to exist in the world together, while an incompatibilist would say that they cannot
and there must be one or the other.
1.5.2.1 Hard
determinism
Hard determinists would view
technology as developing independent from social concerns. They would say that
technology creates a set of powerful forces acting to regulate our social
activity and its meaning.
According to this view of determinism we organize
ourselves to meet the needs of technology and the outcome of this organization
is beyond our control or we do not have the freedom to make a choice regarding
the outcome (autonomous technology).
The 20th century French philosopher and social
theorist J. Ellul
is an example of a hard determinist and proponent of autonomous technique
(technology).
1.5.2.2 Soft
determinism
Soft determinism, as the
name suggests, is a more passive view of the way technology interacts with
socio-political situations.
Soft determinists still subscribe to the fact that
technology is the guiding force in our evolution, but would maintain that we
have a chance to make decisions regarding the outcomes of a situation.
This is not to say that free will exists, but that the possibility for us to roll
the dice and see what the outcome is exists. One of the proponents of this
is an American sociologist William Fielding (June 29, 1886 – April 27, 1959)
1.5.3
Basic instructions about technology
According to the playboy magazine, Marshall McLuhan summarises
technology into four Basic Precepts:
v All
technology is communication, an extension of ourselves that allows us to reach
further through time and/or space. The sacrifice we make for this
enhancement is an unnoticed auto-amputation that, combined with and
Narcissistic desire and a bit of virtual phantom limb syndrome, forces us
to both marvel at our feet and simultaneous experience strong senses of
detachment and, eventually, conflict. “Every new technology necessitates a
new war,” said McLuhan.
v These
extensions mirror the human body: vehicles extend our feet, machines extend
our hands, radio extends our voices, etc. Electricity began a new age,
wherein humanity stopped simulating without and began replicating that
which is within—the central nervous system. Computers are a great example
of this, as they (much like our brains) take basic inputs and, in parallel
structuring, create complex patterns of understanding and interaction.
v All
media is, to some degree, “hot” or “cool.” This temperature-based metaphor
applies to the level of audience/user interactivity with a given medium.
Hot media are very “hands off”; people cannot touch them (they’re hot!) and
experiencing them makes a person more or less a passive audience member.
Most television and film easily fall into this category. However,
something like animation is a bit “cooler” because it takes imagination to
bridge the gap between abstract lines and some version of reality… and, of
course, a medium like video games is practically ice-cool as it approaches
pure interactivity—between the user and the content, between the user and
the medium and, in multiplayer games, between each user.
v No
one can fully understand a medium until it is no longer than dominant medium,
and is seen through the lens of the new dominant medium. It is only once a
new medium usurps the previous dominant medium that we are able to examine
the older medium’s patterns and effects. “And it is only on those terms,
standing aside from any structure or medium, that its principles and lines
of force can be discerned.”
1.6 Conclusion
McLuhan’s theories are deep, inspired, and highly
original, causing them to perhaps sound obtuse, or even illogical. While some
scholars, as mentioned earlier, might find his theories to be controversial,
one cannot doubt how influential they still have been on the development of
media technology in the 21st Century.
Perhaps what is most convenient about McLuhan’s
theories is that (as with the loose definitions of “hot” and “cool” media) they
are not rigid, but dynamic, and can be adjusted to better describe media in the
context of the culture and the age in which it exists and can easily be applied
to newly developed forms of media. Thus, McLuhan’s ideas and theories will
likely be relevant to media studies for several years to come.
References
William Fielding. Accessed
on the 30th Sept. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Fielding_Ogburn
The
medium is the message. Accessed on the 25th
Sept. 2019. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message
Technological determinism. Accessed
on the 26th Sept. 2019. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_determinism
Medium is the message. Accessed
on the 30th Sept. 2019. Available at: file:///C:/Users/user/Desktop/Marshall%20McLuhen/mccluhan,-marshall-the-medium-is-the-message.pdf
Understanding Media. Accessed on
the 25th Sept. 2019. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan#Understanding_Media_(1964)
Global Village. Accessed on
the 30th Sept. 2019. Available at:
McLuhan,
Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Accessed on the 30th
Sept. 2019. Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/126274.Understanding_Media
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