Is the Medium the Entire Message?

Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase “the medium is the message.” This phrase theorizes that the medium which someone consumes media through will have more influence and impact on that person than the content of the media.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImaH51F4HBw

Technological Determinism is the overarching term to describe McLuhan’s theory that social structures are the product of the dominant communication medium of the time, and as communication technology and methods have changed over time, social organization has changed with it. McLuhan’s ideas about mass communication have been both praised and criticized since the early 1960’s, starting off being widely accepted and then slowly less accepted as additional research around this topic was published.

Three strong points of McLuhan’s ideas include:

1. He takes history into consideration and looks at how different eras of communication had different societal structures, which were influenced by the kind of communication at the time.

2. He says that media is an extension of humans’ capabilities and senses. For example, the media today allows us to see and hear things from a distance and experience them at a later time than when they were created. One hundred years ago, this type of technology did not exist but the media that did exist at the time still allowed people to read or hear things from a distance.

3. He said that media could create a “global village” and allow people to interact without being limited by geography, and that is absolutely true given the incredible technological advancements we have today.

Two limitations of McLuhan’s ideas include:

1. His idea that “the medium is the message” is simple and completely ignores the impact that words can have on an audience. While I don’t disagree that the medium is important, the content of the message is what will have a greater influence on public perception and thought.

2. His idea of “hot” and “cool” media is quite confusing. How can one prove that the quality of data coming from a radio is better than a telephone?

I think McLuhan’s idea of a “global village” is particularly interesting, considering social media did not exist when he came up with that idea. McLuhan could not have predicted that our current media system would consist of the technologies that it does, but he sure had a feeling that technology would keep advancing, creating a way for people across the globe to communicate and interact with one another every day.

Published by Maris Laughton

October 24, 2021