The medium is the message

 

Marshall Mcluhan is introduced to us briefly in the course notes. The famous phrase looks at the fact that media is an extension of humanity, is about understanding society. For example, in a 1977 discussion Mcluhan talks about TV promoting a new kind of awareness – maybe not one that it based on literacy as we know it. He defines literacy as objective, and the awareness that TV brings as subjective. He talks about reading as an activity of rapid guessing, as we decipher what the words mean in their context. He also talks about the search for identity, and this moving from being a search through violence, to a search through dialogue.

His understanding about innovation and invention probably echo the words of Naughtons laws of technology, in that we often don’t know the long term effects. It seems that much of McLuhans work was about challenging people’s perceptions – getting them to look beyond the obvious.

I wonder if this is echoed in the work I am doing at the moment. When designing an elearning module, we are asking for images that get progressively more challenging when the learner is asked how confident they feel, thus visually stimulating them to fell more confident along with the images. WE are making sure that when we are talking about negative messages we don’t use photos of young people, but when it is a positive message that we do – thus reinforcing the understanding that good and positive images are about getting things and doing things right. Is this not a way of enhancing the media that we are using?

For McLuhan, the message is about the change in the interpersonal dynamics – it’s a bit like activity theory. It is not the content or the use, but what happens in the wider circle. The medium, is the extension of ourselves, something from which change emerges.

One could delve into McLuhan, as it is incredibly fascinating, but the main gist is that technology can change our awareness and society, as well as the individual.

“You can never perceive the impact of any new technology directly, but it can be done in the manner of Perseus looking in the mirror at Medusa. It has to be done indirectly. You have to perceive the consequences of the new environment on the old environment before you know what the new environment is. You cannot tell what it is until you have seen it do things to the old one. The need, however, to understand the processes and changes brought about by new technology gets strong as the technology does.”

Federman, M. (2004, July 23). What is the Meaning of the Medium is the Message? http://individual.utoronto.ca/markfederman/article_mediumisthemessage.htm .