The Medium is the Message: Analysis

For the purpose of this assignment I have been assessing Marshall McLuhan’s notion that the “medium is the message.”

The medium is any technology to improve ourselves, the message of which is the effect of the medium within social living, and the content is “like the juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind.” (McLuhan, 1964.19) Simply so, the content is not the message - although bringing meaning - it is the medium that is in fact the message.

In order to test the theory and express my findings I have chosen an aspect of media to focus the theory on. This aspect is film, which in other words, is a medium of communication.

The theory is that the medium influences the meaning of its content by becoming part of the message, and instilling its particular values and characteristics through a symbiotic relationship. This is the “result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves or by any technology.” (McLuhan, 1964.8)

“The ‘content’ of any medium is always another medium. The content of writing is speech, just as the written word is the content of print, and print is the content of the telegraph.” (McLuhan 1964.8) The same could be said about the content of a book is print, and a book is the content of a film, and film is the content of a video game. The Lord of the Rings is a good example of this.

McLuhan has a broad definition of what a medium is in regard to technology and that is “any extension of ourselves” (McLuhan, 1964.7) be it mind, body and senses. McLuhan believes that the nature of the medium is that “any technology could do anything but add itself to what we already are” (McLuhan, 1964.12) as they extend or even replace our na...

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...its effect should be considered. McLuhan feels technology is the cause of the sensual imbalance and therefore represents different patterns in mass culture – this is the message for McLuhan as it is the overall effect that is most important. I feel as we progress further from the Internet Age and predictably into the Robotic Age I believe more of McLuhan’s theory will become more valid.

REFERENCES:

• McLuhan, M. 1964. Understanding Media. New York: McGraw-Hill

• Long, P. and Wall, T. 2012. Media studies. Harlow, England: Pearson

• Shannon, C. 1963. Mathematical Theory of Communication. University of Illinois Press

• Eco, U. 1986. Travels in hyper reality. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

• Charles S Pierce

• Barthes, R. 1970. Writing Degree Zero/ Elements of Semiology, Boston: Beacon Press

• Williams, R. and Williams, E. 2003. Television. London: Routledge